November 4

Hello everybody! My name is Alexandra Zach, but everybody calls me Xandi or Zandi (I gave up telling everybody, how to pronounce it the Austrian way!). I'm from Vienna, which is the capital of Austria and I'm here in Florida since (exactly) 3 months now! I know that my journal is much too late and I'm very sorry, but that way, I have a lot to write about! 

I arrived in Florida on August 4th. My hostfamily, Mark and Dina DeBolt,picked me up at the airport and took me to my new home in Ocala. My first day of school was on August 9th. In Austria I went to a Catholic private school for twelve years so my new school in Ocala is very very different. I'm attending Forest High School. The school is so big and it has about 2000 students, so I felt a little bit lost in the first week, but I really really like it now. Since I already graduated from high school in Austria I could pick all the classes I am interested in, like Law Studies, Journalism or Sculpture! About two weeks ago, I tried out for cheerleading in my school and I made it! Although I know that I'm not the cheerleading-type at all, it's a lot of fun and very very American!

Since I'm here, I've gone on a lot of different trips. I went to Steinhatchee, North Carolina and Daytona Beach with my host family, to Jacksonville with all the other exchange students, to Lake Weir with my church youth group and many other small trips! I really like being here a lot and I'm so glad that I decided to be an exchange-student. Of course, there are a lot of things that are new and different and you have to get used to them! But that's what it is all about, experiencing a new culture, learning a new language and getting to know new people! It's really hard sometimes and I often think that things would be so much easier back home but you really have to challenge yourself and I think that I've already grown a lot personally from this whole experience!

January 25

The President of Rotary International, Rick King, was in our district for the 75th anniversary celebration of the Rotary Clubs of Crescent City and Hastings. Xandi got to meet President Rick and his wife Cheri! Here's the proof:

Left to right: Xandi's current host father Paul Zirakian (Ocala Sunset Rotary ), Michael Berryhill (also Ocala Sunset), our beaming inbound Xandi Zach, RI First Lady Cherie and President Rick King, and District 6970 First Lady Claudia and Governor Don Kanfer.

March 3

My plan to write frequently now obviously didn't work out very well... but since I didn't write in such a long time I have a lot to tell now! I've been here since almost seven months now and let me tell you, these months went by so fast, it's amazing!! I only have three more months to go! I'm going home so soon which is really sad, because there is just so much to do here in Florida and I'm really having a great time!

I experienced American Thanksgiving and Christmas, it was really nice... lots of good food! Than after New Year's Day I switched host families and I'm living with Paul and Elaine Zirakian and their little son Adam now. Living with them is really great and Adam is the cutest little baby in the whole world!! 

There's been so much going on, I really did a lot of fun things: A man from the Rotary Club took Evelina and me flying in his little airplane. We went to Cedar Key, it was awesome!!! Evelina is living with my former host family now, so she lives closer to me now and we hang out together a lot more now. We went to Tampa together, to go to the Gasparilla. It was so crazy but we just had a blast! Then I also met the Rotary President Rick King, I think a picture of this is on the website. He was really funny and he sang "Edelweiss" for me, I think a lot of Americans think, that it is the Austrian National anthem :) 

At the beginning of February I went to Sea camp in the Keys with all the Rotary Exchange Students! We met up with other Exchange students there. We had a great time, we went snorkeling, we had a dance and we had group discussions. 

OK I did so many other things too but this is all I can think of right now. In two weeks I'm going to Boston with Paul and Elaine and in spring break I'm going to San Francisco! I can't wait!!

April 26

Hello everybody!! The past two months have been really really awesome. First I flew to Boston with Paul and Elaine, Paul had to go there for his business so they just took me! It was really great, Boston is an awesome city and I could just walk everywhere, which I really miss here in Florida. I went to Harvard college too...I spent most of my time there in the gift shop :) It was a really cool trip and I did some great shopping (yeah, my parents didn't think that's so great:)).

Then my Rotary Club had its fundraiser, they cooked and sold ribs, so I went there for a little bit, took some pictures... just to say I was there...no but I really did some work too :) Then I went to Daytona Beach the first 
weekend of Spring Break and then on Wednesday Paul, Elaine, Adam and me flew to San Francisco! We stayed there until Monday and let me tell you, San Francisco is a beautiful city. It is so diverse and exciting. I really loved all the hills there, it makes the city so unique. There were so many cute little shops and restaurants there, the food was awesome!! I'm so glad I got to go, because I really got to see a whole different part of America. California is really very different from Florida!

After we came back from San Francisco, I took a little break from all my traveling and went to school for a little change *gg* but not for that long because last week (April 12-22) I went on a trip to New York City with about 80 other exchange students. We had the best time. From our district Taís, Luis, David and me went. There were 5 girls from the southern Florida and the rest of the exchange students were from the ESSEX district up north. We flew into Pittsburgh and from there we drove to New York by bus and picked up all the exchange students on the way. We got to know so many people and got really good friends with them although we only saw each other for about four days! It was sooo hard to say good-bye at the end! Anyway, we did so 
much cool stuff: We went to Ground Zero, the Statue of Liberty (which was closed), the Empire State Building, United Nations (our tour guide was from Austria!!), Southseaport, a Broadway Play (I saw Aida, it was awesome), Central Park, Chinatown, Macy's, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and we went on a Limo-ride. Our hotel was right on Times Square, which was really great. New York is a really fascinating city and I would have needed at least 2 more weeks there. But we had such a great time and I have so many great memories! I'm sure I'm gonna go there again! I'll send some pictures as soon as I have them!

Now I'm leaving really soon. I'm going back to Austria on June 1st, which is in about five weeks... time just flew by! I'm really excited to see my family, friends and my city again, but I'm really sad too, because I had a 
great year and a lot of fun. It really seems to me, that after this year the really fun and easy part of my life will be over, because I'm gonna go to college and everything will be really different I guess. But I'm looking forward to it too!

Next week a really important event is coming up... my 19th birthday!!! :) I can't believe it, I'm getting old... :)
Ok that's it for today, I'm gonna write one more time before I leave!

Bye Xandi