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 Robert
Woolbright
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2010-11 Outbound to
Paraguay
Hometown:
St. Augustine, Florida
School:
St. Augustine High School
Sponsor:
Coastal St. Johns County Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida
Host:
Ciudad del Este Rotary Club, District 4845, Paraguay
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Bio
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| September 16 "My first night in
Paraguay there was a big barbecue at my new house with family and friends.
The food here is so good! I don't know what they do to there cows, but it is
absolutely amazing!" |
| December 13 "I am
so glad I joined the orchestra I get to perform, learn new music, and
travel. Everything I love in life." |
| February 20 "Life
is good now. I have been her for around six months looking back on it now it
does not even feel like half of that. " |
| May 25 |
Robert's Bio
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 My name is Robert Blake Woolbright and I live in St. Augustine,
Florida, the oldest city in the United States of America, founded in 1565 by the
Spanish. It is a coastal town attracting many tourists for its history and charm
as well as its beaches. In August I will start a year abroad, living and
studying in Paraguay just a few miles from the stunningly beautiful Iguazu
Falls.
I am seventeen years old and have resided in St. Augustine
my whole life. I live with my mother and my sister. My mother is the
Director of Social Services at the local hospital; my sister is fourteen and
a freshman at my high school. My father, a lawyer who worked for the Public
Defender’s Office for almost thirty years, passed away in December, 2008.
My passion in life is music and I have played the bass
guitar and stand-up bass since the seventh grade. After the year in
Paraguay, I plan to go to college to continue my study of music and in the
future to complete a M.A. program in recording arts. In addition to my
musical interests, I play on the high school tennis team.
At St. Augustine High School, I am in three academies. The
first academy is the Center for the Arts and through this academy I am in
the jazz band, concert band, and a small jazz combo group. Also, in this
academy, I have been a member of the marching band, indoor percussion, and
several musicals. I have also participated in different musicals activities
outside of the school; for example, I have been a member of the community
orchestra and plan to rejoin in January, 2010. The second academy I am
enrolled in is the AICE program, which is administered by Cambridge
University in England, and allows me to take all college-level courses and
later receive college credit for them. The third academy I am in is the
Aerospace program where I am presently taking a college-level engineering
class.
I have been looking forward to becoming a Rotary Youth
Exchange student and traveling abroad ever since I heard the presentation
over two years ago by Daphne Cameron, Vice Chair for Outbounds for Rotary
District 6970. Now I am very excited about my Rotary opportunity and living
in Paraguay. |
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Ciudad
Del Este, Paraguay. A city much much different than old St. Augustine.
The flight to Paraguay was not to bad. The eight hour layover in Sao Paulo
airport was tedious, but uneventful. So finally after 22 hours of travel I
land in the smallest airport I have ever seen. There was only one runway and
no gates. When I stepped out onto the tarmac, I saw my host family and
Rotarians up in the airport with a huge sign with my name on it.
My first night in Paraguay there was a big barbecue at my new house with
family and friends. The food here is so good! I don't know what they do to
there cows, but it is absolutely amazing!!! All of the food I have tried
here is amazing, maybe because it is just so different. I'm glad that me and
my host father run a couple days a week otherwise I would gain so much
weight.
My host family is so nice they accepted me right away with open arms. I
share a room with my host brother, Santiago. He is 17 years old and he goes
to the same school as I do, it's nice having someone in your family around
your age, it gives you a friend from the start. My host sister Celia, is 20
years old and goes to the local university. She is very nice and is always
willing to talk and include me. My host mother and father are very nice and
patient and are always helping me with my Spanish. The last member of my new
family is one of my favorite, Alina she is a 4 year old dog and keeps me
company when everyone else is busy.
School is much different here than in the United States. First it starts at
7 am so I have to get up at 6 am! School is over at 12:40 for lunch so I can
come home and take a nap. The first week of school was interesting we were
setting up for a science festival that was to be held at the school, so not
much was accomplished academically. So next week I will get a better idea of
what my school year is going to be like.
First two weeks down ten months to go. I miss my friends and family at home,
but this is just the beginning of my amazing adventure in Ciudad Del Este.
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About
three months so far everything is going great!
In October I joined a local youth orchestra. Practice is on Tuesdays and
Thursdays and most weekends in October the Orchestra would travel around
Paraguay performing. Most of the music we play is typical Paraguayan music
and it is not too difficult so I was able to start traveling and performing
right away. I am so glad I joined the orchestra I get to perform, learn new
music, and travel. Everything I love in life.
For around twenty days in November I went on a trip to Patagonia. Patagonia
is the southern part of Argentina and is absolutely beautiful. During the
trip we went whale watching, trekking on a huge glacier, went to a penguin
preserve, and visited the southern most city in the world, Ushuaia. During
most of the trip we were traveling along the Andes mountains. It was the
beginning of summer and there was still snow on the mountains, the trip has
been the best part of exchange so far!
