Ida Bucić

2009-10 Inbound from Croatia

Hometown: Zagreb, Croatia

Sponsor: Zagreb Medvedgrad Rotary Club, District 1910, Croatia

Host: Fleming Island Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida, USA

School: Fleming Island High School, Fleming Island, Florida

Bio

Ida's Bio

Hey, my name is Ida Bucić. I’m 16 and I am an exchange student from Croatia. In Croatia I live in a capital city Zagreb which is in north Croatia but I love spending time at the Adriatic coast! I live with my parents and older brother Ivan, he is 23.

In Croatia I heard amazing stories from students who have already been in exchange. They told me about their unforgettable experiences and since then I knew that’s all I wanted to do! I was so excited when I heard that I was chosen for exchange!

In the U.S. I live in Fleming Island, FL (near Jacksonville)! It’s really a beautiful town! I’ve already fallen in love with the beaches! I love swimming and snow skiing. This fall I’ll try softball at Fleming Island High School. Since there is no snow in Florida, I will try water skiing which will be very exciting!

I’m a senior this year at Fleming Island High School. It’s a big school as it has 2,000 students! I like my new teachers. They are really nice and they love exchange students! I have been at my first American football game at my school and it was really cool!

I love my host family and I feel very welcome! I’ll be staying with three host families this year and all three of them are great! I’m so excited to spend time with all of them and go through lot of adventures together!

I’m so happy to be here in the U.S. so thank you Rotary! I’m looking forward to a wonderful year in Florida!

October 13 Journal

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already been 2 months since I came here! I’ve done some things I’ve never done before! My host family is great and very understanding! My first week when I came here my mom threw a big welcome party for me and had invited all her friends and neighbors! Everybody was so excited to meet me and I was so happy and felt so welcomed to Florida!

In school, I am meeting more and more fellow students and starting to make some good friends! I’m playing slow pitch softball. My coach is the best coach in the world. We play games twice a week and eat pizza in the dugouts during the game. We have so much fun! I’m in interact club which will start with some activities that will help local causes. I’m also in the French and Math club. It’s a great opportunity to meet some new students with same interests!

I did so many fun things with all three of my host families! I went to the beach many times and swam in the waves, and searched for shells and sharks’ teeth. We often go to the pool and it’s so amazing that we can still sunbathe in October. In my home country, Croatia, it’s already cold! My host mom and Rotary members go every Friday to my high school football games and hang out with friends. Afterwards, the local church has “Fifth Quarter” for high school students. There are more than a hundred kids and we play games, make s'mores, listen to a band, win raffle prizes and other stuff!

I was in a thunderstorm that the rain poured so hard that the water was making waves against our car! We were in a river of water even though we were on the road. Lightning was all around us! I found out that Florida has the most lightning strikes in the U.S.!

We watch a lot of movies and go to movie theaters .There is also so much Reality TV and I still don’t understand why would people want to do something like that! It’s so crazy!

I went to a Minor League baseball game (Jacksonville Suns) with my host mom. It was the first live baseball game I’ve ever seen! I didn’t understand it at all, but later when I started playing softball in school I now know what’s it about!

I went boating with my third host family! That was so much fun, we were tubing on Doctor’s Lake, that was so cool! For lunch we just pulled up to a local seafood restaurant with our boat and ate many different kinds of local seafood. I really liked it!

I went to a local Jacksonville Youth Group “Crud War” (Huge Food Fight & Food Competition). I could never imagine to do something so much fun! I had all kinds of food all over me - from chocolate pudding, to mustard, to ketchup, to mayonnaise, to eggs! At the end fireman came with their fire engines and sprayed all of us with fire hoses! That was so crazy! And they fed us pizza afterwards.

I also went to Kennedy Space Center with my second host family and saw so many interesting things about space! There were lot of space shuttles, astronaut equipment and movies! We were in a space shuttle launching experience and it felt so real like we were really launching into space! We even saw and smelled moon rocks! We went to a bus tour all around the whole center.

I was at a horse stable with my Rotary friends’ neighbors. They have 2 horses and I was able to ride one of the horses. That was so cool! The horses were so friendly! After the stable experience, we went to their pool and had cook out and we watched the Florida Gators’ game!

In downtown Jacksonville, my host mom and a fellow Rotary Exchange student and her host family went to the Riverside Festival of Arts and Music! Then we went into the city and rode on the River Taxi on the St. Johns River! We had a lunch at the Jacksonville Landing which had such a beautiful view of river and skyscrapers!

I had so much fun in these 2 months that I could never imagine before! Now I look forward to Homecoming Week at my school and dressing up for each day differently! I am so happy that this year started so great and I have chance to experience all those cool stuff!

Thank you Rotary, you made my dreams come true! (And by the way, in the last few weeks, I started to dream in English!)

Kennedy Space Center	At the beach	Crud war	Golden Eagle mascot
Jacksonville Landing	Party	Riding a horse	Softball game

January 20 Journal

This is almost the half time of my exchange year! It came so fast and I can’t believe that in the same amount of time I’ll have to go back home! I’ll be happy to see my family and friends but I just got so used to living here. I can’t imagine living without all those wonderful people I met here and now when I think about it, it’ll be so weird not to speak English anymore! I’ll still have it in school but that’s not the same thing!

I’ve done a lot of things in past few months, so I’ll just start from beginning:

This was my first real Halloween ever! It was so funny when other people were so surprised that we don’t celebrate it in Croatia! I couldn’t believe how some of our neighbors decorated houses, it was just amazing! I dressed up as a ghoul princess! After my host mom put so much make up on my face and all the blood on my dress I was even scared of myself, I really looked dead!

