May 14, 2020 - Laura Agudelo - Her Exchange Year in Half Moon Bay

Our Guest and speaker today is Laura Agudelo of Brazil. She told us she was scared to come, it was all so foreign and far away but that feeling was overcome on the First Day!

She relaxed and felt at home although surrounded by different people and customs which she has now grown used to. She values her family much more from here, the perspective has been a big part of the experience. She appreciates every moment here, both her feelings for her family and enjoying her time here are emphasized by the Corona Virus. She is “Really, Really thankful for the opportunity”. She had many expectations, not all of which happened, she has seen many changes since arriving in August. She has traveled to North Carolina, Death Valley and LA with Jade. She will miss going to Hawaii, the Prom and the many exchange students who were reacalled home and some other opportunities but she is getting a lot from High School here. She has lost a semester by coming here but she is glad for everything! She expressed her profound gratitude to the Rotary Club of Half Moon Bay for her good stay with us.

 

Questions opened with one about her classes; She said Math was confusing because at home there was just Math but here it is parsed out into Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus et al. Biology was hard but a good learning experience,  vastly increasing her vocabulary. US HIstory was a fun class. She loved Yearbook,  something not available black home. She said she really liked taking pictures for the class, it got her around more and meeting more students not in her circle of classes etc. She had a presentation which couldn’t be shown for some tech reason for which she apologized.

 

(Your reporter’s iPad dropped him @ 12:27PM and he wasn’t readmitted for a while so missed most of Laura’s Q&A)