EMails & Pics from Abroad 2009

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From Neil in Denmark 7/8/10

Hej Allesammen,

As I'm writing this, I have just a few hours left in Denmark. It's a pretty strange feeling.  The last month and a half have been really great though.  Euro Tour was a really incredible two and a half weeks and perhaps the best part of this whole year.  Since then, it's just been a lot of being with friends and enjoying ourselves before we have to say goodbye.

      As I said before, Euro tour was quite amazing, perhaps the best part of my year here.  From Denmark, there were three buses that left on three separate days, each filled with exchange students from different parts of the country.  My bus had almost 70 exchange from Sjæland (the island Copenhagen is on), accompanied by two former rotary exchange student chaperones, a tour guide, and a bus driver.  We left the 26th, driving first to Berlin.  We typically stayed in each city two nights, driving rather early after the second night.  Berlin was one of the less eventful cities we went to, with the weather being less than spectacular and us still getting into the groove of the trip.  We did, however, get to see the Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, and Check Point Charlie.  From there we went to Prague, stopping on the way at concentration camp in the Czech Republic.  In Prague, the weather was beautiful and spent our time walking around the old city, seeing some beautiful buildings and sites.  We had to be back home relatively early and normal rotary rules were still in effect, thus we could not partake in the Prague night night life.  We next traveled to Vienna, which I quite enjoyed.  It had a very imperial feel and really beautiful architecture.  The parliament building in particular was quite impressive, probably because it was designed by a Dane.  In Vienna we did not have as much free time as in other cities, but of what we saw of the city, I was quite taken with it.  We continued from Vienna on a very scenic trip through the Austria, stopping at Lake Constance and continuing through the Italian Alps.  This was probably the best thing we got to see from actually on the Bus.  We arrived that night in Lido di Jesolo, Italy, a small, touristy beach town.  We had the entire next day free, so we all went to the beach to enjoy the sun and Adriatic Sea.  Unfortunately, I fell asleep on the beach while my iPod was resting on my stomach, leaving a very noticeable tan line.  People were all too eager to take pictures of this the rest of the trip.  One person even used a Sharpie to draw on the screen and buttons.  While in Jesolo, we also made a day trip to Venice, where we of course took a ride on the gondolas.  It was really hot in Venice, and the people I was with were only concerned in going to tourist 

shops, so I didn't really get to see that much of it, unfortunately.  

We continued in Italy to Verona, for another quick stop, where we saw 

the statue of Juliet, touched her breasts for good luck, and left.  

 From there it was a very long drive across the rest of Italy on our way to France.  We drove all day that day, stopping in the small town of San Remo on our way to France.  We stayed there only to sleep, driving early the next morning.  We stopped on our way to France in Monaco, which I had been quite looking forward to, just so that I could say that I was in a country that small.  We also made a short stop in Nice, which I must say, was quite nice (we were making a lot of those jokes).  We were there about an hour, in which many of us took a quick swim in the Mediterranean Sea.  We ended that night in Avignon, France, where the next day we visited an old Roman Aqueduct and then saw the palace where the French Popes of the Babylonian Captivity lived.  We next headed to Paris, which was probably the highlight of the trip.  The first day we drove the bus around the city, seeing some of the notable sites by bus before going for a boat tour along the Seine.  That night, a few of my friends and I went to the Eiffel Tower again, and hanging out with them while seeing the tower light up at midnight with them was quite an experience.  We had free to do whatever we wanted to the next day, so a few of us who are more interested in history, took a train out to Versailles.  We then went to the Louvre, which was really hot and really crowded, so we didn't stay long.  We of course saw the Mona Lisa, but more impressive than the painting itself, is how famous it is and how big of a crowd it attracts.  Keeping with the historical theme, we went to Napoleon's Tomb and the monument for the Bastille.  The latter of which was not much to see actually, as it is just a tall tower in the middle of a roundabout.  We finished the day by visiting La Sacre Cœr.  We left Paris the next morning we went Brussels for one night.  We got to see the Mannekin Pis as well as eat authentic Belgian Waffles and chocolate, both of which were quite delicious.  For our final stop on the trip, we went to Amsterdam.  For obvious reasons we did not stay long there, staying at a hostel some 3 hours outside the city.  In Amsterdam, we went on a canal tour before we were given about an hour of free time.  We were certainly allowed to go to the Red Light District, although as both marijuana and prostitution are forbidden by Rotary, we could only look around.  The last day, we spent driving quite a long time to get back.  It was a bit sad on the bus that day, as some of us were saying goodbye for the last time, and more than ever, we realized that the year was almost over.  We really got close on that bus.  I was of course great friends with most of the students living close to Copenhagen, but some who lived a bit further out and the Aussies and Kiwis that had just come and January I didn't really know, and I became very close with.

