An Article about my Sister and Me :)

My school district in Houston wrote and article about me and my sister on their website. I was so excited to find it so I'm posting it here. Enjoy.

HAIS twin seniors take on first solo adventures abroad

2013 JULY 10

by HISD Communications

In this week’s I am HISD, which features district students, graduates, employees, and other members of Team HISD, identical twin sisters Jacqueline and Stephanie Delcid talk about why they chose to attend the Houston Academy for International Studies (HAIS), what compelled them to spend their last year of high school abroad, and how they will handle their first real separation since birth.

Let’s start with HAIS. What made you decide to go there? What attracted you?

Stephanie (left) and Jacqueline Delcid

Stephanie: My sister received a letter from the school, so we went over there. My mom was the one who was really interested in it, but it seemed so small. Everyone seemed like a family. It was just a really nice environment.

Jacqueline: They offered free college classes, which intrigued me, and the possibility of graduating with an associate’s degree. I just wanted to be ahead. Also, it’s international studies, and students have so many opportunities to travel abroad. Like, some of my classmates went to Egypt! And I thought, “Okay, I want to do that, too.” I just liked everything about it. It’s really small, and everybody knows your name—even the principal. I really fell in love with the school.

So, only Jackie got a letter from HAIS inviting her to come check it out? How strange…

Jacqueline: Yeah. It was weird. They only sent the one letter, but while I was there, I picked up an application for my sister and one for my cousin, too. 

Wait, your cousin is a student there, too? Will she be going abroad as well?

Jacqueline: Yes, she’s a student there, but she went abroad last year to Germany and France. It was a different kind of trip that students have to pay for themselves.

Jacqueline, you’ll be leaving for Malaysia on Monday, and Stephanie, you’ll be traveling to Brazil at the end of the month through BP’s Global Citizens of Tomorrow scholarships. Both of you will be gone for a full year. How do you plan to keep in touch? Do either of you speak the languages primarily used in those areas?

Stephanie: No. I don’t know any Portuguese, but our host families speak English, and I’m going to complete a Rosetta Stone course online. Our parents bought us laptops, and we’ve already checked with our host families and confirmed that they have WiFi, so we’ll be Skype-ing each other a lot. They told us to try not to contact our families more than about once a month, but we’re probably going to break that rule.

How did you get involved with the Global Citizens of Tomorrow? Did you have any say in where you would be sent? Could you have travelled together if you wished to?

Stephanie: No, during our interview, they made it clear that even if we were going to be in the same country, we wouldn’t even be close to one another. But we applied to the same places. Her number one choice was my number one, too. I was kind of shocked we’d be going to different countries. But it will be a new experience.

We heard about it through our business English teacher. She gave us a grade to apply to scholarships to study abroad and we just got kept going and going until we had the interview. Then we were all excited about it, because the year before, we had tried to go to China for two weeks, and we made the interview but didn’t get picked. We saw this as another opportunity to go there, but we couldn’t because we didn’t meet the age requirement. Brazil, India, and Malaysia were our only choices.

Your principal said you’ve never spent even a single day apart since birth. Is that true? How do you handle slumber parties and stuff? And how do you feel about being separated for the first time?

Stephanie: Our parents are really strict, so they don’t let us go to any sleepovers at anyone else’s house. We fight a lot and we argue, but at the end of the day, we might be silent for an hour…

Jacqueline: Or like five minutes.

Stephanie: …and then after that, it’s like it never happened.

Jacqueline: I feel kind of nervous. I’m always looking to my sister when anything happens. We decide practically everything together, even down to what to eat for lunch, so making my own decisions will be different. We’ll Skype and email whenever we can, but there’s going to be a big time difference, so email will probably work best.

Spending your senior year abroad is a pretty brave thing to do.  Will you be able to walk the stage with your friends when you graduate?

Stephanie: No. Since we’re seniors, they’ll transfer our credits back to HAIS and we’ll graduate from there, but I was excited because I was going to graduate in the top quarter of my class. Last time I checked, I was eighth, but now I won’t even be ranked.

