Ivan Ralisch

2008-09 Inbound from Brazil

Hometown: Londrina, Paraná, Brazil

Sponsor: Londrina-Cinquentenário Rotary Club, District 4710, Brazil

Host: Daytona Beach West Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida, USA

School: Seabreeze High School, Daytona Beach, FL

Bio

Ivan's Bio

Hey! My name is Ivan Ralisch and I come from Londrina, Brazil, but now my home is in Daytona Beach, Florida. My Rotary Club in Brazil is the Londrina Cinquentanario, and the club that is hosting me here is the Daytona Beach West.

Now it's already 1 month and 2 weeks that I'm here, and I can't even believe. Time has passed amazingly fast these days, and it's been a great time. I attend Seabreeze High School, and love to go there. In the beginning it was hard, but now I'm making a lot of friends and people are very nice to me.

I wanted to be an Exchange Student because I knew by my brother and sister that is an amazing experience, and I wanted to learn about another country and different culture. Now I'm really glad that I'm here, glad that Rotary gave me this opportunity, and know that my siblings were completely right!

October 25 Journal

It's amazing how time went fast, and I didn't even notice. It's already October, and have been awesome. I'm making a lot of friends at Seabreeze and people are really nice and friendly to me, which is great.

My host parents, Hal and Jackie, are an awesome couple. They help me with everything I need, and I appreciate everything they are doing to give me a good time. We've been on their boat a couple of times, we've been riding bicycles, playing tennis, going to games. We are having a good time together. Jackie's son, Marc Beach, is the football coach at Seabreeze, and he lives in Ormond Beach with his wife and kids, Barbi, Jacob and Hailey. I really like to be with my host family, and it's great when we all have dinner together.

I'm trying out for the soccer team at school, and I'll get the results this Monday. I'm really confident about it and I'm sure it would be great to be in the team.

I've been really busy last weeks, going to school during the week and traveling during the weekend. I went to Atlanta two weeks ago with Joonas, from Finland, and Tom, his host father. Tom had a 50 year wedding anniversary, and took us with him. We went to the Stone Mountain, the largest granite stone in the world, and had a great time. The following weekend I went to St. Augustine with all the exchange students from this district, and we all had a great time. I really appreciate my then host dad David opened his house for me. Me and Borna, from Croatia, had a great time with David's son, Dominic, and his friends.

Next weekend is the homecoming dance from my school, and I think it'll be great. I'm really looking forward for that, and I'm sure I'll have a good time with my friends.