      Since we've gotten back from Euro Tour, we've all been keeping ourselves busy trying to see as much of each other as possible before we have to go home.  We make a lot of trips to the airport, often very 

early in the morning.    I've had to go to places like Holbæk and 

Odense to see people for the last time and say goodbye.  We've also been trying to do some things we hadn't done yet.  For example, a few of us took to the zoo one day, which was a lot of fun, although not as good of a zoo as the one in Philadelphia.  We also went to Tivoli and actually rode the rides.  I'd gone there several times this year but that was the first time I went on anything.  I also went to Roskilde Festival one of the days.  Roskilde Festival is one of the biggest festivals in Europe, and I was really hoping to see Prince.  I did get permission to go to the whole thing, but there were some problems getting the tickets and by the time I got permission that was already sold, as was the day Prince was playing.  I did get to see Gorillaz, who were fantastic, and meet up with some friends.

      When I came back from Euro Tour, my class was in the middle of there exams still, but once they were finished there was a very big school party.  All of the third years had graduated, and in Denmark, when you graduate from gymnasium, you get a hat that you were all the time for 

a few weeks.   The night of the party is also Sankt Hans Aften, the 

midsummers day in Denmark.  It is tradition here to go down to the beach, light a bonfire and sing songs that night.  So I went with a bunch of my friends from school to do that after the party.

      It feels really weird that I'll be home soon.  This year has just been amazing.  I'll miss all my friends so much.  There are so many experiences we've shared and inside jokes that no one will laugh at when I get home.  I've been trying to make plans with the Canadians on when I can go up there and visit.  There are a lot of people I was 

friends with this year that I probably will never see again.  

Incidentally, my host dad and his son right now will be vacationing in the US this summer, about a week after I leave.  They're going to New York, Washington, and Atlantic City.  Unfortunately, they can't swing by Philadelphia, but I think we'll be able to meet up somewhere in New 

Jersey at some point.  I'm going to miss speaking Danish, though.  

I'll have to find ways to keep up with it in the US.

      I am glad to come home, though.  I'm looking forward to seeing my family, my dog, and friends.  I'm really excited to have hoagies and cheesesteaks again.

It's been an incredible year,

Neil

Writing on the Berlin Wall

From Cara in Canada (3/14/10):

Hey all,

From Cara in Canada (2/10/10):

Chère tout le monde, I do not want to leave here.

I'm dead serious. I don't care how cold it gets. I'm having so much fun... except for the whole school/homework that I have to do.

Exchange student-wise:
I got back today from a wonderfully fabulous exchange student gathering. We were with the other half of our district the whole weekend too, so there was about 30 exchange students there. (Half of my Rotary district is in Maine. It makes me depressed sometimes that I moved to a district that's sort of in America, but whatever. I'm over it...sort of.) We have never met any of the kids in Maine, so we all awkward for a grand total of five minutes before we were all great friends. :D

Friday night, we went to this place called Village des Sports. It's this huge tubing/sledding place. SO MUCH FUN. We did that for about 4 hours. Seriously one of the coolest things ever. Then we went back to my school where we "slept". That was definitely weird. I don't ever want to have to sleep at school like that again. But my school is sort of a hotel too, but we didn't sleep in the hotel part. We just took their food..... I slept in my Math classroom. That's just weird.

Saturday, we all went to Old Quebec for the WORLD'S BIGGEST WINTER CARNIVAL IN THE WORLD. Awesome stuff. There were people from all over the world working on snow sculptures and I really want to figure out how I can do that. That would be so cool. I saw the Ice Castle too. I can't even explain how much I love Quebec. We were walking around, showing Quebec City to all of the kids from Maine for awhile. I was with these two girls from Japan and they were like pointing at stuff and they were like "What's that in French?!" I could answer them! That was just amazing for me. After all of that, we went to the Hilton hotel where we went swimming OUTSIDE. -20°C or something like that. One of the coolest things I have ever done. You have to get out of the pool, walk around in the snow on the side, then jump back in to really appreciate it fully. After swimming, we went to our Outbound Coordinator's house, ate and chilled until it was time to leave for the Parade. Before we we left though, the Bon Homme de Carnival came to the house and we all got our picture taken with him. That was really cool, seeing as this is the freaking mascot of the Carnival and he doesn't go to just any private parties. The Parade was really amazing too. The whole theme of the Carnival this year is something about dancing, so everyone in the Parade was dancing and doing really freaking amazing stuff.

Today we talked about our district conference that's in Maine. We all have to do some kind of community service project and we decided on painting a gratified wall and making a mural. I'm still not completely sure how it happened, but I'm in charge of the Quebec side of the district's ideas for the design. So that's pretty cool. And we are all going to summit drawings for our t-shirts too. I have an excuse to draw all day now. :D

The thing that sucks about having half your district in another country is that we only see the kids from Maine one more time and we are all such great friends now. It's stupid and makes me extremely sad. D:

Rotary-wise:
I gave my presentation the last time I went to a meeting. All things considering, my French is better. I'm coherent! Yes.

