2018 Short Term Exchange Students
Sophie Burke
Short-term Exchange Student to Italy
Sophie’s family hosted 2017-2018 inbound Italian exchange student Vittorio Sica. She went to District Conference at Kalahari last year and it was good preparation, since she talked to former exchange students.
Sophie’s country choices for her short-term exchange were Italy, Spain and France. She was assigned to Italy, but she got to go to all three during her exchange.
Beatrice Bursi, inbound from Italy came in early July 2018. They first visited some local places, and then went on a camping trip on a lake. During Bea’s visited they journeyed to Washington DC, New York and the Jersey shore. She got more comfortable with her English during her visit. Then Bea and Sophie flew to Italy.
Sophie stayed with Bea’s family outside of Milan and she loved to help out in the kitchen. The food was amazing in Italy. They visited a lovely cathedral in Milan and picked fresh fruit out of their yard, which was 15 min from Lake Como.
On the 2nd day of her visit, they went to Venice. Since Sophie was a little under the weather after all her travels, they decided against a gondola ride.
They went to her host family’s place in Andorra, had time on the beach and met their summer friends.
After Andorra, they went to visit Bursi family in France and then they went to Spain. Sophie got to practice her Spanish. There was a Festival of Brotherhood in the village that they attended. The men prepared the meal for everyone in the village (paella) and lunch was 4 hr long.
After her visit with the Bursi family, she went to visit the Sica’s in Naples, Italy. Sophie said the food, gelato and coffee were fantastic in Italy.
Sophie now Facetimes with Bea every day and is happy that her family will go to visit them and the Sicas in Italy this summer and she will finally get to go on a gondola trip.
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Sophie Burke
Elizabeth DeMarco
Short-term Exchange to Ecuador
Ecuadorian student Camilla came for 3 weeks last summer and then Elizabeth went to Ecuador for 3 weeks. She began by talking about Camilla’s 3 week visit.
Their trip to Ecuador had 6 hr of delays in Miami airport. They arrived at Quito Ecuador, where they visited the equator and the historic district. They also visited the famous El Panecillo, a 41 m aluminum statue of the virgin of Quito.
One of the highlights of her visit was going up a mountain on a gondola and swinging off the top of the mountain.
They went to the Galapagos for 5 days, but it was the rainy season, so the views were not as great as usual. They walked and crawled through lava tubes on one of the islands. Santa Fe Island had lots of seals on the shore. They also went snorkeling.
They visited the land tortoises; they are huge at the Charles Darwin Center where they raise them. Each island has a different type of turtle.
Tortuga Bay was very cloudy on the day of their visit and they did not get a chance to experience its amazing beaches.
She also got to visit Ibarra in northern Ecuador, a province with lots of lagoons. They went to a bird aviary and she got to hold a bird. They also visited a volcano. The coconut ice cream was amazing and they went to a spa with naturally heated pools.
By end of the trip, she was able to understand Spanish much better. She flew out of Quito.
Elizabeth appreciates being able to experience another type of life & to realize the differences between the US and other countries. This was her first trip outside the US.
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Elizabeth DeMarco
Inbound Short-Term Exchange Students
L to R: Elizabeth DeMarco, Camilla Puga, Beatrice Bursi and Sophie Burke