2024-25, Mikaela outbound for Brazil

It’s hard to believe this time a year ago I didn’t even know I was going to apply for the RYE exchange program let alone actually be an exchange student. Now a short while away from my departure everything feels so surreal. Throughout my whole process I have faced many setbacks but I have not let any of them hold me back. It’s important to not let anything stop you from doing what you know you want to do.

In my sophomore year of highschool 2 previous outbounds from district 6970 came and gave a presentation to every student who was taking a language class. This is what first drew my attention towards being an exchange student. However, at the time my parents wouldn’t allow me to sign up as in their eyes I was too young (this is different for every family, don’t give up just because of your age it never hurts to ask your family or proceed with the application. The Rotex and Rotarians have a good sense of who is ready for all that entails when being an exchange student. They are not going to put you through if they cannot tell you are ready or could be ready by the time you leave). It wasn’t until this last year, my junior year when Cassie came and gave her own presentation did I really take the opportunity to be an exchange student seriously. I managed to convince my parents to let me apply and a couple months later I received a call from Cassie telling me to add suitcases to my christmas list as I was accepted. I was SO incredibly excited as this was a life-changing moment in my life, I was literally crying tears of joy. Previously I had been having doubts about being accepted after what I thought was a terrible interview. However, it didn’t matter if I did badly on some parts of the interview, they could tell that I had what it took to be an exchange student and a good ambassador.

As mentioned previously I have had many setbacks throughout my whole exchange process. Around January time I received news about ESSEX and their requirements for exchange students. As this was D 6970’s first year with ESSEX they had never dealt with them before and so some new things were being required that my family did not agree with (I will not be going into this as it is controversial and besides the point 🙂 ). This led me to believe that I wasn’t going to be an exchange student anymore….I cried. Luckily with the help of my step mom and the wonderful Rotarians I received a pardon from Essex and was finally able to receive a placement. A month after the other outbounds found out their placements, I finally found out I was going to Brazil. So let’s take a step back a second. On the day of interviews I knew four out of the five countries you could pick that I would like to go to…I didn’t submit my country form prior to interviews don’t be like me. Anyways, on the day of interviews I showed up almost late because I went to the wrong building… But I met an inbound from Brazil. She was telling me all about it and I thought well I don’t have a 5th country picked and I had thought about Brazil before so I decided to add it to my country list at number 3. At that time my whole motto was “If it was meant to happen it will happen”. I stuck with that my whole application process. I never would have guessed that I would actually be going to Brazil. But now that I have the chance I am more than excited. Back to what I was previously talking about, I like many other outbounds was having paperwork trouble, thus including getting the paperwork, getting everything filled out properly, and waiting an antagonizing long time for my paperwork to get an apostille. I have also had to visit the consulate in Miami twice. The whole process is a stressful and anxiety filled time period, but it’s all worth it once everything is done and you are finally on your way to your host country.

None of this is meant to scare anyone away from applying to become an exchange student. I personally just want to be transparent about everything I have gone through so when making your own decision you can have more of an idea of all that it takes and the hurdles that could be thrown at you during this process. I’m sharing all of this so you can understand that anything can happen and you need to expect the unexpected.

Now let’s get more into my exchange and where I will be staying. My host district is 4571 based out of the city of Rio de Janeiro, however many exchange students including myself live in towns in the state of São Paulo. My host city is Caraguatatuba, a small town on the coast. I will be staying with grandparents whose granddaughter is on exchange in Germany. While staying with them I will be staying in her room. They have 2 dogs.. My host sister is the only one out of my host family who speaks english so in the beginning she was the only one I communicated with. Though we still communicate now, I have mostly been messaging my host grandma to organize the last few pieces of my exchange and ask any questions I may have. This is a good chance to practice forming sentences in Portuguese, however I do still use Google translate or a Portuguese app for some things. My host grandparents are incredibly nice and I can’t wait to meet them in person and I know they feel the same.

Now my departure is fast approaching and no matter what I do I never feel prepared or ready for what is to come. Honestly I think it’s crazy that I should have left almost 2 months ago, but 2 months ago for some reason I felt more prepared than I do right now.

Update: That was all written over a week ago and now as I get ready to submit this..finally, I am in Brazil! My flight from Gainesville left on September 14th and I landed Yesterday, September 15th around 9am. Today was my first day of school in Brazil. One thing I need to say about it is that everyone is so welcoming and nice. Despite the language barrier we still found ways to communicate and towards the end of the day (at their club time) I was surrounded by students asking questions about myself and Florida. We used the little Portuguese I knew/remembered (Once I arrived in Brazil it was like all the language I knew flew out the window) hand gestures, (don’t hate me Rotary) Google Translate, and there were some students who could speak a little English that helped at times when it was needed. Brazilians are very welcoming people and I got to experience that today. However, I know it’s not going to last long as they will lose interest but I can already tell who really wants to be my friend. I am already making plans with friends to go shopping, to the beach, have a girls night/sleepover and more. And despite a hectic first day in Brazil where I felt like I couldn’t understand anything and felt helpless, it ended on a good note with my host grandma, my host grandma’s granddaughter (I think) and me laughing on the couch over crazy Brazilian costume ideas for my upcoming inbound weekend. You don’t know something so small can change your day until it happens. That moment changed my whole feel of the whole day and sent me to sleep happy.

Anyways, thanks everyone for reading my pre-departure/arrival yap session. I’m going to try and update yall regularly and treat you like a blog/diary. Tchau for now!