Update before Departure!
Hello all!
I am off to Switzerland in about 4 weeks and I must admit I am getting very excited and also a tad nervous!
The organization I am being endorsed by is called Rotary, and what an awesome organization it is. My rotary Club is the Rotary Club of Hobart, they are a wonderful club. I have been able to visit about 3 of their meetings and I always am made to feel really welcome and they make me feel really pleased to be able to not only represent my country next year but also my Rotary Club!
So Switzerland, what do I know about the plans for my year away.
I have little information as to who my rotary Club in Switzerland are. I gather that they are situated either around Zurich or Bern (both German speaking parts of Switzerland).
I do however have information on my first Host Family.
The Rutti family who live in a town called Niederbipp. In this family I have a mother Michele a father Romeo and two twins who are 17 Olivia and Benjamin.
Romeo is the CEO of a hydraulics company, and his wife Michele works with him there as the human resource manager.
This family seem so welcoming and friendly. They have said that they love to travel and ski, so they sound like my kind of people! I have been in email contact with the children and they have been kind enough to email me in German first then they translate it in English so that I can learn German and get a feel for the language. I have then tried to reply in German, however my German is limited so it does take me about an hour to write 1/2 a page with my dictionary close at hand.
Talking about German when I arrive in Switzerland I have to go to language school. I have to take numerous tests showing progression etc. If I fail these tests I have been warned along with the other Swiss in bound students I will be sent home. So as you can guess I have been studying my German every day, as the Swiss have also sent me a beginners German book and accompanying CD, to get my German upto scratch (or a basic level any way).
I am looking forward to this exchange though I must say at this present time the whole event seems surreal and really does not feel like I am going away for a whole year!
I am off to Switzerland in about 4 weeks and I must admit I am getting very excited and also a tad nervous!
The organization I am being endorsed by is called Rotary, and what an awesome organization it is. My rotary Club is the Rotary Club of Hobart, they are a wonderful club. I have been able to visit about 3 of their meetings and I always am made to feel really welcome and they make me feel really pleased to be able to not only represent my country next year but also my Rotary Club!
So Switzerland, what do I know about the plans for my year away.
I have little information as to who my rotary Club in Switzerland are. I gather that they are situated either around Zurich or Bern (both German speaking parts of Switzerland).
I do however have information on my first Host Family.
The Rutti family who live in a town called Niederbipp. In this family I have a mother Michele a father Romeo and two twins who are 17 Olivia and Benjamin.
Romeo is the CEO of a hydraulics company, and his wife Michele works with him there as the human resource manager.
This family seem so welcoming and friendly. They have said that they love to travel and ski, so they sound like my kind of people! I have been in email contact with the children and they have been kind enough to email me in German first then they translate it in English so that I can learn German and get a feel for the language. I have then tried to reply in German, however my German is limited so it does take me about an hour to write 1/2 a page with my dictionary close at hand.
Talking about German when I arrive in Switzerland I have to go to language school. I have to take numerous tests showing progression etc. If I fail these tests I have been warned along with the other Swiss in bound students I will be sent home. So as you can guess I have been studying my German every day, as the Swiss have also sent me a beginners German book and accompanying CD, to get my German upto scratch (or a basic level any way).
I am looking forward to this exchange though I must say at this present time the whole event seems surreal and really does not feel like I am going away for a whole year!