Bored in Budapest

On August 24, 2020 By riversandroads2102In Hungary, UncategorizedLeave a comment

It’s been 3 countries since I last posted on here. Ecuador, USA, and now Hungary. About a week and a half after my last blog post I was forced to leave Ecuador on a US government mandated flight due to the coronavirus. Shortly after my last post we started quarantine in Ecuador (actual quarantine not like what we had here). We all expected it to only last two weeks and then be able to live normal life again. But as things seemed to only be getting worse especially in Guayaquil my family in USA started discussing having me return to USA. On March 27 I returned to USA not getting to say goodbye to any of my friends or family expect the people who I was living with and two friends I got lucky enough to see in the airport. I was devastated. I felt like my Spanish was finally getting better and I was loving my time there. Ecuadorean doing something about the virus too, they had extreme measures in place whereas in USA no one was doing anything in comparison. After some time at home I realized being home was what needed to happen and what was going to be best for me before I went to college in Spain.

But again corona threw a wrench in my plans. My spanish wasn’t good enough to be taking business classes in spanish so I decided i was going to do a year round language program in Spain at the university I was wanting to go to. I took a month long language class in the summer (and man, I realized how terrible my spanish grammar was, but I learned a lot). But near the end of June I figured out that all the classes at the university I wanted to go to in Spain had been canceled or move online. I was so disappointed and had no idea what to do next. I began looking at jobs and apartments in my city and in other states. I applied everywhere I could.

At the end of July I got crazy news. One of my friends was attending college in Czech Republic because students were still allowed to enter the EU. Since it was too late to apply for Spain I began searching for other universities in Europe still accepting for the first or second semester. And then I found Budapest Metropolitan. It is a private english speaking university in Budapest, Hungary (a city I had visited before and LOVED). I applied and got in. A week and a half after receiving my acceptance I arrived in Budapest. I had to jump through a lot of hoops very quickly in order to be allowed into Europe. But somehow I made it. I have now been in Budapest five days. I am staying in a dorm shared with my university and another university in the Pest side of Budapest. The dorm is right outside of the city and only about a thirty minute metro ride to the main part of the city. In only five days I have fallen in love with the beauty of the city!! It honestly looks like something out of a fairy tale and pictures cannot begin to do it justice. Because I arrived a month before classes started I am the only student from my university who has arrived yet, so I haven’t made any friends. Most days I just wander around the city, get food at some point and then end up back at my dorm watching movies before dark. It is kind of boring and lonely right now, but I am bored in Budapest so it’s ok! Can’t complain even a little bit because it’s amazing here. And no one here wears masks except on public transportation and inside stores, it’s insane!! And being honest, I am kind of enjoying a little bit of alone time before life gets crazy with school and new friends and stuff to do! I am going to try to keep updating more often than I used to, and because of this please ignore grammar or spelling mistakes I make because if I proof read these I would be lucky to be able to post once a month. Thank you for keeping up!

Lángos- a typical Hungarian food that fried bread, sour cream, and cheese and depending what type you get there can be a variety of different toppings- this is Greek Style

View of Budapest from the plane

St. Stephen’s Basilica

Fisherman’s Bastion

Matthias Church

View from the Fisherman’s Bastion

Budapest Central Market Hall

Buda side of the city seen from Castle Hill

View of the Pest side from Castle Hill

Buda Castle

How I feel about COVID 19

On March 17, 2020August 24, 2020 By riversandroads2102In UncategorizedLeave a comment

The whole world is kind of shutting down due to some virus that started in China. There is no cure, it is highly contagious, it mostly kills older people or young children, and it is spreading rapidly. People are freaking out, but others are living life as if everything was normal. This is not ok. Many countries are closing their boarders and initiating a quarantine. I will be celebrating my second month in Ecuador in quarantine and will probably spend most of my third month in quarantine. It SUCKS. But what people need to do now is STAY HOME. Yes, it’s boring, house arrest is not fun, but it’s better than the virus. Younger people seem to being ignoring this due to the fact that the mortality rate is really low for them, but they are thinking selfishly. The virus is transmitted easily and could be given to loved ones or strangers that could die as a result. It has become a pandemic in such a short amount of time. Rumors that the virus is just like a “bad flu” are turning people away from the idea that it is no big deal. I hope quarantine and all the actions being taken start to scare people into submission. Maybe this is no big deal, maybe Corona Virus will just become nothing in a few months, but now we have to treat it like it is a real problem. Despite saying this I do believe some actions being taken are a little too extreme.

