I am currently attending Markham College in Lima, Peru and I am living with my host, Ariana and her family. To say the least, my first two weeks in Lima have been unbelievably exciting, crazy, and all together, amazing. Lima is vastly different from the Bay Area. Although it has taken some adjusting, I already love it here.

The first thing that I noticed about the Peruvian culture was that everyone is extremely friendly and welcoming. Peruvians value hospitality more than any other culture I know. My host mom, Rosmery, immediately wanted to make sure that I felt at home and did everything in her power to make that happen. The next thing that I noticed was that Peruvians LOVE their food. The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of different Peruvian dishes, each one more delicious than the last. I know for certain that I will not go hungry while I’m here!

While Markham has many of the same values and principles as Athenian, it is entirely different. For starters, Markham is much bigger in terms of the number of students, and almost all of them have been attending the school their entire lives. The next main difference is that Markham is much stricter and more formal.  Everyone is required to wear a uniform and cellphones are prohibited. It took a while to get used to.  I definitely got lost many times during the first week, but now I feel like I have been here all along. The entire Markham community is very close-knit and everyone was very excited to welcome me into their lifestyle.

The largest challenge for me living in Peru has been the language barrier. Although most of Markham’s classes are taught in English, all of the students speak Spanish with each other outside of class. On top of that, my host parents don’t speak any English at all! It was difficult to communicate with everyone at first, but I am learning to be confident with my Spanish skills and have already improved so much.

Overall, my first couple weeks here have been so much fun. I have made so many great friends. I am so glad that I get the opportunity to experience firsthand the everyday life of a Peruvian student. Whether it’s meeting alpacas, learning to dance the salsa, or trying a new Peruvian dish, every day brings more surprises. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for me for the rest of my exchange!

Since my return from exchange I’ve constantly been asked if I miss it. I’d like to say that I miss it with all my heart, but I don’t. Living in South Africa became my way of life. It’s difficult to miss it when I still feel like it hasn’t quite ended yet. I’m dreading the day that I wake up and realize I’m never again going to put on my Bridge House uniform in the morning, and I may never again eat my favorite banana bread from the school’s café.

I learned so much on exchange, both about myself and others. While the fact that I had the opportunity to live in Africa still amazes me, when people ask me what my favorite parts of exchange were, I often think of the things people don’t expect to hear. I loved adventuring around the Western Cape every weekend and exploring the beautiful landscape, but some of my favorite parts were much simpler. On the drive home every day I admired the beautiful orange sunsets, and I loved spending time at home with my host family and my friends from school. Being on exchange made even the most average things special, and it gave me a chance to see what life was like as a normal teenager halfway around the world.

I also had some amazing experiences that I could never find in the Bay Area. Every weekend brought a new adventure and gave me a chance to see the different sides of South Africa. One of the most memorable experiences I had was visiting the local township. These are informal settlements that were mainly formed during the time of apartheid and are the biggest indicators of racial segregation in South Africa. They are also centers for culture and life. We got the chance to visit small schools within the township. Choruses of adorable five year olds sang to us in English, Afrikaans, and Xhosa, and they loved listening to us attempt to speak their local languages. We were able to learn even more about the history of racial segregation, and it gave me a better understanding of what inequality truly is, rather than solely talking about it in a classroom.

Visiting the township was an important part of understanding life in South Africa, but I also loved touring all around Cape Town and exploring Franschhoek Valley. I observed all of the many similarities and differences between the U.S. and South Africa. On the drive to school every morning I passed by beautiful vineyards and farmlands that were quite the opposite to the typical Californian suburbia. Cape Town felt incredibly similar to San Francisco, until I was reminded where I actually was when I looked behind the tall office buildings to see giant mountains in the distance. I loved walking beach side in Camps Bay and listening to the local music, and we often visited the local Waterfront to explore small shops and to eat all of the delicious food Cape Town has to offer. We visited the local aquarium, traveled to the very tip of Africa, and I even visited Robben Island, which was used as a prison during the time of apartheid and is known for its most famous inmate, Nelson Mandela. Last but not least, I did get the chance to pet some adorable cheetahs. I loved going on a safari and seeing all of the incredible animals I thought I would only see in movies.

