 Preface
Aug 4th is the date of my flight, from this small island,
Taiwan, traveling 7000 miles away to a whole different country, the United
States, leaving my family, my schoolmates, my best friends, and everything I
was used to. The moment in the airport while I was waving both my hands to
my parents and brother, I realized that this one year I got to be much more
independent and brave. No doubt, I would explore a lot of things, expand my
horizon. Without tears, my journey started.
Arrival
During the 12-hour-flight, all the memories came out my
mind since I was alone and sat right in the middle of the seats, and both my
right side and left side were passengers who were companies chatting or
leaning to each other. So I started to think of my busy but interesting high
school life, crazy besties, the warmest family, the tearing goodbye party on
the last day before I left… and couple hours later, I would face an
unfamiliar condition. Both nervous and excited mood made my heart bump so
bad.
Something interesting happened when I was about to transit
from Chicago to Florida. “Cancelled” I finally saw it on the huge flight
board after an-hour wandering around so many gates. That night, there was a
serious storm in Chicago, about 400 flights were canceled, many passenger
slept over the airport. Thanks to the RYE emergency phone number, Mr. Al
Kalter told me how to deal with my situation and kept telling me to calm
down. Finally I got picked up few hours later by my host family’s best
friends, Bethie and Merle, who used to be their neighbor in Chicago. They
were perfect “emergency” host family, my first meal in the US was the pasta!
“Why is everything still like a dream even if I am already
here for real …” My eyes were opened staring at the ceiling in Bethie’s room
at 5 in the morning. It was 5 in the afternoon in Taiwan by the way.
Amazing. Unbelievable.
Since I had nothing but my backpack with me (the suitcases
were still somewhere in the airport), after dinner Bethie drove me to a
gigantic mall shopping for clothes. Thanks to her good fashion taste <3.
After lunch, the Mom Merle drove me to the airport at a super high speed
like a race car driver. It was such a special experience to meet them by
accident. I was just lucky. Sometimes the flight cancelation would not be
that bad, right?
Still remembered when I eventually arrived at the Ft.
Myers airport, I saw those waving people and a pink banner at the direction
I was approaching. Oh thank god, I was finally here, IN FLORIDA. Couldn’t
explain how happy I was when I met my host parents, Karen Mom and Steve Dad.
Few months ago we already had had contacted to know more about each other.
Anyways, as soon as we left the airport heading to my city, Sarasota, Dad
and Mom decided to take me to the WAFFLE HOUSE with other NEW first friends
in FL, the twins Anjali and Ranjani, Jon, and Brad. The blueberry waffle was
my first meal on the land of the Florida state (LOL)! Although I couldn’t
talk and understand English that well, they still felt surprised that my
English was better than they thought. And of course later on I definitely
would have a lot improvement in English and get to know more TEENAGER slang
words HAHA.
COOL, My first night in my new bed in my new room in my
new house. Excitement and jet-lagging kept me awake till 4 in the morning.
That night I had a colorful dream full of happiness.
The first two weeks in this new place were AWESOME.
Beaches, Rotary meetings, special restaurants, new friends, new family made
my schedule full! Also, I got a huge crush on the beauty of Florida. Wide
endless blue sky with lovely clouds, green lands and fuzzy trees, peaceful
lakes with sunshine reflected on it, pink and purple sunset at the siesta
beach……
“I am intoxicated in this paradise……”
After the Honeymoon
All the happiness ended up with the first day of school. I
had my first formation at this MILITARY academy. A lot of yelling, a lot of
new faces, foreign language (English), army-looking uniforms, whole new
school systems, these were the first impressions about my school on the
first day. Homesickness suddenly knocked on my door after the honeymoon. “It
is always hard at the beginning.” Even I tried to tell myself, tears still
kept dropping.
From that moment on, I finally totally realized that I
cannot rely on and look back my past life, living a NEW life is what I have
to do, and always try to make the most of it.
After two weeks of school, I had the most amazing weekend
with all the exchange students in Florida. During the orientation, we shared
the way we live in our country, the culture shocks here, and all the
homesickness and happiness, we understood each others. Only three days, we
were like old best friends ever.
(Right now my cat is trying to step on the keyboard while
I am typing the journal… NOOOO!!)
