YOUTH EXCHANGE:
Report from Youth Exchange Student in India

Hello from India!!

I hear you have some pretty cold weather going on in Minnesota . . . I don't know whether to be jealous or not. The weather here is hot, but I'm getting used to it.

I'm living with my third host family so far, and it's been a bit crazy moving around so much, but I'm loving where I am. On Saturday I attended the Nagara Festival of Dance, Drama, and Music, a district level cultural competition for Rotary District 3150. Okay, so maybe by the end I had a splitting headache from microphone overuse, but other than that, it was a BLAST. Rotarians and their family members (and me) got up on the stage to perform traditional songs and dances, either in groups or solo, for a panel of judges. I was a little freaked out that they asked me to participate, but I bravely got on the stage (first! They made me go first!) and sang “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” because I figured Lake Superior was as Minnesotan as I was going to get. In the end I was glad they had me go first, because then I was able to sit back and enjoy the rest of the Festival without panicking about having to go sing in front of a huge audience. It was really interesting to watch, too, because the dances and songs were all from different Indian cultures, so you could see the different styles and traditions.

One thing I've found that really surprised me here is that many Rotarians haven't even heard of RYE. I'm the only exchange student in the district, which is kind of cool, but also kind of strange. I've had no end of people asking to host me, so I find it surprising that there aren't more exchange students out here. And when people hear that our MN district has sent out 70 students, they are really impressed. So I'm here in India, getting all the attention to myself, looking off the balcony at the palm trees, and wishing warm weather to you all in MN!

Amalia Hertel