Small World

I just got back from my March Break trip with my dad, step-mom, and step-brother in Las Vegas, Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park. We're kinda outdoor nerds so we spent our break looking at rocks, literally! I enjoyed it, I'm so amazed by how little you can feel compared to these huge rock formations in front of you. But my dad kept on telling me "This will be nothing compared to the Andes in Chile!" Ahhh, it just makes me so excited still!

Also my mom was just in Kenya, Africa for 2 week with Sleeping Children Around The World (SCAW) distributing bed kits to children in need. While there SCAW was hosted by the Rotary Club of Nairobi... seriously Rotary and Rotarians keep on popping up in my life everywhere now! There was also a Rotarian travelling with my mom's group from India, and his daughter was on a RYE from India to Brazil in 2004-2005. So my mom and him bonded over sending their daughters away and he ended up giving my mom his daughter's Rotary name tag to give to me! I was surprised, but it's going on my jacket as soon as I get it!

Seriously what a small World!

Rotary Terminology

Outbound - Students (like me) who are still in their country and will be going on exchange in July/August

Inbound - Students that are in their host country on their exchange

Rebound - Students that have gone on exchange and are now back in their home country, also very helpful and a wealth of information and experience!

Rotarians - The people that give the exchange students an amazing opportunity!!

District 7080 - My Rotary district, including Brampton, Guelph & Wellington, Mississauga, Kitchener Waterloo, North Halton, Woodstock & Oxford, Burlington, Dufferin Erin Caledon, Cambridge, Oakville

Ex-Vegetarian

Before I even found out which country I was being sent to I made a commitment to myself and to Rotary that I would change back to a non-vegetarian diet for my exchange. I've been a vegetarian since grade 7 (6 years), or more precisely a Pescatarian (still eating fish, eggs, dairy), although since August I have also stopped drinking cows milk. Finding out that some countries would not accept me if I was a vegetarian scared me because I didn't want to limit my opportunities. Also my exchange is a cultural exchange so I don't want to insult my host country and families by not eating their food, and instead really trying to immerse myself in the culture, including the food

Last night was the first time that I ate chicken in 6 years! It seems so surreal that I haven't ate pork, chicken, beef, etc. in so long! Luckily I didn't think much of it, I just thought it tasted like imitation chicken since it was mixed with other things so I wouldn't be disgusted. Slowly but surely I'll be back to full-on eating meat, and ready for whatever Chile has to offer!