Anna-Karin Stenstrand 
I have just returned to work after three weeks of vacation, back into
old routines again. During the vacation I spent one week at my parents country cottage. Per and I spent a few days at an Island east of
Sweden and then another couple of days in Malmo and Copenhagen. We really enjoyed ourselves and the wetter was more or less sunny the
hole time.
The wetter is still really nice and warm so we try to activate ourselves during the evenings. Last night we visited Per's aunt and uncle at their summer house. The house is situated in a nice spot right next to the water. We did some barbecuing and we tried fishing. Per's brother Daniel caught two fish, he threw one back into the lake because it was so small.
Tonight we are going to plan a hen party. It is a friend of mine who is getting married at the end of August. We will have to figure out some fun things to do with her.
Bye for now!
Anna Stenstrand
SARACH HOMSANIT was our incoming International Exchange student for 1999/2000. Sarach's
father and mother are business people from Thailand and run a tamarind factory. [Tamarind
is a a tropical leguminous tree, the bark and pods of which are used for medicines,
cooling drinks etc.], Garry Webb was Sarach's counsellor for the year.
Sarach's birthday is 17 November. He was a student at the International School of The
Regent, located in Pattaya. His religion is Buddhist. Sarach's home is located in Lomkao
district, Phetchaboon province, which is situated in the
upper central region of Thailand. The population is approximately 70,000.
Sarach loves playing basketball and drawing pictures such as cartoons,
scenery, letter-designing.
He was a student at Knox. His subjects at school were Maths, Science, History, Geography, Thai langauge, Drama, Music, Computing, Physical
Education and English. His school principal describe him as a friendly, polite, and reliable young man who would certainly be a good ambassador for his
country.
In response to being asked the four major issues confronting the world today Sarach
lists: CFC in air; women's liberty in the world; the Asian economy; and nuclear
experiments.
Sarach is an interesting and intelligent young man. He was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Lomsak in District 3350. District
3350 endorsed 36 students in that year, about the same as District 9680.
From Liz Cambourn By e-mail to Ian Cameron:;
Dear Mr Cameron and Wahroonga Rotarians, I have been very busy at this end of the world so I thought I would catch up and let you know what has been happening.
I am still getting along really well with my host family and I have made quite a lot of friends at school. Everyone is still very welcoming and I can't walk down the hall at school and not have someone say hello to me. I haven't lost the Aussie accent yet and I really hope I don't because everybody thinks, My, it's fantastic!
I was at the District 7040 outbound briefing weekend last weekend. It went for 3 days, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and I had a fantastic time. All the inbounds and outbounds were there and we all got along like a house on fire. Most of the in bounds have been here since hafway through last year, and there are only 3 of us who came in January, me, Michael, from New Zealand, and ulia from Brazil.
We have only met up with the others twice now, but we have already been accepted into the group.
I now know what is happening with my host families. I will be moving at the end of April to my next family who live about half an hour out of Smiths Falls. I have already been out with them a couple of times and they are really nice. They have a daughter, Adia, who rides, and they have been nice enough to find a horse for me to ride when I move in with them. I have been on a few outings since I last wrote to you. I have been ski-ing twice, once with the president of the Rotary Club and once with the school. I also went into Ottawa for a weekend which was organised by the Rotex students.
We were in Ottawa for the Winterlude festival, so we saw ice sculptures and snow sculptures and went skating on the Rideau Canal. I managed to skate the whole 8km without falling over, so I was very stiff but very pleased with myself. The winter is very much over now. All the snow is gone, and the temperature is over zero degrees every day. I think I have definitely adapted to the colder climate as I can now go outside without a coat in 2 degrees Celsius and not be cold! Unfortunately I have run out of time, but you will be hearing from me again very soon.
Thankyou again for sending me here, I am having the most wonderful time.
From Liz Cambourn
The news from Smiths Falls.
Here is a summary of the e-mail sent from Megan Long to Margaret Small from her university.