School
Let’s talk about my school life. Here’s the subject I take
this semester at school: equestrian, calculus, American Sign Language, and
JROTC. Equestrian is really cool and new for me and from this class I have
learned a lot about the basic knowledge about horses and how to be a good
horse person. Three days a week we ride several horses (Star, Scissor,
Cowboy, etc) on the little sandy school field. Other days we take notes from
Ms. Sophie, who is one of the coolest teachers at this school. Now that I
know the body parts, the hoof parts, the saddle and bridle parts, the tools,
the diseases, lameness and soundness of horses.
Calculus is the only academic class I am taking, it’s
probably between my first and second year of high school level in Taiwan.
The senior humor is full of this class, the senior kids in this class are
really funny and hyper. Also, I met a Chinese student Tang in this class. He
moved here two years ago, and is still learning the language and the culture
here. It’s good to have a friend to speak in my home language, and I noticed
the similar and the different parts between Taiwan and China which is really
interesting. However, when our topic comes to the politics, we can never
have a good conclusion. In my mind, as always, Taiwan is a independent
country, contrarily, Tang, as a Chinese, was taught that Taiwan belongs to
China. Well I believe in my own belief haha.
American Sign Language impressed me a lot about how strong
and professional the deaf culture is. In this class I learned how to sign
and finger spell, knew a lot about deaf culture and respected it much more
than before. What’s more, art and literature are also included in the deaf
culture, so it is not only just a way to communicate, but also with so many
cultural issues. By the way, I got a Sign name!!
JROTC is required to all the kids at my school. I am in
Delta B company learning these military stuff. Sam is my company first
sergeant, she really helped me a lot with the lessons. Sergeant Major Thomas
is my company teacher, he has a unique way to teach although I am sometimes
confused. However, after awhile, I found out that this kind of stuff if not
what I am interested in and I already know some basic things from this
class, so I talked to my counselor to find a solution to it. Since I really
love art and am not allowed to drop JROTC class, I am now going to art class
doing projects at the beginning of the period then go back to ROTC class
room finish the lesson in the end of the period. Honestly, I am really
loving it, I feel delightful while doing my project everyday.
Every year this school holds a big parade for the holiday
called “Veterans Day” to celebrate the soldiers who sacrificed for the
nation. I was marching with my equestrian class holding the banner with my
classmate Rachael. Marching on the main street, I feel the honor of the
school.
I am in the school Drill team, there are several different
squads such as the color guard, the girls’ marching squad, the weapon squad,
etc. It is actually fun when everyone practices together, during the break
we walk to the vendor ordering a one-dollar strawberry smoothie.
Furthermore, my squad got the chance to compete with other marching teams
from other high schools at a drill meet in Tampa in November. It was a
really special experience.
Right after the drill meet in Tampa, at night it was my
school dance, the military ball! Girls dressed up fancy outfit and boys
dressed up in the school military uniform with a fancy party tie. In my
country I have never experience such fancy dressing school dance. My dance
date John picked me up and took me to the deck Marina Jack to meet some
other kids taking pictures there. Then we went to school having my first
American school dance which was really cool and fun. Thank you John!
One day after school during drill team practice my Chinese
electronic translator and cash got stolen. That night back home I was
freaking out worried about it. I told Colonel (kind of the biggest leader of
students) Andrew about this and asked him for some help. On the very next
day in the morning during the formation the school manager Colonel Kennedy
and Andrew made the announcement telling the importance of being honest.
Luckily someone turned my translator in (but no cash
L ), my first host father Steve brought it to me during my first
period. I didn’t know how I can appreciate this school for helping me find
my important property. I doubted I would find it if I am at a regular huge
high school. This is a lesson for me to be careful all the time.
_______________________________________________________________
It’s already December. This past four months I changed a
lot from inside to outside (gained a lot of weight OMG). My maturity is more
than before, my point of view is wider, I learned a lot, experienced a lot
of the western cultures, such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, high school dance,
parties, and so on. Also, I have overcome the most homesick period, now I
get used to pretty much everything and I can understand about 90% of a movie
without “Chinese subtitle”.
Youth opera
In September, I joined Sarasota Youth Opera, met so many
kids who love music and art. We have rehearsals twice a week. The Opera
house is on the main street. Sometimes I walk from school to downtown Main
Street after drill team practice on Wed, having a Starbucks drink or walk
alone the street, see all those cute and fun shops and galleries, then enter
the opera house practicing singing. Many pieces we sing are in Russian,
Italian, French, and Spanish. Actually we already had an opera show “Joan Of
Arc” in November in the opera house which was really successful. In the end
of the season which was December we had a series of performances. I love the
kids there a lot. The first girl I met there is Alex, she is an awesome
singer and artist with a funny, outgoing personality, what’s exciting is
that she might probably be my third host sister! I am looking forward to it!
