002 Rotary

Let's kick off this blog with introducing the organization sending me to the world.

During WWII, Rotary clubs in Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Japan were forced to disband. Despite the risks, many continued to meet informally and following the war’s end, Rotary members joined together to rebuild their clubs and their countries. ― Rotary International

I think this is what makes Rotary so wonderful. The first time I met my local Rotary club, I immediately felt that sort of connection the members had. They care. I've never truly understood what being in a community meant before they chose me to be their exchange student and took me as part of their family. I couldn't be happier to go abroad through Rotary - and it's not just me, having a romanticized idea of this organization - every single one of the students I've talked with, that are Rotary Youth Exchange student's, share the same feeling with me. I'm one hundred percent sure that coming back to Finland next year doesn't mean my time as part of Rotary family isn't over - it may have only begun.

But as this is an exchange student's blog, I assume you'd like to know more about the way Rotary Youth Exchange a.k.a. RYE works (or at least how has it worked this far). I'm going to tell this all from my point of view as an outbound student - both pros and cons.



+ The feeling that Rotary care's about you. You are not just a number.
I already mentioned it, but let me just tell you how every time the youth exchange correspondent has called me and asked how am I, wished me merry Christmas and a happy new year, brought cookies, played "connect four" with my mother, invited us for Christmas porridge with my Rotary club and later to his own home for coffee... I mean I love this man, he somehow feels like the second grandfather I never had. And all the other members of the Rotary club? They are all interested to hear how I'm doing, specially regarding to my exchange year. Some of them hug me. I love hugs.

+ Cheaper than other exchange organizations.
My family hasn't got the extra money to spend on the commercial organizations like STS or Explorius. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with those organizations, but seriously. Why would I pay over 6.000€ when I can out in the world with half that price through Rotary? Sure, not everyone who applies get picked when it comes to Rotary - other organizations send almost anyone who has the money - but Rotary doesn't aim to get profit from it. It's purely voluntary work that runs this "business".

+ Rotex.
Run by ex-exchange student's, Rotex is an organization and community that will allow me to keep contact with my Rotary friends even after my year abroad in form of camps, reunions and other functions. How awesome is that?

+/- 3-4 host families.
This is probably the most opinion dividing thing about the exchange year. You will be living with three or four different host families. I've assumed this is because you can't actually have a family host a student for the whole school year for free on top of different other things. But if the family got paid for hosting, it would ruin the meaning of voluntary work. Dividing the hosting to three or four host families delete's that problem.
At first I thought that having to change the families is a bad thing, but the more I thought about it, I realized that with having to change the families I get to make more friends and contacts and have more diverse year. If I, for some reason, don't get well with one family, it doesn't mean my whole year will be problematic. Sadly, it also means that no matter how in love would I be with one of the families, I would have to leave them sooner or later. Luckily being in a different family doesn't mean I can't spend time with the other families.

- There is problems.
Now, imagine this: You are aware of that 15-page-long application monster that's deadline is on 31st of December. There's about three weeks to that day. You have school only for a bit over a week left, and you know the application has things that you need to discuss with the school. You also need to have a dental health check and a physical health check, but as the Christmas holiday is about to begin, the health-care center's schedule is almost full. Here's the catch: You haven't even got the link to the website where you can start filling the application. You're not entirely sure when you are going to get it.
As you may guess, I have some personal experience about this phenomenon, and so does surprisingly many other RYE student. It seems that even though there has been a training for the youth exchange correspondents, they still don't really know how things actually work. The correspondents change quite often in the clubs, and that is not a good thing in my opinion. When changing the correspondent that often, they don't have any experience and the help they can offer is rather limited compared to those who have done it for several years without any breaks.

The situation I described is a stressful and frustrating one, also because these so many little details in the application that we students wonder and worry about. But that leads to the last thing in the list:

+ My sweet honey boo boos.
In other words: my Rotary exchange student peers. They have been an amazing support during the "application-era". Without their help I probably would have had a mental breakdown or something like that. They are weird, wicked, wonderful morons to who I talk every single day. They are already one of my best friends!

So, these are my feelings about Rotary and Rotary Youth Exchange so far. Is there anything you'd like to add to that list? What about your own experiences of your organization (it doesn't have to be about Rotary)? Share your experience with me, guys!