Fernanda "Nanda" Monteiro

2007-08 Inbound from Brazil

Hometown: Itabuna, Bahia, Brazil

Sponsor: Itabuna Sul Rotary Club, District 4550, Brazil

Host: Gainesville Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida, USA

School: Gainesville High School

Nanda's Bio

Here in the USA, I live in Gainesville, Florida. I’m so proud of my city, because it is a very pretty city with lots of trees and many nice places to meet and to hang out with friends. The University of Florida, the biggest university in the state, is here in Gainesville. I enjoy the being on the campus. Here I live with my host parents, that are now like my real parents, because they are so wonderful with me and I already love them so much. I have two sisters here, but they don’t live with me. Jarett (28) lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and the other, Catherine (22) lives here in Gainesville but in another building with two friends. I have one cat in my house, Chloe.

So, I always dreamed of being an exchange student and sometimes I don’t believe that I’m here. But the dream is a reality. Because of the exchange I will enjoy my time here, and I will take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. I will do my best here, to learn everything that I can and to teach things to people here, because to teach others is so important also.

Now I’m in a new country, that I never been in before. I am in a new home, learning a new culture and discovering new places. I am also meeting many different people, and I love this experience. But, the big challenge for me and the other exchange students is to be able to build a new life and learn to adapt in a new life. That is the really big challenge, and when we go back to our home countries we will see how we have grown with this wonderful and unforgettable experience!!

I am really so happy here having my dream become real.

Thank you Rotary for this big opportunity…

Beijos e abracos!!

September 23 Journal

Here I am, doing my first journal…living my biggest dream ever!!

Everything for me began not one month ago, but much more than that…Since I knew that I was selected in the interview that we have to take to be an exchange student…wow now I’m an outbound here, and soon I will be an inbound in another country...My life changed completely since that time!! A lot of questions started to come up in my mind and I didn’t even know the answers for them, I had never felt that before.

It was August 9th when I left my city, my family, my friends, and everything that was always with me. The day before that, I didn’t even sleep, there was no way to sleep. I couldn’t concentrate on anything, besides the million questions and doubts that were in my head at that moment, it is really confusing. I didn’t come directly here, first I went to another state in Brazil, and I traveled everyday until August 12th. These days were really crazy for me; I was tired, confused and really excited at the same time. How can I feel so many feelings at the same time? I was wondering all the time, but I did not know the answer myself. August 12th, the big day. I arrived here about 1pm, I met my family and everybody that was there, they received me very well and I got so emotional.

My first week here was really good. I did so many things, I went to two Rotary meetings, I went to my dad's job, I met so many people. In my first weekend, my family invited some friends and they did a welcome party for me. I enjoyed a lot.

My first day at school was really cool. Everything new, and bigger than in Brazil. My school there is really small if compared with here. Here we have to change our classes and not the teachers, we don’t need uniforms (what I love here, lol), and we can choose our classes. My classes are over at 2:40 pm and we have lunch there, and I used to get home around midday and have lunch with my family. It is completely different. I’m having a wonderful experience at school.

In my second week, I went to my first inbound orientation where I met 30 other inbounds. Until that day, I didn’t realize yet that I was here for the whole year, I don’t know why. But it takes time to happen, is not easy to realize that you have another life now.

Now I have friends in the entire world and it is so cool!! We had a lot of fun together, and the most interesting is seeing how different we are and how different our cultures are and at the same time we can understand each other. Now we are having the same experience and we have the same feelings...And the main thing, we can learn

I have been in my first Gators game. I was waiting for that day, since I heard about the time before come here. My parents are really big fans and they told me about the Gators. The game was awesome! I had never been in a game like that. Actually I had never been in a stadium that big. The crowd, the screams/shouts (gooooooooo GATORS), everybody wearing Gators t-shirts, including me. For me was really wonderful.

Foooood! Here we have so much delicious stuff...Since I found out about donuts... I could not stop eating them!! How can we stop?? It is so good! Brownies is another one, super delicious! Actually I love everything that is sweet, mainly if there is chocolate involved! I already gained so many pounds, almost 10 I guess. Now I have to be careful about it, even though I knew about that before came here, it is normal and is part of this year, we can not do anything about that. But anyways, we can just try to control ourselves a lit bit…

So far…that’s it!!

I’m so excited to see all the exchange students again... we have so much fun together... I’m looking forward for the Daytona beach weekend. I will tell about it in the next journal.

So…this is just the beginning, and I already able to say: I’m not the same anymore! I already grew a lot, in a way that I never ever imagine!

And for everyone that is thinking about being an exchange student sometime:

“What we are doing is not easy, maybe it is the hardest thing we will ever do in our whole life… but the experience is worthwhile.

And never forget … Your dreams can always come true… JUST BELIEVE!! Fernanda Monteiro

October 30 Journal

It is incredible how our feelings can change in just one month. Now my mind and feelings are really different from last month. Here every day we grow a little bit in everything. I have almost 3 months here and sometimes it is hard to believe in how many things already happened in this time.