I have been a very busy girl since I've been home. I only have seven more days of classes
of my first year of uni, then exams. It has been fun and gone very quickly.
I have a B+ average (GPA 3.5-3.7), which I am happy with. I am also very happy that I have
finally decided what I really want to do.
Next year I wll be entering the elementary education program, something I've always wanted
to do, just didn't realise it. It makes me excited to know what I will be doing, and to be
looking forward to it.
Returning home wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated. I think I was much more afraid of
leaving Australia and all the wonderful people I'd met than of returning home. It was
great to see all my family and friends again. I had a really close group of friends in
high school, and we basically picked up where we left off. Apparently some people don't
have anything in common with their friends when they return.
But I was a bit different. I didn't like to talk about my exchange much when I first
returned, and didn't look at my pictures for at last a month (but now they are all neatly
organised into four photo albums) because it was special time and place and I didn't want
to share it with anyone.
But now, even still, don't get me started on it, and I think sometimes people do get
annoyed with the little side comments, "this reminds me of . . ." and so on.
I know it will be horrible when I watch the Olympics on TV. ("I've been there!")
But I still miss Sydney and everyone everyday.
I just had a quiet summer in the Pas I am returning there this summer and I have a
fulltime job as a summer youth employment service officer.
I will be doing a lot of promotional stuff for the centre and organising a lot of
recreational activities.
I also have a boyfriend (proof that life does go on after exchange) who lives in The Pas,
so I'm doing the long-distance thing right now, which is OK because I have a lot more time
to concentrate on school and he comes down to visit a lot, but it will be really nice to
be able to spend the summer together. His name is John and he's a super sweet nice guy,
very big on his sports. We are planning a road trip to Vancouver for two weeks this summer
in August before I start uni again.
You must send my love to the club and my apologies for not writing (consider that done).
Megan has also sent a letter to Jim Mein who was her counsellor while with us. Some of it::
I'm enjoying the summer and looking forward to my holidays. My boyfriend and I are driving
out to Vancouver at the end of August for two weeks, then I go back to university again in
the middle of September. As I was happy to be done (with university) in April, I am
beginning to look forward to going back.
I have decided to go into Education (Early Years) for sure and major in geography, minor
in English.
I am really enjoying my summer job and will likely keep it next summer as well. Basically
I am finding kids jobs. We also do a lot of resume cover letter, job hunting, and
interview workshops and a lot of marketing of the office.
I really like it.
I still miss you like crazy and sorry I am such a horrible correspondent.
Megan
Santiago
finds his feet in Kanazawa City, Japa
Exchange student in Japan, Santiago
Mateos, has e-mailed his monthly
report.
8th August 2001
Host club: Kanazawa Minato , district 2610
Host Councillor: Hiroyuki Hayakawa
Present Host Family: Yuuichi Nishino
Activities since last report:
Rotary meetings:
I had my rotary meeting for September at the beginning of the
month, and I mentioned before that i received a nice judo kit as a birthday
present from the club. I also attended a rotary meeting in Shinminato as we
had a big exchange student gathering, homestay weekend to celebrate the
Shinminato festival. We all had to make brief self introductions, and some
of us who remembered exchanged banners, then, we were all presented with
HAPPI`s, which are traditional clothes you wear to festivals. My homestay
family was really nice, especially the 90 year old grandparents, but my
host father for the two days was great too, and he was the past president
of the club. I also have to prepare soon for my big 30 minute rotary speech
at my club which is scheduled for November 13th.
Public Speaking:
Akio Kitagawa, the youth exchange district chairman, asked me to
speak at a primary school in the country, about an hour away from my city.
