Leo Canizares

2012-13 Outbound to Japan

Hometown: Boca Raton, FL

School: Olympic Heights High School

Sponsor: District 6930, FL

Host: District 2610, Japan ,

Leo's Bio

Hey! My name is Leonardo Canizares but most just call me Leo. I'm sixteen years old at the moment and am currently a junior at Olympic Heights High School. I live in West Boca with both of my parents Nestor and Elizabeth Canizares, along with my twelve year-old sister Valeria and my dog Simba. I've recently switched schools to Olympic Heights High School this year and due to this I haven't gotten into many clubs yet, but I intend to change this once I know my way around the school a bit more. When I get a chance, I would like to join some sort of robotics or computer science club. After school I normally head directly home, do my homework and if I have time, play a video game or do some programming. I like to hang out with friends in my free time at the movies, but we mostly go to each other’s houses. I play soccer in a SABR (Soccer Association of Boca Raton) team and have bass practice once every two weeks. I also play the piano in my free time. I’ve been playing the piano for about 3 years and practice whenever I can. My favorite songs I play are scores from popular video games. Over long weekends or holiday breaks my family and I like to go camping. We used to go camping with a YMCA group when I was younger, but more recently have gone with family friends instead.

I want to become an exchange student for a couple of reasons. I’ve always liked going to new places and learning about new things. I did a short term exchange to France over the last summer. It was a great experience and the trip helped me decide that I wanted to do this for a longer period of time. I like seeing what the world is like from a different perspective and what the culture and the customs are. Becoming an exchange student will allow me to travel abroad and learn what it’s like from that corner of the world. This coming year when I leave to Japan, I want to learn the language and hopefully become fluent in Japanese, as well as learn about their culture and their lifestyle and be a part of it. I am thankful to the rotary club for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime by making this trip possible. I’m sure this year will be an amazing growing experience for me and will teach me many things in life that aren’t taught in a classroom.

Leo- Outbound to Japan

January 16, 2013

I have been in Japan and so far my exchange seems to be going fine. Getting off the plane I felt there was a different atmosphere here and at the time everything felt so foreign and different. I was excited for what was to come. I met my first host family after baggage claim and we greeted each other with some broken Japanese on my part, some English on their part and a series of awkward silences and smiles since neither of us could really communicate too well but we could still convey how excited we were. A while later I arrived at my host home which was a comparatively large house surrounded by narrow streets and other homes and buildings pressed against each other. Surprisingly my host home stood off on its own and didn't seem to be crammed against any other buildings. I had been exhausted from the long trip and decided to relax in my room for a while after I had become familiar with the house. Later that day my host family and I went over house rules and things like curfews and such over dinner. There was a week from the time I had arrived to Japan and the time school started for me and during that week I walked around streets and explored. It was really strange to see so many things so close together with the buildings built side by side and the narrow streets that would eventually lead to main roads. I guess this was partially due to being unfamiliar with cityscape and also the manner in which structures are built in Japan: as small and efficient as possible to have room for other things. Compact architecture aside there were other differences like what side of the road cars drove on and all the signs I wasn't able to read.

Near the end of that week my host dad and I biked to my high school so I would know where to go but I was a bit overwhelmed constantly looking in any direction and seeing something different. Needless to say I almost got lost on my way back on the first day of school. School life was alright and my classmates were all excited to see a new face. Everyone wears a uniform and even though I was expecting this it was still a strange sight for the first few days. I joined the kendo club and at first it didn't seem to be anything too extreme. A week or two after I had started school and the excitement of having an exchange student at the school had died down I had developed a routine. Go to school, go to kendo practice after, bike home and so on. Kendo practice had felt like it had become more excessive after about a month but I still went.

During some weekends my host family would take me sight seeing to a waterfall in the mountains 1 hour away or so. It was great and I loved getting to see more of the area especially outside of the city. I am still always amazed at the mountains every time I go by or through them. Seeing something so breathtaking and massive and knowing that there was none of that in Florida made we wonder what other things were hidden in the corners of the world that so many have yet to see.

At the time my Japanese was very basic and even still I struggle with it. This schism in communication did not negatively impact me as much as I thought it would have but it was and is very inconvenient. There were times when trying to comment about something that happened that day with my host family was more difficult than it should have been but this never seemed to bother either of us too much. At the end we would put our efforts to make each other understood.

In the second half of the fall, the rainy season had started and every day was getting just a bit colder and the sky was always dark and or pouring rain. At first this was somehow very disheartening for no reason other than it just appeared to be a gloomy day. I quickly got over this dip of emotion and after the dark skies and rainy bikes home didn't seem to bother me as much. So far aside from feeling a bit down due to stormy weather is the worst if felt on the exchange and I feel that its going pretty well.

Of course I will be constantly trying to improve my poor Japanese as my knowledge of the language seems to never be enough for any conversation that deviates from basics. If any part of this exchange isn't going smoothly its my Japanese which I will be working on.