Sale Rotary Club Student Exchange

Rotary Club of Sale

STUDENT EXCHANGE
Aaron Richard

Email dated 06/11/99 from 1999 outward bound exchange student, Aaron Richard.

Hello all people back in Sale!
Viele lieben Grüße aus Deutschland!
Here's Aaron, still alive and kicking ........ I know I've been a bit lazy of late as far as updates go, please forgive! I've had a lot to do (no, really), but instead of trying to think up excuses, I'll let you all in on what's on the go in this part of the world.

FOURTH AND FINAL HOST FAMILY

Well, it's down to November and I'm spending my last 2 and a bit months under the following address :-
C/- Familie Reum
Rohgraben 13
37276 Meinhard-1
Germany

Tel : 05651-70675
Fax : 05651-754696

They're really nice people, they live in a small village just across the river from Eschwege. It's quite small, but Eschwege isn't far and a few of my friends from school live out in this dorf anyway, so it's not too bad. They've got an 18 year old daughter who's at the same school I am, and they were hosts to a girl from Canada last year.

EURO - TOUR

So, did I tell you all that we were going on tour?? Well, we went and it was fantastic! 4 weeks, 39 exchange students (19 of which were Aussies!), 8 countries, some of the most beautiful places in Europe and a bus ....... and it was absolutely amazing.

Not just the things we saw either, it's also great fun being with the other exchanges any time there's something on. The people running it were 4 young German Rotexes (ex-exchange students) who did a great job. I think we've all met a few friends we'll have for life. But anyway, what did we see.........

First a few days in Holland, a really pretty country I thought. Amsterdam is a really lovely city, we took a tour of the grachten (canals) which are absolutely beautiful, went to the Anne Frank house (a bit depressing, but definitely very interesting) and I conned a few of the other exchanges to come with me to the Van Gogh museum. Top stuff I reckon. Then it was off to Brügge (I'm not sure what it's called in English) in Belgium, which is a really pretty old city, worth a look if you're in the area.

This was followed by FRANCE. The Rotary Club of Chaville hosted us for a few days in Paris, a really friendly bunch of people who gave us a pretty comprehensive tour of the town. The city itself is absolutely swamped with tourists and dodgy people trying to rip you off with tacky souvenirs, but other than, I love it. The tour next headed in the direction of the Loire Valley, formerly the part of France where the trendiest nobles built their castles and then it was off in direction south, the Central Massif and Provence. The south of France is one of the most beautiful place I've ever seen, I loved Avignon and Le Puy.

And some time or another it was "au revoir" France and "bon giorno" Italia. Italy was my favorite part of the whole tour. We had a day's rest on the beach at Marina di Massa (which is full of no one but Germans!) looked at the tower in Pisa, saw Rome, were mentioned in passing by the Pope (really!) and took in the sights at the Colosseum and Forum Romanum, not to mention the Fontana di Trevi and too many other things to mention. And of course, you can't visit Italy without seeing Florence and Venice. Florence was amazing and Venice had even more water than usual thanks to high tides and bad weather, but it was still great fun.

Four weeks can go by pretty quickly, and before we knew it we were back in German-speaking territory, in a hut high in the Austrian alps. After watching the sun rise over the glaciers we did a spot of white water rafting and headed to Salzburg. Salzburg was great, but I've never seen "The Sound of Music" and I couldn't quite get the importance of all the places the other exchanges were drooling over the whole time. Although, the city's beautiful even if you haven't seen the film.

And then suddenly we're in Germany and almost home. A quick stop at Oktoberfest, a wander around Rothenburg ob der Tauber and the tour ends at Rüdesheim am Rhein...............
I was glad not to have to live out of a suitcase anymore, but god I'd had a great time. I really miss being with all the guys now. But hey, I've got a lot of great memories and I'll never forget all the great times I had......

PRETENDING TO BE A TEACHER

Pretty cool experience after getting back from tour, I got to be an English teacher in Austria for a week! Scary, because I really enjoyed it. Not sure if it's a career shaping experience, but it's given me a bit to think about......

What actually happened is that an Austrian friend of mine invited me down for a week, she teaches English and thought the kids might find it interesting to see a real live Aussie. So I was in class with the kids, who were all 10-14 year olds, getting interviewed and doing basic conversational stuff and trying to explain grammar as what have you............. and it was really good fun! The hardest part was trying to adjust to the dialect they all speak up in the hills..... although after a few days it starts sounding normal again. You just get funny looks when you go back to talking to Germans at home..........

KREISMUSIKWETTBEWERB (Eisteddfod type thingie)

So I thought why not, I'll enter myself. And I played a bit of piano and won! I even got to play at the awards concert, which was alright, but I could played better. I suppose if I hadn't been out on the town the night before I probably would have been more awake. Something to think about next time. But yes, so I played Beethoven, Bach and The Simpsons and they mustn't have thought it was too bad and gave me 1st prize!

