An Inconvenient Truth: Exchange Student Edition

After my last blog-posting binge, I skyped with my dad who told me, "You know, Monie, they don't all have to be upbeat." So, with his blessing, I'm going to tell you the complete and totally sucky truth about some parts of youth exchange.
WARNING: If you like to worry, skip over this post.

If I had a pão de queijo for every time I hear how great an experience youth exchange is, I would have hit the obesity mark long ago. And you know what? Usually I'm the one who is saying it. This is a fantastic opportunity that an unfortunately few number of people get to experience. I am completely grateful for everything I have learned here and for what Rotary has done for me. I have come so far and grown so much in such a short amount of time, and that is something I value beyond comprehension, but I would be lying in the extreeeeeeme if I said it was easy.
There is nothing –and i really mean nothing– easy about being an exchange student. Well, actually, now that I think about it, it is really, sublimely simple to give up. To just stop trying. That's super easy. But honestly, some days that IS what you do. Sometimes I get so frustrated that i just don't want to hear Portuguese. I don't want to think in Portuguese. I don't want to talk in Portuguese. I don't want any more red meat and I would really like some air conditioning. Somedays you get so completely exhausted that all you want to do is sleep. You don't have the energy to socialize, to think, to even try. Some days, you get stuck in the "I'm crazy! Why did I do this?!" mindset. Am I guilty of this? Of course, just like I'm sure most exchange students are.
I've had days there I just try to be invisible. I've even hit a low and spent a day of school writing a 5 page long list of complaints and things I miss from home. This isn't to say I don't like it here, it's just that some days everything looks grey and miserable, no matter the country you're in.
Quite frankly, homesickness sucks. It really bites. And there's nothing you can do about it. The only thing you can do is keep living in your foreign land, and that is the only thing that is going to help you get out of your slump. You can either buck up, or go home, because if you don't move forward, you will be miserable. GUARANTEED You want to rely on the little comforts of home as a crutch, but you simply can't. I remember when our maid, Maria, finally washed all of the clothes I had brought with me, and they came back smelling like a new laundry detergent, I wanted to cry. You're unaware of the weight of little things like the smell of fresh laundry, a favorite couch, or whole wheat bread until you have to go completely without them. The problem isn't living without them, but dwelling on their absence. If you try and match everything in your new life to your old life back in your home country, you're exchange is not going to be successful. And that is the most painful part. That you are American (or French, or German, or Japanese, or whatever you are) but you can't live like you're used to. You have to live like a Brazilian now (or Mexican, or Pole, or Argentinian, or whichever applies to you). It's really scary and really difficult when you're the one who has to adapt, but it's even more difficult to try and make everyone else adapt to you. The only thing that you can do is take Dory's advice and just keep swimming (just keep swimming, swimming, swimming!).
For anyone who is considering becoming an exchange student; don't let this post stop you. Living away is so incredibly hard, but just realizing this alone is so rewarding. The ups are really high, and the downs are really low, but overall I would say: Se voce tem a chance para fazer intercambio, FAÇA! Porque é uma coisa que permite-te creser e descobrir mais do que voce nunca pode imaginar e é totalmente imposivel para explicar.

Wait, what would she say?