The school had asked rotary to recommend a foreign student, to talk to a
class about international awareness, and so to cut a long story short, I
talked a little about life in Australia, and they also asked me questions
about my birthcountry of Mexico, and Hong Kong, where i lived for 3 to 4
years. I showed slides, lots of Australiana items, ( which they loved) ,
answered questions , and they also showed me traditional Japanese games,
and they even put on a bit of a musical performance for me in the class
room. There were two journalists there the whole time taking photos and
stuff, so the following day i got in two papers. I have also been on
cable TV for being involved in another primary school fair/cultural day,
and in my school paper, and all of us exchange students made the city news
when we danced in the Kanazawa festival. Most of that has happened
recently, so for someone who has never been in the newspaper before, it is
all kind of special. An ego trip if you like. ha-ha. The speech/
presentations lasted for about two hours, which was followed by lunch in
the school cafeteria with hundreds of curious primary schoolers. I handed
the headmaster a jar of vegemite, which was promptly shared with every
single kid, and as there was no bread, they sort of applied a little blob
of the Aussie favourite on their rice. I took some interesting photos
of their reactions£®When i left the school, the class i was involved with
ran alongside the car i was in, the whole way down the hill, waving
goodbye to me, and until my host mum sped off back to Kanazawa. A very
rewarding experience. Plus, before and after the speech, I got a bunch of
twenty cards to invite.
Sporting Activities:
I am only really doing judo at the moment, but i am making progress and
enjoying myself at the same time. I have injured some joints and cut
myself here and there at times, but unlike most of the other kids in the
club, no broken bones yet or knockouts.
I am really enjoying PE lessons at school as well, as we have a double
period softball/basketball session on Saturday mornings, which takes the
drag out of being at school on a Saturday. It is such a good way to make
friends and have fun at the same time.
Contact with other Rotary Exchange Students:
There have been a lot of school festivals on lately, and hence the
exchange students in this district have been inviting each other to see
their own schools and check out what there is on offer. We have actually
seen a lot of each other because of this, but we have all enjoyed ourselves
and have no qualms with doing this sort of thing every once in a
while.
There have also been some birthdays lately, including mine, which have
sort of led to some quiet get togethers to say happy birthday etc.
Social:
My host brother came back from Tokyo for a short period, so i went out a
bit with him and his friends, including one day where my host parents let
me skip school so i could go with him and a bunch of his mates to an
entertainment park. Don't worry though, I have a very impressive record of
only about two missed school days to date, no sick days either.
I have been out with the host sister I had in my last host family, as she
was back from her Tokyo university too, so that called for a big karaoke
get together with her friends.
My counsellor asked me and some of the other exchange students over for
lunch the other day, and she gave us an English version tour around the
Kenrokuen park, which was good. One of her students, who is a daughter of a
fellow Rotarian, has become a good friend of mine, so i went out with her
too while she was, wait for it, visiting Kanazawa while she had a holiday
from her university, also in Tokyo, too. I went to see a high school
baseball game with her, and some other exchange students who she knows
too.( One is her host sister)
Language Proficiency: ok
School: I also had my school festival this month, and i was surprised to see
that I am still a novelty to some. My class` stall sold out first, and as
strange as it might sound, it mainly revolved around the fact that my job
that day was to round up customers to entice them to buy our fried chicken.
There are still many faces I haven't really had the opportunity to see
before, which is a shock, this far into my exchange...but i still have many
friends, even though I wouldn't call any of them best friends... I had to
sing, as part of the school festival, with the other new rotary exchange
student, karaoke, in front of the whole school which made me a little
nervous, but it turned out alright. Part of the exchange experience.
Oh, and my calligraphy that i did was put in the school fair, as well as at
the international lounge's fair.
Any Problems?: Nope.
How's your Relationship with your Host Family:
All is well, having a great time. They have taken me to their holiday house
again( we went octopus fishing this time...I mowed their front lawn with my
host brother too), and they have offered to show my mum and I around
when we she arrives, as well as an invitation to stay in their holiday house, the two of us for as long as we want.... which we have gratefully
accepted.
Gotta run, but thankyou all for everything, and hope everything is going
well back home.
Regards,
Santiago.