The Glacier we went to was the Ruptura Glaciar in Perito Moreno. It was
absolutely amazing the most beautiful place I have ever been. I have never
seen so much ice in one place. They put those cool spiky things on the
bottom of shoes and then we spent an hour or two walking around on the
glacier.
When we were in San Martin de los Andes a group of us decided to take a
plunge into the lake water, I don't think I have ever been colder the water
was absolutely freezing. We also went to a local theater to see Harry Potter
and even in Spanish Harry Potter is absolutely amazing!!!
It is summer here so no more school which is nice, I can sleep in, don't
have to wake up at 6 everyday. With the opposite seasons here it is weird
going through the holidays, it does not feel real. I help my mom set up the
Christmas tree while outside the temperature was in the 90's.
Life is back to normal now practicing and traveling with the orchestra
again. My host brother who has been going to a university in Argentina has
come home for summer break. I really like him, he plays the guitar so we
have a lot in common. The language is coming along everyday it is easier to
understand and communicate. Three months down seven to go!
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Well
looks like my summer break is up. I start school again next week first time
since the end of October. I am rather excited though; new school, new
friends, new experiences. My new school, from what I hear, is huge with a
lot of students, this is a change from the small private school I attended
when I first arrived to Paraguay. The summer was great though, November with
the trip to Patagonia, December I performed more times than I can remember
with the Itaipu Orchestra, and January I spent a lot of time getting to know
my first host family better.
In the beginning of February I went on a small trip around the southern part
of Paraguay. There was only five of us, four exchange students and one
local, but with there only being five Rotary youth exchange students in all
of Paraguay it was basically a trip for us exchange students. The most
interesting part of the trip was when we went to see the old Jesuit ruins,
it was so much fun to just walk around and explore the ruins. And that night
we went back to los ruinas de trinidad where they put on a light show. They
lit up the ruins in all different colors and put the whole thing to music it
was absolutely amazing. I think my favorite part of the trip though, was the
night when we stayed at the city near the Jesuit ruins. We were so far from
any large civilization that there was only a little ground light, because of
this the stars were out in abundance. I have never seen so many stars in my
life. I had know idea there were so many up there, it was one of the most
beautiful things I have ever seen.
I moved to my second host family last week with whom I will stay with until
my flight back to the US. I miss my first host family a lot, but I also
really like this family. New family, new house, new perspective. In January
the orchestra was not performing or practicing which was driving me crazy!!
But practice started back up in February with new music!! In fact everyday
last week we had practice and Thursday February 17th we performed on
Paraguayan TV!!
I knew going into this exchange with Ciudad del Este being on the border of
Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil I would be traveling a lot in and outside of
my host country, but I had know it was going to be this much. The music
professor of the Orchestra announced the other day that on the 9th of April
we are going on a trip through Brazil. We will be visiting Brasilia, Sao
Paulo and other cities! He also announced a possible trip to Buenos Aires in
the beginning of June! Those two trips, the trip to Patagonia, when my
family comes to visit and we spend a week in Peru, the trip in the southern
part of Paraguay, in May a possible trip for a week in the northern part of
Paraguay, and the numerous visits to the cities right in the border in
Brazil and Argentina. With all this by the end of my exchange year I feel I
will be well traveled in this part of the world.
Life is good now. I have been her for around six months looking back on it
now it does not even feel like half of that. I have four months left and
with how fast time seems to fly down here I doubt it is even going to feel
like one.
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Less than a month to go now. I have never known a year to
go by so fast. Well it looks like my travels are over for my exchange year.
Right when I was starting to feel
homesick my family decided to come and visit me out here in the middle of
know where, so I showed them around South America. We saw the falls, the
ruins, had asado with my two host families, flew up to Peru and visited
Machu Picchu and Cuzco. It was the best trip I have ever had, even though I
was terribly sick in Cuzco from the altitude. It was very nice seeing my mom
and sister, a nice pick me up to get threw the rest of the exchange year. I
think the best part of the trip though would have to be having the nice big
asado with my three families. Seeing my family from the US having a big meal
with my two Paraguayan families. People from two different worlds barely
understanding each other siting down laughing and enjoying each others
company. Then family members from all three families would turn to me to be
the mediator between the two cultures. That was the best night of my
exchange year, I don't think any dinner is ever going to top that one.
I just got back from a trip
to Montevideo, Uruguay with the orchestra. We followed the Paraguay
ambassador around for a week in celebration of the bicentenary anniversary
of Paraguay. I was rather disappointed I was not in town for Paraguay's 200th
year birthday party, but traveling to new and interesting places makes up
for it.
Everything is kinda winding down
here, it seems the most exciting parts of my year are over. Just school, a
couple of performances, and the journey home. I have gotten rather good at
this whole high school thing. I graduated from high school last year,
attended one high school in Ciudad del Este when I first got here until
summer break, and now I am in another this year until my flight home. So
that is three high schools and three senior “years”, I am kinda an expert.
Less than one month to go now.
Better make it last. |
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