Coupeville Sports

Julia Borges (Photo courtesy Borges)

Coupeville cheer will have a Brazilian accent this year.

This addition of foreign exchange student Julia Borges adds a big city touch to small town athletics.

The newest Wolf hails from São Paulo, the most populous city in the Western hemisphere and the 13th biggest in the entire world.

Estimates of the population run from 11-19 million (depending on whether you count the metropolitan area surrounding the city).

And now Borges will call Coupeville, with a population of less than 1,900, home for the next school year.

The quiet, and the weather, have been the biggest transitions so far.

“I was afraid to live in a town so different from Sao Paulo, but I am adjusting so well here!,” Borges said. “My host family is so nice and everyone I have already met is nice and helpful too!

“That is the biggest surprise I had and my biggest challenge here is the cold weather, which I am not used to.”

Borges has many supporters back home (“I have a big family with a lot of cousins and relatives”) and their faith in her made it easier to travel around the globe.

“I always wanted to be an exchange student and my family always supported that idea!,” Borges said. “I intend to improve my English, to be more independent, to meet new people and to have a different experience!”

Like most foreign exchange students, she had no idea where she would end up, but she’s quickly adjusting to the culture shock.

“Coupeville was a surprise destination and now I am sure it is the perfect town for my exchange!,” Borges said. “Everybody here is so friendly and nice!”

While she’s never been a cheerleader before, Borges, who hopes to also play tennis for CHS in the spring, has been a dancer for most of her life, which should help.

“It is not common to have cheer-leading team in Brazil, so that is a different experience that all the Brazilian girls would like to have,” she said. “I love dancing and I have been practicing it in Brazil since I was a child, so being a cheerleader is similar.”

Borges also plays the piano and enjoys movies and music. After her year in America, she plans to return to her home country and study architecture.

And, while her Coupeville odyssey is just beginning, she already has plans for return visits.

“I intend to come back here later and visit everyone from Coupeville that I will miss so much!”