Having been a part of the exchange community and now having many friends on exchange COVID-19 has become a major issue. Many companies are deciding to send students home without giving them a choice on what to do, one specifically is YFU. My question for these organizations is: Why would you put a student in an even more dangerous situation to go in an airport and go back to a country where the situation might be worse? Why would you send a student who is in United States back to Italy? Depending on the student’s location in the United States they could be A LOT safer than they would be in Italy. Also by forcing an exchange student to go home you are putting them on AN AIRPLANE???? Which is where they are likely going to be exposed to the virus even more than in their host country (where they might already be quarantined (voluntarily or not)). I believe giving students the CHOICE to return home or not is valid. If a student wants to go home and be with their family or the situation is worse in their host country than their home country and they want to risk the plane ride then they can decide that. But it should be the student and their family’s choice, not the organization. I found out today one of my friends is being sent home, without a choice, as soon as flights are leaving from Ecuador again. I am not happy about this and I was sitting there in disbelief expecting him to start laughing and telling me he was just messing with me (like normal), but he didn’t. My other friends are also scared of being sent home for the same reason. I could not imagine my exchange being ended early for not even breaking the rules and not being able to do anything about it. I know this blog post will not likely go very far and will be read by maybe 5 people, but I wish more people would see it, people that could read this and make a difference for the exchange students that are being sent home to worse situations and don’t want to go.

COVID-19 is everywhere, worse in certain places, please stay safe. Wash your hands, stay at home, watch a movie, read a book, learn something new, please don’t travel the world right now. People practicing self quarantine thank you, others please do this so everything can go back to normal soon, and maybe more exchange students don’t have to go home.

Thank you.

First Month in ECUADOR!!

On March 15, 2020August 24, 2020 By riversandroads2102In Ecuador, UncategorizedLeave a comment

So at this point I have been living in Ecuador for just over a month. And it has been absolutely INSANE! Full of changes and new experiences, it hasn’t all been easy but I am having so much fun.

For the people that don’t want to read all of this here are some of the cultural differences I have experienced and new things I have tried: cow udder, cow stomach (for breakfast), cow tongue, and many different types of food that I had no idea what I was eating. I got to visit Quito three times and celebrate my birthday. I learned a lot more Spanish and have started making friends here. I have struggled with how much plans change and the time “flexibility” (everyone is ALWAYS late). Overall the people here are SO nice, SO nice, everyone is so happy to help me and get me to try new things. It had been an amazing month full of surprises!

I first arrived in Quito on January 17 and was met by my host mom (Sophia), an exchange student from USA who is living near me in Ecuador (Emily), and a friend of Sophia (he let us stay in his house the night we were there). The next day we went all around Quito visiting some of the main sights within the city. It was so much fun and I became friends with Emily. I was so happy she was there because otherwise I would have had serious issues communicating. I barely spoke any Spanish and could understand a minimal amount.

I fell in love with Quito and the mountains in the city, it was so gorgeous, but we were only there one day before we traveled to Santo Domingo (the city where I am living). I was exhausted and ready to just sleep the next day, but of course it is Ecuador and there doesn’t seem to be much time to rest here…even though everyone is always late to everything. First we went to one of my host aunt’s house, Nereyda, to meet another aunt (Ana Lidia), her husband, and her twin girls. We visited a river right outside of the city before going to Andrea’s house (another aunt). There we cooked out and swam in the neighborhood pool. I met so many people in one day I felt like I could have been there a week already. I was not able to communicate much and it was really difficult being there because we were there for so long and I was so tired. At the same time, it made me really happy, the whole family was really cute and I got to meet some other exchange students that are living with the family and their friends.

The first week I was trying to get adjusted to my new life in Ecuador. I started working at a jewelry store in Santo Domingo, just as a way to pay off me staying here. Since I don’t speak much Spanish I spend most of my time putting price tags on jewelry, but I enjoy it. Ana Lidia speaks English so she helps me whenever I need, but I am trying to use more Spanish. In my first week I spent so much time with the family because it was Sophia’s birthday. We were always going to lunch or dinner at other people’s house. It was a lot of fun but it was also quite an adjustment for me. The seven-ish months I was in USA I spent a lot of time alone but in one week I was constantly with other people. It was hard to communicate and a lot of times kind of boring. One of the birthday celebrations was supposed to be a “dinner” but we didn’t leave my aunt’s house until four in the morning. And by the end of it the kids were all covered in flour and foam/soap suds.