When November came everybody started talking about Thanksgiving Day, so they also made me excited about it! I was at the dinner with my family at grandparents’ house and they had lots of food! Big turkey, mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, gravy, green beans, cinnamon rolls, pumpkin pie, brownies… and I can’t even remember all other things!

Then in December we went to Disney World! It was just amazing! There we were, all exchange students from all of Florida and even from other states! We had so much fun in all four Disney parks! First we went to Hollywood Studios where I was amazed with the elevator at Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster! Then next day we went to Magic Kingdom where they had parade with all Disney characters which was so sweet! There they have Space Mountain rollercoaster which was so scary but so exciting; it was all in dark and going so fast! In Epcot we saw lots of countries in just one place! Too bad they didn’t have Croatia! Then we had a special dinner, just for the exchange students, on a lake with great views of fireworks! Last but not least was Animal Kingdom! It was great there! The most amazing rollercoaster there was Expedition Everest! That was so fast; forward and backward! Fortunately it was warm outside because when we went to Kali River Rapids we were soaked!

Finally winter break started! This was my first winter break without snow! That was so weird! I saw all crazy Christmas decorations all around the town but I couldn’t really feel it because there was no snow! But I definitely started feeling it when I did so much great things with my host family at that time! On Christmas Eve we went for dinner with grandparents to a Hibachi restaurant, they make food in front of you and the cook makes funny jokes all the time! Then we went to church and at the end of mass priest asked if anybody knows how to say Merry Christmas in a foreign language so I said Sretan Božić! Then my host mum and I baked some cookies from recipes I got from my mum from Croatia! On Christmas day, we opened presents in the morning! Then I got to talk on Skype with my parents in Croatia, and I felt like they were right here with me! We went to lunch to my family’s friend's house and had great time there! After we went to dinner with grandparents and played some games. Next day we went to Orlando to my host siblings’ cousins and we had so much fun there! There were six of us kids there and we were playing all day long! I had a wonderful time!

For New Year’s Eve, I went with exchange students from my district to help make dinner for homeless people from Jacksonville. It was a great experience, I felt so happy that they also had a chance to have nice dinner for upcoming New Year! After that we went to a party, and we had awesome time! Right at midnight we were at the dock on the river and had wonderful views of fireworks! We didn’t sleep whole night, and when morning came we were all so sleepy.

Now I just came from skiing trip with my host family! We went skiing to North Carolina. It was so beautiful up there in mountains, I was so happy to see snow again! We were skiing all day long, even during the night because they had lights on slopes. It was just amazing! I had such a great time!

I’m looking forward for upcoming days and for all exciting trips I’m going to go to! Thank you Rotary so much! Thank you for giving me the opportunity of having a year of my life!

Halloween

Disney World

New Year's Eve

May 17 Journal

Wow it’s already May and I just realized I haven’t wrote my journal yet! Time is flying by way too fast for me! I better catch up with all the wonderful stories from past few months!

In February I went to Hawaii with exchange students from Florida and all around US! All I can say is that it was the most amazing week of my life! We stayed on Oahu Island, the third largest of the islands. We toured Hawaii’s famous Pearl Harbor where was the biggest attack on the American Navy, and USS Arizona Memorial. We went to Kailua Beach Park “the best beach in the world” and had adventurous kayaking, and after hiking on our destination, little islands near the beach! On the way there we saw turtles, that was really awesome! At the North shore we had a chance to see the best surfing place in the world! We also had surfing lessons but at another beach where waves weren’t so wild! We hiked one mile up sunny trails of world’s most famous volcanic crater Diamond Head! When we got to the top we had view of gorgeous Waikiki beach, mountain ranges and sparkling blue ocean! At Polynesian Cultural Center we learned about the languages, customs, lifestyles, arts and crafts, food and dress of 7 island nations! We went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay and explored crystal blue water full of diverse species of fish, octopus, turtles and more! We had magical evening at Luau and participated traditional island activities! We played games, got temporary tattoos and made fresh flower Hawaiian lei. During the show we had a chance to all walk up the stage and dance hula dance! That week was just like a dream!

During the spring break I went to New York & Washington DC trip! First we went to New York, it was as amazing as in every movie! We walked through beautiful Central Park, had a tour of the Metropolitan Art Museum, the world’s largest and most important art museum! We toured mid-town Manhattan where we visited NBC television studios where some of the greatest shows are filmed, and United Nations! We had a chance to see a wonderful view from 102 story Empire State Building! We also walked across the Brooklyn Bridge! We took a ferry to see famous Statue of Liberty! We had awesome shopping time on Fifth Avenue and Times Square we will never forget for sure! For the end we had magical evening going to a real Broadway play!

Then we continued to Washington DC! First we visited Mount Vernon where we explored the home of George Washington. We visited US Capital Building, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the famous White House! We all got excited we had possibility to see president, but too bad he wasn’t there! We also saw Congress and took lots of pictures, after we went to Holocaust Memorial Museum which was an incredible experience.

I can’t believe there is only two months left of my exchange year! Now when I look back, through all the amazing and incredible moments I had, through all the ups and downs, homesickness but happiness, I have wonderful families and friends over here, all I can say is this has been the best year of my life!! I had so many experiences that will change my life forever and which made me so much stronger and mature! With Rotary I learned service above self and to help others that are in need! I met so many exchange students from all around the world and made friendships that will last for life! I learned so much about other countries and cultures and now the world seems so much closer to me! Now I have a big wish to visit every country where I have a friend! I don’t want to make this sound like goodbye because this is just hello for the two wonderful months that are coming toward me and I will enjoy them the best I can!

I want to thank Rotary so much for making this fabulous year possible for me! I’m so grateful I had a chance to be part of this program!			Diamond Head
Florida	Hanauma Bay	Kailua Beach	Pineapple plantation
Statue of Liberty	Times Square	US Capitol building	The White House