Mateo on the Beach in Brasil So I've been a world away from home for 4 months and 10 days, and I have come to a point that I dont really know where home is. I know I'm from a little city called Boerne and I have a great family that loves me there and I have some super friends who love me too, but I'm not sure if that's home. On this trip I was just on with a bunch of other exchange students, we had to specify between home in brasil and home in our respective countries. it was "home", or "home home" . Back at "home" i have a dog named Joi, at "home home" i have one named Toby. This was weird to me. Home Home Is Where the Heart Is. And to take it a step further, as we traveled together, all 75 of us from all over the world, I felt more at home with them than i had for the past 3 months at "home" in Brasil. I felt so at home in the big yellow bus, even if someone made a stinky in the toilet. During this Christmas season, I know I miss home, but I'm just really confused where it is. Is it in my backyard in Boerne? In my hammock here in Brasil? Is it in my mothers arms? In a PBandJ sandwich next to a cup of hot chocolate? Is it in front of the tv with my best friends breaking down an american football game? Is it with all my exchange student friends on the beach or in the hotel past curfew? Or is it in myself?

Name: Mateo Clarke

Host Country: Brasil!!!

Email Address: clarkeme@ktc.com

1) Is this exchange experience what you thought it would be?

No, It’s so much more. The people I’m meeting, especially some of the exchange students I traveled with were the most amazing people I've ever met. At times it’s conflicting because I’m enjoying it so much here, but half of me is in different place. However, I’m loving it and couldn’t have hoped for anything better.

2) On a scale of 1-10, where would you say your host language skills are? Why?

7. I understand everything, almost everything. Especially in one on one conversation. But Brazilian-Portuguese has a lot of slang, which makes conversation with my peers at times difficult. But speaking is a different story. There are so many verb tenses that the only way to learn them is by practice. It doesn’t help that I spent the last month traveling with a groups of exchange students who, all but a few, spoke English fluently. It’s coming.