Barbara Brauner

2008-09 Inbound from Brazil

Hometown: São Paulo, Brazil

Sponsor: São Paulo Centenário Rotary Club, District 4420, Brazil

Host: Crestview Rotary Club, District 6940, Florida, USA

School: Crestview High School, Crestview, FL

Bio

Barbara's Bio

Hi, my name is Barbara, I'm 17 and I was born in Los Angeles, CA but I went to Brazil at only 6 months, so I'm Brazilian and American Citizen. In Brazil I live in Sao Paulo, a big city with about 13 million people. I live with my mom, my dad, and my brother.

I arrived in Crestview, FL August 3, almost 2 months ago. I love my host family, my friends, my city, and all. I'm studying in Crestview High School, it's a big school and I'm practicing soccer. Everything here is different and new for me but I'm really enjoying this.

I’m very happy to be here and thank Rotary for giving me this amazing opportunity. I'll do my best!

This year is being very good and I really hope that it gets even better. I'm having great experiences! This year will be, for sure the best year of my life!!!!

October 22 Journal

Hey everybody!!!!

I’m here in USA almost three months. I can't believe how things are going very fast here, but I’m enjoying everything very well.

Now I’m into the routine but I'm very comfortable with things around here because I always am doing new things and knowing new places and always making new friends.

I love this. My friends here they are very cool, always get out, and spend the weekends together. And my family, they are amazing with me. We’re always doing new things.

Me, my mom and my sisters we always went to shopping, beach, we watch some movies, and we always have fun together. They are a very happy family. Every Sunday we went to the church, the name is Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, it's very nice, it’s a new and different religion for me but I like to go there and they have nice people, they’re always happy, and they received me very well. And I’m learning a lot with them, they always help me with everything and they always worry with me, I will miss them when I change my family but it's ok, I know this will be good for me. While I am sad so I am excited to see how they are and how will be my stay with them.

At school I’m doing well. Sometimes I have some difficulty to read but it's ok, I always ask for help. And I really love that, and very good to know the differences we have in schools, as well as the way to learn and to teach, the rules; everything is new and different for me. I went to homecoming dance with my friend and we have fun and I saw the dances in America and very different the dances we have in Brazil. Every Friday we go to the football game, now this game is like soccer for me, I always cheer and now I’m part of the crowd.

Last weekend I went to Pensacola Beach for fishing with my friend and her family. We had fun. There we fish, we went to the beach and we went to the mall too. Pensacola is a beautiful place. I want to go more times to there.

Well this weekend I went with my mom to Miami. I had a lot of fun. There is amazing and wonderful place. I went to Miami Beach, Downtown, and Key Biscayne.

That’s it. I love here, and I’m enjoying every second here.

Kisses and hug for all

January 4 Journal

Hey everybody,

It has been a while since I wrote the last time, and many interesting and exciting things happened in recent months.

I have had wonderful experiences about American culture.

In this journal I’m going start telling you about my first American holiday, the Thanksgiving. I went to my friend house Dora. We ate a lot; we had turkey, mashed potato, corn, and all the traditional foods for Thanksgiving. We had fun all the time, Dora family is very happy and they were very happy to receive me there so we did a lot of things. One of the things we did was the crazy Black Friday, we woke up at 3:00 am to go shopping, and we definitely saw how busy is.

After I came back home then I changed my host family. I was sad because I love my first host family, but I was very excited at the same time to meet my new host family. And now is everything ok, because I’m always hanging out with my first host family, and my new family and I have a good relationship and we do many family things and we are always together - then I always feel at home.

December started and the Christmas decorations and lights came. And then I went to the expected trip to Walt Disney World with all my friends and Rotary. I can not explain how wonderful it was. I had a lot of fun and there is a magic place where definitely your dreams come true.

The Christmas was very close. And then when I least expected it came, the house was full, we received a visit from some of the family members to the Christmas break. I never had too many Christmas at the same year, I had three different. First in Christmas Eve I went to the Church with my counselor and her family and we had a dinner after that was very nice. Then on Christmas day I went to my first host family and we had a big breakfast and we opened all the presents, was very nice they gave me too much things. About lunch time I went back to my host family and then we had a big lunch and we opened our presents again. We spent the whole day eating, playing, partying and enjoying the time together.

And so in a few days the year was almost to the end. I went with my counselor and her family to Tennessee. We went to her friend’s house in Knoxville, they took me to know the whole city, was very nice - we went to amazing places. On New Year’s Day we went to the cabins in the mountains, in Gatlinburg there is a beautiful place and very cold too. They have amazing views. We stayed with twenty one people in one cabin, but was very fun, just nice people and everybody received me very well. On New Year’s we waited until midnight and then we started to celebrate. After that we had wonderful days together, we went to different places, and we spent all week together. I loved everything.

I can not describe how wonderful was my last months here, I’m having greatest time and I have enjoyed much each new experience and I am always grateful and today I can say that is the best year of my life.

Now the break is in the end and we are going back to the routine but just as soon, our expected trip to Key West. I'm waiting anxiously for this moment.

Thank you Rotary for this opportunity. Happy New Year for everybody! A wonderful 2009!!! See you soon…

A big Brazilian hug, Barbara Brauner