Emily Garvin

2008-09 Outbound to Croatia

Hometown: Fernandina Beach, Florida

School: Fernandina Beach High School, Jacksonville, Florida

Sponsor: Fernandina Beach Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida

Host: Zagreb Rotary Club, District 1910, Croatia

Bio

Emily's Bio

My name is Emily Katherine Garvin and I was born and raised in a small town called Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island. I am a small town girl. I am 14 years old and the second born of three children. But I am the youngest. My oldest brother Timmy Hendren was adopted before I was born. Timmy and I are six years apart. Next came my other older brother, his name is Patrick Garvin. 16 months later I came.

But my family doesn’t end there because for about 5 years my parents were foster parents. This had a huge impact on my life because accepting children into my family as a 9 year old was very difficult. It was hard learning how to share my family, my room, and most of all my parents. But I overcame all the hardships that came with fostering. And I learned to love every child that stepped over our threshold. At that moment they became a part of my life and my family forever. With fostering I also learned how to cope with frequent changes and loss. I learned that I shouldn’t dwell on those things that I don’t have, rather cherish the things I do have, like a loving and forgiving family.

All of that has made me the person that I am today. I would consider myself well-rounded, open-minded person. I like to take risks and try new things. Recently I tried out for my high school’s junior varsity basketball team. I realized that there would be lots of hard work, time, and commitment if I made the team. And to tell you the truth I really didn’t think I was going to make the team. I had never played basketball in my life. But that didn’t stop me; I tried out for the team anyway.

Currently I am taking all honors courses. My favorite class is geometry. And quite frankly I don’t even like geometry that much but there is just something about math that I have fallen in love with. Outside of school, I usually spend time with my family and friends. I also do volunteer service around the island with my church’s youth group. And I volunteer at the local theatres.

My future is wide open and I look forward to the possibilities that will open up to me. I plan on going to college and getting a nursing and teaching degree. My mother is a teacher and my grandmother was a nurse and they are and were both very successful people. I hope that I can follow in their footsteps and become just as successful at life.

August 26 Journal

After the sweet goodbyes at the Jacksonville airport, I proceeded through security. My first flight was to Washington DC, where I met up with the other Rotary Youth Exchange student from Maine named Allie. In DC I decided that I would show Allie how we live in Florida and I took her to the Red Carpet Club (thanks to Jeanie).

After spending the duration of our layover there we proceeded back to our gate. Allie got the pleasure of accompanying me on the 8 hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany, where we sweet-talked the flight attendant into letting us sit together. In Germany we sat around playing cards with a nice guy from California. He was on his way to visit his family in Saudi Arabia. He showed us this really cool card trick.

After playing cards for a while we went to our gate where we met two other Rotary Youth Exchange students headed for Croatia. The next leg of the trip was probably the best. It was about an hour and 30 minutes. Then we soon arrived in the Zagreb airport where we picked up our bags and walked out of frosted sliding glass doors where my host father Ratko and host sister Josipa were waiting for me, holding up a sign with my name.

The ride home was about 20 minutes, all the while my dad was pointing out the sights that I might need to know. Ratko speaks very nice English as does Josipa. My mother on the other hand is just about as good at English as I am at Croatian. My mother's name is Mislav. They say the female names are always harder to pronounce than the male names.

We arrived at my house, where I met my other host sibling... while Ratko carried my luggage up 3 flights of stairs to my bedroom (spavaća soba). Which I am sharing with my host sister. I began unpacking while creating a sisterly bond with Josipa.

Soon after I began unpacking, I was called down to lunch where my mother had prepared veal with peas, mashed potatoes, rice, salad and tomatoes. This meal was accompanied with a homemade juice of which fruit I am not sure. I soon learned that lunch (ručak) was the main meal of the household. This is the meal that the mother prepares. The other meals, such as breakfast and dinner, are very casual. Usually you are supposed to prepare them yourself.

After lunch I continued unpacking, then my sister and I walked the dog Johnny. Josipa showed her neighborhood to me during the walk. She explained that every neighborhood has a different name and in every neighborhood there are many different houses with a number of flats within each building. There is one flat per family. After the walk we decided to take the dog back home while Josipa and I went to a coffee bar. We sat at the coffee bar for about 30 to 45 minutes as we did some more of that sisterly bonding! We soon found our way home and joined the family for a small dinner. My first Croatian dinner consisted of cottage cheese with salt and a cream sauce. We also had an assortment of ham, bread and tomatoes to accompany our cottage cheese.