My
background:
I am Ludwig Gelot, I come from France and I am 16. I will be 17 on 13th March 2002. I live in a small village with 2,500 habitants, named Barby. It is located in the outskirts of Chambery, a town with 56,000 inhabitants. Chambery is located in the Alps, near Albertville a town that hosted the winter Olympics Games in 1994; It is in the south eastern part of France and is also near Lyon and Chamonix a very famous ski resort.
Studies:
I finished school last year. I have done a scientific baccalaureate with a biology specialty. I study science, which should be enable me to do what I would like. Contrary to Australian students, in France, we are obliged to study 8 subjects (history, geography, French or philosophy, math, physics, biology, chemistry, English (and Spanish in option)). We have six to eight hours every day. We begin at 8 o’clock and we finished at 5.30 .I go to school with my motorbike or by bus. When I come back from school, in my last year, I did an average of 2 hours of homework each night.
Normally, in France, the age to finish school is 18 but I am two years ahead.
Hobbies:
On the weekend or during the holydays, I used to play network computer games with my friends. I spent about 15 hours a week on my personal computer which I bought with the money I earned during summer work. Sometimes, we organized two or three days of network games without any breaks and during two or three days, we used to play together. But very often, there were some computer’s problems so now, I have a good knowledge about it.
Otherwise, I help my parents doing various tasks like cooking meals dressing the table, gardening, DIY and taking care of the pets (geese, chickens, dog, cats, ferret…).
Before sleeping I read a lot of books, some novels and some political books.
My favorites novels authors are Bernard Werber and Paolo Coelho.
My
family:
I have one sister who is 18. She finished school last year, like me. In October, she will begin to study the circus arts in Chambery, to the university. Like me, she passed a scientific baccalaureat but she studied more languages: English, Spanish, and German.
My father had three different jobs; he was sport teacher, computer scientist, baker and in few month he will work with my mother.
My mother is currently setting up a company to sell plant based dietary products; and with my father they will set up a restaurant beside my mother’s shop.
My family life is very important, we go hiking in the mountains, we play parlor games, we organize
My
future and me:
Later I would like to be involved in politics (diplomat, state secretary…). In order to do so I would like to graduate from the “ecole des sciences politiques” in Grenoble. I would like to achieve this because I think it is the only way to exploit my own ideas and to contribute to the society evolution. In order to become a politician, I keep myself informed about all the different events in the world and particularly by the way of the Internet. Also I read a lot of books about politics.
I wanted to go abroad for one year in order to be fluent in English; this would greatly help me for my studies and for my future job. Furthermore, I think, English is the language of the future so I could work in an English speaking country after my studies.
A strong will is one of my strong points, “if I want I can”. I have been able to buy a computer and a motor bike with some money I earned because I really wanted them. My other qualities are a good sense of humor, a sense of responsibility, team spirit and, importantly, intellectual capacities. Physically, I can stand very well long effort.
My main defect is a very strong sense of uncompromising.
Abroad experiences:
I have already been abroad several times. My first trip was in Madagascar, with my parents and my sister when I was 9. The aim of the trip was to discover the country and the local culture; it is why the local habitants hosted us.
I have also visited other European countries (Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Holland, Spain, Greece…). My last trip was in England, a year ago. Some friends of my parents accommodated me; and I stayed two weeks.
The difference between Australia and Europe is the distance to drive in order to go in another country. For example, if I drive three hours in France, I can be in Italy or elsewhere whereas if you drive for 5 hours in Australia, you stay in the same state. It is more difficult to go abroad for the Australians because they are obliged to take the plane.
Problems
in my area:
The problems the young have to face are : drugs, violence, the lack of social landmark and irresponsibility.
The lack of social landmark seems to me the worst of those problems. More and more young people have to face their parents parting or divorce. Besides, the parental authority is disappearing (both parents work, grand-parents are not available…). The young are left on their own and fall in violence and drugs. The unemployment makes things worse because the parents themselves are upset. It is important to solve those problems because the society cannot change if a large part of it is left aside without help and support. The political vision is mainly based on economical short-term views without taking into account the human factor.