Now, I’m feeling a lot more comfortable with the language. Sometimes I’m thinking in English and I don’t even realize. It is so cool for me, because I always wish it! I really love English!

Sea World

I went to one of the magic places that I have ever seen. Sea World is awesome!! It was me, my parents, and Melanie, who is going to be my third host sister. I invited her to come with me, which was a great idea, because now we know more about each other. We had so much fun together.

We watched 4 shows that they presented and each one was different. I saw whales, dolphins, and many others animals all in front of me. Oh gosh they are soooo cute!! I got crazy with everything that they have to show there…I bought some stuff there to show everybody in Brazil when I come back.

My actual family told me that now I have a third host family. Before coming here, I just knew about two, and then I already met the one that were supposed to be my second one. But now, I already met the new family that now will be my second and I will change after Thanksgiving. It’s good because it is an opportunity to have another view about American life, but at the same time I’m already used to my life here in this family and here I really feel at home. I will miss here a lot; it’s hard to imagine being here in another home. But I know that is part of the experience…And new experiences make us grow. ALWAYS!

At school, I had to take FCAT. I won’t graduate here but I chose to do this just for the experience. And I did well, at least I guess. I passed the whole day at school doing the test because it’s really big, a lot of questions and harder for me because it’s in English, and I need more time to understand the text and everything.

Three weeks ago was my HOMECOMING week. An event that just happens here, I guess. For me was really interesting see a lot of students dressed up in different ways the whole week. We had the western day, animal day, Geek day, spirit day and 80’s day. It’s really amazing. On Friday, the last day, we had the dance, the best part :-) My friend picked me up at my home and we went to the dance together. We danced a lot and had so much fun.

On October 12 – 14 was the Daytona Beach weekend!! Being with the other exchange students is always wonderful!! It is always incredible how it feels as though we spent a lot of days together, even though is just three days…but it is just because we really take advantage of each minute. And that’s exactly what we have to do…We went to NASA the first day, and for me, there’s no words to explain everything that I saw and felt there. I’ve never seen something like that. It was awesome learning about space, the whole story about the travel to the moon and to analyze how magic is the world. There we could see how it works and how the man is able to develop more and more. Nothing is impossible! We always can to go farther than what we can imagine.

We went also to Winter Park, another place really pretty and we could see so many different stuff there. We took the train back to Daytona and after that we came back to our home.

The next weekend after that I went to St. Augustine with my counselor. She invited me to pass the weekend with her. I really appreciated it. I enjoyed this weekend a lot with her and two more exchange students (Nirali and Anne). I left my city on Thursday; she came here to pick me up. I skipped school on Friday but it was for a good reason -)

St. Augustine is an old city but it’s really pretty. And it reminds me of a city in Brazil, I felt as if I was there. I really enjoyed walking on the streets there.

On Friday we went to a golf tournament, as volunteers. I liked it a lot because it was the first time that I saw a golf game. We went to many different restaurants; I tried so many good stuff there. I also had the best chocolate ever…she told me about it before and she is right, it’s really really good =)

On Saturday we went to the condo. It was the first time that I went to the beach here in Florida. I was so excited to see how different it is from the beaches in Brazil. We couldn’t swim at the sea because of the dead fish, but anyways, we could walk on the beach and I was missing it a lot. I really love beach! After our walk we came back to the condo where we were staying. The condo was really pretty and we stayed there for 2 days. We swam in the pool the whole afternoon. And at night we drove around the city and we played golf too.

On Sunday we came back to our home but each minute was unforgettable that weekend.

So now I’m looking forward to Halloween. I’m sure that I will have a lot of fun!!

And I’d like to leave here a phrase that I heard at Kennedy Space Center and it expresses many things:

“We do that not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard…”

And the huge pleasure in our life is exactly to go farther than what we can imagine… Nanda =D

November 30 Journal

Almost 4 months. Time flies and I just realized that. This month for me was such an interesting month. I did so many things and I had amazing experiences. But I also had my hardest time, as all exchange students have sometimes. I had homesickness and feelings that I’ve never felt before…Thought of just give up everything. But then, even being hard in that moment, it is just a moment, and it goes away with time…I’m having a unique opportunity and having the best experiences that I could have in my life. And you know? Everything that just happened made me grow. And you just learn that all experience, no matter what or how it is, it can teach you, somehow. You just have to look behind…

So let me tell you some of my experiences this month.

Halloween here is just amazing! I went to Trick Or Treat and I got so many candies. What means more pounds. Lol It’s interesting the way that at the beginning your bag is empty and at the end you have such a full bag of candies. I dressed up as a pirate.

The week after Halloween, I went to a Sea food festival. It was great event, with all kinds of fish, shrimp, and some other really good foods.