School-wise:
Everything is going well if you think being loaded with reports is good. After New Year's, I started to have to do a lot of the same work as everyone else. I'm in no way graded the same, but I work on a lot of writing stuff. So that's... great. My French teacher the other day told me that I got tons better. So, yay!

In my Drama class, we had to write a monologue with a personage and now we are performing them. When I was practicing, my teacher said that I have good energy. I hope that he was serious and didn't say that because he couldn't come up with anything else nice to say. I performed it Friday. He filmed it, so I guess I can see later.... I'm not really sure I want too. My personage was someone who just forgets everything. So I'll be saying something and then completely forget the point and then start over. At one point when I was performing, I actually forgot everything but it was okay because everyone thought that it was right. So I should just play forgetful people more often.

I have to give this big presentation on the USA/Pennsylvania/Boyertown in front of my whole class in March. I am not ready for that. I can't even procratstinate a little on it which SUCKS. 

Guh, school tomorrow. I've been to school for seven days in a row, I do not want to go back again.

Friday, I go to a cabin with my host family. We're going to walking with raquettes and do cross-country skiing. I've done them both. I hate ski du fond (cross-country skiing. There's some French for you all.). I fall when I'm resting in one place. Not fun. The raquettes are pretty cool considering I hate ski du fond.

Next weekend, I have my school winter festival. I'm going regular skiing. Never done it before, so it's going to be... interesting. :)

The weekend after that, I have orientation with the exchangers and the exchangers going out next year. So that's going to be pretty awesome. I'm not sure what we're doing yet, but it should be fun. :)

So I'm pretty busy overall. I'll send pictures later of everything. We are insane picture takers.

Bonsoir tout!
Oh! I figured out that I'm leaving the 3rd of July. My flight is at 5 pm and I land back in Philly around midnight. So I'm home for the fireworks. :) 
I'll see you all again in 5 months. (I'm half way through this thing. THAT'S SO SAD! D: )

-Cara. (La fille qui est quebecois à de coeur.)

From Neil in Denmark (2/10/10):

Hej Allesammen,

1I know it's about a month late, but Godt Nytår! Since I last

wrote, I've celebrated both Christmas and New Year's in Denmark.

Christmas is celebrated on the evening of the 24th. We went over to my host dad's parents house, along with my host dad's sister and her family and my host mom's parents. We began with the traditional dinner of roast pork, duck, sugared potatoes, and red cabbage. That

was followed by rice pudding with one almond in it. The person to

get the almond is given a special present. Before presents are opened, everyone gathers around the tree, joins, hands, and sings and dances around the tree in a manner similar to the end of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

For New Year's Wve, I went to a small party with my host family.

People usually dress nice on New Year's Eve and eat a very nice meal, as we did. Around 6 p.m., the queen gives a big speech, with Prime Minister giving his major State of the Union-esque speech the next day. By the end of the night, the house was absolutely covered in confetti from various poppers and noise makers. A little before midnight, everyone watches "Dinner For One" on the Tv (

From Dillon in Germany (1/21/10):

Schöner Guten Tag Alle!

From Cara in Canada (12/17/09)

Hello you all,

From Neil in Denmark (12/14/09):

God Jul allesammen!

