Elena Fernández

2009-10 Inbound from Spain

Hometown: El Vergel, Spain

Sponsor: Denia Rotary Club, District 2203, Spain

Host: Casselberry Rotary Club, District 6980, Florida, USA

School: Lake Howell High School, Winter Park, Florida

Bio

Elena's Bio

Hello, Hola, Hallo and Bonjour! My name is Elena Fernandez! I'm 16 years old and I was born in Germany, Freiburg but since 10 years I life in Spain. I live in El Vergel, a little town which is south east of Spain, by the Mediterranean Sea. It's a very calm and nice place, very Spanish and full of history.

I love to sing, dance, and read mystery books, watch scary movies, hang out with friends and the most important for me, take photos. My dream is to be one day a good photographer, travel around the world, and maybe live one day with my best friend in England or New York.

Right now I'm living in Casselberry, Florida with Judy Boryk, my first Host mom. We have a very good relationship and we can talk about everything and that's important for me.

We have a lot of fun. We went to Seaworld, Epcot, Busch Gardens, and Saint Petersburg to visit her family and stay some time at the beach. She helps me a lot too doing my homework when I don't understand something and shows me a lot of this "new American experience".

I'm really enjoying my time here. Every day I learn something new and my experience grows and grows.

I think we all will have a great time here and I hope this year will not be ending so fast. Thank you so much for making this possible, I promise I will take advantage of this year!!

October 20 Journal

Hello everybody! I'm now here 2 months!! Wow, I can't believe it, time passes so fast when you don't think about it.

I did a lot of things since I'm here. I'm so happy with my host family, really. My host mom and me, we have a great relationship and we have a lot of things in common. She give me the hugs I need when I'm homesick or when I just have a bad day and I do the same when she had a bad day. We help each other and share a great time together. I feel like at home and maybe I can stay here all year. (Thank you Judy!!)

I have a lot of fun going to school too. Every week is going better for me in class and with friends. I met a lot of people and I have a lot of fun with them. We enjoy the football games (they are great) and other activities together like going out to the movies or to friends' houses. I know I will get here a lot of great persons and good friendships, I hope we will stay in contact.

In the last months I went to some parks with my host mom and my other exchange friends. I spend a lot of time with an exchange student from Brazil, Clara, and we have a lot of fun together. We see each other every weekend and we do something with her friends or with my friends enjoying movies, going to Universal Horror Nights, or just hanging out and listen our favorite music. Sometimes we do something with our district with our Chairman (John Siegel). He's a great man and our district is really proud of him because he does really a lot for us, he's like a 2nd father for all of us. We thank him a lot.

Well...I think that's all for these 2 months. You will hear soon from me!

Smile:)

April 16 Journal

OK…I guess it's time to upload this place!!

The last time I wrote was when I made 2 months in Florida…today I write and I have 2 months left until I go home! Isn’t that insane???? I have no idea where the time went. You look at your calendar and you just stare at it trying to remember what you did the last months and you’re planning already your next month. You remember your first day. When you came out from the plane and took the first steps to your exchange experience. You were nervous because you thought nobody would understand you and you either because you just knew how to say “Hello, my name is…I’m from Spain, Thank you very much and nice to meet you” (key words for every exchange student beginner ).

Every time when I think back of all my exchange year I kind of get sad because it’s over in 2 months… Once you start to get used to everything you realize that you’re leaving in the next months and you think “No! Not now! Give some more time!!”…And you start to see the new inbounds and outbounds in the Rotary homepage realizing that your year is over and that now other students will take your place. When people ask me if I want to go home I really don’t know what to answer…because there’s a part who tells you, you don’t want to leave but the other screams for a real mom hug and the wish to see all your family and friends.

The last months I’ve been very busy. School is going good and the 15th of May I'm going to prom!! I can’t wait!

I changed family in January to the Cunninghams!!! I'm very thankful to be with them because they make me feel very comfortable and I'm having a great time with them. My host mom is an American History teacher and a Tennis Coach so whenever I need help in history I have a good advantage  . Taylor is my host brother and Torie is my host sister. I really feel they are my real brothers and we tease each other and do stuff together, like in my real l family!

I’ve been in Miami with my host family and with my host mom’s tennis team to play some matches and go to the Sony Ericsson Open!!! It was awesome and I really got to enjoy the big tennis players like Venus and Rafael Nadal (from Spain!!!). Unfortunately that weekend was over very fast. I’ve been hanging out with my friends, went to the beach and learned every day something new from this country.

I could really describe all my cool weekends…but if I'm honest right now, at this time…knowing I have 2 months left I just can think of all the exchange students and the important people I met here and how they are part now of my life. This experience changed my life. I'm still the same person with the same personality, but you realize a lot of stuff you didn’t before and you know you grew up…you're not a child anymore.

I know for sure once I'm home in Spain again, I will be happy to see everybody again and excited to tell everybody about my year, but it will take me some time to get used again to everything and I know for sure for sure that I'm going to cry a lot because I will miss all the exchange students (I cry very easily ) …I miss them already.

Well…Now you know how it is going in my exchange year for now. Before I leave I guess I write again to say goodbye…the final goodbye. OMG its sooo sadddd 

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE LAST MONTHS!!!!!!

I love you guys and I miss you!

Un abrazo espanyol de Elena!!

July 11 Journal

So this is my last time I’m going to write in this home page.

I arrived the 29th of June at the airport in Madrid. I didn’t really know what to expect, what to think of …so many things were going through my mind.

I knew I wasn’t the same Elena anymore. Something had changed and now it was time to show that to my family and even to myself.

I don’t know how many tears I cried that day and the night before, I just know that my eyes were red and I was just tired of saying goodbye to people who changed or impacted my life.

I have to be honest and say that I knew that an exchange would make a little change in my life, but I never expected that an exchange could be that deep that you don’t even know where home is anymore.

Yes I was homesick, of course, everybody was, but at the moment you were crying or thinking of your real family and friends you just had to look to the kitchen and see your Host Mom cooking something or call one of your 11 exchange student from your District (6980 of course!!!) and they would make you feel like at home in nothing.

I’m sitting in my Spanish house right now and feel like my exchange was just a huge big fabulous dream. Everything, every memory seems so long ago and so far from you that you don’t realize that you were really gone for one year.

I have no words anymore to describe how deep and special this year was for me.

When people ask me, "How was it? Tell me EVERYTHING!"…I just laugh. I could talk for hours, maybe days…I can show them pictures, videos, things from where I was…But at the end, even though they seem to understand how amazing and interesting it was for us, they never….NEVER EVER will know or understand what this year was for us, because to know what an exchange can make in one’s life, you have to live it.

It’s not my last time THANKING SO MUCH to all the Rotarians and Youth Exchange Students from all over the world, because I will thank them until my last day. You guys changed my life and I couldn’t be more thankful for that.

In love

Elena Fernandez…Exchange Student from Spain, and always will be.