OTHER THINGS

So, school's still school, no huge shocks there, I've actually having a crack at the written exams in the subjects like Social Studies, History and German this time. I want to see if I can really tackle the language. I've gotten back into this singing bit and actually enjoying it quite a bit, I'm in a few different choirs and other groups of that type. I took up handball for a while, but I think I had a few too many leftover habits from rugby and footy. I never really did get a complete grasp of the rules, but it's a good sport to watch and fun to play. I might have a hunt around for it at Uni next year.

So, until next time, I'll try to keep up contact a bit more often and I hope you're all well. Must be interesting at the moment, what with Jeffrey getting the boot and the republic debate raging......

I'll see you all in about 2 months time!
Bis dann, macht's gut!!!
Tschüss von Aaron.

Email from Aaon dated 11/08/99

Hello people of the RCs Sale and Sale Central back in Sale!
Hopefully this message reaches you all, I think the email addresses I've got for the two clubs are right...
So, with the summer hols almost up and over with here in my part of Germany you may all be wondering what I've been doing. I sent a letter in Brian Heath's direction about a month or two ago, I'm assuming it arrived safe and sound but can't exactly remember what news I sent with it so, where do I begin....?

LANGUAGE :- It's absolutely great fun speaking a second language. Now that it doesn't take me half an hour to knock over a single page, I've started reading a lot of German novels. Good practice I reckon.

UNI :- A friend of my host father's invited me in to the Uni of Kassel's biochem department for a few week's visit. Really quite interesting, although sometimes a bit confusing...lectures on DNA synthesis and such things are hard enough to understand in English!

WORK EXPERIENCE :- I did a week's work experience down at Braun Melsungen, a world wide medical supplies firm which actually has it's headquarters here in my current home town. I spent a week in the workshop, putting togehter bits of machinery and basically just seeing what goes on.

RIDING TOURNAMENT :- One of the rotarians here happened to be running an International showjumping tournament and invited me to come along and help out a bit, sometimes working in the shop in case any english speaking international guests showed and things like that and the rest of the time just getting to watch some of the world's best riders take the field. Was good fun.

TOURING :- I have now been to Berlin three times, absolutely fantastic. I love the place, it's not what I'd call the world's most beautiful city, but probably one of the most interesting. The atmosphere is unbelievable, you can see so much history in everything, from the days of the Prussian kings, the Nazi era and the days of the Cold War when the wall still stood.
A really beautiful town here is Heidelberg, anyone who goes to Germany should make the effort to get there. It's a really pretty old town in the wine growing region of the Pfalz, with a magnificent old castle spectacular even with half now only ruins.
And just yesterday I got back from Austria. A good friend of mine from Sale, Don Carmichael, was visiting friends of his and invited me down to stay for a week. A few of you probably know Don, he's a member of the Arts Council back home in Sale. We were in Oberösterreich (Upper Austria) in Linz and Passau, some beautiful countryside along the Danube and up in the hills of the Mühlviertel. Had a great time!
And in just three weeks or so is EURO TOUR!!!! This means all us exchanges from the southern hemisphere currently residing in the states of Hessen, Thüringen and Sachsen (about 40 of us) will be on our way to Amsterdam, Paris, Marseilles, Rome, Venice and Salzburg (and a whole bunch of other places in between) for four weeks. Will be great, chance of a lifetime to see the sights and it's always great fun when the exchanges get together......!

CULTURE :- Got to see Evita at the Bad Hersfeld Festspiel a few weeks ago, was really great, interesting to hear all the familiar songs sung in German.

SCHOOL :- Starts Monday. Either I move back to Eschwege or go to school here in Melsungen. Still not decided. Will work that out this week. I'm now doing the German equivalent of year 12, bit of a challenge but I'll be right.

FOOTY :- Well, on the sporting side of things I had a go at handball but it fell off the schedule. Being a keen hockey player I've gotten in touch with a club here and I'll go and have a game or two sometime after Summer. But, strangest of all I've been offered a game of Australian Rules for the newly formed "Kassel Cats", the third Aussie Rules club in Germany. They haven't got any Australians at the moment so they'd really like me to come along, but unfortunately the next match is scheduled for when I'm on Euro Tour. So it goes, I'll try to get along to training some time and see what it's like.

AND :- I've kept up a bit with the news from home, the mother sends the Gippy Times occasionally and the AFL and The Age have good websites. And amazingly I got given an article from a newspaper in Austria which had a short bit on Sale's own Roulettes, with Annemieke Mein's daughter becoming the first woman Roulette and all that. I'll send a copy over some time.

Well, that just about wraps it up for Aaron's brief look at things, I'll keep you all informed with any important developements.
Bis zum nächsten Mal, macht's gut und tschüss!!!
C'arn the Doggies!
Aaron Richard.

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