Jacqueline: I feel excited because not many people can say, “I spent my senior year in another country.” But then missing prom and not being able to walk the stage… I’m going to miss that, but it’ll all be worth it in the end. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we can’t miss out on that.

http://blogs.houstonisd.org/communitynews/?p=2813

Camping at Tanah Aina

From being crowded in a bus with tons of people hectic to get somewhere, to traveling to the middle of the jungle to camp beside the river and become one with nature. It was a dramatic change, but it's what Malaysia is all about. They have amazing architecture that looks out of this world with high end hotels and restaurants and shopping centers where one can get the latest fashions, yet they have still managed to conserve their beautiful rain forests.
Although it was a bit too luxurious to be called real camping, it was still quite the experience.

They were waiting for us with drink and wet towels :)

Excited to live in the jungle 

Durian! :)

Our front yard :)

Inside the tent, complete with a bed each and a fan 

This was the bigger tent for four people

Getting ready to jump at the Leap of Faith! In the end I got too scared and didn't do it

The morning walk was lovely 

Durian Tree

Biggest Durian I've ever seen 

 TV, table, two comfy couches and books and magazines to keep entertained 

Vacation With The Family: First Stop Kuala Lumpur!

So this weekend was a three day weekend due to Malaysia day on Monday September 16. My host family planned a trip to go camping. It's a little difficult having a trip like this and having the whole family together since two of there children are in boarding school (this is very common in Malaysia), and one in University.
On Friday we left early to meet up there only son, Aiman, in Kuala Lumpur. He goes to school in Perak which is an 8 hour drive from Johor Bahru. It's only a 4 hour drive to KL so it was much easier to meet him up there. Also my host sister studies in the University in Kuala Lumpur so it was two birds in one stone. Unfortunately one of my host sisters couldn't make it because she had a school activity she could not get out of.
We went to go pick up Aiman at the bus station and then we went to a mall in KLCC. That night we ate at T.G.I. Friday's. I loved it because although it wasn't exactly like home it's way closer then a lot of the things I've eaten so far. It was a great experience although it was super busy in K.L. There was a lot of people everywhere, and when we took the public transportation, there was barely enough room to stand.

Inside the Mall

Leaving KL

Dance Camp

This past week has been very exciting and super busy. From learning traditional Malay dances to walking the busy of streets of KL, to camping in the jungle to shopping in Ipoh and visiting one of the most beautiful mosques in Perak, I got to see many parts of Malaysia. First up, dance camp. It was located at Hotel Pelangi in Muar, a royal city of Johor. It was very tiring practicing our routines all day. It was almost as tiring as band camp, but this time it was only for four days so it wasn't too bad. The song that I danced to was Dondang Sayang which means love ballad. It originated in Malacca and is influenced by traditional Portuguese folk music. The type of dance is the Baba Nonya dance which is the term used to describe Chinese immigrants from the late 15th and 16th century in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Baba are the boys and Nonya are the girls. This dance is very graceful and is is danced with a handkerchief always in hand. There were also other dances performed as well such as candle dances, and a dance about crabs. It was  lot of fun to perform and even more fun to see others act like crabs on stage. 

Ready to perform in our traditional Malay clothes 

U.S Embassy Visit

     This week the American AFSers had the opportunity to go to the U.S Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. We all went for a security briefing. They told us about how we had to be careful about going in taxis alone because there has been cases were the taxi driver's weren't real taxi drivers and end up kidnapping women. Also they told us about avoiding areas that border Thailand and Malaysia because there has been some terrorist activity. It's not a big problem, but it's something to watch out for. Everything else was common sense though, like don't go into dark alleys, don't leave your phone on top of the table.
     Afterwards they asked us if we would be interested in helping come up ideas for the script of a movie Oh My English. Oh My English is a a comedy and educational TV show here in Malaysia. It is meant to improve the grammar and pronunciation of English here in Malaysia. They are now working on a movie for Oh My English where they will send the cast to the United States and they will go to high schools in the U.S. I thought it was very cool that they would be asking for our help.

       They also told us that we might even get the chance to meet Barack Obama! I'm not entirely sure of that and neither are they, but it would be amazing if they could make it happen.

I was the only one not ready

Walking down the streets of KL