[English] Youth Exchange Year

Again.. 懶惰病又來了！不過這次也不能怪我，我這幾天超忙的！首先要搬出我的舊的公寓，我已經清的超乾淨的還要被罰錢，死要錢的房東！接下來還幫了我同學克利斯清房子、搬家，累到爆！最糟的是縣再到了我同學家(因為十月就要離開Champaign了！所以暫住我同學家)，沒想到他的家那麼的髒，感覺就是陳年老屋，舊舊髒髒的，讓我聯想到咒怨的場景，所以又花了好多時間清廚房和房間，最後終於受不了，只好放棄浴室，上禮拜都是要學校體育館洗澡說…..=.=

-------------------------正式話題的分格線----------------------
Recently I found a lot of my friends that I’ve lost in contact for many years, mainly exchange student friends. Wow… I can’t believe it has been 5 years since my exchange year in 2001. I was only 16 years old at that time! It was kind of sad in a way because we shared such a special year together and we promised each other we would keep in touch. However, they have been out of my life for many years. I guess this is what time does to us. Even if we tried to stay in touch, if it’s not hard enough, eventually we became past tense, instead of present tense. But I don’t want things to be that way!!!! That’s why I feel so fortunately that I’ve found many of them back on Facebook. It’s great to see how everyone’s doing after all these years. Silvia from Hungary and Pablo from Bolivia got married and Pablo’s boy is so cute! Kathy from France is in Australia pursuing her chef dream and Kadri from Estonia is in Norway with her boyfriend! Victor from Brazil is going to law school and Mitsue is going to Taiwan again! Everyone’s doing great with their lives and I do believe one day we will all meet again! Mitsue in Taiwan is a start, eh? Hehe.. Hopefully I will be able to go to South America this fall!!! I miss all my exchange student friends!!!!

You know you are/were Rotary Exchange Student when
1. You ask for some type of food/snack/drink to be care packaged to you as your christmas present.
2. You have problems understanding people in your native language because you instinctively assume they're speaking your host language and listen for words in that language.
3. Back home, you watch lame documentaries on the History channel in the hopes of seeing your host country or hearing your host language.
4. You speak the wrong language every time you open your mouth for the first few days you are back home after the first few days of speaking the wrong language, you speak your own language with a strange accent.
5. You have at least five stories you could never tell your parents.
6. You always got out of punishment or being yelled at, or gotten out of school work because you didn't understand the language or pretended that you didn't.
7. You missed at least 2 months of school because of traveling or just because 'I don't feel like going today...'
8.You can sing all the Top 20 songs from your exchange year...even a year later....
9.You buy everything in sight with the name of the country you went to visit so when you go back people are bound to ask you about it.
10. You get letters and emails in a language that no one else can read.
11. You've have attempted to fit all your worldly possessions into 2 suitcases and a carry on. (And have succeeded, more than once!)
12. You cringe at the mention of 'baggage weight limit'.
13. You have 20 siblings and 8 parents.
14. You can describe in perfect detail every symptom of traveler's flu, but still travel anyways.
15. You can swear in 20 languages but only speak 2 or 3 fluently.
16. People mistake you for a local until you speak (sometimes even after)
17. You help tourists because you know where the nearest bank is, how much it costs to mail a letter, how to use the pay phone, what bus to take, local customs, etc.
18. You're so used to another culture and language that your home country is a distant memory. 19. You crave food that would make most people where you're living go 'ughh....' (Whether you're abroad or back 'home')
20. When you get together with other students, the only stories you tell are the ones that rotary does not need to hear.
21. It becomes habit to introduce yourself by saying 'I am from (country) and my name is (name)
22. You look forward to the Rotary meetings for the food, but dread going for all the boredom that will follow.
23. You can't imagine what life will be like without all the wonderful things you have experienced and friends you have made in your new country.
24. While other, non-exchange people are amazed by how many pins you have, you insist that you have very few and won't be satisfied till you've at least doubled the number.
25. You find that speaking in your native language becomes strangely difficult and you forget words that you have known almost your whole life.
26. You've got friends on more than two continents.
27. When you call home your family is convinced you are getting stupid because you can't speak your own language.
28. You can't say your host family's phone number in your native language, only in your host country's language.
29. You are reading this list and find it hilarious, though people around you reading it say 'I don't get it.'


tag: 交換學生, 扶輪社, 高中交換, 小留學生, Rotary