Between 2-4 November was the UF HOMECOMING weekend. On Friday morning I went to the homecoming parade, which was great! I watched the entire parade and I enjoyed it a lot. At night, I went to the Gator Growl and that was such a great night. It had fireworks, a couple of dances, a band, and so much fun! On Saturday was the Gator homecoming game. I went there and we won the game, as always =D And on Sunday I went to a Gator women soccer game. This was such a fun weekend!!

The other weekend I went to my first Gator basketball game. I watched two on the same day. One of the women and the other one of the men. We won both.

On 10 November, I went to BUSCH GARDENS. I went with my international club, and he had so much fun together. We stayed there the whole day and at night and came back.

I’ve been also to an art festival, where I saw so many pretty photos and paintings!

I went down to Tampa to meet up with Bia and enjoyed our time together. One of the best things that I did this month! First, we went to the Zoo in Tampa. A pretty and fun place. Some big, others small, cute, weird, all kind of animals… At night we went to the movie, and we saw such a fun movie, I was laughing the whole movie, I couldn’t stop. On Sunday I went for the first time to a church here in the USA and it is interesting see how different it is and at the same time the similarities. On Sunday, we went to the beach with a couple of Rotarians and we had a wonderful time. It was the first time that I swam on the sea here in the United States and was really cool, I was waiting for that for a long time! But it was also the coldest water that I’ve ever been. lol I was soo cold when I got out of the water. But I love the sea anyways. It makes me feel good. So I enjoyed it a lot.

Thanksgiving! A big holiday! A big meal and a lot of dessert. I had a good time! Hahah

And now I’m in my new host family. I switched families this last Saturday, They are lovely people and I love being here, and at the same time missing my first one! But the most important thing is that what really matters is the feelings and bonds that you build while you are here.

~ And here I go…because we always have a long way in front of us…And never forget…SMILE! No matter where, when, SMILE always! Time doesn’t come back, and each day is a new opportunity…~

Love, Nanda

January 4 Journal

The place where dreams come true ;) That’s exactly the best way to describe Disney world. December 6 on the morning I was on the way to this amazing place. When I got there I had a feeling that I couldn’t describe. A unique sensation…And mainly because my 18 year birthday was on the next day, what was making me feel much happier!

The first park was MGM. There are so many shows, rides and places to go and there is not enough time for that, but we tried to see most of the things possible. I was reallyyy afraid of the Hollywood tower but then, they all made me go there and I felt so happy after because I got over that fear. I really enjoyed the last show, that was the Fantasmic. Mickey and the fantastic show that he did were incredible…

Once we got back to the hotel at night, most of the girls went to my bedroom and we waited until midnight to sing happy birthday to me =) Then we took my first picture as 18 years old. That was a really special moment!

7 December. My 18th birthday! What a wonderful day! I’ve never ever imagined that I could be at Disney world in that day! And I was there…that meant a lot to me, because I was living a dream! That day we woke up really early because we had to get to the park before it opened. We divided into three groups and we had a guide for each group. It was great because we could also learn some history and some very interesting facts.

Cinderella’s castle is just perfect! We stayed there until the fireworks and the lights of the castle, which was awesome. About 6 we come back to the hotel for the pool/pizza party, and also they had a Mickey cake to sing happy birthday for me. I was very happy and thankful for that. We ate and we finally went to the pool, where we stayed for a considerable time.

Next day we went to Epcot. This is a very interesting park, where we can learn a little bit about a lot of countries. At the end I saw the most beautiful fireworks that I’ve ever seen in my life. I felt really emotional and it made me cry…That was really special.

The last day went really fast because we had to leave at the beginning of the afternoon, since we had to leave and go back to our cities. But we had time to enjoy a lot anyway.

When I got home my family did a little birthday surprise party for me and I liked it a lot. We had dinner and a delicious cake together.

19 December was my last day of class before the holiday break. Time to get ready to the holidays and to have fun.

Christmas was pretty different, as I knew. It is quite hard because we keep thinking about our family and about everything that we used to do that time. I thought I was going to cry and everything but I didn’t cry at all. I was happy because I was with my new family, that I love a lot and also feel loved. So, it was great and I really enjoyed my first Christmas in the United States. It is interesting to see the differences and learn about Christmas in a different country. My family and I went to a friend house and we had Christmas dinner there. After we went to the church and we had a really pretty celebration there. Then we came back to home and watched movie all us together.

New Year’s I went to Jacksonville to meet up with the exchange students. First we had the Gator Bowl Parade downtown. I had so much fun handing out candies to all the people who were watching the parade and also for being with the exchange students, which is always wonderful.

After the parade we went to the Shacter’s house for the party that they had for all of us. We had a really wonderful time and I’m sure that none of us will ever forget it. I’m really thankful for this great opportunity to start the New Year with all the exchange students and also with some of the Rotary people. That was unique and unforgettable.

A happy New Year to everybody! Much peace and love in 2008! Fernanda Monteiro