New family
In October I switched family, from the triplet family to a
family with 6 kids. From the little dinner table to a big one, from one
story to 4 stories, from the neighborhood to the house by the bay, from the
adult-talk to more teenage-talk! How exciting! The day before I switched,
there was a show choir fall concert at my school, and I played the piano
piece “Through the Arbor ” by Kevin Kern. I guess I did a great job, many
people told me they were touched by the beautiful rhythm. Some girls were
really interested in my cute outfit bought in Taiwan lol. After the concert,
me and my dear first host parents Karen and Steve went to the typical
American restaurant Applebee for our LAST dinner. I felt a bit sad for
leaving them, we had so many memories, and they were really helpful for my
English. I would never know Jimmy Buffet that well and I would never see my
favorite movie “Across the Universe” with bunch of excellent Beatles songs
if I was not with them.
“Thank you for hosting the TROUBLE MAKER.
J ” It was what I attached on my door before I
left this nice house.
“OMG! LOL! Here I come the Natarajan !” I cannot explain
how lucky I am to be hosted by my second family. This is the most awesome
house ever. Let me introduce my family members.
Dad is an Indian doctor, he was educated in India, he
loves to discuss with me about history, culture, and politics. It’s really
funny of the way we talk, since we both have accent, many time we have funny
misunderstanding, and he has even made fun of me before. So many fun facts
and thoughts were shared to each other!
Mom is the house MANAGER who is in charge of pretty much
all the kids stuff and house situation. Kids tell her everything and she is
such a good Mom. She showed me bunch of her artwork for the kids, and all
the funny stories happened in this family, and encouraged me when I was
feeling depressed, even took good care of me when I was super sick during
Thanksgiving break (L after the black Friday
crazy shopping with my host sister Jaya I got seriously sick)! She even did
some volunteer help before, she’s just a great woman with a kind heart and
smart mind. OHHHHHH! She is also an awesome cook!!!! (I am basically a food
monster XD )
Ranjani and Anjali are the twins I mentioned before. They
are awesome! They have totally different personality and style even though
they really look so similar, I used to get so confused before living with
them. They are seniors at my school and also really popular! Hanging out
with them is always cool. We went to the Siesta beach sometimes and saw the
drum circle there. They are TV KIDS who always occupied the biggest TV in
the house haha. They are taking Mandarin Chinese at school, I am glad that I
got the chance to help sometimes.
Daven is a sophomore at my school. He goes to Sarasota
crew and shooting every week. Every morning he and the twins fight in the
car, and that always remind me of fighting with my younger brother. Mom said
he is too cool sometimes just like the kids in the movie “Grease”. I love
him anyways.
Indi is not in Florida all the time. She goes to the UCSB
in CA. She is amazing, so amazing that I learned so many cool stuff from her
like getting coconut milk, and the basic knowledge of beverage, the solution
to some confusing calculus assignment. Haha and she makes tasty food.
Jaya is the oldest kid in this family. She is in Arizona
studying design. We went shopping together on the black Friday shopping day.
She is such a good shopper that I got so many good suggestions from her
while making choices. She told me her way of living and the importance of
being our real own self.
Nat Ryan just came back from Chile yesterday as an
exchange student. He is crazy and being a Latino now. I am trying to learn a
bit Spanish from him. He brings a lot of laughter to the house by randomly
talking with different kinds of accents.
I feel warm and great living with them. It’s like my home
that I don’t want to leave at all. “There is always something going on in
this house.” said Mom.
Election
2008 is a cool year. It’s got the Olympics. It’s got my
exchange life. It’s got the president election in Taiwan, and also the USA.
My host parents took me to the McCain rally since he came
down visiting Sarasota. It was really fresh for me actually, I had never
been to events like this. Before the election, people are totally
enthusiastic! My host Mom always honked for the people carrying the banner
of the candidate who she supported!
It was a really good timing for me to be here so that I
can understand more about the politics here in the US. I didn’t really want
to take sides, but I did compare with the good and bad between these two
main candidates.
Anyways the election was over. Hope the new president to
make us a better life than before!
Rotary events
As an exchange student, my counselor took me to several
Rotary meetings to give speeches to the clubs to introduce more about Rotary
Youth Exchange. I love meeting those Rotarians at the meeting, they always
give me such friendly smile and applaud after my speech. I am also proud of
representing my host club to be here.