It's been a while since I last wrote, and in that time I've moved to 
my second host family.  My host parents are Michael and Heidi 
Raetzel.  They have three kids, two which are a little older and no 
longer live in the house, and a daughter the same age as me on 
exchange around Detroit.  I liked my first family, but I think, at 
least so far, I like this host family a little bit more.  First, they 
live about 20-30 minutes closer to the school, meaning I can sleep 
that much later everyday.  They have a dog, a cat, and tankful of 
fish, which is nice, because it was weird being in a house without 
animals with my first family.  I also feel a little bit more involved 
with them than I did with my first family.  We only speak Danish, and 
in the few weeks that I've been with them, my Danish has improved a 
lot.  I'm also speaking a lot more Danish with everyone at school.
A few weeks ago, for Thanksgiving, my Rotary district hosted its 
annual Thanksgiving dinner for a few hundred rotarians, our host 
families, and even some people from various embassies.  The turkey was 
actually not bad, but I was very disappointed by the lack of mashed 
potatoes.  There was some good pie, though.  After the food, all the 
inbounds performed various bits of entertainment for everyone.  I 
played my bagpipes and was part of a short skit comically depicting 
the daily antics of our language school class.  Others sang, beat 
boxed, and played trombone.  A picture of me in my lovely green Rotary 
jacket was actually on the cover a small local newspaper from where it 
took place.
Last week, I went with my German class to Lübeck, Germany, for a 
day.  Most Danes in school take German as their second foreign 
language, as it is more likely to be used than Spanish and French and 
has much more in common with Danish.  In Lübeck, we had to "practice" 
our German by going around in groups and asking locals about various 
things we had to find.  We walked around Lübeck for a while, seeing 
the Christmas Market, which was very neat.  It's very hard for me to 
speak German when also speaking Danish.  Whenever I would try to say 
something in German, I'd end up saying something mostly in Danish.
I was actually in Germany (just barely) a few weeks earlier.  After 
visiting my host dad's father in Sweden (He's Danish, but through a 
long story, he's lived in Sweden for several years, although he's 
moving back t Denmark very soon), we drove across the country to 
Sønderjylland (South Jutland) to visit some of my host family's 
friends.  Swedish is impossible for me to understand (and not that 
easy for a lot of Danes), and Sønderjysk (as the dialect of souther 
jutland is called) was almost as hard to understand, with my host 
parents occasionally having to ask them what they were saying.  The 
next morning,we went with them to brunch, which to our surprise was 
actually being held in Germany.  The German border was only about 
20-30 minutes away, and we didn't go past the border much at all, but 
we were technically in Germany.  The waiter spoke German, maybe half 
of the patrons of the restaurant were German, and "Entschuldigung" and 
"Danke schön" replaced "Undskyld" and "Tak".
School is still pretty good.  I'm finished with language school (I 
passed, as did all the other exchange students), so I'm now able to 
classes that I was previously missing on days when I had language 
school.  I have history now, and we're talking a little bit about the 
American Revolution, which is good for me.  Last week, all of the 
students in my grade had off the whole week to write a huge essay for 
two of their subjects.  I was writing for my English class (and was 
able to write it in english) and my political science class about 
Cuba, which is also fortunate as Americans learn a bit more about Cuba 
than Danes.  About a month ago, our school held Gallafest, which is a 
bit similar to prom.  It's a very big deal for the third year 
students, who mostly came dressed to the nines in limos, but even for 
those like myself, in second year or first year, it's a big, fun 
night.  A big part of it is dancing the traditional Lyncier, which we 
learned in our gym classes in the weeks preceding it.
Like the last time I wrote, Obama is making another visit to 
Copenhagen, although, without Oprah, there is not quite as much of a 
buzz.  The climate conference is a very big deal, though, and has been 
dominating the news for weeks, as have ways of becoming personally 
more energy efficient, with the theme of "Hopenhagen".  There are 
certainly many more people from other countries here, and certain 
areas of the city have a lot.  Last week, my class went to Københavns 
Universitet to hear a notable Danish climate figure talk about the 
conference and global warming.
Besides the climate conference, it's also Christmas time (Jul) in 
Denmark.  There are a lot of uniquely Scandinavian and Danish 
traditions here.  First, while we celebrate Christmas on the morning 
of the 25th, Danes celebrate it on the night of the 24th (Jul Aften).  
It's also even more of a secular holiday than it is in the US.  Not 
that many people in Denmark go to church regularly, and that does not 
seem to change that much for Christmas. Also, I have yet to see a 
nativity scene or anything like that.  My house is full, however, of 
Nisser (Elves/santas).  My host family literally has hundreds all 
around the house.  We had to unpack 6 huge boxes of them, and then we 
got another 20 or so a few days later.  There are some very special 
foods eaten around this time, as well.  Riisengrød is basically rice 
pudding, but it's eaten as a meal itself.  Æbleskiver are delicious 
little balls that taste a little like pancakes, but there is no 
similar thing in America or even a word that it translates to in 
English (literally apple slice, but that's not what they are).  In 
addition to having Advent candles, they also have an Advent calender 
candle, where it has all the days until the 24th on it, and is burned 
every day to get closer to the 24th.  Also, every sunday in Advent 
Danes exchange small Advent gifts.

Så, God Jul og Godt Nytår!
Neil

From Cara in Canada (11/29/09):

From Dillon in Germany (11/1/09):

Hello all!  

It's been some time since I have last written, so here I am again!

