Lukes Wanderlust

Alzey, Germany

So last Friday I received a strange E-Mail in my inbox, and I didn’t realize what it was until staring at the subject line for a few seconds. “WG: Outbound hostin information” is what it read. Keep in mind, this was very early in the morning. I opened the message to see, “Dear Luke, I am your YEO of the RC Alzey. Me and our club are looking forward to meet you in Summer. I am sure you will have a good time here in Alzey. In the next week you will receive a letter from your guest brother with more information.”

Last week I had a very bad ear infection and my spirits were not high. Now normally, when I check my E-Mail I get my hopes very up thinking that I might kind out my host district, but I find out my CITY, and that I have a HOST BROTHER? This was very shocking to me and put me in one of the best moods ever. After telling my parents, I come to my computer again to find that my host brother has sent me an E-Mail. It turns out that when I am in Alzey, he’ll be somewhere here in the states. I do have a younger host sister, so I won’t be the only young’n in the household. Both of my hostparents are teachers. 

A little bit about Alzey: It’s situated in the state of Rheinland-Pfaltz, about an hour south of Frankfurt. This places it in Rotary district 1860. This town is big on wine making, just like Hillsboro. That might come in handy . It has a population of about 18,000, about one-fifth the size of my city. It’s going to be a change, but it will be a good change . My school is Gymnasium am Römertskastell Alzey. I don’t know much about it, other than it is one of the older schools in my city.

I hope to be finding more about my host family and city very soon !

Deutsches Wochenende

So this weekend, my country officer here in Oregon had a get-together for all the the students going to German-speaking countries. So out of all of us inbounds and outbounds, we had 1o kids. There were two students who weren’t there, because one was way out of town with her host family and another had a rugby injury. Still, with all of us that were there, we had an amazing time! We all got to help with making the dinner, and at first I didn’t think that wouldn’t be very fun, but boy I could not have been more wrong! All of us were in the kitchen and the flour for the schnitzel ended up on everyone’s face. After hours of preparing for the meal, we all finally got to sit down and enjoy the fruits of our labour. I wish that I could’ve remembered the names of all the foods that we ate so I could make it all again! We had Wiener Schnitzel, this chicken that was prepared similarly to the schnitzel, then these noodle things but they were shaped like corn? Okay so maybe I can’t explain what that was. For our FIRST dessert we had chocolate mousse and the best rice pudding EVER. Later on in the night, we had SPAGHETTI ICE CREAM. It was ice cream that they put through a spaghetti maker with shipped cream on top and zweiback brot (twice baked bread – a lot tastier than it sounds, I promise). We stayed up the whole night and had a complete blast. I love these kids so much. In the morning, about two hours after we finally managed to get to sleep, our country officer woke us up with POLKA MUSIC. That really woke us up.. My parents should try this in the morning for me! Ha . After we were all up, we had a German breakfast of salami and cheese on rolls. A little weird for breakfast, but, when in Rome! We also had jam and nutella for our rolls, if we were in the mood for something a little sweet. I can’t thank my country officer Jeff and his wife Dona enough for putting up with us for the last two days. They provided us with great hospitality.

Overall, the last two days have been amazing!

But I want to know now!

As I find that more and more of my friends that I’ve talked to on Cultures Shocked (CS) I find that it makes me anticipate finding out even more than before. I am constantly checking my spam folder in my E-Mail to see if I’ve any messages in German that might be considered spam. I just want to know everything that I possibly can about where I’ll be staying. I’m almost glad that I don’t know, because it makes the anticipation so much greater. I enjoy the excitement, it gives me something to do when I’m bored. I can just sit down and read about every city in Germany, thinking, “I might live there next year!” It’s so great that a website like CS exists, I can talk and network with other inbounds and outbounds, even rebounds and parents, who know exactly what I’m going through. Only other exchange students know how excited/nervous/happy/terrified I am. There needs to be a word for this. Wanderlust? If only it could have a double meaning. As far as I’m concerned, Wanderlust can mean both the impukse to travel and the emotion that goes along with said impulse. I can’t wait to dupdate on the German weekend, which is only 10 days away! I’ll be sure to update with lots of pictures . The German weekend is held annualy at the country officer’s house for Germany, Austria, and Swizerland. Inbounds, outbounds, and rebounds can all share questions, answers, and sheer excitement with eachother to talk about their country. The only thing that I’m more excited for is finding out my host family, then of course, my exchange itself!

I could go on for pages about all this, but I must let you go.

Cheers!
Luke

[x-posted, VOX]

2009-10 Outbound

Hello there! My name is Luke, and I am an outbound exchange student from Portland, Oregon to somewhere in Germany. I am affiliated with Rotary Youth Exchange district 5100! Some people tell me that they wish I would have gone with other programs, but I wouldn’t trade Rotary for anything. The massive amount of support I’ve received is nothing short of spectacular.