Sincerely,

The Foreigner (Emily)

September 1 Journal

This weekend my father, mother, and I went to our summer home in a small town called Tučepi. It is near Split (if you want to look at a map). The drive was about four hours, I slept the majority of the way. When we arrived at the house in Tučepi, I got my bathing suit on and headed down to the sea. It is literally 2 seconds away from the house! The water was a beautiful tint of aqua that darkened as it deepened. It was a bit colder than the Atlantic. The beaches were not sand, instead they were small pebbles. It was a change, and I have still not decided whether I like the sand or stones better. I guess I could just love them both.

The summer home is very nice. It has two bedrooms and one bathroom. The flat has a nice open kitchen and living area that leads to the porch. The little view that is, is beautiful. Downstairs there is another flat that my parents own. But they rent this one out during the summer because it is a little smaller than the other one. We spent the weekend in Tučepi where I soaked up all the sun and Adriatic that I could take. We left Tučepi Sunday evening. On our way out of town we stopped by this beautiful outdoor church (I would have taken pictures but there was a service going on).

We arrived back in Zagreb later that night. I went to sleep thinking about the next day and how my first day of school might go. I have to admit I was rather nervous to think that I will go to a school where I will know nobody and I know very little of the language. I woke up the next morning and just waited. School did not start until 2 o'clock that day. There was much anticipation. I soon decided that I could start getting ready for school. So I did just that. My mother arrived home from work and we left the house headed for school. I had a meeting with the principal before school. She introduced me to my homeroom teacher. My homeroom teacher is 4 foot nothing with heels and she is also my history teacher. I went to her classroom where I found old-fashioned tables and chairs. I took a seat as other students entered the classroom. All of a sudden it was a mad rush to meet the foreigner. God forbid you be the last one to introduce yourself to me! Of course I remembered not one of my peers' names.

As the teacher tried to settle the class down a girl came and sat down next to me and introduced herself again. Her name was Nina. Nina speaks very good English and she explained to me what my schedule was. She explained that we are in class 2C. Which means we are in the 2nd grade (they count down instead of up.) And the C is just one of the many different classes within my grade. The school over here is very complicated so I will briefly explain. I have about 15 different subjects, all of which I will take in a different classroom with the same group of students. My schedule changes daily, and every week I alternate times that school starts. For example, this week school starts in the afternoon and next week school will start in the morning. So far I love my school, my friends and my family. I will have a meeting with my Rotary very soon and I will let you know how that goes.

September 30 Journal

My first Rotary meeting: I met my host Rotary club, they were all very welcoming. School has been great! I am picking up new phrases left and right. During class it is a little hard to stay awake but what school isn't like that. I listen to the teacher and pick out words and phrases that are frequently used and try to remember them. I also enjoy listening to those words and phrases that I recognize and know what they mean because that gives me a sense of accomplishment. My Croatian classes are great. My teacher is excellent. I will have classes twice a week until mid April. I have two other students in my class. They are also Rotary Youth Exchange Students. Greg is from New York and Gabriella is from Brazil. It is nice to have other students in the class because there is a sense of competition and we can practice on each other. I have had about 3 weeks of classes and I am very pleased with them.

The weather the past few days has been chilly and rainy. Today it is 13 degrees C, about 55 degrees F. Yesterday it was a bit warmer but the rest of the week is supposed to be colder. I have no idea how I am going to survive the winter with all the snow! My friends make fun of me because I find it so cold. But what can I say - I am a Florida girl.

I did my first school assignment! The assignment was to create a Power Point Presentation for my Informatika class (computer) on whatever topic you want. I chose Florida. My class really enjoyed the presentation. They were most interested in the hurricanes. I got a 5, which would be an A.

I went on my first Rotary trip. The 7 inbounds in Croatia gathered in Zagreb for our orientation. During the orientation we went over the Rotary Rules and Expectations. The next day we went to Plizvička Jezera (Lakes). It was absolutely amazing. There were a lot of lakes and waterfalls everywhere. I can not even begin to describe the color of the water. It was breath taking. The following day we went to two castles in Croatia. They were both very different yet beautiful. One of the castles was from the 18th-19th century and the other was from the 15th-16th century. The architectural work was really interesting. It was cool to see how the structures differed from the ages. Soon I am going on another Rotary trip to Vienna. I am also going to Austria with my class. I am very excited about both of these trips.

