Simon Jensen

2009-10 Inbound from Denmark

Hometown: Haderslev, Denmark

Sponsor: Haderslev Hertug Hans Rotary Club, District 1460, Denmark

Host: Orchid Island Rotary Club, District 6930, Florida, USA

School: Vero Beach High School, Vero Beach, Florida

Bio

Simon's Bio

Hello, my name is Simon V. Jensen, I just turned 16 two months ago. I am a junior at Vero Beach high school and I really love it there. My home country is Denmark, where I live in a city named Haderslev on the south eastern part of Jylland. I have three older brothers, Søren, Kristian and Thomas. I normally only live with my 18-year-old brother Søren and my mom and dad in a beautiful house. I love playing basketball and hope to get a little better here and bring some new stuff to my club in Denmark.

The reason why I chose to be an exchange student is because I wanted to experience a new world and a new culture. I had the idea when I really wanted to travel some 2 years ago. So I really want to thank Rotary for this awesome program!

I’ve just started in school and have made some nice friends. And it is really cool that you can take weightlifting and photography and all kinds of cool and fun subjects. I also love the way that school and sports are linked together and the teachers are very involved. Right now I’m playing cross country where I run a minimum of 25 miles a week. I am hoping to get on the varsity basketball team and on the lacrosse team. And the last session in school I actually only play basketball.

My host family is really cool, so I’m very lucky! And they are really fun, now I’m just adapting to the American culture; it's really awesome so far and I want to thank RYE Florida.

September 13 Journal

Now I’ve been in the states for nearly 5 weeks! It is living up to my every expectation and it is better than I could even imagine! I arrived here August 19th and it feels like only a few days have passed, it is absolutely amazing. I’ve been out wakeboarding and tubing with my host family’s son Clint, before he left for Argentina to be an exchange student.

I’ve been on an intro-camp for all the Rotary youth exchange students, my host dad (Darwyn) drove Clarissa, Sachie, and me up there. We went to Lake Yale and it’s located near Orlando. We lived in small cabins with the other exchange students. It’s was really fun and amazing to meet, all the other exchanges in Florida. I’m looking forward to the next gathering, which I think is in Disney World - that is going to be great fun.

My host family thinks I eat really much, which is funny because I thought a lot of Americans ate a lot. I can actually say that it is not that many as I thought. The food here is very sweet compared to in Denmark, but completely amazing. I love the fact that there are so many people that love doing sports and being active. I’m getting to know a lot of people and making many friends because of it.

So far I’ve been in the Kennedy Space Center and in a place called Andretti Thrill Park where you could play baseball, drive go-karts and play laser tag and much more. Laser tag was really fun; I definitely have to try that again. I also competed in my first cross country race last Saturday where I came in 112th place out of 230 people. You’re getting really sore from running all the time, but it's fun.

I’ve been to my first American football game and it was the most fun I had so far. It’s crazy; I got painted up in red over my entire upper body and a C on my stomach. The atmosphere on the high school football stadium, is one of the most amazing I’ve ever experienced. You meet all your friends from the school and have great fun! I’ve also seen a space shuttle been fired off of Kennedy Space Center, which was an incredible experience! It lit up the whole sky, so it looked like a sunset. It was super cool!

With my family and some other people, we went to Marsh Landing which is a restaurant. You could get gator tail and catfish and frog which I had a plate with of course  and all kind of local food. It tasted really good and they have this amazing fish called a mahi-mahi, which means dolphin fish. It’s not a normal dolphin, but a fish that have the same kind of name. It is a really good and known fish with the locals and with the people in Florida.

I know this is going to be one of my most amazing years in my life and I can’t wait to see what’s next!

September 28 Journal

It’s still amazing. You just can’t stop feeling like every day is a new and completely different experience.

This week Kristian (another Rotary exchange student) came visiting me for the weekend. We started out by going to the weekly football where we had a lot of fun and I introduced him for some of my friends from the USA. We didn’t go to anything after, but next day we went surfing all day and got these razzes and sunburned over the shoulders. I don’t think I’ve been surfing that much before, but it was a lot of fun. I’m still trying to get used to the culture at the beach, like learning all the water sports and it’s always hot. It’s really fun to do all these different sports and I really want to learn how to surf, so I hope it’ll come.

