Geraldine Bless

2005-06 Inbound from Switzerland

Date of Birth: April 27, 1987

Hometown: Bad Ragaz, Switzerland

Sponsor: Bad Ragaz Rotary Club, District 2000, Switzerland

Host: Daytona Beach Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida USA

School: Flagler Palm Coast High School

Bio

Geraldine's Bio

Hi everyone !!!

My name is Geraldine Bless. I am 18 years old and I live in Bad Ragaz which is in the east part of wonderful Switzerland. There I completed the second year of college, where I am studying economics.

My father's name is Max. He is a manager of the company Georg Fischer, and also a Rotary Member. My mother's name is Sonja. She works at the reception desk of a hotel. I also have a younger brother named Pascal. He is 16 years old and in the college, too.

I have a lot of hobbies. My favorite hobby is playing tennis, which I have been playing for 12 years, since the age of 6. I also enjoy watching movies. My friends and I go to the movie theaters quite often, and in the future, I hope to study film.

I wanted to be an exchange student because I would meet a new culture and their traditions that are different from Switzerland. I can also meet new people from the whole world, and that is awesome!!! This year is going to be the best year of my life. I cannot thank you enough for taking part this year.

Best Regards

Geraldine

September 25 Journal and Pictures

Hi, everybody!

Here comes journal number 1: ;)

I came to Palm Coast over 1 month ago, and I’ve already enjoyed a lot of experiences. Now I want to tell you a little bit of my adventures. I’ll begin with my flight to the world power country: the USA.

As I sat down in the airplane, many different thoughts came to mind, for example: How is my host family? How is the school there? Are the people nice to me? etc.... And I couldn't believe that I could have this great chance to fly to America. That was an indescribable feeling. I flew 11 hours. That sounds so long, but I was able to watch movies in the airplane, which was sooo cool (I saw Miss Undercover, Finding Nemo, Meet the Fockers 2 etc.) I am sure I watched every movie twice ;). During my layover in Miami I met 2 Rotary members. They recognized me by my Exchange Blazer and we had a good conversation. I was relieved, albeit very tired, when I arrived at my final destination. When I arrived at the airport in Jacksonville, a few Rotary Members organized me a “Hollywood” reception. They held a big shield with the Rotary sign in the air, they bought flowers for me and everybody had a big big smile - Wowwww!!! I was so touched. ;)

I live with a very, very nice host family . The Schneiters consist of 5 members. Host father Tom, who is also from Switzerland, Host mother Jodi and their 3 children, Stormi (16) who is in the same school as I, Patrick (3) and Jennifer (1). I enjoy every day with my first host family, and we have also made many trips. We went to the movie theater, to the beach, shopping in St. Augustine, which is the oldest city in the USA, and we visited the biggest reptile show in the world (and that was so fascinating). I saw a lot of different snakes, turtles and lizards. I didn't know that such weird reptiles existed (on this earth) loool.

Stormi, Isabell and I were invited by the Flagler Beach Rotary Club to watch the musical “Cats.” It was the best play I've ever seen. Thank you so much for the generous invitation.

Some things are very different here as compared to Switzerland. For example, the weather here is very hot, you see people on the street seldom, everybody is in the air conditioning. In Switzerland it is cold now, and there is also a bit of snow in the mountains. Also different is food, the distance from place to place, the sea, and the whole school system. There are also different sports activities which I haven't got in my country, and everything is bigger here, like Flagler Palm Coast High School. In my school we had just 80 people vs. here, where there are over 3000 wooooow!!!

I was so happy to meet all the Inbound students during the orientation weekend, and then in the middle of the second day I became ill and I had to go to the hospital. I want to say a big “thank you” to the people who took care of me, and a big “thank you” to Claudia Page and Bill Griffin, who stayed with me in the hospital. Thank you soooo much. I hope not every exchange student from Switzerland will have this experience. ;)

I am so happy to be an exchange student. Rotary roooocks!!! I am looking forward to getting to know the other exchange students.

Bye Bye Geraldine

Host mother Jodi with Jennifer; host father Tom

Pictures from the reptile show

October 2 Journal

Hey everybody!

Here comes journal number 2: How are you doing? I read all journals from you, and must say that everyone is a pretty good writer. Wooooow!!! I've got to try hard to make also a good journal like you. ;)

I have begun to feel more and more at home in this huge country, but the time runs and runs, and now it is already October. It seems only a few weeks to me, while every day is a special experience. ;)

My great Counselor, Lea Stokes, organized a “Welcome Party” for Isabell and me. She invited a few very nice Rotarians, so that they had a chance to get to know us. Pond was also there, and we talked a lot about our experience so far while staying in Florida. In addition to that, we talked about other topics including movies ;) and our countries. It was pretty awesome. Yeaaa ;) Lea made us a yummy cake with our names on it, and she gave us a very nice Rotary T-Shirt. I really enjoyed the party and met a lot of new people. Thank you, Lea, for everything.

