Yuka Nakazawa

2009-10 Inbound from Japan

Hometown: Rifucho, Miyagi, Japan

Sponsor: South of Sendai Rotary Club, District 2520, Japan

Host: Port Orange/South Daytona Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida, USA

School: Spruce Creek High School, Port Orange, Florida

Bio

Yuka's Bio

Hi!! My name is Yuka. I'm 18 years old and come from Japan. I live in "Miyagi" which part of north east of Japan. It's famous for cow tongue, star festival and so on.

Mr. David, Mrs. Kerry, Kelsey, David are my first host family. They are very kind to me. Thank you very much hosting me. I live in Ormond Beach with them!!

I go to Spruce Creek High School and I'm taking PE, American History, English, Math, Dance and Reading. It's difficult for me to understand now, I wish I can understand later... I like to play sports so I think I join the sports team in my high school!!

At last, I appreciate all people who are supporting me!! Thank you.

October 20 Journal

Hi!! I've been 2 month in here. Time has passed so fast. I'm enjoying my American life.

I had fun things a lot in this month. I went to Port Orange Family Days. It's a big festival. It had been 3 days from Friday to Sunday. Store, ride, marching band, somebody sang songs, dance and so on!! My host sister, Kelsey is member of the dance team in my high school, so she did dance on the stage!! She is VERY good dancer. I like her dance. She also have competition in Seabreeze High School, and they're gonna go to the FINAL!! It will be held in Mainland High School in November.

My host dad is a hunter. He hunts alligator and deer. I ate alligator, deer and frog meat. I've never eaten them before. It was yummy!! BUT I can't eat frog. My host dad and his friend Chris took me to factory that makes many things by alligator. It was awesome!! They gave me key chain of alligator nail. That's cool.

We had Homecoming in my high school last week. The students were wearing costumes everyday!! That was funny, and Field Night was held too. It's like sports festival.. We did dodge ball, dizzy bat, basketball, and tug of war. My tension was in high spirit. We don't have Homecoming in Japan, so I'm so exited!! I dressed up and my friend makeup for me. It started 8:00 PM and ended 12:00 midnight. I had very fun.

HALLOWEEN is coming soon!! I wanna wear something costume. I love movies but I hate horror movies, so I don't go to Halloween night. I'm looking forward to going to Halloween. We don't have Halloween in Japan neither. America has a lot of events. I'm busy everyday.

I'll go to St Augustine this weekend. The Inbound Student of District 6970, I'm looking forward to seeing you.

Let's enjoy our life in Florida!!

February 28 Journal

Hey, guys!! it's my journal after an interval of 4 months. I'm sorry. I had good experience while 4 months:) I had been playing JV basketball team at my high school in October to February. My teammates and coach are so nice to me:) and we made RECORD!! We attained "UNDEFEATED" Wahooooooooooo. Season was over for JV so I'm playing tennis now. It's sooo much fun!!

I had big events in December!! We went to Walt Disney World for 4 days in each park. We have Magic Kingdom in Tokyo Disney Land, so I wanted to see what's different between two of them. It was almost same but "It's a small world", "Tower of terror", and "Space Mountain" were a little bit different. We really really enjoyed these days.

After Disney, we had Christmas :) We were so busy... I think we got up 7:00 in the morning, then opened the presents about 2 hours and went to grand parent's house, opened presents again, and we went to Tallahassee, it's capital of Florida. I met soooo many people at there. Greatgrandma told me "There are 56 people include you."........WHAT!?? Of course I was surprised at that thing. We went to hunting camp!! Few days after. Listen... on Facebook, if they ask question "Have Yuka Nakazawa ever been to hunting camp?" answer is "Yes!!":) It might be the biggest experience in my life because we can't have guns. You know it's illegal. I went to hunt but I couldn't see deers. If I could see, I didn't kill them either because I'm scared of gun. When I had gun I felt like my hands are shaking, actually they didn't.