In September my chairman Cyndi took me and Bianca to the
capital of Florida to see a college football game. It was a lot of fun, her
kids were amazing! Thank you for taking me Cyndi, I love college football! A
Halloween party was held in Shinobu’s house after the Halloween Friday. It
was always fun to see everyone in different costumes. I was a female pirate,
Bianca was a witch, Philipp
was a joker, and Shinobu was a house keeper. :D
Ms. Lee-am Chung is a Rotarian in my host club. Her family
is from Taiwan, she helped me a lot since we are both Taiwanese. I don’t
know how to appreciate her that she got me a free YMCA membership for a
year. Also, I went to an elementary school for the Rotary dictionary day
helping give out dictionaries to the kids. What’s more, she took me to the
traditional Chinese Moon festival picnic held by the local Asian community.
I had fun there. On the “pioneer day”, which is the day for my host club to
give good meal to the seniors who had lived in Sarasota over 50 years, I was
her little helper. What I can say to her is THANK YOU!
Last weekend was the amazing “Disney weekend”. It still
feels like a really sweet dream. I was so happy to see all the exchange
students and others from other states. It’s so nice for the host clubs to
pay for us, I feel so thankful to get the chance to see one of the best
amusement parks in the world. What I can do is trying my best to make my RYE
life solid, meaningful, unforgettable, and fantastic.
Gratitude
I understand how lucky I am to be here, and I am helped by
so many people including Rotary organization, school, all my friends,
families, etc. I am still learning and growing up. Thanks for all the
support from all the people who spent time and mind helping me. Thank you
all!
p.s. Feel so bad that my journal started so late. Glad the
first one is done! Yay!
First host parents |
Short-term host parents in Chicago (Spike, Merle, & Beth) |
First meal in Florida with four new friends (Anjali, Ranjani, Brad,
and Jon) |
First meal, continued |
My first family took
me to a Rays' game! |
Freshman campout with my company (I'm a junior) |
Interesting things I saw during election season |
More election activity |
My uniform (I got
a name tag!) |
Funnn Disney! |
Me and my sisters hung out a lot at the beach |
My equestrian class |
My Halloween,
with school kids, ... |
Youth Opera kids, ... |
and exchange students! |
The open ceremony of the Veterans Day parade |
Youth Opera performance |
Military Ball (taken at
my second house) |
The Thanksgiving meal |
Eating American Size Burger! (Me and Sammy) |
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“Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…” My host Mom sang with
the radio in the car few days ago while we were all in short shorts, camies, and
flip-flops. Well, here’s Florida.
The LASTs
The last week of school before the break, I had a field
trip of equestrian to visit the teacher’s own ranch and to do the final
riding test there. She showed us all of the horses at the ranch and how to
clean up the barns and stuff. This trip was a pretty cool experience
although my riding was not that good. I am actually glad I got to take the
class because in Taiwan I never really had the chance to ride horses since
the land is small, crowded, and with a big part of mountains. Through this
semester, I at least knew how much I had improved.
The last day of school in my art class we held a little
cookie party and I was asked to bring chocolate chunk cookies. So the day
before the party I finally made cookies by myself with the help of the
cooking queen Indi. Trust me, those cookies were YUMMMY!
The last youth opera performance ended on the 19th, it was
a tough one because one of the boys passed out and a girl threw up during
the performance. When the boy passed out on the stage all of a sudden in the
middle of an Italian piece, everyone was shocked. After 5 seconds of
silence, the boy eventually woke up and everyone clapped hands strongly.
Then we started to sing again making it perfect. I was kind of sad because I
wasn’t sure if I would continue doing youth opera next season. But I had so
many good memory and happiness with the kids there and was touched by all
the masterpieces we sang. I love music.
The last day of 2008 was booked solid. In the morning I
went to the St. Armand beach with several school kids and walked around the
St. Armand Circle which is the donation of the Ringling family. It was
absolutely a nice beach day, so gorgeous. At noon I attended a meeting of my
host club in a very popular restaurant in Marina Jacks. It was my second
time going to that restaurant. I gave a 5 minute speech, showed the yellow
Rotary t-shirt I got from Disney World,and appreciated my host club. The
Rotarians were really nice and were impressed with the progress of my
English. After the meeting I walked the dog with a Taiwanese Rotarian, her
dog is a hunting dog so every time she saw a squirrel she became so careful
and stressed, stepped slowly and silently. It’s actually interesting
watching her dog try to approach squirrels. Later at night bunch of people
including adults and teenagers came over my house having a big stone crabs
meal. I was actually a little bit homesick at night but only for a short
while. Sam came over with us and we kids all slept in the old house which is
not used anymore but was decorated and cleaned by the kids. It was a lot of
fun watching the fireworks, listening to ipod, running around, laying down
on the couch in the old house.