I am a member of the Interact Club. It is a great community service program that is sponsored by the Rotary Club. Now, we are thinking about how we could collect money, which we'll spend for a good cause.....

In school it was Homecoming Week. I didn't know what it was, just that the whole school was talking about it. Everyone was very nervous and excited. When I went to school on Monday morning, I saw a lot of people who wore PJs (which had different cartoon characters, such as Spongebob, Snow White, and even Mickey Mouse!), slippers, and robes. Each day was a different theme: All Star Day, for which people dressed as his or her famous star (sports, music, and movie stars where present); Wacky Tacky Day, when people wore clothes that didn't match; Time Twister Day, dressing as one's favorite era and Spirit Day, for which everyone showed support for the school by wearing the school colors: green and black. I've never seen this before, and it was soooo funny.

On Friday I went to the Homecoming football game. The Bulldogs played against the Sea Breeze Falcons. The Bulldogs scored seventeen points by half time, when the coronation for Homecoming King and Queen took place. Also, the cheerleaders did a routine, and the orchestra put on a great show (a battle of the bands) which made a BRILLIANT atmosphere for the third and fourth quarters. It was awesome!

My host sister's boyfriend, Johnnie, is in the band, and he plays the trumpet. He's really good, and he also plays guitar in a rock band. He's pretty cool. We talked about the school band and about Florida football teams; it was very interesting.

We won 24-0 (yeaaaaaa...)! I am fascinated by football; it's really cool.

On Saturday I attended a birthday party of a girl from school. It was really fun; we watched a movie, ate cake, hung out with friends and talked. I watch my host sister become a living Barbie, while the other girls made her try on different clothes. They looked for the right outfit for her to wear to the Homecoming dance that night. A hundred dresses later they found the right one, and every one was happy (even if she couldn't breathe because of the tightness of the dress (0.o) ). Although I didn't attend the dance, I was told that it was very exciting and full of lots glee. The dance lasted from eight until midnight and over one thousand two hundred ninety-seven students attended (the number of my host sister's ticket). The theme of the dance was “Under Water Enchantment” and they decorated the school gym and cafeteria for the occasion.

I hope it was not too boring ;).

Bye Bye,

Geraldine

Pond, Isabell, and me at the Welcome Party

Party cake

My awesome host sister and me

November 30 Journal

Hey guys,

How is everybody doing? It’s time for my third journal. I’ve got so much to say but it ‘s just too much to write down, so I’ll try to make it short for you.

1) On my last trip with my first host family we drove to Daytona Beach to watch the big air show. It was very interesting to look into a plane, which was used in the war. I saw how it was built and where the soldiers sat and lived. When I saw all the infrastructure, I started to think about the past when the brave man went to war and fought for their country. I felt so sorry for the soldiers and their families back home who lost loved family members. But back to the show; there were also many airplanes that presented spectacular shows. The planes flew so close to the ground that it almost look like they would crash into the crowd. That was kind of scary! One special thing was a woman who was fixed on the top of the plane. She showed acrobatic during the fly. They also did shooting practice. The airplane dropped the rocket to a goal, which gave a huge explosion. I also saw Rotarians, who had stands to collect money.

2) Gulten’s Birthday party: It was really great to see everybody again! We had so much fun watching movies, playing soccer on a golf course, talking and eating the Birthday cake!

3) The same weekend I changed my host family. I’m living now with Mr. & Mrs. Bishop. We already made many trips together. We watched the very good musical Brigadoon from my high school, went to Daytona Beach to play tennis, visit the chocolate store because I miss my Swiss chocolate! J (I could stay the whole day in a chocolate factory and eat chocolate until I would explode). We went shopping in Orlando and I was also able to go to the mal in Jacksonville with Lawrene’s daughter Lisa and her two daughters Heather (18) and Stephanie (almost 15 J). It was so much fun with them although we didn’t buy so much. After our 5-hour shopping tour we were very exhausted and hungry, so we had a big Mexican dinner. It was soo yummy!

4) I played Golf near my house. My host dad told me the Golf rules and showed me how to hold and hit with the golf clubs. I tried so hard to hit the ball correctly but I think I need some lessons J.

5) I went to two concerts from Heather. One was in the musical college from Deland. I was so impressed because it was really amazing. The second was a Christmas concert in a church in Palm Coast. It was so long and sometimes a little bit boring. So Stephanie, Kayla (her best friend ... she is awesome) and me wrote notes to each other. It was so funny but we couldn’t laugh loud because we were in a church.