So last week, from sunday to wednesday morning (18th - 21st), I was with my second guest family because my normal one was in Austria for vacation.  Now in my second family there are my dad, Richard, mom, Ute, little brother, Till (10), and my other brother Paul (16), but he's in the USA for an exchange year like me now.  I must say, I wish I was with them the whole year, or I could just have more time with them.  I don't move in with them until December 11th, so I have to wait a bit more.  Richard is very easy to get along with, and he never seems to get upset.  I mean, he nearly cut his finger off when he was making lunch for me and my little brother (Till) and he simply said "oops, I should be more careful" with the knife in his finger (sorry for the graphic image, guess I should have this email rated "R" ).  Next there is Ute, who reminds me SO much of my mom back home for some reason, but I'm totally sure why.  She works in a daycare for the better part of the day, so when she gets home, I sit and eat a little something and trink tea with her as she tells me about her day.  She is quite funny too, and as we were talking, she told me about how she used to sing in a little band with her girlfriends back in the day.  We got on this subject because Till was playing a Beatles song on the keyboard.  I found that quite interesting and, frankly, really cool.  That led to a whole conversation for us.  Then there is my little brother Till.  I have never had a younger sibling, let alone a brother, so I was excited for this change, but I didn't know how this would turn out.  Well it's just fantastic!  I love having a little brother.  He and I get along as if we were always brothers.  For example, the one day I woke up and went downstairs, and he was watching pokemon, and I talked to him about how I myself always used to watch that, and then it moved onto him showing me all of his toys (he actually pulled out his gameboy and had me help him with his pokemon game) and then we made lunch together for Ute and ourselves (Richard was fasting at the time).  Later when we were all playing a card game (They do that every few nights, some type of card or board game, I like it because its a good bonding time) we just joked around.  Then Till decided he wanted to try and wrestle me to the ground, and after some time, he collapsed on the ground, almost asleep.  I know it may seem odd that this small event is so special for me, but it's extremely different for me to behave in such a manner with someone, but it made me feel like a kid again.  I plan on attending his soccer games and keyboard performances when I can.

The next event I would like to discuss is my 5 day trip to Berlin.  It was just fantastic.  It consisted of the other exchange students in my district and myself, along with 2 former exchange students who were in charge of us.  That wasn't a problem, because we got along with them really well too.  In Berlin, we had a LOT of free time when we were not meeting together at breakfast or dinner, so that meant a lot of walking around the city and sightseeing, eating at different places, and buying.  One of the places we went that stuck out to me more was Checkpoint Charlie, which was a checkpoint between the Americans and Russians when Germany was still divided.  There was a small but extremely informative museum there, and I learned much about the difficulties people went through at the time, and the checkpoint's history and development. I, naturally, took many pictures as well.  Berlin is just such an incredible city, with so much history and diversity.  One part can be very clean with buildings towering over you, and another isn't so neat and clean modern.  There is a lot of graffiti and other signs of past life in the latter, but I find it interesting rather than disgusting.  It's like a big mural that everyone has contributed to.  I really wouldn't mind living there, but who knows if that's possible?

A few days ago, I went to the city of Heidelberg with a former Rotary-Governor.  Him and his wife were extremely nice and, I could tell, enjoyed showing me and my host sister ,Victoria, around the city.  I couldn't help taking many pictures, and at one point my camera battery died.  However, the nice Governor quickly found and bought a new pair for me, even though I never asked.  Really great guy.  The city itself is known for having many college students and being romantic.  I would have to agree.

Language-wise, I can definitely get by, but I am not near perfect.  Talking with my friends at school is pretty comfortable now, but sometimes with adults, who use much bigger words sometimes, I just have to ask to either repeat, or to please explain that word.  In Europe, they teach "British English", which was a new concept, because English was always just English for me.  I like German, everything is pronounced logically, and sometimes they just squish words together to make bigger words.  But something that everyone seems to have a problem with is the word "the" in German.  You see, German has genders.  "Der" is masculine, "Die" is feminine, and "Das" is neuter.  You must apply it to a noun, depending on it's gender.  Very difficult to know it all, but people understand you if you say the wrong one.  Anyway, it's practically November, so I am happy with my progress so far.  I think I will take a little book or something to write in with me, then words I hear and don't know I will write down to learn.

Hope you all enjoyed reading that, and maybe I encouraged you to visit Germany sometime?  
"That's all folks!"

Dillon        (ps.  for the Rotarians, I hope the new inbounds are coming along alright!)

From Neil in Denmark (10-23-09):

l

From Cara in Canada (10-16-09):

Salut everyone!

From Nina in Brazil (10/13/09):

From Dillon in Germany

Guten Tag one and all!

Well, it has been one month and 21 days since I have arrived safe and sound in the wonderful land of...well....Deutschland! (Germany). 

This might be hard to comprehend, but Germany, and Europe in total, is actually a little different than North America!  Crazy I know, but the story gets better. One of the more notable differences for me is most of the water that people drink here is Sparkling/Mineral water.  I remember on my first day, after getting picked up from my second hostdad and brother, we were in the car driving home.  My host brother (who is an exchange student in America now) offered me the water on the seat.  I couldn't read it all, but I saw "Wasser" and decided I was a bit thirsty.  As I proceeded to chug it, I almost spat it out due to the very unusual taste my mouth came into contact with.  Noticing that their guest was semi-choking, my family asked what was wrong.  I said "That wasn't what I was expecting!"  It's a bit of a joke with them now.  Whenever I am at their house for the weekend and trying a new food, they pretend to look at me with mock anxiousness as I put the food to my mouth. 

As I told my mom before, I am most deffintely being well-fed.  Man do they like eating here!  The food probably isn't always the best to eat, but is it delicious!  I make a point of trying everything I am not familiar with, which either results in a new food I like, or something that I call "interesting".  You get the point.

