by Felipe Lopez, Brazil, Class of 2018-19, Valdosta State ... sponsored by RC Thomasville
When I was coming here, people said that this year was going to be awesome, and so I was expecting a lot. As I came here, my expectations were completely fulfilled. I met here many different people, both Americans as well as people from other countries, and both in the GRSP program as well as in the university. It was my first time interacting so much with internationals, and I can say it was a great experience.
About every month we had the GRSP weekends. These weekends, all the students from GRSP gathered and it was always awesome. Not only we had chance of having time together with other students, but we would meet another Rotarians. The Rotarians I met, were always very nice to us and I had good time with them. Talking and learning about them was always interesting as each one was from different place here the US, and they had their own story to tell.
Also, ever since I come here to the US, I learned many different things. One of them is a new sport: Football. A few weeks after I got here the football season began. The first game I watched was a high school game where the grandsons of my host family played. They killed the other team! It was a very good experience and Arlen (my host dad) was teaching me about football rules. After this game, there was games in the university around every 15 days or so. I have been to a few ones, and it was also very good! By the end of the season, Valdosta State ended up as undefeated champion!
As I came here to experience new culture, I also decided to take Japanese Language class. As I had little knowledge about it, it was not so hard at first. I dedicated myself mostly for this class, and so I skipped two grades and achieve intermediate Japanese. The professor was from Japan and it was a very sweet person and very patient with me, as I always kept asking question about things we had yet to learn. I'm very thankful to her, as she was always ready to teach me even if my questions were about things that we did not go over yet.
One of my biggest experience here was being able to camp for the first time. In 2018, on the fall semester, I had the experience to go with a group from my university to the "Pigeon Mountains" to camp, rock climb and cave explore. I would never think that in my year here I would try to climb a real rock wall. We climbed a 50-foot wall and 15-foot boulders. The cave we went was also an amazing experience, probably one of the best I had here. I also visited different cities here in the US and got to experience my first "real winter". It was the first time that I have experience a temperature under 32̊F. Also, on winter break I went to the north in NY and MA, and although I did not see snow falling, I saw ice on the lake and iced water on the streets for the first time. It was very different as this is something I have never seen in Brazil.
In summary this year was amazing and I'm very happy I had to opportunity to come here. I'm very thankful for the Rotarians I met, especially my host family and his family, as they treat me with great care. I feel like now I have a second family here in the US and many friends from all the host families I stayed in the weekends.