6) Horse riding: My last ride was 6 years ago. I wasn’t used to it anymore. So it felt really weird to sit on a horse again. It was so cool but after 40 min. my . . . . hurt so bad and when I got down from the horse I could not walk normally. Auaaaa….!!!

7) Lawrene and I went to Isabell’s birthday party. She invited many Rotarians and some friends from school. They made Mexican food… It was so good!

Ok I am done now. I’m looking forward to see ya’ll in Disney!

Bye Bye

Geraldine

March 19 Journal

Hey everybody!

First of all I want to say that I’ve now the absolutely best time I’ve ever had in my entire life. Everything is going just perfect but when I think that my exchange year is almost over, it’s like I’ll lose something... I can’t really describe it but it is a weird feeling. The last few months just ran away and now it’s already March. That was unbelievably fast. It seems to me that I just stepped out of the airplane and said *Hallouu* with my funny Swiss accent. I think everybody can tell from their own experiences that when you enjoy something, you can’t stop the timer, which speeds away and when you don’t like something than it’s like it would never end. But anyway... I’ve so much to say that I’ve no idea where to start.

1) I begin with the Golf parade: I’ve never seen that before but I can tell it was so funny. Some people from the community decorated their Golf cars. I saw so many different cars, full with beads; snowmen, Santa Claus, colored lights and one guy even installed a radio in his car. The whole group drove like that from house to house to eat and drink (some of them were already kind of drunk) and to have a good time there. It was hilarious.

2) I was able to visit the Daytona Race Museum with Bill Griffin, Julie, Marianna and Kuba. First we visited the museum inside the building where we watched a 3 D movie about the history of NASCAR, after that we could drive in a car simulator, which everybody really enjoyed. The second part was a tour around the whole race area. It was really interesting to see all the equipment they need to have for a race and It gave me a whole new look for this sport. A big “THANK YOU” to Bill Griffin that he gave us the chance to make something together.

3) Olya’s and Taka’s birthday. It rained that day, so we cancelled our plan to drive Go-carts but that was not bad at all because Bill had the idea to go to the “Bowling place”. We played two rounds “Boys” against “Girls”. We were a strong team but I think the “Boys” just had more practice than we had. That was our good excuse because they won all the time. After our defeat we went home to Bill and watched the thriller War of the Worlds (directed by Steven Spielberg). It was a fun day.

4) One of my special Xmas presents from Lawrene was to go to the football game in Jacksonville: Jaguars against the Colts. I never imagined that the stadium would be so huge and it was full of fans who cheered for their favorite team. Woooow..... During the game I really tried to pay attention but I never got the rules, so I said to myself that I should ask somebody. So I did that but after a few minutes the person gave up on me and I was even more confused than I was before. But it was anyway an amazing game.

5) New Years Parade in Jacksonville. It was great to see all the exchange students again and I had so much fun to walk in the Gator Parade but the best thing was the New Years Eve party in the evening (Thanks to Teresa and Bob Harrington) that we could spend the whole time in their house. I think it was my favorite Rotary event yet. ;)

6) Disney: Yeaaaaa it was already my second time in Disney but it was now with my host family and their families. We all had a really good time together and I still saw so many new things that I missed at the first time when I went with all the exchange students.

7) One weekend we made a trip to Blue Springs where the Manatees stay. I really like those animals. For me the funny thing about them is that they are vegetarians (they eat just sea grass) and still are so *Big* ;)

8) School completely changed for me. My schedule for the second term is really cool: I have Photography, French and two times TV Production. I LOVE TV Production!!! I can’t really tell you how much I enjoy this class but I can honestly say that I like to go to school now and that is just because of this class. Probably you think that I am crazy, sick or stuff like that but I’m totally serious. I found really good friends there and the best thing is that we all understand each other because everybody has the same interests and that is in the film industry. About my TV Production teacher Mr. Brazell. He’s the best teacher I’ve ever had. Every day he shows us such interesting and important stuff. It is sooo great..... I could stay the entire day there. We are like a little company in which everybody helps each other. Soon, we’ll begin with a short film. I’m really excited to start with shooting. I hope it’ll turn good. ;) It is just an awesome, awesome and awesome class!!!!!

9) Tennis season started. We practice almost every day after school for about 2h and we already played some matches against other high schools. I’m really proud of myself that I can play number 1 in my team. I also found so many new friends there. It is fantastic.

10) I could go with Lisa + Family (Lawrene`s daughter) to the famous NASCAR Race in Daytona Beach. I was really impressed from the fast cars and their accidents but that day was just too cold to really enjoy it J

Ok, I should stop now, otherwise my journal gets longer and longer. The last thing I want to say is: a huge “THANK YOU” to my wonderful host family and of course the Rotary for this great opportunity. I have the best experience ever and I am so happy to be a part of this exchange program.

Hope see y’all soon!!!

Bye bye

Geraldine