Rishika Lekhadia

2009-10 Inbound from India

Hometown: Surat, India

Sponsor: Surat Roundtown Rotary Club, District 3060, India

Host: Eau Gallie Rotary Club, District 6930, Florida, USA

School: Palm Bay High School, Melbourne, Florida

Bio

Rishika's Bio

Hello. I'm Rishika Lekhadia from India. I was the first inbound this year to Florida! I'm a high school junior at Viera High school and live with a nice family in Melbourne in RI District 6930. I come from a city of Surat in India which is near Mumbai and is the 8th largest city of my country. My parents in India are doctors. I have a younger brother and my grandparents who live with us.

The school and life here is very different from India. There you have no subject selection, also in school we sit in the same class and the teacher switches and we have the same bunch of classmates all the year round. Plus we never have essays as a part of our curriculum and we never use calculator in math.

Well my country is really very very populated and it's really strange to see very few people around...I love playing chess and want to learn soccer and hip hop while I'm here...I love speaking a lot...talking to people, making new friends, chatting and surfing on net as well as reading loads of novels is my favorite pastime.

I guess this year is going to be the most exciting and fruitful year of my life. I'm enjoying every minute of it...I can personally feel a lot of good changes in me just in the few weeks since I have arrived here...Hats of to Youth Exchange Program....

Bye, Rishika

October 22 Journal

I had wonderful experiences in the past few days. Firstly I gave presentation about my country in my host Rotary club and it went on pretty well. I also attended the Rotary club family picnic which was nice. I went for fishing with my present host family and it was so fun.. I thoroughly enjoyed it. That was the best trip I had here. Going to the teen court in my county was an interesting experience as I met so many new people and I was also able to serve as a Juror.

I had to change my host families and also my schools. So it was like starting the adventure all over again. I was amazed to see how 2 schools in the same county could be so different. This gave me a brooder insight into the overall system! Also now I have friends in 2 different schools. I took a lot of different classes than I was previously taking in my first school and so I got to see many other subjects which was particularly interesting as we only have a fix subject schedule in India. Also I had been involved in Student government and Harry Potter club at my school and I am trying to do the same here. I went to homecoming ball in my second school. The football games here are so fun and I thoroughly enjoy going there!

Also I changed my host family and now I have a new room with loads of teddy bears (more than 30!), really nice and wonderful host parents. It is fun to watch the dolphins from the balcony of our condominium. I went to some of the garage sales and brought loads of soft toys from here. The tweedie that I brought is around 4 feet tall and I love it!

Well I was particularly scared of dogs but now I no longer scream at their sight and have also gathered courage to pat them on their head! This has been one of the biggest achievements that I had. Also my parents took me to Turtle Creek and I had wonderful time watching tortoises and I petted them too! So my time was full of adventures and surprises and I am thoroughly enjoying and learning a lot every minute here...

December 26 Journal

The last two months have been the busiest and probably the most exciting ones… I attended my teen court meetings where I met wonderful teenagers from different schools. Being a jury in that court was kind of interesting. I mean you get to decide what punishment is to be given. It was kind of real court experience.

On my first Halloween, I carved a real evil face on the pumpkin and we kept it outside our house to invite small kids to come and ask for candies. In fact I also thought of going out for candies. But then I suddenly remembered I'm going to be 17 soon!!! Too big for it!!

Also I have a best exchange buddy, another exchange student from Pakistan...we have accounting and government class together and I thoroughly enjoy her company. I came to know so much about my neighboring country with which we had wars in past and I realized that the people there are very good….

I went to 2 different elementary schools of my city and distributed dictionaries to the 3rd graders there. That was the part of the community service project that my club does. I had to go to the kids and introduce myself to them which was pretty cool. Then they tried finding facts about India in their dictionary. I was amazed to see how smart some 3rd graders were. I loved the whole set up of the school.

Then going to NASA and watching the shuttle launch from the distance of 3.1 miles was very exciting…

Disney was one of the best places I think I have ever been to. It was so amazing. Just felt that I was a child again. A 16 year old transformed all the way back to 6 year old. And I thoroughly enjoyed being that small again. And then the roller coasters were so fun. Plus the friends I made there were one of the most amazing part of the trip.

