From Denmark To Brazil
The 29th of June 2020 I wrote my first application to Rotarys youth exchange program in Denmark. It didn’t take long before I was invited to a short interview along with three other applicants, and this was were I first met Henning; my future counsellor.
In the weeks afterwards I anxiously waited for the answer and hoped more than ever, that it would be yes. To provide a bit of background as to why this meant so much to me, I’ve always wanted to travel. Since I was a kid, my favorite part of the summer was hopping on an airplane with my family to a new destination and explore the culture, nature, food and people there. I’ve also always had an interest in languages, and from elementary school to high school, I’ve always chosen the subjects with focus on culture, language and the world around us.
From I was around 11 or 12 to I was 15 I saved almost all my birthday and pocket money along with most of the money from my confirmation to go on a three weeks language trip to Malta to improve my english. It was all planned and the tripped was booked, but then a small obstacle showed up: Covid.
Unfortunately I had to cancel the Malta trip, but on the good side it wasn’t long before I got a phone call from Henning. A very positive one. They had chosen me as the next exchange student for the club! Then came the endless amounts of documents I had to write and obtain from doctors, teachers, rotary, my family etc. but everything was going according to plan until…
Covid hit again.
Around february 2021 I got an email saying that all exchange trip that year were canceled due to covid. To say I was sad, would be an understatement, but it wasn’t like we hadn’t seen it coming. Luckily though, within long Rotary reached out to all students and offered to transfer our applications to 2022. I hate to say, but despite my wanderlust and excitement I had lost some of my fate, that it would actually happen, and with new school and new plans I almost didn’t take the offer. That would have been the stupidest decision of my life, but luckily Henning, my counsellor, helped convince me otherwise, and in April 2022 that long awaited email finally came.
I was going to Brazil.
And then the day came. On 22nd of August 2022 me and my family arrived in Copenhagen airport after a 4.5 hours drive from home.
I’ve never been the type to get homesick, and the joy and excitement of traveling has always overshadowed any nervousness, but even I had to admit, walking away from my family for a year was a bit emotional.
Perhaps it was almost lucky then, that I very quickly got other things to think about. My flight was delayed. And then delayed again. My already very narrow transit in Lisbon was starting to seem impossible, but luckily I ended up sitting next to two very kind ladies from Sao Paulo, and a danish man who was also going to Salvador. With a bit of luck and a whole lot of running we all made it to the next flight, and here I was even more lucky with my neighbour.
English Adam, a professor at university college London, who was going to his niece wedding in Salvador. We managed to spend the whole time talking about anything from Education and traveling to Brexit and cultural differences. At the end of the flight, he even gave me a copy of his book with a sweet personal note wishing me good luck in Brazil.
He also mentioned something, I would remember a lot in my time in Brazil. Talking about some friends from France he mentioned, “They don’t speak english very well, but better than I speak french.” That sentence stayed with me, and every time someone would apologize for not speaking english very well, I would simply smile and answer: “better than I speak portuguese.”
It was a nice reminder, that we were all just trying our best, and I should remember to be grateful for how hard people were trying to make me feel welcome and give me a great experience.
After landing in Salvador, going through security and finding my baggage, I was finally ready to exit the airport and meet my host family.
Because of the delay they had been waiting for a long time, but that didn’t lessen any of their joy and excitement, when they saw me. I had already talked to the family a couple of times through zoom and texted with their other daughter Tina (who left for France just a couple hours earlier, so we unfortunately didn’t meet in person), but it was my first time meeting my counsellor and YEP officer from my host club in Salvador.
Everyone was super nice, and they had already bought me a brazilian sim card to text my family about my arrival.
My host parents doesn’t speak a lot of english, in fact pretty much nothing at all, but through the god given gift of google translate we manage to communicate, until I can speak more portuguese.
One the picture below from left to right: Daniella my host mom, Paulo my host dad, Catharina my host sister, me, my councellor and my Yep officer.
Little Wanderer 
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