Later on, 2009 came, wow. “Cheers!” said my host Dad.
The Break <3
My winter break has been going pretty good so far. All the
kids except for Jaya are now home, the house now is full of laughter.
During the break I did lots of stuff. For example, I went
shooting with Daven and Dad in the Venice county, the coach let me try to
shoot one time, unluckily I missed the target. I went to a bonfire good-bye
party of my friend Lacey who was moving to Canada soon, it was fun but sad
as well. I went to the Universal Studios park with Frank, the exchange
student from Taiwan in Tennessee, I am so thankful that my Mom was able to
give me a ride from Sarasota to Orlando, Indi and the twins joined this
“field trip” to Orlando, too. On the car we all were so hyper and created a
lot of funny jokes about everything. After I was picked up from Universal,
Mom took us to see downtown Disney for a short while, I finally saw the Lego
statue. I saw an Indian Bollywood movie “the slum dog millionaire” with Dad
and the brothers, it was a really interesting and touching one which is made
in Bollywood by an American producer. And of course, I chilled at the beach
with the twins, Jani needed her skin to be tanned again.
The great chip wall
One day when me and the twins and Anj’s boyfriend Jack
chilled at the beach laying down getting some heat from the sun I was so
bored that I started to stick the potato chips into the sand between me and
Anjali, the chips line were getting longer and longer and then it was called
the great wall. After awhile Jack noticed there were some people doing
tai-chi 10 meters away from our spot, me and Jack later on decided to join
those people secretly and record a video, therefore we left our spot. As
soon as we left our space ALL the birds suddenly gathered around our spot
occupied the whole area fighting against each other for those chips I just
stuck into the sand. The twins were screaming because they disliked the
birds and what’s worse was that they all stepped on our towels! “It’s all
your fault, Vivian!” shouted Ranjani, “It’s all caused by your great wall!”
Merry Christmas
Christmas is the best time during the year for family and
friends, I dare say. All the decorations on the street, shops, and houses
were adorable. I decorated the Christmas tree with my host siblings with the
Christmas songs playing. I winked my eyes toward those lovely balls seeing
them sparkling. On the Christmas eve we had a feast again like after the
Thanksgiving meal in the dining room.
At night Anjali already sat by the tree for a long while
by her own self waiting for opening the presents! It was the happiest and
the warmest moment for all family members gathering together. We kids all
smiled and surprised with every present we got. My favorite present is a
beautiful homemade scarf made by my host Mom.
“Fireside is blazing bright
We’re caroling through the night
And this Christmas, will be yeah
A very special Christmas, for me yeah”
Merry Christmas!
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January and February are such wintery months, even in Florida. 41
degree Fahrenheit last night was freezing enough for me who comes from a tropical
island in the Pacific Ocean. The Lacrosse season is on, last night my twin
host sisters took me to the lacrosse field to watch not only the first guys’
game of the season, but also my first lacrosse game through my 16-year life.
“The lacrosse game was originated from the native Indians in the United States,”
said my host Dad when we were going in the Jacuzzi after being freezing at the
game.
“Life is good.” I heard it from the Seacamp and pretty
much agree with it. It has been half a year here, things are getting better
day by day, my mind is being stronger step by step. Still learning, as
always, is what I believe in.
A cup of hot chocolate in American Government class made
my day during the past few freezing days. Dropping ROTC classes to become an
“ACAD” is my decision for this semester. Right now I take both English 1 and
English 3 to expand the horizon of vocabulary and to strengthen the skills.
American government isn’t as boring as other kids said since I do have the
interests in social science and to explore the value of politics.
The Seacamp weekend was held during the Traditional
Chinese New Year which was actually a good thing for me not to think of this
kind of family holiday that much. What’s surprising is that my host Rotary
Club held a traditional Chinese new year lunch meeting for me, most of the
members dressed in a red outfit or traditional dresses, they even cooperated
with my classmates secretly, this event was even posted on our local news
paper! I am really glad I have such a warm host club, and it was one of my
unforgettable new years in my life!
