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Teresa Lexmüller
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2003-04 Inbound from Austria
Date of Birth: July 18, 1985
Hometown: Baden, Austria
Sponsor: Baden Rotary Club, District 1910, Austria
Host: South Jacksonville Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida USA
School: Douglas Anderson School of the Arts
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| Teresa's Bio |
| Arrival in Jacksonville |
| October 16 Journal -
"My host family took me to the Alligator Farm. I think that
alligators are very interesting, and I enjoyed watching them from a safe
distance, but I hope that I'll never see a free one!!!" |
| December 27 Journal -
"I love Jelly Beans (we don't have them), and
Santa made sure that he put enough for me in my stocking!! Maybe I will
start believing in Santa!!" |
| March 15 Journal - "Now
it is already March and most of my exchange year is over! The time here went
by very fast and I experienced so many new things in such a short time!" |
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Teresa's
Bio
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 My
name is Teresa and I'm an 18-year-old from Austria. I live in a small city
near Vienna called Baden. I arrived about two weeks ago in Jacksonville to
have a year where I can learn a lot. My main goals for this year is to
learn English really well and to get to know the culture in America.
One of my favorite hobbies is singing and swimming,
which I already did here. In Austria, I have a 16-year-old brother and
although I miss my family, I'm not too homesick because I really like the
country, the people, and especially the weather here! |
Arrival
in Jacksonville
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| The Webbs had their arms
open, waiting for Teresa, but a missed connection in Atlanta left
a gap in the picture. |
Three hours later,
Teresa receives the imaginary hug. See if you can mentally combine
the two photos! |
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| Finally! Just a
couple of days later, and the picture is complete! |
October
16 Journal
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| Now
I'm for over two months in Florida and I although I do feel sometimes a
little bit homesick, I really enjoy my time here. I go to the Douglas
Anderson School of Arts and I have a lot of fun there. I already had a performance
with my choir, and I really like the teachers and the other students in
this school. The school system is very different from what I'm used to,
especially because they have lessons like acting or choir, and I really
enjoy it. The High schools here have a reading standard which requests to
read 25 books and my English teacher takes this standard very serious.
Therefore I really get to read a lot, which is very good for my English.
Furthermore I have to read every two weeks a play for my acting class, and
I'm quite sure that at least by December I will have read more books than
I normally read in one year, and that in English!
Beside the many very nice people I met, I really love
the weather in Florida. It's like summer all year, because it's already October
and I still wear shorts and t-shirts. I hope this won't change a lot,
because I love this temperature, although especially the high humidity was
very strange for me at first, and it is sometimes very hot and the sun
very intense. In Austria you need at this time of the year a warm jacket,
and the sun is not nearly shining so much like here. Furthermore I think
it is great that you are always so close to water like the ocean, a lake
or a river, because I really love any kind of water and I especially enjoy
water sports.
Since I'm here I already learned water skiing and jet ski,
and I never thought that tubing would be so much fun. Besides this, I love
the palm trees and the many big birds and lizards in Florida. I didn't see
a free alligator yet, but I'm very glad that I didn't when I was swimming!
I did see a big turtle in the small river right next to the house of my
host family, and in order that I would finally see an alligator, my host
family took me to the Alligator Farm. I think that alligators are very
interesting, and I enjoyed watching them from a safe distance, but since
this visit I hope that I'll never see a free one!!!
My first two months in Jacksonville have been really
great, and I'm looking forward to the rest of this year!!
-Teresa |
December
27 Journal
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| Soon
2003 is over, and I and all the other exchange students will remember this
year as a year full of excitement and a lot of new experiences for sure.
One of the latest new experiences was the trip with all the other exchange students
from Florida to Walt Disney World !!! We had a lot of fun in Disney World
and we met a lot of other exchange students with whom we could talk about
our life in America. We were even able to go into the park before it opened,
and see Space Mountain with the lights on! Everybody made a lot of
pictures during these days, especially with the Disney characters! I think
nobody is ever too old to have fun hugging Mickey or Donald! All the exchange students
are now in the U.S. for about 5 months. Most of us have already changed
their host families, and some will very soon. I never heard from a single
exchange student who is not happy with his host parents, and now after
nearly half of our exchange year, we all start to think about how hard it
is going to be to say goodbye to our new friends and families!
This Christmas was very different from everything from
what I was used to. First of all there is Santa who brings the presents,
and not the Christ child like in most European countries. Americans
decorate their Christmas tree way earlier than Austrians do, because in my
home country the Christ child does that on December 24th. This year I got
my first stocking! I love Jelly Beans (we don't have them), and Santa made
sure that he put enough for me in my sock!! All in all I had a very nice
Christmas, and maybe I start believing in Santa!!
-Teresa |
March 15 Journal
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Hello!
Now it is already March and most of my exchange year is over! The time here
went by very fast and I experienced so many new things in such a short time!
This year year was my first winter without any snow, and I
just had to wear a light jacket I would wear in Austria at the end of the
summer! Furthermore, Austria had this year one of the hardest winters in
years and I traded watching ski-races for watching football on the TV.
 A
few weeks ago I visited with my host parents the Kennedy Space Center, which
I was very excited about! I was always very interested in any space programs
and seeing real spaceships and the place where they start from was just
great! I even got a picture with an astronaut!! :)
Last week I went with my choir from Douglas Anderson to
District Festival, for what we practiced a lot. I enjoyed listening to other
choirs, but the best part of this experience was that we got a superior for
everything we did there. Another choir from my school visits Austria over
spring break! It will be very interesting for me to hear what they say about
my country, and I hope they followed my advice to bring warm clothes,
because many of them will see snow for the first time!
Both of my host parents have dogs what is wonderful
because I always wanted one but was never allowed to get one!! I especially
like the Maltese of my second host family. I sometimes give him a bath so he
would stay white and fluffy! Now that I lived with dogs for so long, I
finally convinced my parents that I have to have one in Austria too!
 Last
Saturday the 27th annual Gate River Run took place in Jacksonville! The race
is 15km which is about 9 1/2 miles. I never participated in such a run, but
I couldn't let this opportunity pass by and so I started with the other
7,600 runners! Although it was a very hot day to run, I managed to run the
whole way and I finished after 1 hour and 35 minutes!! - Hey the winner was
only about 45 minutes faster!!! ;) My host mother and host brother also ran,
and so I wasn't the only one in my house who had a hard time climbing stairs
the next day!
Sincerely,
Teresa |
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