Val

2011-12 Inbound from Belgium

Sponsor: Rotary Club of Charleroi Europe, District 1620, Belgium

Host: Rotary Club of Tallahassee Sunrise, District 6940, Florida

Val's Bio

    Now, I am living in Tallahassee; the capital of Florida, which is very “green” and pretty. I always liked to travel and see different country, different cultures, there are always something unexpected to discover. Being an exchange student is wonderful because you can meet many people from country around the world, and learn the habits of your host country.

    What I like to do in my free time is playing the guitar, I used to play with my band in Belgium every week-end, so I miss my band… But maybe I will have some opportunity here in Florida ! By the way, there aren’t only me who left Belgium, our other guitarist and our drummer are both on exchange in Spain and Canada! What a coincidence! You can take a look on our website (www.arphaxad.be).

I also like running, and this year, I joined the cross country team in my school.
    I am sure that will be an amazing year!
 

Monday, December 12, 2011
ROTARY REPORT SEPTEMBER – OCTOBER

13th August 2011, 11:24 pm
After almost 18 hours of travel from Brussels (Belgium), I finally arrive in my final destination: Tallahassee, Florida. I am kind of tired but still excited and stressed at the same time. Everybody is waiting for me. As soon as I arrived into the lobby, they start applauding to me while I am walking towards them, they start to hug me, but I am still a bit confused, and I try to kiss them like I am used in Belgium. I meet my first host family, the Bruner, my future siblings, then my second family, then Larry D. … All these persons that I will know how wonderful they are after a few weeks already. That night, I am not going with my first family. I am going with Larry Dipietro, my district chairman, and his wife, Deb. I will spend the two first weeks with them. The first few weeks are hard for me to understand English although I study English for a while in school. But as the time goes, I am starting to understand English pretty well. However, the Dipietro are really nice, I like staying with them. The first day after I arrived, I already had to take a test in English to see if I had the skills require to attend Leon High school. That is also the same day that I met Lori, Abbie and Laiz, other exchange student from Tallahassee and Wakulla. Hopefully, I pass the test and I am ready to go to school. Several days after that, I am going to see my first host family, the Bruner. They are really really nice, I am glad. Sally Bruner, who is going to France a few days after in an exchange program like me, show me some places in Tallahassee: we are going to Leon High school, I meet some of the teacher, I am going to FSU …

After one week in Florida, I am going to the inbound orientation in Lake Yale for 3 days. All the Rotary exchange students over Florida are there, all kind of nationality, a huge mix of culture. We were almost 80 exchanges students! We had a lot of fun! Socialize, meeting people, play some games, speak in English…

On august 22nd, it is my first day of school. I am kind of stressed about that. The first week, it is hard to find people to go to lunch with but after a few weeks, I am starting to have some friends and things are doing well. After two or three weeks of school, I join the cross country team. The runners are really good, and it is really intensive. We run every day after school. It is hard in the beginning but I can see my progression every day!

After two weeks, I move in my first family. They are all so nice to me. Since the first day, I know they will be an awesome family. I have two siblings at home, Teddy (14) and Faith (13); both of them are very nice. I have also four other siblings but they do not live at home. I will meet all of them on thanksgiving.

In the middle of September, I am going to my first football game at FSU with the exchange students of my district (6940). The stadium is huge, 82 000 people! Even if I don’t really know the rules of football, I really enjoy the game, but also the mid time with the bands …

In October, I am starting to really enjoy school, I have friends now. I like my classes: I am taking some hard class such as AP physics, AP calculus but I am also taking guitar. I really like this class but the problem is despite I am playing guitar for 8 years, I cannot read notes! So I have to learn how to read music, but it is really hard for me because the other kids in my class can read notes for 3 or 4 years! So I have to work hard, but I am starting to be able to read music.

I went for the first time at the beach in early October, in Amelia Island. That is a really nice place, the weather is perfect and there are big waves!

I also had my first homecoming. That was awesome; I went there with a friend, Rebecca. We had a lot of fun. I also experienced Halloween in the US and I carved my first pumpkins, one with my host family and with a normal scary face and the other one, with Laiz, Lori and summer (a Rotex) with the “Stella Artois” logo, one of the most famous beer in my country.

I also had my first guitar concert in October and we still have guitar concert more or less once twice a month.

I probably forgot a lot of things that I did because there are so many things going on, we simply cannot remember all of those.