Borna Lisic

2008-09 Inbound from Croatia

Hometown: Zagreb, Croatia

Sponsor: Zagreb Rotary Club, District 1910, Croatia

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

School: Gainesville High School, Gainesville, FL

Bio

Borna's Bio

My name is Borna Lisic and I am from Croatia. I am living in Gainesville and I am going to Gainesville High School. I am 17 years old (will be 18 in 20 days). So far I have been having a great time in Florida, hopefully that is not gonna change.

I started training soccer in some club in Gainesville and I am sure I will play for my high school when their season starts. I even like going to school, so like I said it has been great so far. The only thing that I do not like is the fact that I have to wake up at 6:20 to go to school. That has been and still is a painful experience.

Hope you other exchange students are having fun like I am!!!!

September 28 Journal

Coming here to Florida seems so long ago! I have been here for almost two months now, so far everything has been great. I did not have many obstacles for now - probably the biggest one is writing this journal!

Like I have already said I arrived at Gainesville airport two months ago, that is when my adventure started. My host family and some Rotarians greeted me at the airport and I just went home after that. After I got here I had 20 days to adjust before my school started. Days have been passing very quickly since then! Most of my days are like this: I go to school, I have my football practice, I come home usually around 7PM, I do my homework and go to bed. In Croatia I played soccer and my coach in Gainesville encourages me to be a kicker. Each Friday we have games, so on Friday's I come home later than usual. Every weekend is different, that breaks the monotony and I really like that!

Now that I am done summarizing my stay here, I will tell you more about some more special places and events I have been on! My host family got tickets for the first Gator game that was against Hawaii and I was actually in the President's box so I met some important people like the Mayor of Gainesville and the US Senator Bill Nelson! My family also took me to Saint Augustine where I had my first encounter with the Atlantic ocean. I have also been to Florida's oldest diner called Angel's in Palatka!

My host family's behavior is similar to my own family, which is why I feel comfortable around them. Their son teases his dad, and the mom is trying to find the peaceful solution, and that really does feel like my family in Croatia! My next journal entry should be after the football season and I will tell you how our team has performed!

October 20 Journal

I am going to tell you about the fun weekend that I spent in Saint Augustine. I arrived there on Saturday morning around 10 am. I met all the exchange students in my district once again and then our little adventure started!

First we were given a nice tour around the city, which I think was very interesting. Saint Augustine really is a beautiful city! Later that day we had some free time in the city and than we went to the beach where we spent a couple of hours. We had a nice dinner and than we got picked up by our host families and enjoyed the rest of the day with them.

On Sunday we all met again and went to see the alligator farm. I have seen some pretty big alligators there that was fun too. Then we went sailing on a bout for 2 hours, so we had some more free time to spend with each other! That was the end of our stay in Saint Augustine. Overall it was a very nice experience!