To my first blog I have written in my life:
First, hello, my name is Elinor Kaplan. I live in Jacksonville, Florida, and I recently turned 17. I graduated early from Douglas Anderson School of the Arts to participate in Rotary’s 2024-25 exchange program. My exchange is to Mataró, Spain—a city with a population just under 150,000, located on the Mediterranean coast, and only a 30-minute train ride north of Barcelona. Honestly, it was my dream destination, but getting here was a crazy stretch, more than I could have ever imagined and the exchange hadn’t even started.
The process of preparing for has been long, hectic, and fast-paced. Between securing the visa, saying goodbye to friends, and getting everything else in order before leaving the country, it’s been a whirlwind. But now, with only one full day left, I can finally let myself get excited.
Reflecting back, this entire year has felt chaotic. This year was already going to be stressful with my packed junior/senior schedule making the most chaotic and stressful AP season I’ve had. On top of that, to have a chance to go on exchange the only route really was to graduate early, I had to resort to finishing two full year courses in just a week. This ended up being 9-13 hour days, all to be able to walk across the stage and be handed my diploma. It has felt like I’ve been in a constant sprint—crossing one finish line only to be thrown into another 50-yard dash.
Even after receiving my diploma, the visa process took at least 50 hours of gathering legal documents, midnight drives to CVS for a passport photo, what seemed like hundreds of emails and hours on the phone, and two separate trips to Miami, totaling 24 hours of driving. I can’t take credit for most of the legal stuff—my persistent and wonderful mother fought the uphill battle of getting me on the plane on time. While I was at a seminar, she was running all over the city getting xyz documents approved etc. And after all that, my visa was denied due to a little signature confusion…. Fortunately, panic didn’t last long as it was a reasonably simple fix but it was just another little thing that shook us up right when we thought we were out of the clear.
With just a month left after that, I still had to learn Spanish and prepare for the SAT. My days quickly turned into virtually living in my local café, grinding out college applications, SAT prep, and Spanish study. But the three weeks flew by, and I’m feeling just a littlee less terrified to leave. I’m excited, of course, but I haven’t fully wrapped my head around the fact that the next time I’ll be sleeping in my bed will be 10 months from now.
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if anyone in the future is reading this who is considering or just beginning their exchange process… be prepared for anything. There are sacrifices you’ll have to make, but it’s going to work out in the end. For me, there were so many times I seriously questioned if it was ever going to end or if was really going to be worth it after so much work but looking back it was just my first hurdle.
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As for the exchange itself, my host district is 2202- consisting of basically the northeast quarter of spain. Shortly after finding this out in July or so, my first host family reached out to set up a video call. The host mom and her daughter are unbelievably sweet. The daughter, Carla, is 11 years old, she has a pet bunny and just seemed so bubbly. There’s an older daughter too who’s room I’m going to be staying in but she’s currently doing an exchange to Canada, which is pretty cool; it’s really full circle.. and I’m so excited to meet them. Oh, and one thing that’s pretty cool is that their home is just a 10-minute walk to the beach and the city square. I’m getting in about five days before school starts, so hopefully, I’ll have chance to spend a lot of time there.
Honestly, the fact that I’m leaving tomorrow hasn’t really hit me yet. I feel mentally prepared for the culture shock since I’ve had similar experiences before, but I don’t think I’ll ever fully be ready for school there. It’s not the academic part that worries me, its more the language. I’ve worked hard this past month to cram as much Spanish as I can, but with everything moving so fast, I know it’ll be a challenge to understand and integrate fully.
But at this point, with the date so close, all I can do is wait and enjoy the last moments I have with the people I love. As my last note, I want to say I am so grateful for everyone who has made this possible, thank you to my friends for supporting me, to my sponsoring Jacksonville club, to everyone in the 6970 district, to everyone in my host district, and of course thank you to my family.