I could go on and on about my exchange just using cheesy clichés. It truly was the best eight weeks of my life, but I don’t want to feel like my experience only lasted for two months. The great part of exchange is that it actually becomes part of your life. I can still message my South African friends anytime I want, and I’m so incredibly excited for my exchange, Ella, to come visit me in California. It’s crazy to me that some of my closest friends now live halfway across the world, but it also makes me appreciate them–and my friends here at home–even more. I am so grateful for my beloved second family in Franschhoek and for all of the people that made my time at Bridge House so special.

Dankie Suid Afrika, for everything.

I’ve been in Germany for roughly two weeks now and have had quite the adventure so far. In my first few days I was staying with my exchange, Petra, and her family. She showed me her hometown of Marl and we spend the next few days touring around Germany, going to cities like Hamburg and Husum. Things here are look as though they are out of a movie with cobble-stone streets and cottage-like buildings. After our little adventures, it was time to go to school.

Whereas in the US we have semesters and quarters to our school year, in Salem the school year is divided up into six epochs. Similar to our interim trips, students travel with their classes to different sites for some outside-of-the-classroom learning before the start of the last epoch. I got to join the group to Westerhever to study the biology of the Wadden Sea. We were studying the tide, which is significantly different than it is back in California; at low tide, the water is completely gone and at high tide it will have risen several meters high. Every morning after breakfast, we would hop on our bikes and ride through the sheep fields to the water and spend the day learning about all the organisms that live there. While biology is very exciting, what I loved more than anything else were the evenings. I got to learn of a game called tischtennis, which literally translates to table tennis but is very different than Ping-Pong. In this game, there is no limit on how many people can join. Everyone gathers around the table in two lines and the person at the front starts by passing it to the person across from them and then moving to the second line. If you miss or hit it out of bounds, you’re out. The game goes until there are two people left and they ralley for the win. At first I was always the first one out. By the end of the week, and with the help of new German friends, I even made it to the final round!

After that amazing week I was both sad to leave Westerhever and excited to go to Salem. In Salem, school is divided in two systems: the German-speaking group and the English-speaking. Obviously, I was put in the English-speaking group, but all of my new friends from the week before were in the German system. Despite having been nervous to meet all the new people, I can’t say that I wasn’t excited for a biology lesson taught in English for a change.

The environment at Salem is very different than Athenian. Instead of our usual six classes, here I have thirteen. Students meet with each class a maximum of twice a week, which has certainly taken some getting used to. Additionally, instead of moving to different classes with different people throughout the day, the people in an individual class always stay the same. Each class has one main classroom and only leaves its designated room for art, sport, or science classes. I like this aspect as it has made navigating the giant castle a bit easier. The day-to-day schedule is similar to our Monday schedule at Athenian with three long periods with breaks in between. The only difference being that lunch is at the end of the day at 2:00 and not in the middle at 12:00. After lunch, school is over and students then go to their various activities. I spend most of my time with my friends, going to the nearby lake of Bagersee, or hanging out in the torkel, which is a café located inside the castle.

Though things are very different here I’m having loads of fun and cannot wait for the rest of my adventure! 🙂

 

 

Time does fly. My exchange in England has ended in the blink of an eye. It seems like it was just yesterday when I stepped out of the cab and didn’t know where my house was. I am now gone, but with the most beautiful memories, ever, in my entire life.

A lot of things have been going on since my last blog and I cannot type them all out in a blog, so I will just write a summary here. My host families were kind enough to take me to several places, including absolutely gorgeous things like the London Eye and Harrods. England, whether it be the countryside or Central London, is always beautiful in a way that I cannot explain. It’s not like America. England gives out a different vibe. I really don’t know how to put it. You have to be there to know what it is. Overall, England and Wellington are the best things I have ever gotten a chance to experience and I regret nothing.

If you are reading this blog, no matter who you are, I really encourage you to go on exchange and, more specifically, to Wellington in England. Words cannot express how grateful I am that I picked England as one of my options. It is an absolutely amazing experience that happens once in a lifetime, so you have to grab it when it’s there. Words can’t express how I feel right now. This exchange has changed me significantly. I am no longer the person I used to know a month ago, before I got on the plane to England. The friends I met every day there have changed me, made a better me. I have learnt so many valuable things that I will never forget. Of course, there were very hard times when I just couldn’t help but cry and say to myself “Why did I do this? Why leave a place so familiar and go on this exchange to a school where I know nothing and no one?” But there were good times also.