Jumping to another random subject, school is quite enjoyable for me!  However I am a grade under what I would be in my American high school. It's really different than America. I am mostly with the same group of kids all day, and then the teachers come to us, unless it is Sport (gym class), any of the science classes, or music. They go by Stunden (an hour translated), which is to say that each day you could have from 5 to 9(the least and most I have) classes. They say Stunden but each class period is like 30 or 45 minutes, I haven't timed one yet. But the only day I have a really long day is on Monday, where I have school until 3:30, and the rest of the days are usually until 12:30 or 1pm. Really convienent, and everyday are different classes. For example I only have Chemistry on Tuesday, and I have German class on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. It's different, but I like it. It makes me feel like I am in college. Plus the school grounds aren't all one big building. Inbetween each class (somtimes you have two classperiods of one class in a day) there are Pauses, some five minutes, some 15, depending on your classes. In them, you can go outside for a bit, eat food and drink something that you brought, or whatever. Also here, you don't have lockers, you take your backpack with you everywhere you go. But thats becuase you don't have huge books and a ton of stuff with you everyday. Again, really convienent. Of course I am not fluent yet, so I am not always able to understand what the teacher is talking about, but I can get the gist of it by seeing what the others are doing, and by the writing on the board.  Everything I see written on the board, I write down in my notebook.  I might not know what it means, but hey, that's school for you.

Since I know the best way of meeting more people is by getting involved, I am starting to take up Fußball (soccer) and I am going to start Tennis next week.  My first friend in school(Luca), after a few days of getting to know each other, asked if I would like to attend his Kayaking practice.  Never before have I done anything like that, so I thought it would be really great to try it!  Folks who are reading this, I am making a statement here.  God did not want me to Kayak.  Moving on from that "interesting" experience, I have attened my first soccer practice.  I never played it in the USA; but I know basically how it goes, and my other friends in my class said that it doesn't matter how good or bad you are, it is just for learning and getting better.  All in all, practice was extremely fun.  Of course I'm not a soccer star, but all the other guys were relaxed and didn't mind helping me out a bit.  My nickname is "America" because, here in Germany, Dillon is not a very common name.  The only time someone knows it is from Bob Dylan.  Which in turn makes it difficult for them to say it. 

Besides that, I really enjoy meeting new people here.  My german is good enough that I can introduce myself and carry out parts of a conversation.  Plus making people laugh here isn't impossible.   And even though I have met a decent amount of people in my school, somehow a LOT more people than I have met know of me.  Just today, a 6th grader who was playing soccer while I was passing by yelled my name.  No idea who he was, but maybe I'll find out later.

But of course, I have all of you wonderful Rotarians to thank for me being in this country.  Without all the paperwork and hours of orientation, who knows where I would be!  Hm, I think that sounds wrong.  More like, all those great times we all had together (outbounds, inbounds, re-bounds, rotrians alike) really paid off, and set me up for what I needed to know this year.  This once-in-a-lifetime adventure is already ever so memorable. 

Alles Liebe,
Dillon

From Neil in Denmark

After a month and a half in Danmark, I can still say that I'm enjoying my stay very much. I started school two weeks ago, and that has been awesome so far. The week before I started school I attended an intro camp with all the new exchange students in Danmark.

Intro camp was a wild ride, although that was probably not its intention. I think the general idea was to give those people that were not fortunate enough to have a language school a chance to learn the basic grammar and pronunciation of the language. There are many problems to this. The biggest is that, every time you take a few

steps in this country, they speak a very different dialect of Danish.

Dialect is a problem even within my language school with my district.

This problem is greatly exacerbated when you get people from every part of the country. And with people who may not know any language well besides their own, the goals may not have been reached. I'm not saying it wasn't a great time, it was, and I also learned some important things (mostly the curse words that my other language teacher refused to teach us). We got to see Århus (the second largest

city) and Viborg (it had an old Cathedral that was pretty interesting). There was also some dancing, bowling, and nightly escapades revolving around everyone trying to get back to their rooms discreetly a few minutes after they were supposed to be there. Thanks to intro camp I also have about 130 pins on my jacket.

The day after I got back intro camp, I started at gymnasium. I'm going to Ishøj Gymnasium and am in the second grade there. I follow the "international line" for classes. I think the international part of it is the focus on language and social studies classes. Part of

this international motif is also a trip to China for a week in March

(All second year classes have a trip somewhere, and most are to Rome, Barcelona, London, and Athens), although it is highly unlikely that I would go. To get to school I have to go on the train for one stop before taking a half hour bus ride. It takes a bit of time, but I will live much closer to my school with my next two families. School starts at 8:05 unless a class is cancelled. Some of the days it goes until 4, and others it ends at 1 or 2. On tuesday and thursdays I have to leave at 12 to go to language school, so I will be missing any

afternoon classes those days until language school ends in November.