I had a wonderful Christmas. It was kind of unexpected to see so many presents because In India Christmas is just a day’s holiday but here my host parents were all charged up with the spirit of the season and it was a different experience to watch such festivity…Also I got the chance to visit Virginia (and all the states that come on the way between Florida and Virginia) with my host parents to spend Christmas with their daughter and I could experience snow…first time in my life…I live in the warmer region of India and the lowest that you can get worst of winter is 40 F and here to experience such cold freezing weather was fun…also visiting the Capital Washington DC was refreshing…I mean it was the first time after so many months that I got to see so many people around (my city in India had more than 5 million people) and big buildings and subways and busy fast running life…oh I enjoyed each and every minute I spent in DC…and due to my generous host parents I got a chance to see the Capitol from within which was a unique experience owing to the fact that I have not visited Indian Parliament from within yet… I also visited some old American settlement like Jamestown today…Even though I am not a big history fan, I enjoyed that place…

I had a great fear of public speaking…In fact I had froze on stage in front of more than 2000 people in my middle school and thereafter I refrained from it. But here I got a chance to regain that long lost confidence when I got to stand up and speak in front of the Rotary Clubs. Also I got a chance to rediscover my hobbies…like chess. After I joined the chess club at school, I had loads of fun meeting new people who love playing the game that I do, learning new tactics and so on…and I await for Friday not only because it’s the last school day of week but also because it’s the day chess club meets. I think they are two of the best things that happened over the past months.

April 4 Journal

Today it's more than 8 months in Florida. It's strange how time flew so fast..faster than I had ever imagined. When I look at myself in the mirror and try and see the girl who landed on Orlando airport on July 29, 2009, I can see a wide gap between the two. That girl was not so confident, very talkative and a big bookworm and I liked it but today I am more confident and decisive than I ever was, less talkative, more patient listener and even though I love books, I try and do a lot of other things beyond it.

I turned 17 here. It was the first time that I did not plan anything for my birthday and it turned out to be my best birthday. My 2nd and 3rd host mom arranged a surprise birthday party for me and that made me feel very special. When I went to Rotary meeting that month, there were 2 doctors in my club who are from India and they sang "Happy Birthday" song in my native language for me! The world feels so small when I knew that one of the doctors in our club graduated from the same medical university as my mom in India!

In my school here, there are two students competing for valedictorian position for the class of 2011 and both of them are my close friends. They never talk about each other or with each other and compete in each and every test. That reminds me of what I was for past 10 years in my school. It's interesting that it's the first time that I am a 3rd person, a mere spectator watching the rat race and not being the part of it.

I have a little sister in my third family. Even though she is 3 and 1/2 years younger to me she is so particular about things. It's the first time that my room (that I share with her) is so spick and span. Her constant strive for perfection in everything is very catchy and inspiring.

My host brother and my brother at home are of the same age. They are very similar to each other. They are the only 2 people who have always defeated me in ping pong and have always got defeated in chess! The way my host brother and sister fight with each other reminds me of how I would fight with my brother back home.

I started running track and throwing disc after school and it was fun and a nice way to keep in shape!

I got inducted into National Honors Society of my school. I am the first exchange student to be in it. At the huge fancy induction ceremony, when I saw how proud the parents were of 37 other kids who got inducted, I missed my mom and dad's presence!

My best friend here is another exchange student from Pakistan who is in my school and in most of my classes. I had a very different perception for her country and she had a low opinion for my country too. But knowing her well, I realized that a lot of stereotypes that I had for Pakistanis were wrong. Even though Pakistan is a neighbor of India, I would never have understood that people in that country could be so good if I wouldn't have come this far!

I volunteered at chili cook off, a fundraising by our Rotary club. I was at ticket booth and sold a lot of tickets. My host mom had a chili booth and she made 6 gallons of chili and then I had chili for the whole week after that! Our chili booth's name was Willy's Chili because my host dad's band 'The Willy's' performed there.

Being a part of mock trial team of my school gave me a deep insight in the career that I wish to pursue after high school. When I had to read a 60 page long case and prepare defence questions, it almost felt like being grown up into an actual lawyer.

I was the part of Future Problem Solvers team in my school. And we had to go even on Sundays to school to prepare for the competition. It was awkward for a lot of my friends but it was normal to me as we do it sometimes in my school back home! At the competition I was delighted to see my old school friends and than it was weird as we couldn't really talk as we represented 2 different competing teams. I did not know any of these people until recently and now it feels like being the part of the whole thing.

I would like to thank RYE Florida for for BELO West coast trip scholarship. I am grateful to you for giving me an opportunity to see the other coast of USA. I am eagerly looking forward to this trip! Thank you.