Well, coming back from exchange has given me additional responsibilities on top of getting readjusted to life in America. Back in September my responsibilities to my sponsoring Rotary Club entailed a presentation of my year to them. The presentation was fantastic. It was such a nostalgic feeling. Every month I had done a speech in front of my Taiwanese club, and speaking the words in English was such
a weird feeling.
It was a strange taste after all this time. My American Rotary club seemed to
take my presentation quite well. In the following week’s newsletter form the
club they called me, “The wisest 17 year old in the world.” Score. :D
The following
weekend I was returning to an old favorite. I mentioned before of how I had two
preparation years prior to my exchange. Well those years composed of monthly
meetings in which Inbounds (foreigners coming to my area) and Outbounds (people
like moi) meet to get ready or just learn and relax. I was returning to this
wonderful process as a helper. Now I was to become a mentor and counselor to
the next generation of exchange students. It was a wonderful time. We met at a
campground and
immediately dived into introducing ourselves through games and various activities.
Of course, I didn’t participate in all the fun and games, since I had to deal
with the largest obstacle in the exchange community. Outbound Parents. Nothing
stands in the way of an exchanger more than a nervous parent. Various rebounds
along with myself stood up and talked to the parents of these prospective
outbounds (now dubbed prospies). Overall I see that the parents left feeling
more satisfied and less nervous than before, but I’ll be sure to work on them
more throughout the year. All in all, I felt the weekend was a huge success.
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