Not your average Eagle. Imagine leaving all your friends, family and your dream of becoming an olympian behind. Not only do you not know anyone but the language is completely different and you’re taking a break from your dreams.

Just like his dad, Humberto Pereira Lima is following the same footsteps to study english in the U.S., taking a break from training to become an olympic horseback rider. He has traveled over 5,000 miles from Brazil to study for a semester in Colorado. He said “I like the country here, mostly because of English and I didn’t want to go to England.” Not only did he choose to study in the U.S. but he chose to study in Colorado. “I like Colorado because it’s beautiful, I have the mountains, I can snowboard and ski, hot weather in summer, cold weather in winter, it’s a little bit of everything,” he said.

Besides choosing Colorado as his home for this semester, Humberto’s outgoing personality has made him many friends and strong relationships. His host mom Jeanette said, “Humberto is very outgoing and brings lots of fun, positive energy wherever he goes. It’s been nice to have him as part of our family.”

Making strong relationships with a teacher is always important. Humberto’s favorite teacher is Zechman. Humberto said “he’s just awesome, there are no words to describe him, he’s just the coolest teacher ever.” Mr. Zechman is a teacher that is loved by many students at the school. Not only does Humberto love Mr. Zechman but Mr. Zechman loves having him in class. Mr. Zechman said “ He’s very good, he’s outgoing, he’s funny. That’s the thing I’ve noticed about lots of the foreign exchange students, are funny, outgoing and are able to acclimate the United States because of their personalities.”

America is very different from other countries. One of the major differences is food. As some students go to Noodles, Chipotle or Starbucks for lunch, many exchange students find it strange. For Humberto, food struck him as a huge difference. “It’s very fat, lots of fast foods, we usually have lunch like dinner, a big meal, and here it’s just a snack, it’s too little for me, I like big lunches and big dinners, so thats a problem,” said Humberto.

Aside from food, school is also a huge difference in the U.S. Humberto said “Brazil is much harder, the things I am learning in classes now, I learned one or two years ago, the differences is that we use a lot of paper there and I’m not use to all this technology, it’s been hard for me.”

For many of us, soccer, tennis, football and basketball are common sports that are played at Broomfield High School. For Humberto, common sports are fun but isn’t what he loves the most. While at Broomfield, Humberto has joined the cross country team but it isn’t his true calling. Horseback riding is. “I have rode for 12 years, so I was six when I started, a passion is growing inside of me and my true dream is to represent my country in the Olympics and I’m working for that. When I return to Brazil besides going to college, I will try to get into the next olympics, not Tokyo but the next one that is in Los Angeles,” Humberto said.

Being an exchange student is different but being an aspiring olympic horseback rider makes Humberto an eagle to watch. So if you see him in the hall or at the next olympics, know that he was once an eagle and once an eagle always an eagle.