I’ve been to the beach with some guys from the cross country, we skimmed on the water with the skim boards. It didn’t start out that good, because I threw the skim board out to the waves that were pulling back out. The board twisted in the air, fell down and got stuck in the sand, so when I came running after it trying to jump on it, I accidently kicked it and got this big scar on my foot, but that didn’t keep me from trying again. It’s fun when you learn how to do it right, and the pros are amazing at doing cool tricks on it. Afterwards we just went to a little place near the beach, before we went home.

In cross country I’m having some problems with my papers; I was writing my signature on a bunch of papers. It’s for exchange students when they play sports, if they want to participate in races and games for their sports. So because of that I missed the three first races, but now I’m just looking forward to my first official race. The subjects I’m taking in school are completely different from the ones in Denmark, because I’m used to have a subject called mathematics that includes all kinds of math. But here they specialize in a special kind of math already in the early age of thirteen, when they start high school. That’s kinda cool. I choose algebra two which is a great subject. It’s a little hard because I didn’t have algebra one, but I’m learning quickly.

We had a home XC (cross country) meet here last Wednesday. Unfortunately I couldn’t run because of the papers, but is was still fun. It was a relay instead of a 5k race, that means that you still run 5km but you have a team of three where they run 1 mile at the time and 9 miles overall. Our team won of course (undefeated champions in the race) which is really cool.

We had my host moms’ birthday in her parents’ house on Sunday, where we had the family’s meatballs made with a secret family recipe. It was really good and we had fun; her sister and a friend of the family also were at the dinner. They normally live in Vermont, but they visit a lot here in Vero Beach.

I went with my host mother Jill and her parents down to Fort Lauderdale, where we lived in the Ritz Carlton hotel which is an amazing place! We went there to see Jill’s brother who’s in the Coast Guard so he travels a lot. He actually worked in the White House as the presidents’ physician, which is really cool. He also gave me this pin from the White House. We also went to meet Jill’s uncle who’s around 75 years old, but still is the ultimate bachelor. He has a girl who’s in the late forties, but he’s a truly nice guy and fun too. We rode in his 1992 Camaro to a famous bike shop where they had all these kinds of funny and nice looking rides. In the evening we visited a restaurant called Casablanca, where I had a lime grilled swordfish which was indescribable delicious. The next morning we had a breakfast on H20 where I had the best breakfast ever! It was a fried egg, ham, tomato, cheese on crusty grain bread, with fresh fruit on the side. Grandpa wanted to pay for the food, so that was very generous. That was a really good week I had, I hope it’ll continue like that.

I’m having the most amazing time. Thanks Rotary!

Jill’s (my host mom) sister Joanna and the friend of the family Travis who lives with her sister and husband Don

The pool area at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, me laying and relaxing

A couple of the bikes from the bike shop

A scooter from the bike shop

October 12 Journal

Finally my first XC meet! It’s completely crazy; I’ve been in three races now. The first one was one of the biggest races, made by Flrunners.com. There were over 5000 people overall racing that day, which is an enormous number. In the JV race I competed in, there were around 500 people and I ended in 247th place with the race time of 21:05.74 on the 5k run. My second race was in Sebastian, the rival high school. That race I came in 7th JV, but it wasn’t that big a race. My time was 21:07, so I didn’t make a new record. My latest race was this Friday in Fort Pierce, a town south of mine. I ran really good and ended up in 4th place with the time 20:02 which was so close to breaking 20 minutes! Top 10 would get a medal, so I won the first medal ever in my life. Awesome! After the race I went directly to a dinner with my host family, were we had some really good fish called snook. It’s the snook season right now and you normally can’t buy them in the stores, so they bought it from a fisherman they knew.

I’m starting to get used to the everyday in the high school, it feels like I belong here so far. I’m looking forward to see if I’ll be on the varsity basketball team, and see how the acoustics will be in the basketball gym. Normally in Denmark it’s not the biggest sport, so it’s not that filled up in the gym.

This weekend some of the Cross Country guys and I hung out, and played water polo and ping pong. It was really fun, I had actually never tried water polo before so that was really fun. Afterwards we ordered pizza and watched the Florida Gators game (College football team) were the played LSU (Louisiana State University). Tim Tebow the star player and quarterback from the Gators hadn’t recovered completely from a concussion he received in the previous game. He still played really good, but it wasn’t a point rich game.

