Brooke D’Angelo
The Las Vegas Rotary Club is proud to be sponsoring Brooke D’Angelo, currently studying in Taiwan for the 2017/2018 school year.
April 10, 2018
Dear Rotary Club of Las Vegas:
I would like to start by saying thank you for everything you guys have done for me! I couldn’t have been able to have the experience of a lifetime without all the help and support!
I am Brooke D’Angelo. I am 15 years old and am a Rotary Youth Exchange student from Las Vegas sponsored by your club, the Las Vegas Rotary Club. Currently I am in Taipei Taiwan. I have had so many lifetime experiences out here! I’ve experienced earthquakes. Let me tell you, they scared me so much, but I got through it and am glad I didn’t get injured in the 6.8 earthquake that I experienced!
I’ve also made a lot of friends from around the world that I have had some good times with! If only the rest of the world got along the way most of us exchange students do! Well, I have currently been in Taiwan for 7 ½ months and have 2 ½ left. I’ve learned so much about Taiwan’s culture and done things I never would have thought about doing. I’ve learned to be independent and to do things on my own. Out here, I have had to do a lot of things on my own and pay for a lot of my own things. I have experienced a small part of how the real world really is.
Taiwan is so different from what I expected. There’s so many strange foods. I tried quite a few of them and let’s just say, I have become very picky of what I eat now. But that was something I am glad I was able to be a part of.
Also, school is completely different from what I thought. Their school hours run from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Such a long time to be in school, but they have nap time from 12:30 to 1:00. That’s quite nice I think. The school building is so much different too. There are around ten floors and two different buildings. I attend an all-girls school so that’s different from anything I’m used to.
Another thing is their vacations. They don’t have almost any, no Christmas break here because they don’t celebrate anything like we do. But they do have Chinese New Year where we had the entire month of February off of school. That was so interesting to me but also nice at the same time. So many family members gave me money or gifts and I kind of felt bad because I didn’t understand this holiday. But I didn’t want to be rude, so I got around 3,000 NTD (100ish USD)! They also celebrated Halloween out here and I ended up winning one of the competition prizes for most creative. Then for new year Taipei 101 which is the tallest building in Taiwan, they had a fireworks show which was very interesting to see. I stayed out until 3 in the morning with exchange students because our host families were flexible.
Anyways I have made this video of most of my experiences out here and would like to share it with you guys. Thank you for everything and allowing me to experience this!
Sincerely,
Brooke D’Angelo
Rotary Youth Exchange Student
District 5300