{"id":5798,"date":"2019-05-10T13:04:43","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T16:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edumais.org\/?p=5798"},"modified":"2019-05-10T13:04:43","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T16:04:43","slug":"the-best-experience-ive-ever-had-thais-and-the-us-exchange-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edumais.org\/nl\/blog-nl\/the-best-experience-ive-ever-had-thais-and-the-us-exchange-program\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe best experience I&#8217;ve ever had!\u201d: Tha\u00eds and the US exchange program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Leaving your place of bi<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1927 size-medium alignleft lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG-20180920-WA0002-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG-20180920-WA0002-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG-20180920-WA0002.jpg 480w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 225px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 225\/300;\" \/>rth for the first time can be a nerve-wracking experience. Without your family for support, and in a foreign country where your language isn&#8217;t spoken, you would be forgiven for finding everything a little overwhelming, especially if you were just fifteen years old. Yet Tha\u00eds appears to have taken it all in her stride.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cMy mum was much more nervous than me,\u201d she laughs. I fear I have to admit that I am too: Tha\u00eds scoffs at my idea that she might have been anxious about her first ever flight. \u201cWhy?,\u201d she asks, \u201cI just slept! Then I woke up with a headache, drank some water, and went back to sleep again.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Teenagers, eh?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Although Tha\u00eds was able to make calls back home during her third week abroad &#8211; more to reassure her mother, it seems, than anything else &#8211; the no phone rule at camp meant she also had no contact with her family for the first two weeks. Caught up in her experience, however, Tha\u00eds explains how she was enjoying herself so much that she didn&#8217;t feel any \u201csaudades\u201d; she didn&#8217;t miss home at all. In fact, she was having the time of her life at Camp Hazen YMCA.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1974 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG_0401-1-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"524\" height=\"393\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG_0401-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG_0401-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG_0401-1-768x576.jpg 768w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 524px) 100vw, 524px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 524px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 524\/393;\" \/><\/span><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Initially worried about her level of English, Tha\u00eds quickly made friends with a girl called Claire, and from there she was soon talking to everyone. As one of the few foreigners at a camp of 70-80 teenagers &#8211; Tha\u00eds remembers there being a Colombian and a Jamaican too, though the latter obviously faced less of a language barrier \u2013 Tha\u00eds found her English developing quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cSome things I had found difficult for a while I learned in a couple of hours,\u201d she says. Immersed in an English language environment, she tells me, she had to find a way to understand.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I began talking to Tha\u00eds about her experience at Camp Hazen in Portuguese \u2013 we&#8217;ve never met before and I wanted her to feel at ease speaking to me first \u2013 but this seems like the moment to switch to English. I&#8217;m amazed at how seamless it is. I can&#8217;t say how good her English already was before but boy is it good now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1929 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG-20180920-WA0004-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"461\" height=\"615\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG-20180920-WA0004-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG-20180920-WA0004-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG-20180920-WA0004.jpg 960w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 461px) 100vw, 461px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 461px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 461\/615;\" \/><\/span><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">During Tha\u00eds&#8217;s stay, the camp-goers were divided into groups of five or six before being assigned a sleeping cabin in the woods. Each of these cabins had a counsellor, a slightly older mentor figure. \u201cWhen I first saw my counsellor,\u201d Tha\u00eds tells me, \u201cI thought that she must be a model. She was so beautiful!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It&#8217;s clear when listening to Tha\u00eds that this cabin structure, as well as the no phone policy, was extremely beneficial. Time was put aside every day for \u201ccabin chat,\u201d where each counsellor sat down with all the members of their cabin and encouraged them to talk about anything they wanted: their opinions, what they were finding challenging, what they had particularly loved doing, and so on. Each cabin was thus a space of emotional bonding and support.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Tha\u00eds speaks very highly of the counsellors&#8217;<\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">roles during camp activities, too: \u201cthey were always motivating the campers to be involved in as much as possible and to try things they never had before.\u201d With this wonderful network of support, perhaps it&#8217;s little surprise that Tha\u00eds didn&#8217;t miss home that much, especially as the picture she paints of a day at the camp is verging on the idyllic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1928 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG-20180920-WA0003-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"528\" height=\"396\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG-20180920-WA0003-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG-20180920-WA0003-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG-20180920-WA0003-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG-20180920-WA0003.jpg 1280w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 528px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 528\/396;\" \/><\/span><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">After getting up at 7.15am, the members of the cabin would walk together from the woods to the main camp area for breakfast, before a day of activities. The schedule for these changed each week, but every day had six periods of wide-ranging activity, such as climbing, outdoor cooking, and Tha\u00eds&#8217;s personal favourite, windsurfing. Although she had never windsurfed before, her experience doing stand up paddling with her father in Rio helped her take to it like a duck to water.