One of the weirdest things was being here without my friend (Andrés) from exchange because I never really thought I would be in Ecuador except to visit him. I had been texting him all week about how weird it was being with his whole family without him. But I knew I wouldn’t see him anytime soon because he was studying Medicine in Russia and would not visit until the summer. I had just gotten adjusted to the idea of him not being there when I got a knock on my door the next morning and he was standing there. I was totally shocked by his two week long surprise visit. No one expect his mom had known he was coming.

After Andrés’ surprise arrival everything went kind of crazy. We spent a lot of time with family and Andres’ friends. I was still going to work, but I got to skip a few days to hang out with friends.

The next weekend was my birthday and the Friday before they had a surprise party for me at work. They put me in charge of watching my 2 year old cousin for the last hour of work while they got a cake and party decorations. I had so much fun with him as I tried to communicate with him in Spanish and teach him English. I had slowly started to build a relationship with the people at work and the surprise party made me so happy. Afterwards I went to my friend Salwa’s house (she is from Ecuador but left one week later for exchange in Brazil) with Emily to watch movies. Around midnight we were going to go to a party down the street but when I got downstairs Andrés was there and we had cake with Salwa’s family.

On my actual birthday I went with Sophia and Andres to breakfast before going to my aunt’s house and eventually having lunch. After lunch Andrés, Emily, Marcelle (an exchange student from Brazil), and I took a taxi to Quito to stay with some of Andrés’ friends who are in University. We spent four days in Quito shopping, ice skating, and hanging out.

Back in Santo Domingo we spent a lot of time with the family and I didn’t go to work much. I spent time with Andrés and my friends. I got to go swimming and “cliff diving” in a river and made friends with two of the German exchange students (one is living with my host aunt). Friday, Emily and I went with Sophia to take Andrés to the airport to go back to Russia. He had been debating whether or not he wanted to move back to Ecuador and leave University in Russia, but he wanted to try real classes and would return to Russia for a week before he decided to move back to Ecuador or not.

After Andrés left not much happened. I was with my friends and family a lot, and went to work the whole next week. My Spanish has gotten a lot better I understand a lot and can speak more than I could in the beginning. The week at work was super busy because of Valentine’s Day coming up. I was working mostly in the front putting on price tags, welcoming customers, rearranging jewelry, and wrapping presents. I really started to make friends with the ladies I work with and enjoy my time there.

For the weekend a bunch of us went to the beach: Sophia, Emily, Marcelle, Marcelle’s host family, Nereyda and her son and their German exchange student, and one other family. It was SO much fun and beautiful. I was happy to finally go to the beach since everyone was always asking me if I had visited the beach yet. It was also a trip that made me realize that I was understanding a lot more Spanish than I realized (which made me super happy). We all stayed in one really nice house on the beach with a pool, and visited other beaches in the area. We were only gone for four days before returning to Santo Domingo.

I returned to work as normal but ended up skipping most of the week because of Rotary events (my host mom is in Rotary so I just go with her) and hanging out with my friends. This weekend starts Carnival which means a lot of family time, parties, water fights, and two more days off work.

More on Carnival and my second month in Ecuador next time!

Sorry for my poor grammar and writing in my posts now, but I know I will never post anything if I feel pressured to make it all really good and perfect.

Quito

Quito with Sophia (my host mom) and Emily

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River in Santo Domingo

Family for Sophia’s Birthday

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My new friends Marcelle (Brazil), Salwa (Ecuador), and Emily

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My surprise party at work

Birthday Lunch with my family. Sophia and Andres pictured

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My host grandparents

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Ice skating in Quito with Marcelle and Emily

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Post ice skating with our friends in Quito

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Friends in Quito

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Drive back from Quito

Another river in my city

Emily, Andres, and I in Quito when we took Andres to the airport

On the way to the beach

Outside where we stayed at the beach

Salinas, Ecuador

Beach with Lukas (Germany), Emily (USA), and Marcelle (Brazil)

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Montañita with exchange students and their host families

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Final night at the beach

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My Life Now

On February 24, 2020August 24, 2020 By riversandroads2102In Reflections, Thoughts, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Hello! It has been a while!
And a lot has changed.