Next day I went to an all-you-can-eat brunch at Riverside Café, with Bob one of my host parents’ employees and his wife. They were really nice and the brunch was amazing, you could even get a chef to customize your omelet. They also have something they call a biscuit, that’s like a really sweet bun you can put your ham and eggs on and it’s really good. There were also dessert, salad, clams, fruit, rice and much more good food. After that, I went to hang out with some friends. We had laid in the pool and they ordered burgers from Five Guys which is a magnificent burger place. After that we just talked a bit, and tried to figure out what to do. We ended up playing halo 3, a shooting game, which was really fun.

I talked to one of my friends from Denmark, asking how another of my friends was; the answer was “as usual”. That made me realize, that nothing really had changed that much since I left. It’s kind of funny, because everything has changed for me.

The motto in XC is “you have to be insane to do this” because almost nobody sees running as fun and the special thing is you have to keep running even when you can’t, you have to sprint in the end even if you don’t have any energy in reserve. I can say it has become an addiction for me; I have to run every day.

It can’t be better than this, but it is.

A sign about the gators in the swamp area

The two dogs to the left are Ryan and his wife Sarah's dogs; to the right my host parents' dogs

My sprinting the last piece of my best race where I got a 4th place

October 25 Journal

This week I’ve been to a Rotary meeting where we had to talk to some kids that are considering becoming exchange students. They asked a bunch of questions of how it is going so far and I actually met one who chose Denmark as his first priority, which is awesome. After the exchange meeting, I went with one of my friends Robby to the football game. There was only a quarter left of the game, so we came in for free which you can when there’s only a quarter left. Vero Beach high school is still undefeated!

The next day I went to SeaWorld with my host mom, which was really cool. We saw a Shamu show (an orca, killer whale show) where they could do all these tricks. We tried almost anything in the park and I had bought an all day dining deal, so I could eat at all the cheap restaurants. They don’t have the best food, but it’s an amazing park with a lot of things to see. They had a new ride, The Manta, where it turned you so it was like flying as superman. I preferred the Kraken, a normal rollercoaster, because it was much faster.

We had a race in Martin County Friday, so we missed the football game that day. Vero Beach still won and is 7-0. It was a late run- it started six o’clock. I had a bad knee after a workout, so I didn’t think I would run fast at all, but I made a new personal record: 19:26. Our team won three of four trophies, so that was really cool. On the way home the school bus, was pulled over by the cops! Apparently someone had stolen a school bus. When we came home I hanged out with some guys and crashed at Robby’s place. The next morning we went for a six mile run on the beach.

I went for a UFC fight night, at a guy named Andrew's house. We don’t have that in Denmark, so it’s really cool and fun. We were around 16 people who watched the fight with chips and dip.

I went to Austin’s birthday party next day, where we played ping pong, water polo and a lot more. It was his sweet sixteen, so he had invited the XC team. It’s really different how the cakes are at birthdays here; they have so many colors, different kind and a lot of sweet cream. I think it’ll get hard to get used to, not having a pool when I get home. After the party, I was driven back home for the family Sunday dinner.

Next week it’s homecoming week so we’re going to get dressed up all week!

The kids who are considering becoming exchange students

An orca at the Shamu show

A seal from Seaworld

November 8 Journal

Since last time, I have moved to my new host family! It’s a really nice family and they have two great boys TJ and Sean, nine and thirteen years old. It’s an odd feeling moving to my new family, when I clicked really good with my last family that I had a lot of fun with. My new family is really cool so far, and the boys play basketball like me and the dad played college basketball.

It’s a nice neighborhood I’ve moved into, just down by the water. The coolest thing is they have half a basketball court in the backyard, It’s awesome! It’s still around the 25 degrees Celsius here which is crazy for November; it’s maybe around 3 back home in Denmark.

I have also just started playing high school basketball, going to the tryouts for the team like I have seen in movies which are really cool. We have around a two and a half hour practice every day, so that’s tough. I’m the tallest guy on my team, so that’s always an advantage.