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Camp life wasn&#8217;t entirely rosy, however. Cooking outside by an open fire, when it was already very sunny and hot, was sometimes a draining experience. But by far the most shocking thing for Tha\u00eds came at night during the walks back to the cabin, as they often involved frightening encounters with eight-legged beasts&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">\u201cThe spiders were the worst,\u201d she says, \u201cI cried a lot because of them! One time there was a spider in my bed and they had to take me out screaming!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Tha\u00eds laughs about it now and, spiders aside, she emphatically states that Camp Hazen was \u201cthe best experience I&#8217;ve ever had. I grew more than any other time in my life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As much as this is undoubtedly due to the fantastic environment created by the camp, credit too must go to Tha\u00eds herself. I&#8217;m struck by her maturity during our conversation and her advice to future camp-goers &#8211; \u201cBe positive. Enjoy it as much as you can. It&#8217;s great for your English and growing as a person\u201d &#8211; suggests she is someone who makes the most of the opportunities presented to her.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2183 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/25498141_1947144155552960_8975722039134793523_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"406\" height=\"541\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/25498141_1947144155552960_8975722039134793523_n.jpg 720w, https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/25498141_1947144155552960_8975722039134793523_n-225x300.jpg 225w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 406px) 100vw, 406px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 406px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 406\/541;\" \/><\/span><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Tha\u00eds evidently took this attitude into the last week of her stay with a host family, once the two weeks at camp<\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">were over. Though some shyness returned at first, Tha\u00eds formed a strong bond with the family over the course of the week. She refers to Kathleen, Joe, Eme, and Jackson not as \u201cmy host family,\u201d but simply \u201cmy family\u201d; to Eme as \u201cmy sister,\u201d and to Jackson as \u201cmy brother.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The highlight of this week was unquestionably a trip to New York City. Even though this came with a slight sense of disappointment \u2013 owing to her passion for ballet, Tha\u00eds had hoped to visit Gaynor Minden, only to find it closed on the day she went \u2013 she still thoroughly enjoyed her time in other stores, like M&amp;M, and at the theatre. Indeed, Tha\u00eds goes so far as to say that \u201cNew York felt like home: all the cars, people screaming all the time!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">We both laugh \u2013 not for the first time \u2013 at her characterisations of her home-town and the Big Apple. After camp, Tha\u00eds also delivered a speech at a fundraiser for\u00a0Brayce, one of Edumais\u2019s partners, about her experience at Camp Hazen. Once again, she had some butterflies in her stomach beforehand but overall was very happy with how it went. From the initial apprehension when she arrived at the camp, here Tha\u00eds was putting her much-improved English to use in public speaking.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1420 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/thais-and-the-us-exchange-program-6.jpg\" alt=\"Thais and the US exchange program | Volunteer Rio de Janeiro\" width=\"474\" height=\"428\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/thais-and-the-us-exchange-program-6.jpg 474w, https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/thais-and-the-us-exchange-program-6-300x271.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 474px) 100vw, 474px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 474px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 474\/428;\" \/><\/span><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Tha\u00eds fully deserves to feel proud of herself and her development, and I find myself feeling the same way about my involvement with EduMais while talking to her. Granting opportunities to talented, resolute young people like her is exactly what it is all about.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">When I ask her whether the experience has changed her ideas about the future, however, her short answer &#8211; \u201cno\u201d &#8211; leaves me a little disappointed. But it soon becomes clear that I&#8217;ve got the wrong end of the stick. \u201cNo,\u201d she says again, \u201cI still want to study medicine in the United States. It has made me more determined than ever.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Dreaming big, a mere three weeks in the United States have patently had a profound impact upon this intelligent, courageous, and admirable teenager. Tha\u00eds made lots of friends she is still in contact with and her confidence in English has grown immeasurably. Hopefully<\/span>\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">her time at Camp Hazen and with the host family has begun the process of realizing those dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1421 size-full lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/thais-and-the-us-exchange-program-7.jpg\" alt=\"Thais and the US exchange program | Volunteer Rio de Janeiro\" width=\"477\" height=\"428\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/thais-and-the-us-exchange-program-7.jpg 477w, https:\/\/edumais.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/thais-and-the-us-exchange-program-7-300x269.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 477px) 100vw, 477px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 477px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 477\/428;\" \/><\/span><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Author<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #000000;\">Zac Rowlinson<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leaving your place of birth for the first time can be a nerve-wracking experience. Without your family [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-nl"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u201cThe best experience I&#039;ve ever had!\u201d: Tha\u00eds and the US exchange program - EduMais<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/edumais.org\/nl\/blog-nl\/the-best-experience-ive-ever-had-thais-and-the-us-exchange-program\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"nl_NL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cThe best experience I&#039;ve ever had!\u201d: Tha\u00eds and the US exchange program - EduMais\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Leaving your place of birth for the first time can be a nerve-wracking experience. 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