The most exciting events of January is the Seacamp trip,
of course, while it was also sad that this is the last event for all the
kids in the state to get together. We had so much fun during the four days,
snorkeling, boating, dancing, and etc. were included in this trip, it’s a
really meaningful and educational camp. In the end of the trip we went to
one of the most popular spot, Key West! With the typical awesome Floridian
weather, the tourists from all over the places, the countless cool shops and
little vendors, the rainbow flags everywhere (haha), the lovely restaurants,
and the joyfulness of being with my exchange students, this two hours was
one of the most amazing and shortest afternoons I have ever had. However, I
got to say goodbye to everyone anyway. This is part of the tough experience
of being an exchange student, too many awesome people for me to meet and too
many goodbyes to say which is tough and painful; nevertheless, the memory
full of laughter remained.
“One day, I will see you again, somewhere in the world.
One day. ;-)”
The lacrosse season was coming in the beginning of
February, this is an important sport for my school. My twin sisters took me
to the first game of the season. It was pretty cool, I never knew this sport
that much before, also, my twin host sisters play girls’ lacrosse! They are
the captains!
Thanks to the support from my host club and host Mom
Deanna, I started my art classes at the Ringling Art College in the teen
studio. Jeff is such a great teacher, he is not only teaching the skills but
also leading us to think as a creative way. In one class we got little paper
bags with a toy each inside, and we had to put our hand in the bag feeling
the object trying to draw the unknown object. Afterward we described what we
drew to a partner and made the partner draw by our description. And I
figured out that it’s easier to draw a thing described by my partner than to
feel by my hand. This is why many artists and students imitate some other
artworks as practice, it’s to learn how an artist expresses thoughts. And at
the same time new different thoughts will pop out in mind. This is like
learning and exploring. I have 4 more classes left from this week. Can’t
wait!
“ALOHA !” Believe or not, I have never traveled to Hawaii
from Taiwan but from Florida! I spent 8 days with 23 exchange student from
all over the states through the RYE and AFS with BELO USA travel company. We
went surfing at the Waikiki beach, snorkeling at the Hanauma Bay, hiking to
the top of the Diamondhead, kayaking 3 miles to the the volcanic island
jumping into the natural pool, visiting the cultural center, seeing the
remarkable shows, sunbathing at the golden beach, and etc. It was a really
wonderful tour, almost like a dream, a really sweet dream. Still I can
remember the smell of the island blossom, the hibiscus flowers decorated on
the girls' hair, the turquoise color of the water, the relaxing music and
the warmth of the people, and the happiness for us to make our dream come
true, and make the exchange life brilliant. I am kindly expressing my
appreciation to the company, Rotary, my host family, my friends through the
tour, and my dear parents, but for you, I would never have such exploration
when I am 16, I would never have such confidence for loving and being
myself, I would never have a wide and unique point of view to see the world,
I would never realize how lucky I am.
A week after the Hawaiian expedition, I moved to my third
house, the Sparlings. I will never forget everything the Natarajan had done
for me, and I will miss those days being with them. I will remember the
Indian smart Humor of my host Dad, Daven’s random singing, the wrestling
fight between Ranjani and me, the big hug from Anjali when I was sick and
weak in bed, the Black Friday shopping with Jaya, making homemade cookies
and getting help with calculus from Indi, laughing because of Rayan’s goofy
jokes, the good care from the number one super woman mom…. THANK YOU, THANK
YOU, THANK YOU, I LOVE YOU.
From now on, it’s the time for me to get to understand my
new host family. I am sharing room with the 15 year old sister Taylor, she
is a freshman at my school, she is a great horse person and loves learning.
Another little sister Skylar is in the elementary school, she is lovely and
interested in learning something new about my culture. Tedd is my host Dad,
he loves boating, traveling, and fishing, I wish he would catch good fish
while I am here :D. Lisa is another #1 Mom, and also a talented artist, I
was sooooo impressed when I first entered the house. She painted a wall like
jungle with a leopard hiding in the woods, and other places in the house
were decorated amazingly and creatively. They are really nice to me, hope we
will make great memory in the coming months.
WOW. I have been here for seven months.
1. Gained couple pounds. LOL.
2. Life changed.
3 .More strong-minded for future.
4 .being thankful.
5 .big progress on English
6. overcame many difficulties
7. enjoyed the beauty of Florida
8. getting loving my life and myself
9. thinking what else I am doing next?
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Our
Districts
Jung "Vivian" Chang
Aaron
Alayna
Alison
Alison
Alyssa
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