We had homecoming week not long ago, it’s definitely my favorite week by far. You get to dress up every day! First day it was clown day, so I wore something clumsy. Second day weas decades day where I dressed out as a hippie, with the sign, a really big necklace, a shirt bottom up almost all the way down, and jeans with flip flops and sunglasses. Third day was wacky tacky day, so I dressed up as a tacky tourist with the Hawaiian shirt and shorts with a hat and so on. Fourth day was Cowboy and Indians day; I dressed as a cowboy with all I could find western, hat, tie buckle, shirt and jeans, but I didn’t have any boots. Fifth and last day it was spirit day where we just wore school colors - red, black, and white as I do most Fridays for the football games.

Homecoming night was same night as Halloween, I stayed for the dance around one and a half hours and then went with some friends. We trick or treated and just fooled around, after one of my friends drove me to a XC party were I spent the night. We have channels where we can watch NBA games for free, it’s awesome. In Denmark I didn’t even have a channel with basketball at all. So I’m watching as much as I can. Thanks Rotary.

Me as a hippie!

Me as a cowboy!

December 4 Journal

I went to my first NBA (National Basketball Association) game, with my new host family the Kenney’s. It was an unbelievable experience, which I will never forget. The game was a local match-up with the teams, Orlando Magic vs. Miami Heat. I even went and bought a foam finger that says number one with Orlando Magic on it, because I have always wanted one of those. The game in itself was incredible; it started out with switching point leads. At the last seconds the Magic got a lead with one point, but then Dwayne Wade made a really hard lay-up. The Magic could not force in another shot, so they lost 99-98 in the last second. A game does not get better than that, close till the end.

Next day it was Thursday where I experienced my first Thanksgiving dinner of my life, with the whole family at my host grandma’s house. We had the whole meal with the big turkey, mashed sweet- and normal potatoes, stuffing and etc. Briefly after the dinner, we went fishing in lake nearby the grandparents’ house. It was actually the first time I have been fishing, since I came here. In addition to that, I caught my first fish just in between two minutes; it was a really cool thing to do. That evening we went to our neighbor’s house to eat dessert; we had pecan pie, chocolate pie and apple pie, which were really delicious.

This Sunday, I went to my old host parent’s house for dinner. We had some catching up to do with each other; it was nice to see them again. I also brought my computer too, to finish up an essay about Thanksgiving for my English class. Then Clint, his girlfriend Liz and his friend Garret were there, it was fun. It felt just like I was still living there, which is a nice feeling to have.

With Rotary we were invited to a close up space shuttle lunch, completely genius! We started to drive to NASA early, then when we arrived we were given a brochure with some nice souvenirs and a pin. It’s was incredible in its highest, before the liftoff a singer sang the American national anthem. Then when the shuttle fired off, the ground started shaking and it was crazy. They also had a special souvenir place for the invited people, where you can send mail with some special NASA stamp on. The building with the souvenirs was also build around a massive old space shuttle, pretty amazing.

First official American basketball game, we played against South Fork which we slaughtered 56-22 on JV. After the game we saw our Varsity team won by 46-43, freshmen also won their game. We came home around 10:30PM, so I was really tired the next morning. That was a really good start for the basketball season and now we have another game Friday, which we’re going to win too.

My family back in Denmark had sent me a package a while ago, which finally arrived. It was full of Christmas treats, like Christmas calendars for me and my host brothers, advent gifts and Danish Christmas cookies.

My old host family leant me a bicycle, from someone they know. In Denmark we have a lot of bicycles; it is weird because almost nobody here rides bicycles. Instead everybody has a car, since the driving age is 16 here, but in Denmark it is 18 years. Oh yeah Patrick Brennan is awesome.

Now it’s December, so I’m looking forward to see what’s next for me. I’m looking forward to see how Christmas is in Florida other than hot, compared to in Denmark.

Me at the NBA game

The local Rotary district, at the launch

One of the largest buildings in the world

December 28 Journal

Disney! The whole state of Florida’s Rotary exchange students went to Disney. It was so much fun, probably some of the coolest stuff I’ve experience so far. Even some exchange students from the states nearby came, which was cool. We went to all four different theme parks, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. We even got an early close-in in Magic Kingdom, where we had some guides that made us do different experiments and then got to take two rides without any line. We stayed in All-star Movie resort, which is one of Disney’s hotels. At the hotel they had busses that could drive us to and back from the parks. The best thing about it was that we got to see all the other exchange students again. Also when we went to Epcot we had some special dining set up, followed by the most amazing fireworks show I have ever seen! It was really that amazing.

