Ashley Paz Martinez

2012-13 Outbound to Turkey

Hometown: Clermont, FL

School: East Ridge High School

Sponsor: District 6980, FL

Host: District TBA, Turkey

Ashley's Bio

I'm going to TURKEY!!! Woohoo! Merhaba! I am Ashley Paz, 17 years old and currently living in Florida with my eldest sister who is 28 years old, married and has an adorable baby boy. My mom is also living with us and helping my sister out with the baby, I do too when I’m not busy with school work. My other sister is living in Puerto Rico, studying medicine and she's 25 years old, I am the youngest of three sisters. We are all vegetarian and proud of it! We love all sorts of food, including Turkish. I LOVE baklava! I was born and raised in Puerto Rico for 15 years of my life, so yes, I do know Spanish. Most of my close family is from or living over there. I usually visit them at least twice a year. I was raised in a divorced family and I used to visit or be visited by my dad each Sunday to hang out in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico. Even though my parents are divorced they still have a good friendship. When I was in Puerto Rico I mostly lived in the country side, up in the mountains and played with my cousins all the time in a river near our houses, which has a water fall. I was originally home-schooled when I was little but then in 3rd grade I started public school. By then my two sisters were in the university in San Juan. When I was about 13 years old my mom and I moved to the southwest of the island. I went to a Private Christian Academy during that time. Two years later we moved back to my original home. A year passed and I wanted to move to Florida where my eldest sister was living with her husband. She was totally for it and my parents and I decided to make me go to a Christian boarding school in Apopka called Forest Lake Academy. I loved it there, it was a blast. The following year the academy got a bit too expensive for us so I had to make a decision whether or not to leave; my parents knew how much I loved it there. Of course, I didn't want my parents to have such a hard budget and decided to completely live with my sister. Now I go to East Ridge High School. I didn't expect much at first but I was wrong. All the teachers have been kind and I've learned a lot of new things, such as French. I've made many friends and positive experiences. I love to draw, so once I graduate from high school I hope that I can learn about Animation, Graphic design, 3D illustrations and all that awesome stuff that they make in Disney, Pixar, DreamWorks, etc. My art style is mainly Anime, which are Japanese cartoons, but recently I’ve been trying to change my style because I don’t want to limit myself. I usually draw on my sketchbooks at school when I have time but I have been recently drawing on my iPad and playing around with Photoshop. Drawing is not my only passion/hobby, I also love to play with or build puzzles. When I was little, I would play Legos with my cousins every day, and now I am collecting 3D puzzles.

I found out about RYE at East Ridge in my French class. Once I heard “foreign exchange” I was super excited! I mentioned it to my mom, she was very enthusiastic, my dad took a bit longer to convince. At the end I was a able to apply and now I'm going to Turkey! A beautiful country between the Western countries and the Eastern countries which a rich history and fascinating culture. I can't wait to meet my host families! And experience how the schools work over there. I've been to Turkish restaurants and I really like the food, I bet that when I get there I'll like it even more! Rotary Kulübü çok teşekkür ederiz! (Thank very much Rotary Club!)

Ashley- Outbound to Turkey