What
I think about Australia:
I arrived only 2 months ago so it can be false and my opinion can change but I think it seems pretty true.
My first host family is Mr. and Mrs. Giacometti I stay with them since the 1st of August. I go to Knox Grammar School in Wahroonga. It is a pretty good school and there are a lot of activities to practice. At the beginning, students were distant from me but after one month, I had a lot of friends.
I have chosen to go in Australia because I wanted to go in an Anglophile country. I don’t like to much the arrogance of the culture in the USA, I didn’t want to go in South Africa; Australia was a very good compromise. My impressions about Australia are very positive. I believe Australians are very friendly and they know how to host the foreign persons. French are unable to do as good as the Australians.
Moreover, the atmosphere is very relaxed, people are not stressed as in Paris, people help the persons who are lost in the streets…On the other hand, the nationalism is very developed (Australian flag in the garden, products 100% Australian…) and it is very surprising the first time you see that.
Another good point is about your bush, the sounds are very pleasant, it is possible to see a lot of birds, a lot of animals…it is cool to walk in the bush.
The worst side of Australia is the food. In all products, there is a lot of sugar and it isn’t very tasty. Fortunately, my host families are great cooks and it is possible to eat a lot of different food like Thai food or Chinese food. Furthermore, it isn’t very common in France so it is a real pleasure. |
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Dominic Brettell is our exchange student, now in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Dominic lives in Lane Cove, but because his local Rotary club could not help send him there., Wahroonga took over. In 2002, Dominic finished his Higher School Certificate studies at St Ignatius College, Riverview, which he had been attending since 1999. Previously he had lived in Wagga Wagga. He told our club that ever since his older brother Daniel came back in 1993 from being an exchange student, “raving” about his experience, Dominic had wanted to go. “I want to live with another family,” he said. “I want a challenge. The exchange allows you to become independent, but it’s also there as a helping hand.” At Riverview, he played basketball, rugby and Australian Rules, and to improve his contacts in Brazil, he took up soccer too. He enjoys drama, and has been in around eight productions at Riverview, as well as helping make an amateur film in Newcastle. His studies included maths and English, economics, geography, drama, business studies and religion
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Our exchange student Ylva Rantfors, from Lerum, in Sweden, arrived with us on July 13, 2006 and is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Lerum, District 2360.
Ylva’s has lost her father. Her mother, Kajsa, is a landscape architect, and she has an older brother, Oskar, aged 25, who is studying economics and technics at university, and a sister Karolina, studying industrial technical design at Gothenburg’s University.
Her high school report says she passed all subjects with MVG, or Pass with special distinction. She is currently studying Industrial Design at a polytechnic, and wants to be an interior designer.
Here, she will be attending Abbotsleigh. Here’s a tip – if you take her out to dinner, note that she is a vegetarian – she eats some fish and seafoods, and eggs and milk products but NO meat.
“A big part of my life goes to my dancing,” she wrote in her application. “I have tested several styles such as ballet, funk, hip hop, break-dancing and modern dance. Now I’m in a dance group. We meet three times a week for one and a half hours and we dance ballet, funk, show dance, and a little acrobatic. We put shows together and perform at festivals, football matches and other sports events.”
Ylva says she helps with dance classes with kids. “One of my dreams is to have my own classes and teach the children how much fun it is in dancing”
Ylva says she loves everything to do with interior design – “when I was little I constantly changed the furniture in my room. I like this with colours and shapes.”
Ylva and her mother visited Australia four years ago for three weeks, travelling in Queensland, the outback, diving on the Barrier Reef, and visiting Sydney – Opera House, restaurants, Bondi Beach and shopping. She has also visited with her family France, Greece, the Netherlands, the US and Spain, China and Singapore.