Finally winter break! This was my first Christmas away from home and in USA; I had a really good time. My family had invited a lot of their friends to come for dinner Christmas Eve, it was very different from Denmark nonetheless fun. In Denmark we always have a family Christmas dinner with dessert, followed by dancing around the Christmas tree and opening presents. Here we opened the presents Christmas morning, so that was a funny change.

Christmas day I went over to my last host family, to celebrate Christmas and my last host dad Darwyn’s birthday. It was nice to have a Christmas with each; they also had a lot of family over so that was nice. They even gave me a really cool present; it was a glass paperweight with a satellite photo of the tip of Florida and the Bahamas. I stayed there to around eight o’clock, when Darwyn drove me home. Right when I came back, everybody was at the neighbor’s house so I went there to hang out with the other kids.

I went to a lacrosse weekend camp the last day of the camp; it was really different from anything else I’ve tried. I did my best and even won the camper of the week so I got a free t-shirt. Lacrosse is going to be the first contact sport I am going to play; that’s going to be fun.

I’ve also played racquetball, which is really cool. It’s almost like squash, but a little different. It was really fun to try and was actually a pretty intense game. That day I also went to a place that sells electronics where one of my friends dad works, so we watched a movie on the big canvas. That was really awesome, with surround sounds and everything.

My family had sent me a package from home with Christmas gift, which was really nice. I also talked with them on Christmas Eve, where my family were gathered.

February 19 Journal

USA has truly become a new home; I’m living with my third host family now. Here I have a host brother my own age so that’s awesome, it’s the first time I’ve been living with someone my age. Right now I just started playing lacrosse, which is a lot of fun, but also the most expensive sport in the world as I have found out the hard way. I also just bought a new lacrosse stick to add to my collection of other equipment I borrowed from the coach and from some of my friends who play lacrosse. I knew almost everybody on the team, which was totally awesome.

I’ve been at Seacamp just like all the other exchange students. It’s was really awesome, we had so much fun on that trip. We went snorkeling around the local coral reef systems which were really cool since I’ve never been snorkeling before. I saw a barrel sponge which looked incredible; I didn’t believe any of the beautiful creatures I’ve seen in pictures until I had seen them in real life underwater. It was really sad when we departed, they are all some of the greatest people I’ve met and it was really sad since I’m not going to see most of them again. Before we rode home we spent a couple of hours in Key West for shopping, they had a pretty cool street full of interesting people.

I ended up my basketball season in the beginning of February; we finished it by beating our rival team with over 30 points so there are no complaints from me there. We also had exams which was nice because we had short school days, where we got off school at twelve.

One of the weekends my new host family took me in their own private airplane to Lakeland Florida, in the middle of the state somewhere, to meet some of their family. It was really cool to fly in the plane; it’s a six person plane and is completely different from a big passenger plane. It’s really cool because there are so many small airports that private planes can land in that jumbo-jets could never go to. In Lakeland we ate dinner with the family, after that me and my brother took a look around nearby. On the way back the plane had a “tailwind” so the wind pushed the plane from behind, we were going over 200 mph!

I’ve been camping with my new host families, who participate in the Boy Scouts of America (my brother is the leader). We went to a hiking trail in the middle of a forest near Sebastian, the first night we spent in a campsite just in the opening of the trail. It was cool to sleep in a tent in the open nature, the adults there also made cobbler that tasted amazing. The next day we started out by making pancakes & packing up. We were going to take a 6 mile hike to the next campsite, underway I made some great friends & had a lot of fun. We had breaks, lessons in forestry for the younger scout about being a boy scout and I saw new wonders in the open nature. I really enjoyed the hike; I had never tried to hike before with a 50 pound bag pack so that was sweet. The second campsite we reached after 3 hours because we had a lot of stops, it was a pretty cool place. There were a grape tree & an old cabin there, after we put up the tents we fooled around and had fun. The hike home was a lot shorter since we tried out a shortcut, but it was a unique experience.

