Aloha Mandy, Sorry for the delayed reply, I am currently heading back to Moscow after spending this week in Hawaii. Here is a little recap for the Rotary Club back home.
My exchange year started off with 30 students from NZ spending an amazing 3 days in Los Angeles visiting Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood, and tours around Santa Monica and downtown Hollywood.
After arriving in Moscow, Idaho I had a couple of days to settle in and get over jet lag before I had my first inbound camp in Chewelah, Washington. There are 15 students in my district and we all spent a day snowboarding. This was my first time ever trying to snowboard, my body ached for a week straight.
have been at school for over a month now, it is very different from school in New Zealand and it is taking me a while to adjust. I have lost count of the amount of ice hockey games I have seen with my host family. Both my host mother and brother play so I have been to a lot. I have been lucky enough to travel to Canada for an ice hockey tournament, they even got me out on the ice to give ice hockey a try.
This past week I have been in Hawaii with over 50 other exchange students from 25 different countries. We went to Pearl Harbour which was a very emotional place to visit, we hiked Diamond Head, had surf lessons, went on a catamaran where we saw dolphins and an amazing view of the island of O’hau.
We also went to a Polynesian Culture Centre where they had little villages to represent different Polynesian countries, I visited Aotearoa village and was lucky enough to talk to a few people who were from Hawke’s Bay. This week I am on spring break, my host family and I are going to McCall, Idaho to go snowboarding and to relax in the hot springs. I would like to thank the club again for allowing me to go on this amazing journey.
Mahalo, Gabby
Mahalo, Gabby