Before I never missed anything or anyone, ever. Now, whenever I think about the days when I was at Wellington, I miss them so so much: all the jokes we laughed at, all the food we had in that dining hall, all the classes we went to together. I miss everything and everyone there. People bring memories into our lives and then they take them away, but I know for a fact that the memories I made there will never fade away. I loved every second of it… Believe me, no matter which country you choose, whether it be a bad or good exchange, you will not regret anything. You will bring back with you lessons no one else can teach you and memories you cannot make anywhere else. Consider it as a life-changing decision. Reach out and take it. I cannot guarantee that everything will be perfect, but I know you can do it.

Thank you Wellington, and P.

 

In Australia, I have experienced things I never thought I would by going on exchange. Thanks to Sandi Crogan, the other exchanges and I have been able to ride in a hot air balloon, hike the base of Uluru, enjoy a kangaroo sanctuary, spend the day exploring the West MacDonnell ranges, ride a camel, and help out the less fortunate of the Northern Territory. I feel like I have been accepted by everyone here, not only at school, but also by the people who live in Australia.

Waking up at four in the morning was such a hassle. It was cold outside and there was no sign of sunlight. We were picked up at St. Philip’s at 5:00 AM and driven to the outback where we noticed a massive balloon being blown up. We were all awake in anticipation for our hot air balloon ride. From the moment we climbed into the basket, we always felt like we were going to tip over and fall out. Once we got 500 feet in the air and looked out at the Australian outback, we were still a little nervous. When it was time to land, we slid across the tops of trees, bushes, then finally the ground. Because the balloon was still up and the wind was strong, the basket tipped about 60 degrees towards the ground. After we rolled out and packed up the balloon, everyone got a glass of orange juice and we learned about the first hot air balloon rides.

When beginning our weekend long trip to Uluru, the Olgas, and King’s Canyon, I was scared of having to hike so many kilometers each day. On the six-hour bus ride, we made stops at a camel farm and some small towns with convenience stores and gas stations. I was amazed by the camel burgers that most places sold. They taste much better than kangaroo tail. All of the exchanges had quality bonding time on and off the bus. Once we arrived at Uluru, our guide surprised us with a 12 kilometer walk around the base of Uluru. After our road trip all I wanted to do was sleep, but once we got going there was no stopping the fun. It took us just about three hours to complete, but we were able to learn about the rock and the aboriginal history and culture. Soon after, we drove to a lookout to watch the sunset on Uluru and witness the magnificent color of the rock.

Out of my entire experience here so far, I know it would not have been as much fun without getting to hang out with my now life-long friends from India, Nepal, Canada, South Africa, Germany, Colombia, and Mexico. They made every trip and adventure ten times more exciting and memorable. I will miss them all when we go home and I cannot wait to see them again someday!!

I’m currently attending the Regents International School located outside of the city of Pattaya, Thailand. I’m participating in the first year of the International Baccalaureate program (Year 12), which sounds insanely difficult.  Luckily, I’m not required to complete any of the harder curriculums. There are about 70 people in my grade, so it’s slightly smaller than at Athenian. The classes I’m taking include psychology, geography, environmental sciences, and theory of knowledge.

Before setting into school though, I got to spend three days exploring Bangkok. I got to go on a river tour that took me through a bunch of different neighborhoods in the city. My three days also included lots of temples and markets, one of which was in Bangkok’s China Town (it’s very different from the one in San Francisco). The best market I visited was the Chatuchak Market, where I got to try some of the street food. My favorite by far was the coconut ice cream, which was served in half of a coconut shell. One of the highlights of my three days in Bangkok was the Grand Palace, which was previously used as the primary residence for the King, but is now only used for royal ceremonies.

After my tour of Bangkok, I was driven to the city of Pattaya, which is a coastal city about an hour and a half south of Bangkok. My school is just a short drive outside of Pattaya. I asked my friends here to describe Regents since I was having trouble figuring out where to begin. I got lots of responses like “cool” and “dope” but my friend Cati decided on one word, which was “well-rounded.” I definitely agree with her. Everyone at Regents is not only incredibly smart, but also nice, fun, and somehow relaxed even though they have so much schoolwork. The school itself is very diverse, even more so than Athenian. There are students and teachers from all over the world. There are even a few students from America (from Texas, Indiana, and Florida). It’s nice having them around, so we can talk every once and a while about real football and how great In-N-Out is. A lot of my friends have attended schools all over the world before coming to Regents. I find this hard to imagine as I’ve lived in the Bay Area my entire life.