End of December, we have big events. It's "New Year". We had party for exchange students of district 6970 at Jacksonville. We helped to cook for homeless people and went to Leandro's house. We did dance, played game, pool, sang songs etc...... We went to boat place and did countdown....but we failed countdown. Fire works was already started when we were doing countdown. We spent night there but my friend and I couldn't?? didn't sleep until morning... I think we slept about only an hour:)

In January, I had to move my first host family. I was soo sad. I'm always nervous when I meet new people so my heart was pbounding. but I could meet my new host family before I move, they are so nice too. I felt secure about my new host family. I'm having fun with them now:)

We went to Seacamp the end of January:) It was too much fun but it was the last chance to meet all exchange students together. We had great times in Keys:) we could make new friends from Keys, Michigan, Garden city.... They were nice too. I've never tried snorkeling. Fins were hard to control first. It ought to be able to swim easier but OMG I couldn't swim well... after practice, it was so comfortable. The water was so clean on first day, but next day we couldn't anything and water was cold. We had dance party too. I loved all of them:)

I started playing tennis last week. We have game every Friday:) I lost the game on first day (doubles and single) but last Friday I won doubles. We don't have enough time for single. The score was 3-2 so we'll resume this Friday!!

Thank you to Rotary for taking me to trip, events.. Thank you to my real family and my American families..

I hope you guys are having fun in America:) See you later!!

June 1 Journal

Okay. It's my journal of May!! Time went faster and faster... I've been here already 9 months and I only have 1 month left:( How sad!? Our exchange year is almost over and new Inbound students are already showing up. I can't believe. My school is almost over too. June 8 is last day. I have to take final exam though. My friends always tell me,"I will go to Japan with you." or "I'm gonna miss you." "I don't want you to leave." I'm gonna miss you guys too. I got a year book too. I don't like my picture and at basketball team picture, my last name is wrong. It's said " HARAWAZA" My last name is " NAKAZAWA!!" Nothing correct. Whatever. hahaha.

Ohhh. Almost I forget about prom. We had prom on May 1 at ICI center. We don't have prom in Japan so I was excited!! My mom did hair, nails, and my friend's mom did make-up for me. Thank you!! I love to dance so my tension was high>< but I bought a long dress... I can't dance with long dress!! And my friend said "Can you dance with me??" OMG.. I was so nervous because I've never done dance like social dancing. It was fun:) I think we should do Homecoming and prom in Japan too.

We had spring weekend for district 6970 on May 22 and 23 at Jacksonville. We helped Mandarin Rotary club:) after that, we ate lunch and we had party at Mr. & Mrs. Lindell's house. They were so nice to us!! We rode boat and tried water ski!! I've never done that before. I was so excited!! BUT I couldn't control my legs with water and I failed... It was hard to stand up on the board. I tried them 3?? times and so tired. We rode on another boat and sailed:) feels so comfortable except when the boat curved. I was kinda scared because we had to take hold of something not to fall off. Also fun time though. Mr. Al came there and we talked about our exchange year. Kuan's story was so funny. We can't forget. One of the questions, "What are you gonna miss about America??".... ummm feels so weird because I didn't feel like I'm going to go back. Probably my host families, my friends, school, "Chick fil-a" and "sour patch". EVERYTHING of my Florida life. Tatiana showed pictures of our whole exchange year with the song "I will always love you". We cried.... It was Adam's birthday too. HAPPY BIRTHDAY:) We sang song and ate cake. Next day, said thank you and good bye to Lindell family and went to the beach:) It was soooo beautiful day!! We all had great time those weekend. Also felt sad because it was last time to meet altogether for district 6970. Some students are going to West Coast trip but some students are not... BUT we promised we will be at Jacksonville for 5 years later:)

I had a speech at Port Orange/ South Daytona Rotary club. I was so nervous. I talked about my host families, friends, school, when I came here at the first time.... OMG. I started crying while giving my speech.

We joined 5K marathon. It was my 2nd time. My 1st time was 37 minutes and this time..... 31 minutes!! almost on the 30 minutes:( but I'm improved>< Oh Yeah!! I was surprised that the woman who was 3rd place at awarding ceremony. She is pregnant. wow. She is fabulous. My first host family invited us for the dinner so we went to their house. We had good time:)

My host family took me to the "Light House" and the beach. I had muscle pain by marathon, but went up 203 stairs. OMG!! There were so beautiful view and I saw "disappearing island". It's the impact of global warming. It's getting serious!! After that, we rode the boat and sailed:) and spent time at the beach!! we saw dolphins too.

I want to make a lot of memories in here. no I'm gonna make memories in here:) Thank you for reading.