Just last weekend I cooked Sunday lunch for my host family. They were very impressed. But I found that it is rather hard cooking with foreign ingredients. I made meatloaf, macaroni and cheese, baked eggplant and chocolate chip cookies. The meatloaf was the easiest part. The macaroni and cheese on the other hand was rather difficult. They do not have cheddar cheese over here so I went to the store and tried all of the cheese until I found one that I thought would do. My host brother ate half of the cheese that I had gotten for the dish so I had to use other cheese that we had in the house. When it was finished it was very good, it just was not the same as when it is made with cheddar cheese. The chocolate chip cookies were a little hard to make also. My host mother is convinced that sugar in the raw is the same as brown sugar. And I could not find vanilla extract in the store. But in the end I pulled it off and everything was delicious.

I am not homesick yet (knock on wood). But there are certain things that I miss. For example, the beach being 2 seconds away, macaroni and cheese, and warm weather. The list is endless, but overall I love it here in Croatia!

October 28 Journal

My first and second visit to Austria. The weekend of the 18th I went to Vienna for a multi district Rotary meeting. The meeting consisted of the 6 Croatian exchange students and the 83 Austrian exchange students. Vienna was beautiful, the first day we did a walking tour of a few museums, we saw a huge palace, we saw the main cathedral and we toured the oldest library in the world. That night we went to an Italian Opera. Of course, it was all in German so I didn't understand any of the show. I enjoyed the costumes and the set very much. The next day consisted of a bus tour of the city. But I would have to say that the best part of being in Vienna was that we got to meet many other foreign exchange students. It was a blast talking to them and sharing stories with them. I even ran into a friend from Florida. Gail is in the same outbound group as me in Florida. Because there are so many foreign exchange students in Austria they had half of the group begin their exchange in January and the other half begin their exchange in August like I did.

At first being in Austria it was kind of confusing, because I had no idea what language to speak. I don't know German, so that was out of the question. But I just got caught up on speaking Croatian all the time that I just wanted to speak Croatian. But barely anybody understood Croatian. So I had to fall back on English. Many of the Austrian exchange students were speaking German to each other. And then there was the group of Latinos and they were speaking Spanish and Portuguese. As Croats we decided to speak Croatian to each other. It was fun to have a language that nobody else could understand.

My next trip to Austria was this past weekend. I went on a class trip with my whole grade. We went to Graz, Klagenfurt and Bled Slovenia. Of course, all of these cities were beautiful. But I would have to say that the best part of this trip was learning more about my classmates and becoming closer to them. The first day we did a walking tour of Graz, then we had about two hours of free time to do some shopping in Graz. Just about all of the Croats go to Graz to do their shopping because everything is much cheaper than in Croatia. After we left Graz we headed to Klagenfurt were we stayed the night in a youth hostel. The next day we toured Klagenfurt then headed to Bled Slovenia. On the way to Bled we stopped in a few little town to check out some small tourist attractions. Bled was very pretty but I went to Bled Slovenia last summer and it was much prettier in the summer time. After Bled we headed back to Zagreb.

Croatia is beginning to feel like home. After both of these trips when we arrived back to Zagreb I was so happy just to be in a familiar place. A city where I know what bus and tram to take, a city where I can find my way around and see familiar street corners. Don't get me wrong - I love traveling and seeing new things. But anyone who has ever traveled can tell you that it can get a little exhausting. Not only to be in a familiar place but to also speak my familiar language. My Croatian in coming along slowly but surely. Just last week both my best friend and my host mother said that it is getting much better. I was so excited to hear that.

Last week my cousin from Seattle Washington was visiting my aunt in Slovenia so she decided to take the train over for a visit. It was so great showing her my town. I gave her a tour of Zagreb then went back to my house where she met my host mother and saw the place I call home. After the visit to my house we went back out on the town and just drank coffee and talked like Croats do. It was beautiful.

I am still continuing to take Croatian classes twice a week with Greg and Gabbie, the two other foreign exchange students in Zagreb. School is school but everyday I am understanding more and more. Next Saturday is a rather big holiday here in Croatia. It is All Saints Day. My host father has explained to me that Saturday morning we will go to the cemetery as a family then we will come home and prepare a large meal which will consist of duck. And I think this meal symbolizes the beginning of a new year or something like that. My host father was trying to explain it to me. I didn't catch everything. I will just have to wait and see. But I am looking forward to this Saturday.

Sincerely,

The Croat