SKI TRIP!!! I went to North Carolina (NC) with my youth group, where a bunch of my best friends goes. We drove in minivans to NC, which was a twelve hour drive. The first night we went straight to dinner, at a tiny diner right next to our hotel. The place we stayed in was a pretty nice place, cozy as I like ski hotels. We rented our skis & snowboards in a store named extreme, also the day we arrived. First day of skiing it snowed the whole day, last time I’ve been skiing was in Austria two years ago so it was nice to go out and do it again! It was a really fun day and when I took an eating break I had a bodacious hot chocolate. That night my room, made a valentines prank on all the girls. Where we put chocolate & roses outside their room at 6 am, knocked on the doors really hard and ran. That day we went to the best mountain, Sugar Mountain. After snowing the whole last day the slopes were perfect, I loved just flying down the hills. The lifts there became crowded really quickly, but the slopes were worth the waiting time. For dinner that day we went to Cici’s pizza, were we also played maze of the kings. Next day we had a 9 hour drive home, a lot shorter than up there.

At Key West

Dollar bar at Key West

Me and Ally two-person skiing

March 25 Journal

I didn’t think I ever had a chance to go there, before I started my exchange; I went to Hawaii for a week! I have never had this much fun, it was the one of the best weeks of my life. It was one of the trips that Rotary offered, for all the exchange students in Florida & from up the east coast. So I spend the greatest week, with all these awesome people. We started off with cruising on a boat in front of Honolulu, where we relaxed and were served cooled exotic juices. We stayed on the main island Oahu on a hotel that lies right in front of the beach. Every morning we started out with a delicious breakfast, at the restaurant practically in the hotel. Normally we left the hotel at 9am, so we had perfect time to get ready. The first destination on Oahu was the Kailua beach, where there were offered a kayak trip which was amazing. Laurenz (Austria) & I were partners in the two man kayak; the goal was a small island 2-3 miles away. We kayaked for 45-60min to reach the island, which we ate lunch on. The nature of Hawaii is so incredible beautiful, just to take the most common e.g. crystal clear blue & Volcano Mountains. On the way back we had a race to see who was fastest, with a little prize for the winner. Laurenz & me went all-out, which included the winning & prize of the race.

A place I highly respect was Pearl Harbor, people changed as soon they walked in. That shows you how much the past affects us, how much our presence might affect the future us. Another place we visited was the Dole Pineapple plantation, were Krestian & I shared the largest bowl of pineapple ice-cream. For those of us that were up to the challenge, we could hike up a little hill & watch the sunrise. It took around 40min to hike that stretch, but it was all worth it. On the way home the girl took off right away, so we all the guys took a bus. We drove right by them to the hotel, where we waited in the lobby for them to see their faces when they walked in. Then we also went snorkeling in Hunauma bay, it was gorgeous. There were so many species of fish and the colors; they were from bright yellow to black. I will definitely say it is a place worth visiting. The last day of our amazing journey, we went to The Luau. It was so cool, all the Hawaii culture was compressed to a single event. Krestian & I were the only ones to receive grass skirts, to do the net fishing dance. I had so much fun doing dancing, it was something else. The Luau ended in a gigantic show of Hawaii dancers, stepping on the stage. I could keep telling about Hawaii, but there is only one thing to say “the time of my life”.

Lately I have been on a caving campout, where we went to an underground cave & explored the depth beneath us. It is a unique experience, to get down on your fours again. The cave was names “The Bat cave” , we even found small bat juveniles on the roof of the cave. I became rather muddy, after the sliding on the moist and sometimes wet dirt floor. After the visit at the cave, we continued to Ocala campsite to spend a night on the ground. It was really funny when I was out in the truck with Patrick & Zach, to search for firewood. Suddenly Zach saw some wood in the marsh & decided to drive off-road, to get stuck in the mud. That made the entire camping trip; I couldn’t stop laughing at it. We started next day up with a good breakfast & a five mile hike. The forest is truly a wonderful place; I have always loved the silence in the wild. Then it was also time to get back to civilization, so destiny was home. That evening I went to Jill & Darwyn's house for dinner, to catch up & see them again.

My Brother Patrick is the coolest guy ever!

