Every year, Middlebury Union High School accepts several foreign exchange students into its community. It’s no secret that the exchange program works both ways – students from Middlebury leave here to attend high schools in other countries. But most of us see only the visitors who come to live among us.

Anicka Galipeau, a 17 year-old-senior at Middlebury, agreed to talk about her experience as a Vermonter living abroad. She went to school last year in Ferdanopolis, a community of about 65,000 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, through the Youth Exchange Program run by Rotary International.

Galipeau said she went overseas looking for new experiences. “I wanted to learn a different language, and experience a different culture, and learn how to adapt to a different environment,” she said. She had no knowledge of Portuguese, the national language of Brazil.

Learning Portuguese was not the most difficult part of being abroad, Galipeau said. “It’s not as hard as you would think, because you’re surrounded by it all day, every day,” she said. Sometimes not knowing the language created awkward situations for her, but she also said Brazilians were willing to help out.

Faster than she realized, the language became a part of her life. When you’re using another language all the time, she said, “you don’t even realize you’re learning it”.

Besides Portuguese, Galipeau learned many other things about Brazilian culture. Adapting to the culture was one of the more challenging things she had to do. The Brazilian diet of rice and beans was different. She said eating the same thing every day made her miss her parents’ home-cooked meals, and miss the variety and freedom of choice Americans enjoy in terms of food. However, she eventually adapted.

Religion was also a major cultural change. In Middlebury, she said, she attended church only once or twice a year. In Brazil, most people attended church every Monday night.
“I went in blindly,” she said. “I was expected to go to church even though I had no idea what was going on.” She said the most noticeable difference at a Brazilian service was something called the cleansing of the youth. After every Monday night ceremony, she said, all youths in attendance sat in a circle while a religious leader cleansed their aura.

The level of income was also different. “People learn to live with less; overall it’s a more simple way of life,” she said. However, people took pride in what they owned. They took care of their homes, and the city was always clean, even though people had notably less money.

While immersed in a new culture, Galipeau also was immersed into a new family life. That was not always easy. Members of her first host family seemed closed off and busy, she said, making them hard to get to know. She felt awkward and uncomfortable living with them. After the exchange organization allowed her to switch families, she moved to a different home she found more open and friendly. Her second host family helped her feel more at home in Brazil, she said.

Her host families never replaced her family of origin, however, and Galipeau said homesickness was one of her biggest difficulties. She was often homesick around the holidays. Brazilian traditions are not the same as holiday traditions here. She said being an exchange student makes you miss the simple things like Christmas dinner with your family.

“Your family is your support system; without them you are a mess,” she said. Being so far from Vermont helped her see how much her family means to her, she said.

Being immersed in a new culture roughly 6,000 miles from home can make a person feel isolated and lonely. When Galipeau encountered these feelings, she sought the support and understanding of other foreign exchange students.

“Having other students that were experiencing the same situation as I was made my experience much easier and much more fun, because I had people like myself to interact with,” she said. She conversed and made friends with two students from Germany, one from Mexico, and one from Florida. Learning about their cultures, and becoming friends with them, might have been the best part of her experience, she said.

Not all of Galipeau’s experiences were positive. In fact, she cut short her trip to return home earlier than planned.

She said the organization she traveled with was not as supportive as she would have liked. When she had concerns and brought them to the organization, its representatives often told her to “stick it out.” Officials with Evanston, Ill.-based Rotary International did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At one point, the principal at her school told her to sit in the back of the classroom, which held about 40 students. She had been seated in the front row. She said she found it impossible from that vantage point to learn.

She requested to switch to the school her host sisters attended, but the agency would not allow it. Nor would it allow her to switch families a second time. She felt stuck; she came to feel it was useless to be in Brazil if she wasn’t learning in school and was isolated from her peers.

Even though her experience was not perfect, she grew through it, she said. Despite her troubles with the agency and host family, “90% of the people were awesome,” she said. She also said Brazil is a wonderful country, and she misses the city, culture, and even the language.
“I miss Portuguese; I’m hungry to speak it,” she said during the interview

The most important thing Galipeau said she learned was to avoid taking the things you have for granted. When you go abroad, she said, everything is different. You learn to appreciate simple things like food and family.

“There’s really cool and interesting things about every country and every culture, but nothing will ever be like home. Home will always be your home,” she said.

Galipeau said her experience was worthwhile; however she warns others that studying abroad can be challenging. “Doing an exchange year is so much fun, obviously, but it challenges you as a person, and requires major adaptability and flexibility.”

If you are considering doing an exchange year, Galipeau has two pieces of advice. First, get to know your host family, as they are the ones who can support you the most. It will make the experience much easier. Second, be yourself, so you enjoy the experience to the fullest.