The biggest difference for me in Thailand is the weather. It’s insanely hot, and even hotter this year because a lot of Southeast Asia is in a very serious drought. The average temperature during the school day is anywhere from 95 to 105 degrees. I’ve mostly adjusted to the heat now, but sometimes I go outside and I feel like I’m about to melt. Luckily, I’m not alone. Even some of my friends who have been living in Thailand for several years can barely take the heat.

Here at Regents, I’ve staying in the dorms. Although I can’t leave school on weeknights, I’ve been able to see Pattaya and the surrounding areas on the weekends. This past weekend, I was taken out of boarding by one of the gappies to get a full tour of Pattaya, which included brunch and a lot of the time at the beach.

Overall, I’ve been having a great time in Thailand and I still have a lot to look forward to. I can’t wait to see what the rest of my exchange has to offer.

So far I have been in South Africa for two weeks and it has been the best experience of my life. First of all, I thank God for letting me have this wonderful family and my exchange buddy Jonathan Van Vuren and secondly for letting me come to this awesome school, St. Stithian’s Boys College in Johannesburg, South Africa.

I had such an incredible first week because my host family took me to Kruger National Park which is a four-hour drive from Johannesburg.  Kruger National Park is a huge wild safari in the north east of South Africa. There are many entrance gates to this park because it is a gigantic place. One thing you have to know before you go, you must enter early in the morning at like 6 AM because that is the time when wild animals wake up and start to move. Luckily, we saw a big herd of elephant and buffalos as soon as we got in through the entrance gate. I got to see a lots of wild animals that I have never seen in my life, like lion, buffalo, rhino, kudus (deer with fancy horns), giraffe, zebra, and others. When I look through all my pictures on my phone, I still can’t believe that I went to this place.

In my second week, I started attending St. Stithian’s Boys College. There are two different high schools on this campus, one for girls and one for boys. It is an enormous school both in campus size and the number of people compared to The Athenian School. When I first visited this school, I thought it was a village because there is a restaurant, many teacher houses (like our school), a chapel, many sports fields, buildings, gardens, and even ponds. In the boy’s school there are approximately 800 students.  I don’t know about the girl’s school because, apparently, we don’t interact that much with the girls during the school day. The first class starts at 7:25 in the morning, so I have to wake up at 6:00 am every morning, which is very hard for me and I will never get used to this ridiculous wake up time. We have a different schedule every day, just like at Athenian.  Every day from 10:00 to 10:40 we have a tea break, which is just a break. And we also have Chapel every day, which is like our morning meeting at Athenian but with a religious (Christian) purpose. Lunch time runs from 1:15 to 1:45. After lunch, we have only one more class–except for Wednesday, when we can go home before lunch. School normally ends at 2:45 but on Wednesday it ends at 1:30. After school, all students have to do sports for two hours, so normally school ends at about 5:00 pm.

Everyone in South Africa goes crazy about rugby. It is the most popular sport here and most schools have several rugby fields in their school. Luckily, it is rugby season right now so most of the students do rugby–even me. Before I came to South Africa, I thought rugby was a stupid sport because on TV there is a lot of contact between players without any pads, which looks very dangerous. But actually it isn’t as dangerous as I thought because there are rules that keep players safe from dangerous contact. For example, you can’t tackle an opponent in the air, you can only tackle the guy who has the ball, and you are not allowed to tackle above the waist…but there are still many injuries.

At St. Stithian’s, because it is a very traditional and conservative school, there are many rules to follow. One day after chapel, we had hair inspection and I thought I was going to be fine because I am an exchange student. But unfortunately, I got caught because my hair wasn’t short enough for their policy. I decided to embrace the whole culture of this school and country and I had my hair cut short. I look like I am going to the military. I have never had my hair this short in my life so this was a memorable experience for me. I have now figured out how I am going to cut my hair for AWE.

