Filed under: Depression, Exchange Students, Outbounds Outbounds | Tags: Blog, homesick
Another student is homesick.
This is a 
I have a new blogroll addition. The blog is named “Deutschland.” It’s not the typical exchange student blog. Clint writes to help potential students who want to go to Germany. Check it out. He isn’t finished yet, but the different topics are useful. And he can steal whatever he wants from my site as long as he credits me.
M, what’s your professional German opinion?
Helpful hints: Spell foreign, exchange, and student correctly. Lots of people get those wrong.
In the last three months, my top searches have been culture shock and homesickness. I have different stats for ‘severe homesickness,’ ‘exchange student homesickness,’ ‘exchange student homesick,’ ‘severe homesick,’ ‘im homesick,’ and ‘homesickness for foreign exchange students.’ I didn’t realize how precise the search engines are now. It makes sense, this is the time of year for new students and families to experience culture shock and homesickness.
Many searches are for ‘gay exchange student,’ ‘gay exchange students,’ and ‘gay foreign exchange students.’ More detailed search history is only shown for the preceding 7 days. That’s where I see all the misspellings. (Please remember it’s GLBT, not LBGT.) Youth exchange welcomes gay students.
I got a kick out of how many people arrived here by searching for chipmonkey, chorrillana, and ear picks. (The plural of monkey isn’t monkies.) I don’t know what people are searching for, but it’s Palin, not Parlin, and I’m, not im. Typing accurately will yield better results. So will not voting for Palin.
I love FES blogs. It’s amazing that I can keep up with students in almost real time. It’s incredible reading about Bolivia, France, or Korea. The descriptions of daily life aren’t available anyplace else. I think the small insignificant details are what I most enjoy.
When I first started volunteering, students wrote home. I’d get a letter 3 or 4 times during their year. Kids phoned home on Christmas and Mother’s Day or in case of a disaster. Exchange program rules and advice haven’t changed quickly enough to keep up with technology.
Students can now publicly share their experiences with the world. I don’t think the students realize everyone has access to the internet. They seem to think only friends and family back home will read their blogs. That misperception causes problems. Problems for me, them, and the program.
“They can’t read English.” “She doesn’t know how to use a computer.” “He doesn’t have internet access.” “How could they ever find it?” “They’ll never find it.” All false. Host families and counselors find the blogs. If they can’t read English, they’ll find someone to translate for them. Sometimes they don’t like what they read. Can we say “causing an international incident?” We had a student in Asia write (mildly) about how boring school was to him. You would have thought he wrote his family was sacrificing goats in the living room and virgins in the garden. His host parents, school, program chairman, country chairman, and counselor all complained to our country chairman here. Many people were involved, trying to smooth things over. The student was close to termination. We’ve had problems with devious hostfathers. Some of them spend hours looking for their student’s blog. Then they complain when they find it. It happens more often than you’d imagine.
Feelings get hurt. People become angry. I get bitched at. It could all be avoided if the students would just follow my advice. I don’t want to hear “I’m just being honest.” That’s fine, but you don’t have to tell everything. I believe you can either be honest with your writing, or honest about your identity.
- Don’t blog under your real name.
- Change the name of your school. People here in the states don’t know or care about the school’s name.
- If you’re the only student in your town, change the name slightly.
- Change the state where you’re from online. Your friends at home know you’re from Illinois, not Indiana.
- Someone ‘knowing’ you write a blog, and proving you’re the author are very different.
- Never name your program. “Don’t bite that hand that feeds you” comes to mind. The program sent you abroad. In return, you have to put up with rules and boring inconvenient meetings.
- Don’t write about your wild night making a porn movie while you were drunk, and how difficult it was to drive without dropping your bong.
I’ve written about anonymity before.
Please welcome the latest exchange student blog, France, Je t’aime. She loves vintage clothing, shopping, and Starbucks. She hates almost everything else. Not really, but it’s a fun blog. The girl bitches and snarks like me, but she’s also a romantic. I wish her well, and hopes she makes it to Hermes, Chanel, and Dior in Paris.
Filed under: Culture, Exchange Students, Outbounds Outbounds | Tags: Blog, Bolivia
I found a new blog that I’m excited to share it with you. FES is in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. “Existence in the Heart of South America” is beautifully written, with a lot of detail. I appreciate a strong point of view. His experience in Bolivia is deeply personal, and I don’t have the same perspective. FES wrote that women drivers are rare, and that wasn’t my experience. He writes about things I forget or don’t think to mention. He wrote about the filth in Santa Cruz. I forgot about how much litter there is in South America. It’s something I just don’t notice. (I also don’t notice dust or dirty dishes. I can walk past clutter for months without seeing it.) He wrote about difficulty getting time alone. I forgot about that, too. I need time to myself daily. I go crazy when I have to talk to people nonstop. Go read the blog before I just ruin it and tell you everything the kid wrote.
ETA: I removed the link. He’s hurting people’s feelings.
I should never complain again. But we all know I’ll be back to bitching soon. I’m feeling very grateful tonight.
Look at this site. Rags To Pads is a website started by two Americans to try to raise $5,000.00 in India. It will benefit a girls school called Pardada Pardadi and local women. The goal is to purchase a machine and raw materials to manufacture menstrual pads.
I feel comfortable sharing this site because I know someone who knows the founder of the school. She has helped the school in the past.
Why are these Americans trying to raise money? According to Pardada Pardadi, most rural Indian women and girls catch numerous vaginal infections after attaining puberty. The reason is because they use dirty or unsanitized cloth during menstruation — because they cannot afford hygienically-prepared sanitary pads. Can you imagine how that would impact your entire life? Vaginal infections and UTIs often. I would imagine you could lose fertility, and time off of caring for your family, or work.
Go to the site, and look around. Go to the school’s site, and thank the deity of your choice that you have so much.
I found out about this school and the Rags to Pads project because I was asked to help with a project for this school. The project is making hair ribbons. I thought it was a stupid ‘feel good’ project, and mentioned it to an Indian acquaintance. She sent me links to the school. I would be happy to donate spools of ribbon to the school, but I am donating a gigantic bag full of hygiene products. I’m not sitting around for an afternoon making scrunchies. It’s insulting to everyone. Crap, that sounded like me bitching. Sorry.
Follow Yolei during her year in South Korea as a Rotary Exchange Student. Her blog tells of her experience as a Japanese-American living in Minnesota moving to South Korea for exchange.
Please welcome Nicole to my blogroll. Nicole is going to Budapest, Hungary with Rotary Youth Exchange this month. I wish her all the best, and look forward to reading her posts.