Honestly I haven’t wanted to post because I felt too stressed to finish the posts about the end of my exchange. But it has literally almost been 8 months and I haven’t found the motivation to do so, so unfortunately I don’t think it will happen.
The end of my exchange was insane. Crazy busy. I traveled with friends and family all over Europe and Morocco. Eurotour with Rotary was AMAZING. And the month following traveling with my American family was great (it was hard to see them again but it was great). But all good things must come to an end. Leaving Finland, despite the ups and downs all year, was the the hardest thing I have ever had to do. At the airport I was surrounded by my Finnish family and my local friends, all of us were crying and promising to see each other soon. But it didn’t end there.
REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK IS A THING!!!!

Going home was SO HARD. It was great to see my friends and family. But no one really understood what I had been through. Many of my friends grew annoyed by my stories from Finland and my experiences and began to distance themselves. My family was not accustomed to the new me, and I had forgotten cultural norms and manners of the Southern United States. Walking into stores and having workers greet me with “Hello, Welcome…” and as I left the “have a blessed day” threw me into a nervous mess. I lived in a country for a year where no one talked to you unless they had to, this was not normal for me at all. It was apparent to me once I returned, how normal Finnish cultural values had become to me. Going back to school was probably the most difficult. Living in Finland with one of the best education systems in the world really turned me off to United States school systems. It only took two weeks for me to lose it. I was sitting in school for eight hours a day and feeling like I was doing nothing and having to just go home and reteach myself everything. I was annoyed by the amount of time I was spending in class that felt unnecessary. Most of my friends were no longer friends with each other or had no interest in being friends with me. I knew I needed to find something different despite the fact I only had one more year of high school. I began to talk to my mom to figure out what I could do. My first plan was to take college classes at the community college in my city to get the rest of my high school credits. As I was doing more research on where I wanted to go to college I found the University of Granada in Spain. It sounded AMAZING to me, but I had to learn Spanish to take the entrance exam for the course. I hit a road bump. It took a lot of courage and research for me to approach my mom and ask if I could do online school and graduate six months early in order to go abroad again and learn Spanish. I was shocked when she agreed. I began doing research and calling my friends from exchange to see if any of them had a place for me to stay for six months to study Spanish. My third phone call was a success! One of my best friends from exchange, Andrés (from Ecuador) was about to leave for Russia to go to Med school. After explaining my situation and what I wanted to do he said I could live with his mom in Ecuador for six months while he was studying in Russia. I would also help out at his aunt’s jewelry store for my keep.

I was beyond ecstatic to know I had a plan and a way to learn Spanish. Five days later I “dropped out” of high school and began classes online. For the next four months I was doing almost 9-10 hours of school a day to try to finish nine months of school in four. It was insanely stressful and online school is not the most fun. It was hard to establish trusting relationships with teachers and communicate when help was needed, but I figured it out. I was able to establish trust and relationships with my teachers which helped me reach my goal of graduating high school early.

After finishing high school all I had left was to pack and prepare for my big trip to Ecuador. More on that NEXT TIME!!!!

I have attached pictures from the end of my exchange

Estonia with friends

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All the girls who went on Eurotour

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Budapest

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Beach in Latvia

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John Lennon Wall in Prague

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Budapest

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Salt Mine in Poland

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Final Night of Eurotour in Germany

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First round of goodbyes to my friends

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Midsummer with my host sisters

My little sisters

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USA Parents in Finland

Host Family and their Tennessee shirts

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Summer Cottage visit with my real family and host family

St. Petersburg with my dad

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Visiting our past exchange student in Spain

Fez, Morocco

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Both previous are from Morocco

My friends and family seeing me off at the airport when I went back to United States

The Rest of April

On June 25, 2019August 24, 2020 By riversandroads2102In April 2019, Uncategorized1 Comment

April

I am so behind, the rest of my blog posts will just be one month at a time, sorry.

So… this is the rest of April.

The next weekend we had a Rotary District Conference. It was mostly the exchange students sitting in the back of the room for a few hours waiting to introduce ourselves or understand what was going on. It was still really fun though. I bonded with people I hadn’t before, we went to a museum and hung out afterwards in Helsinki. That Sunday was a holiday called Virpo. It is the equivalent of trick or treating in Finland but on Palm Sunday. All of the kids dress as witches and then run around the neighborhood exchanging decorated sticks for candy. I actually got to participate with my five year old host sister and her friends. That evening was the Women’s World Hockey Championships which was intense. It was USA and Finland against each other, and Finland won…until they didn’t. For some unknown reason the goal that Finland got that allowed them to win was not approved and USA won afterwards. So many Finns were totally enraged, my host dad even joked about that idea that I shouldn’t go to school on Monday for my own safety. It was such a big deal here, even I thought it was wrong taking away Finland’s win.