I thought I was used to experiencing other cultures, but every time I face a different culture there are many surprises, both in a good way and bad way. In South Africa, just like its nickname The Rainbow Nation, there are many cultures and languages in one country. Living far away from my home has always been tough for me, but here, I endure easily and it feels like my home now. I have learned incredibly many things and I know this exchange experience will remain in my memory forever.

When I was told that I was going to India I was both ecstatic and nervous. Now that my exchange has come to an end, I am so glad that I decided to come to India. I have less than a week left in my exchange and it is one of the most bittersweet moments in my life. I have made incredible, funny, and amazing friends while I have been on exchange and I am eternally grateful for their friendship.

Before coming on exchange Mark encourages students to research their country. The research that you find online and in books can never really prepare a person for the actual experience of being fully immersed in a new culture and lifestyle for two months. When you are living in a country that requires you to constantly be outside of your comfort zone, you discover new things about yourself. Living in India, I have become more open minded, optimistic, and culturally aware by trying new foods, learning a new language, attending a new school, and by making new friends despite having a cultural and linguistic divide.

Since the last time I wrote I have visited the hills once again. My new host family and I went to a small tourist destination called Kasauli. While in Kasauli I got to try Indian street food, had many encounters with wild monkeys, and had the best Indian food at this small restaurant near the Kasauli Club (it’s like the country club of India). The best part about travelling to India is the food. While in Kasauli I had an Indian street food called Gulab Jamun, an Indian sweet dish. It was delicious!

Sooner than I expected, it was May 13th, my last day of school in India at Vivek High. It’s true time flies when you are having fun! I spent my school days attending the h­­­­­umanities section classes like English, history, political science, legal studies and psychology. The most interesting class I took was psychology. Every day the teacher, Nilama Ma’am, taught the class at least one aspect of Indianism. Ma’am taught us the cultural value and use of traditional items like bindi’s, anklets, and bangles. She even gave me one of her dupatta’s, a thin shawl usually worn with a traditional Indian suit that goes over the chest and shoulders.

Though saying goodbye to my friends and family was hard, I am incredibly excited to be returning home. I wouldn’t trade my experience during exchange for the world. The memories, friendships, and personal growth that I made on exchange are things that I wish all students could experience. To my family, at home and abroad, thank you for making this trip one of a lifetime.

See you soon, India!

This will be my third and final blog entry, as I have reached the end of my exchange here at Wellington College. I had the privilege of staying with a new host family this past weekend in Arundel in West Sussex. Arundel was unlike any part of England that I’ve seen thus far, and was the opposite of London life. We left school on Saturday night since Wellington has school on Saturday morning. After a bit of a drive out to Arundel, we walked through the quaint, lamp-lit downtown to a bistro for dinner. The town reminded me of something from a movie set, with narrow roads of cobblestones leading to white brick antique shops.

On Sunday morning, I went with my host family to a local barn that they were considering for riding lessons. I am an equestrian eventer back in California. After having not ridden for a month, it was really nice to see a barn and horses again. It was a beautiful stable. I was amazed at the enormous green pastures and hills., lush due to England’s plentiful rain.

After the barn, we had breakfast at a country club called the Kennels. The menu had classic British food, and I discovered how much I enjoy sausage baps. That afternoon, we explored the West Dean Gardens. They were no ordinary gardens, complete with miles of land, a castle, an estate, greenhouses, and so many sheep I couldn’t count them all. We spontaneously decided to go for a hike in the hills on the garden’s property, which led us to beautiful views (and even more pictures of sheep). After a brief break to drink some rose lemonade, we drove back to Arundel.

Back in Arundel I had some free time to explore the downtown. As I mentioned before, I was impressed by the number of antique shops, which are far less prevalent back in Danville. I stumbled upon a cute little shop that is home to the best homemade fudge I’ve ever tried. We headed back to school later that night, since my boarding house had mandatory chapel at 8 pm. To break up the drive, we stopped at a beautiful park along the way for a “proper English picnic.” Although in the past I’ve taken food to the beach, park, etc., I’d never had a picnic like that one. The food was delicious and once again, the view was unbeatable. We may not have had a long weekend, but nevertheless it was filled with new adventures and delicious foods.

