Carlyle Howard, a rising senior at McLean High School, spent her junior year in Brazil, attending school and learning Portuguese as an exchange student and writing of her adventure in McLean Patch. She was on a Rotary International Scholarship and  has returned home. Saturday, June 4, 2011 This will be one of my last blog posts (I might post one after I get home). Today is Saturday, my bags are packed, and my plane leaves tomorrow at 1pm. I literally cannot believe it. I don't want to go. The last few months have been a blur, but an amazing blur. It passed by so fast. I felt like this city is…

Carlyle Howard, a McLean resident and McLean High School student, is spending a year in Brazil. By Carlyle Howard The third week in February my mom  came to visit me from the U.S.! It was amazing to see her again. Being 16 or 17 and not seeing your parents for a whole year kind of sucks. I mean, my friends know it is hard but they really have no idea what it is like, the longest they've been away from their parents is maybe a week or two. Living  here has made me look at things in such a different way. I always thought that I was cultured and well-traveled. I lived in Chile for four  years, …

 Carlyle Howard, a student at McLean High School, is spending her junior year in high school as an exchange student in Brazil on a Rotary Scholarship. She is spending Christmas away from her McLean family for the first time.  She writes regularly about her adventure for McLean Patch. Oi! So I haven't written in a while, and a lot of stuff has been going on since I last wrote. About a week after my last post, I switched families. The family I'm with now wasn't originally going to host someone, but I became really good friends with a girl from my school (Fernanda) and she invited me to live …