I traveled to the city of Turku, on the western coast, with one of my friends from France to experience the city in Spring spring. We met up with a lot of the exchange students that area that are on exchange there and the day was amazing. I made a lot of new friends and had such a great time. We visited the main sights in the city and then sat by the river just hanging out. The next day I went to Järvenpää to visit one of my Finnish friends and spent the evening with her. It was, my now six year old host sister’s birthday the next day. We woke up early to prepare the breakfast and cake for her. We spent the day chilling at home until we travelled to Tampere in the afternoon to visit my host mom in a hotel where she was working. My thirteen year old host sister and I set up an Easter egg hunt for the kids in our hotel room (it was Good Friday) and prepared the second small birthday celebration for my sister. The next day we went to a Spy museum about the Second World War (it was so cool) before returning to Helsinki. Easter nothing much was done as celebration since Virpo (on Palm Sunday) is more of their celebration, so I hung out with my friend. We had Monday off from school too so I went to visit my host aunt and her kids for the day.

I went to Turku with school to see Hamlet. It was completely in Finnish and really strange. They had a modern twist that made it really interesting. It was really hard to understand though because there wasn’t the rhythm of typical Shakespeare because Finnish has only the first syllable is stressed so I don’t think the story line was exactly the same and it was a confusing three hours.

I traveled to the coastal city of Kotka for a day with exchange students from Helsinki and met with some people there. It was a really great day and the city was absolutely beautiful. All the traveling I have done in Finland this month has really helped me discover more of the culture.

Over the weekend many exchange students ended up in Helsinki all at the same time for some reason. One exchange student from Spain came to stay with me and a girl from Brazil. We visited the new exhibits at two museums in Helsinki multiple times in the weekend. Friday night we met up with one guy from Mexico who was visiting Finland (he did his exchange at my school last year). Saturday there was a huge group of exchange students in Helsinki. The weather was so nice so we hung out outside on top of these “bump” statues everyone hangs out on in the city. We were listening to music, dancing, and talking. It was so much fun, and was repeated with new people the next day in front of the Cathedral. We were out very late without even realizing it because the sun doesn’t set here until almost 9:30pm now.

The last night of April there was a large event in Helsinki to celebrate the beginning of spring. May first we have off of school to picnic, but the last day of April there is a large event. All of the college kids are in the city to celebrate “Vappu” which is Labor Day. There was a big celebration where one of the “college hats” was put on a statue in the main park in Helsinki. I went with a bunch of Finns and exchange students. It was so much fun, maybe one of the best nights of my exchange.

This month a lot of things changed for me, especially my attitude. The darkness had affected my mood so much and now the sun is shinning, it’s warm, and I’ve made some really amazing friends I am so happy. This last week completely changed a lot of things for me and I learned a lot about myself.

April was really amazing.

My friend from Mexico and I in Kotka

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Trip to Kotka with other exchange students

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Exchange students hanging out in Helsinki

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Turku trip to see my friend from Argentina

Virpo

Vappu

A boy from Mexico who was on exchange in Finland last year came to visit

Introduction

On August 2, 2018August 2, 2018 By riversandroads2102In UncategorizedLeave a comment

Hi! My name is Graham Shults! I am a sixteen year old from Tennessee, Rotary District 6780. I am an outdoor enthusiast, kayaker, student activist, and avid traveler. I decided to do a year abroad, after receiving inspiration from my aunt and cousin, when I was in eighth grade. Near the end of my freshman year I learned about Rotary Youth Exchange through a friend of my Mom’s. I immediately got involved with my local Rotary and completed my application a month early. It was a year long process of paperwork, meetings, and applications. In February I found out I would be going to Finland for my year abroad. I was so excited, I mean how many people get to say they did a year abroad in Finland?! Following country assignments there were orientations to attend in March, April, and July. Through these orientations and social media the exchange students from 6780 (my district) and others in the Ohio-Erie multi-district quickly became some of my closest friends.

During my ten to eleven months in Finland I will be living in Espoo with two different families. I will be going to school and attending the meetings of my Rotary Host Club in Vantaa. Through Rotary I will attend a week of language and culture camp with Rotary Exchange Students from all over the world. Later in the year we will take a trip to Lapland (Northern Finland), St. Petersburg, Russia, and near the end of my exchange a European Tour. I am very excited to embark on this amazing adventure!

Rivers and Roads

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