It is nice having a chance to see the other exchange students a few times a week and keep up with some of the crazy stuff that goes on.

School is very different, and students are given a lot more freedom.

You can really come and go as you please. Classes are 50 minutes and there are ten minutes in between classes that are often used for students and teachers to smoke, as many of them do. Teachers are very casual, mostly dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, and students call them by their first names..

Almost everyone at the school is very friendly and helpful. My first day here, I had music (interesting and strange side note about music

in Danmark and other countries around Germany: they have an H note.

Their H is our B and their B is our B flat), and I got to play the drums for the first time in over a month. Everyone in the class was very impressed with my abilities. I've been getting a few requests to

play for people now. My class consists of about 20 girls and 4 guys.

Danish girls are very attractive and also very interested in talking to me. In fact, I already have a date to the school's big prom-esque dance in October.

The classes can be very boring, and not always just because they're in Danish (I would be very bored in geology no matter what language it was taught in). In all my classes I can get the gist of what is being talked about, but it's very hard to follow, especially in Danish and their political science class. Math has been nice so far because I have learned what they are talking about, but it may become much more difficult as they begin to work on calculus stuff. German is pretty good, as long as the teacher speaks German. My German pronunciation is awful compared to my classmates, and I know fewer words, but I am way ahead of everybody in terms of grammar. English is a great class, but unfortunately, because of language school, I only have two hours of it a week. My English teachers enjoys my presence in the class, although, as they learn British English, I've already heard her criticize American English. It's funny to here Danish people speak English because they have a slight British accent.

Everyone I have talked to at school is mostly a supporter of the US and wants to go to New York and LA some day. When I say that I am from Philadelphia, most people say "Like the cheese?". Apparently, despite the lack of bagels, Philadelphia Cream Cheese is available here. But it appears to be the only brand, and people call it Philadelphia Ost (ost means cheese). It's odd because If I were to list things Philadelphia is known for (Will Smith, Rocky, the Liberty Bell, etc) I don't think I would ever mention the cream cheese.

I still have not seen or eaten a Danish, Neil

(Also, in the exchange student community, I am known as Therman Merman)=

From Katelyn A in Austria

From Neil D in Denmark

I've been in Danmark for three weeks at this point, and things are going really well, and I've been having a lot of fun.  My host family is really nice.  I call my host parents by their first names (Mogens- pronounced "moans"- and Dorthe).  Both my parents work at Nordea, which is a Scandinavian investment bank, and it seems that my host dad is pretty high up in the company.  I don't know what my host mom has been working there for 25 years, and I know this because the first morning I was here, a limo picked us up from the house and took us to this breakfast the company was having for her to celebrate 25 years.  My host sister, Louise, who is a few years older than me, lives at home and is going to school.  My brother, Lasse, who is the same age as me plays a lot of World of Warcraft.  When he is home, he comes down to dinner, but other than that he is playing Warcraft.  Even though he is the same age, I will go to a different school than him when I start at gymnasium.  School started for him and the rest of Denmark two weeks ago, but I've been at a language school with 30-something other rotary students (divided into two classes) in my district during that time.  Dansk is a very difficult language, although it helped a lot to have studied German.  The grammar is pretty simple and a lot of the words are closely related to German, but words are never spelled the way they are pronounced, and letters often make very different sounds in different circumstances.  D's sometimes sound like l's and a crucial part of speaking like they do in Copenhagen is cutting off words in the back of your throat in a manner that is very hard to describe.  They also have three additional letters of å,æ, and ø.  The numbers after 40 make no sense at all.  In most languages, the ten's are related to the numbers 1-9.  That is not the case in Danish after 40.  The word for 5 is fems, 50 is halvtrads.  6 is seks, 60 is trads. 7 is syv, 70 is halvfjerds.  Those are only a few examples..  Once  I start school, I'll still go to language school twice a week for three months.

From Jake A in Switzerland

As a direct result of being harassed by my mother via facebook, here's the first update.

The whole trip, starting from first leaving my house to the airport, was almost a disaster.  I forgot to bring my passport.  Fortunately, my dad remembered before we got past Lower State Road so no big deal.  After that, everything else was great, I got to hang out with my parents for one last time, I got to mess around in JFK airport.  Awesome.  But before I finally boarded the plane to leave American soil for almost a year, my mom was fiendishly trying to lure me back with her obviously fake tears.  Lucky for me I stashed my emotions in my checked baggage.  After I got to Zurich, made it through customs, and got my suitcases, I saw my host family standing there with a "Herzlich Wilkommen" sign on the other side of a glass wall.  Once I saw them and my Rotary Counselor's daughter Simone, I just could not stop smiling.  It was ridiculous, from ear to ear for a solid 7 minutes.  We sat down and all had some coffee because it was 7:30 in the morning there, and we (I) still had a long day ahead of us (me).

