Since my younger years of watching my brother run and later when I joined cross country, I’ve heard my dad vigorously yell at runners “put some kick in it.” I loved hearing or thinking of this phrase as I reached the last half mile of a race; knowing I was about to be done and if there was any more energy in my legs it was time to open up my stride and pick up the pace. I have that same feeling, the same energy right now as I’m entering the last days of my exchange. In this moment I will never be able to come back, and have everything the same. I won’t have all my friends in class all day, Isadora and Giulia to pass the afternoons, the same level of Spanish knowledge, so on and so forth. Everyday my feelings change about leaving and I try to stay optimistic, looking forward to starting at the University of Iowa in August. At the same time, there are days I just feel like crying. As the dark cloud looms above I’m having fun and here is some more details… Interprepas The UPAEP highschool tournament of their three sports: Volleyball, Basketball and Soccer. This was a week-long event and both playing and cheering was so much fun! Missions With UPAEP I went on a week long mission trip to a community in the Sierra Norte of Puebla. We went during Semana Santa (Easter Holy Week) so I got to learn about the Catholic traditions. We were a team of four, my team members being: Uri, Zaira and Carol After Semana Santa vacations, we had our third and final house change! I am now living with Memo, Monica, Juan Pablo, Guillo, and their daughter Moni is currently in Brazil. My parents are dedicated to public service. I feel like I fit into this family well from the start and am delighted to be spending these last months with them. District Conference For our final outing as a district they took us to Orizaba, Veracruz, for the district conference. We spent 3 days having fun, being a little bored, and saying goodbye. It was the last time I would see many of these outstanding young people. The weekend's highlights would definitely be: representing the USA in a "model UN," the nights in the hotel, and the conference gala. The first goodbyes... Elle, my fellow Iowan here in Mexico invited me to spend the past weekend in Puebla. She was getting ready to leave and by the time I'm writing this-- she is already home. The first day we had to say goodbye to the first of our little family, Lauren. Albeit very sad I think we enjoyed ourselves a lot with the last bits of time we had. My brother Juanpa and friends, invited us to go to a waterfall area with them, so the day after a late party we loaded up a car and went driving for close to two hours to find the natural area commonly called el Aguacate (the avocado). I could have stayed in that day for years. The water was cold, and the sun hot, conversation flowed easily from Spanish to English and all kinds of topics. Sunday was a rather dreary melancholy day. I had the chance to go up in the Estrella de Puebla (a ferris wheel lookout) and thanks to my amazing friends, had the 35 pesos to get on the bus back to Atlixco. The countdown of days begins, and I feel so incredibly blessed to have this place I love, have a home that I will miss, family and friends that are looking out for me across the world. There's little time left in my 18th year, and this story is coming to it's close. See you soon! Isabel What was left out...
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AuthorHello, I’m Isabel Hogg, a Rotary Foreign Exchange Student for the 2018-2019 school year. Story 18 is a documentation of my year living in Atlixco, Puebla, Mexico.
Youth Exchange “Slang”Outbound: A person departing a country, similar to emigrant
“I am an outbound from District 5970” Inbound: A person coming to a country, similar to immigrant “I am an inbound to District 4185” District: Divisions of countries/states that organizes Rotary clubs across the world Rotex: An Exchange student who has already completed their exchange term RYE: Rotary Youth Exchange Archivos
April 2019
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