Newsletter for the Rotary Club of Western Endeavour - Issue No.: 405 Issue Date: 5 Sep, 2010

Aaron Blazic, our outbound Exchange Student for 2009 provided an overview of his experiences in his year in Brazil.

On arrival in Brazil, Aaron found a whole new world and particularly recalls a number things to which he needed to adjust. These included:

• eating beans and rice (at every meal)
• the climate
• a new language (Portuguese)

Aaron found the subtle differences in the language as one of his main challenges.....stating he was married when he meant he was tired caused quite a lot of confusion for his first host family.

Aaron lived in the state of Sao Paulo for the duration of his exchange. He enjoyed some great travel experiences and shared a number of these with other exchange students, both from Australia and other countries.

He experienced Carnaval, the most colourful experience of his life. Aaron travelled with his host family from their home town to Sao Paulo, leaving at 6pm and arriving at approximately 10pm, a journey of about 4 hours to attend. The parade commenced at 11.30pm and continued until 7am.

Aaron was fortunate that his host brother had an apartment in Sao Paulo, a city of 20 million people, as this allowed him to frequently travel to the city and enjoy many different experiences. One area of interest was 25th March Street which is lined with shops from which you can purchase anything from a thumb drive to a goldfish.

Some of the highlights of his trip were the District Conference (at which exchange students representing 11 countries were present) and the North East trip, the best month of his life in Brazil.

The North East trip took the students to 14 cities including Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, Salvador, the first city of Brazil and home to 365 churches (including the Gold Church) and Rio De Janeiro. They also visited the biggest slum in Brazil. Aaron mentioned how easy it is to forget that Brazil is a third world country with a vast gap between the rich and poor until faced with the reality of the slum....a reminder of this discrepancy.

Aaron's list of what his exchange had given him included:

• independence
• confidence
• new language skills
• a big self esteem boost
• broader horizons
• an international network of friends
• a home in South America

To conclude his presentation, Aaron offered a big Obrigado to Rotary for giving him the opportunity to participate in a Rotary Youth Exchange!