Everything I see, feel & experience is because of Rotary, I just want to express my gratitude. Thank you so much Rotary!

April 20 Journal

The Big Apple -

I went to NYC with my brother Patrick; we actually stayed in New Jersey at his aunt & uncle. The first day Uncle Richard took us in his flight over NYC, where we shot some great pictures. It was really cool watching the huge city from up in the sky, it gives you a good perspective when you stand down in the city and sees how big it is. That night we just relaxed and explored the house. The following morning we ate a delicious & nutritious breakfast, got in the car with the destination NYC. We started out with a round, around central park. Afterwards we went to Times Square, went to the NBA store, Hershey’s and so on. Then Pat & I went to the Top of the Rock, it is an awesome view! The only thing was that it was freezing, combined with a strong wind. When we came down, we ice-skated at the little ice court in front of Rockefeller Center. I got to say I am not the born skater, but I didn’t fall even though it was close. We went sightseeing after that, saw Wall Street, Chinatown. Then last thing we did was eating dinner at Pete’s, the longest running restaurant in U.S.A. It’s an Italian-American place; I had duck with vegetables and sauce. Funny enough it was where his uncle proposed to his aunt. Next day we just went to a spa & relaxed before we went home.

Kayak trip in the keys -

I went on a kayak voyage down in the Keys; it was an absolutely amazing experience. We started off reserving our camp spots at Flamingo which lies at the foot of the everglades national forest. When we had reserved the spots we started out to Key Largo, from there we would launch our kayaks into Blackwater sound. We were the Brennan’s, the McKai’s & I, with our kayaks stuffed to the top. The first few yards we were fumbling and finding the perfect balance in the small boats. Then when we were all set, we set out for the first stretch on four miles. I was leading the pack by some hundred yards, until we came to a little channel which led out of Blackwater sounds into Florida bay. We still had a few miles to go this day, until we would reach the first campsite. After around five miles of paddling, we had arrived to the site. We fueled up & as soon dinner was ready, it disappeared in a few minutes. Before we went to sleep in our tents, we enjoyed the unbelievable view of the crystal clear night sky and our surroundings. Next day was a tough schedule, 24+ miles to the campsite just in front of Shark Point. We paddled most of the day, with few stops now and then for lunch and etc. Then when we reached the second site, we thought it was a joke, but it was a platform raised around 14 feet off the water with room to tie up the kayaks. Mainly it was two bigger platforms with a bridge to connect them, a toilet in the middle of it. It was really windy on the raised platform; it was fun tough to crawl around the planks like some sort of pirate. It took a good share of time; to hoist up all the supplies needed incl. our sleeping bags. In the end, it was nice to rest for the day and lay down. Suddenly in the middle of the night around four am, we were attacked by mosquitoes. The wind had stopped in the impulse of a second, as suddenly it stopped blowing as suddenly they came. I didn’t much sleep for the rest of the night, but I was ready to go the very next morning. The goal on our chart was the Flamingo, which we intended to reach this day. It was a straight stretch on around eight miles, until we could relax again. Patrick and I were the first to see port, which we celebrated with some sausages and crackers washed down with very fine lemonade. The Kayak trip was a beautiful experience which I would do without any hesitation again. The final amount of distance, were a little more than a 40 mile stretch.

Family change -

I’ve changed to my fourth host family, I’m probably one of the only who reached beyond two yet. My new family is the Mattice which is very nice; they have three kids:11, 15, & one just started in college. The house is right on the beach, which is really nice. Even though I’m at my fourth family, I still hold the contact to all my past ones. Also I went on a camping trip with the Brennan’s & scouts, to an island in Indian River called round island. We had a lot of fun there tubing and getting rides on a jet ski. I really enjoy camping, it’s always something to get you out of a regular routine.

Last weekend I hung out with my friends, where we went to RIVERFEST! That night I stayed at Scott’s house and played some Xbox, with him and some other guys. Then the next day we went to a festival in downtown Vero, were my old host brother Sean had a concert which I watched. Then we went to Robby’s and hung out, also I spent the night there. Thanks Rotary!			The kayak platform just out from shark point
Pat & I when we finished the trip	The Big Bridge to NYC	Me next to O'Neal	Us in middle of Times Square