As I reflect back on my time at Wellington, I can truly say it has gone far too fast. I’d heard other people who had gone on exchange say the same thing, but now I completely understand what they meant. I didn’t know what to expect coming into a new school in a new country with new people. On my first day, I could not foresee how much I would grow to love the school, the people, and the delicious avocado sandwiches from the school café. Exchange has without question presented me with new challenges every day, but by saying “yes” to so many wonderful opportunities, I have taken part in an adventure unlike any other. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity. I would advise anyone considering going on exchange to set aside any fear or apprehensions and just jump in.

I will end my blog with a final piece of vocabulary. In the US, if something is ugly, we would just say “these sweatpants are ugly.” Here in England, they say, “these trackies are butters.” On the other hand, if something or someone is attractive, in the US we say, “he/she/that is cute,” or some variation of that. In England, they would say, “he/she/that is so fit.”

After a 40-minute drive from London Heathrow Airport, I arrived at Wellington College, a school situated in Crowthorne, England. The moment I stepped out of the cab, I knew, that this place reminded me of Hogwarts. I was expecting a tough time adapting to a new culture here at Wellington, as I have heard things from last year’s exchanges, but surprisingly I was overwhelmed by the differences between Wellington and Athenian. Everything is so different, from how you dress, what you eat, how you behave, to how the school works, how the people are, as well as what Wellingtonians value. First, let’s talk about Wellington as a school.

Wellington is in the middle of nowhere, which doesn’t seem like a good thing, but it actually gives Wellington a big advantage–land. Wellington is gigantic. I have been here for two weeks now, but still, I get lost sometimes, even when I have a map with me.Unlike Athenian, Wellington is a boarding school with a day program. There are a total of 17 houses, or what Athenians call dorms, on campus, and I live in Hill, a boys’ house, which has about 60 people in all forms. More than 1,100 students board at Wellington. Needless to say, the facilities at Wellington are extremely amazing. Even though the school has been around for 150 years, the inside of the buildings here are very new and up-to-date. The classrooms are really big with all the awesome supplies that you will ever need. Wellington also has a café on campus for students to buy snacks between meals, like tea or brownies. In addition, Wellington is a traditional school so everyone has to wear uniform, even for sports and meals (except for dinner). I find uniform a great way to close the gap between people, but if you don’t like uniform, it is going to be tough wearing a suit every day. In summary, Wellington as a school is really great.

English people are different from Americans, or more specifically, Wellingtonians are different from Athenians. I have been here for two weeks now, and I can guarantee you, that Athenians are so much more welcoming and friendly, especially towards exchanges, but that doesn’t mean English people are not nice. I have noticed that they appear a little cold, but if you make the effort and try to know them, the English are actually so kind and caring. I have made friends with the best English here in Hill, even though that took me a lot of time and energy. It is worth doing, especially when exchange only happens once in life. You will not regret it when you look back.

At Wellington, there are great separations between people. First, students have to really respect teachers and adults. You cannot go “Hey April!” here, unless you want to be dragged to the office. You have to call teachers Sir or Miss. Second, boys and girls don’t belong to each other. In the dining hall where we eat, the left side is for girls, the right side is for boys, and there is no in between. Girls hang out with girls and boys hang out with boys. Even sports are separated for boys and girls. Some sports are just for girls, some are just for boys. Third, people are greatly divided into forms. Wellington has 5 years of high school. They are named, from lowest to highest, 3^rd Form, 4^th Form, 5^th Form, Lower 6^th, and Upper 6^th. If you are in 4^th form, you eat, you hang out, you live, and you go to classes with 4^th formers. The same goes for other forms as well. Also, if an upper classman asks you to do something, then you have to go do it. It is just how it is. Upper 6^th have the most power here, as they can command the lower forms to do the things they want. Everything above is so different from Athenian. Athenians don’t care if you are a boy or a girl, if you are a Freshman or a Senior, or if you are an adult or a teenager, do we?

About food, English food is super amazing. I have heard some stories that English food is horrifyingly disgusting, but now I know that I can take those stories and toss them into the rubbish bin. Wellington has absolutely gorgeous food, whether it is breakfast or supper. There are lots of choices for you to choose. We usually have bacon, baked beans, eggs and bread for breakfast. Lunch and supper vary, but there has not been anything that I don’t like since I got here.

That has been a lot. I will save the rest for my next blog. I look forward to what is going to happen when I go to London next weekend!