When we got back to the house, which is freakin' sweet by the way because my host father Orlando is an architect, we chatted and I struggled to keep up with the conversations in German.  Ernst Wittwer, my Rotary counselor, stopped by the say hello and pick up Simone.  After that, Orlando, Beatrice, and I headed up to Moosegg (pronounced "Moss Eck"), to have my first Swiss meal.  I had Rösti and it was absolutely amazing, but I didn't make it through the meal without getting a 20 minute briefing on Swiss table manners.  The view was really incredible and so far I've had a few other chances to check out the sights.  We went on a bike ride to the next town and up a huge hill, which absolutely killed my ass.  Apparently they have special riding pants with padding for the seat, who woulda knew.  I'll be wearing them the next time.   I didn't bring my camera for that, but we also took a quick car tour of Emmental so I got a bunch of photos then.  I have a bunch of pictures from Thunersee as well because Beatrice brought me with her for her boat driving lesson one time.

The last thing I'm going to write about is school, because I'm getting kind of antsy just sitting here typing.  School goes from 8:20 to 17:45, and it's a 20 minute train ride and a 10 minute walk to get there.  It's actually not bad at all though because after every 45 minute class, we get a 10 minute break, and we also have a full hour for lunch.  We also rarely have to go the whole day, and often get free periods in between classes.  The kids are really nice, I haven't had any trouble making friends.  For the first day of school, another kid in my class from my town named Nicola showed me around.  I haven't been sitting in class all alone not knowing what's going on though, so that's good but I feel like I'm cheating as an exchange student.  In my school (Gymnasium Burgdorf) everybody picks a "major," similar to college in the States.  Mine is Biology and Chemistry and we got to dissect a cow eyeball.  I got to do it twice because my friend Lukas was absent, they thought he might have had swine flu, and he had to make it up.  We used one of our free periods to go tear up an eyeball and I showed him what we did in class.  It was really funny because while I was over there playing with the iris and asking him if he wanted to change his eye color,  he was taking deep calming breaths every time some more thick purplish-black liquid gushed out of the eye.

This is going to be a fun ass year, and it would have never happened without Max Rose and my dad.  Thanks a lot you guys.  I guess I could thank my mom too, for allowing it, but I think I'd still be here in Switzerland even if she didn't, ha.

From Cara F in Canada

Cara in Quebec. Her first picture in Canada

Meike catching her dinner.

Meike from Germany says goodbye to her host sister Kara as she heads off to France on her exchange.

From Cara in Quebec,

From Cara going to Quebec

From Kassie in Belgium

It’s been almost two days now since I arrived in the fair country of Belgium.
C’est bon.

Last night after dinner I went to a village festival where I witnessed a French band playing “Karma Police”. The answer to my question is no, I will never escape Radiohead.
I met my future host father who introduced me to a jazz pianist and gave me some uh “strong” lemonade.
At 11 I attended my first dance party with about 300 other Belgians. There I received cherry beer which I enjoyed immensely, and another beer I enjoyed as well.
Jean-Jacques, or “Jack”, picked me up at 1.
Jean-Jacques (right then….instead of “is” I typed “est”. This is a good sign) is May’s (my host mother) “companion”. Our relationship consists of him saying something to me, me looking at him all confused-like, and him laughing at me. I like it a lot.

Today I had meatballs and fries, a swim in a lake, ice cream, and bread with various toppings.

Oh and the fries here are the most amazing fries I have ever tasted. I’ve been sent to the right place.

On tuesday I will be left alone while they take Flora (my host sister) to the airport. I will go around and take pictures like the creeper I am.

 Until then…

From Dillon in Germany

A new classmate

From Nicole in India

7/18 from Nicole in India  

Hi, everyone! Just sending out a quick update to let you all know that I arrived in Bombay (I'll send a full update to my entire mailing list a bit later). The flight was basically the longest flight in the history of the UNIVERSE. It was actually pretty enjoyale though, because I basically just watched 18 hours of Bollywood films, haha. I also made good friends with the guy sitting next to me, who told me a lot of stuff about India and Bombay and taught me how to eat Indian food (:
 
When I came out of the airport I felt pretty famous. There was this ENORMOUS crowd of people all holding signs to pick up people at the airport. My host siblings recognized me instantly in my obnoxious green blazer. As soon as you leave the airport though, the weather hits you like a blow to the face. The air is HOT and THICK and it rains like I've never seen it rain before. I love it (:
 
Driving in Bombay is also my new favorite activity. I wish my friend Jory was here, because watching him drive in Bombay would probably be the most entertaining thing ever.
 
My host family is amazing! I'm sharing a room with my host sister, Dipti. She's super nice. I have two host brothers named Ritesh and Rahul (probably spelled that wrong), who are just as awesome. My host parents have been wonderful. We live in an apartment complex and I have a wonderful view of the sea.
 
Talk to you later!
- Nikki