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Eve
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2005-06 Inbound from Austria
Date of Birth: October 24,
1989
Hometown: Bruck an der Mur,
Austria
Sponsor: Bruck/Mur Rotary Club, District 1910,
Austria
Host: Lake Butler Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida USA
School: Union County High School
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Bio
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October 3 Journal - "I thought that
this sport was really rude, but soon I realized that going to football
games is much more than just watching guys tackling each other." |
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November 13 Journal - "People here
taught me Redneck-English! y’all; wichi dichi; d’cheat; mayonnaise etc.
That was really good, because the next day I had my first conversation
with a Redneck." |
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December 30 Journal - "I had my first
weightlifting meet and a second one shortly after. In both meets I usually
lifted around 10-30 pounds more than all the other girls in my weight
class." |
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Eve's Bio
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 My name is Eva and I’m from Austria!!!
Probably every one of you wants to know what kind of person I
am!
So, I like to do sports, I like arts and
shopping, but what I really love are music and babies. I can’t stand insects
and arrogant humans (yesterday a spider was sitting in the bathroom and now
I’m scared to go back in there!!!).
I don’t have any brothers or sisters, so
I spend a lot of time with my friends.
My father, Professor Mag. Otto Ernest
Gutmann, is an English and Geography teacher in the Knittelfeld Academic
secondary UNESCO school and my mother, Martina Panzl, studies Shiatsu (Asian
massage) at the moment. My mom really takes care of our nutrition and she’s
a very social person. My dad is a great organizer (he organizes a lot of
journeys for his school) and he’s also very good in languages. My parents
always wanted me to be independent and that was sometimes really hard to
handle, but now I’m so glad because I don’t become desperate just because
I’m in an absolutely different world.
My home city Bruck an der Mur has 16,000
inhabitants and is surrounded by mountains. In winter we have a lot of snow
and I love snowboarding. In the rest of the year my family and I often go on
mountains and enjoy the wonderful scenery (I think most of you have seen the
movie “The Sound of Music” and so you know what I’m talking about). I also
play the piano, sing and like I’ve mentioned above I hang around with
friends of mine very often. If I have spare time I learn some words in
Arabic, because my parents and I have been to Syria this year and I’m
fascinated of the Arabic language.
Why am I an exchange student? There is
no single reason for being an exchange student. My main reason is that I
love traveling, but you don’t get to know a culture by staying in a country
for just one or two weeks. The US was always fascinating to me, because it’s
like a mix of many cultures and sceneries and languages. I’m glad to be in
Florida 'cause it’s absolutely different to my home.
I hope to meet as many Americans as possible in this year. I
hope to live this year like an ordinary student from Florida and I hope to
improve my English knowledge. |
October 3 Journal
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| The Friday night football games are probably the most exciting
things in Lake Butler, an ordinary American small town. Especially in Union
County most people at almost all ages go to the football games. When I went to
my first game, the Kick-off in Santa-Fe, the first thing I saw, was that about
six, big football players jumped on the one with the football. I thought that
this sport was really rude, but soon I realized that going to football games is
much more than just watching guys tackling each other. First of all, I love the
Pep Rallies. For all of you who don’t know what Pep Rallies are: The meaning of
a Pep Rally is to relax the football players before the football game. In my
school the Pep Rally is held in sixth period, in the Middle School gym and
everybody sits with their class. The Pep Rally is mainly led by the
cheerleaders who pick always the same amount of boys and girls from each class
who have a competition against the students of the other classes. The goal of
the classes is to make the most noise and be the most spirited in order to get the
Spirit Stick which is actually just an old piece of wood colored in purple and a
yellowish Gold. At the football games all kinds of T-shirts, bracelets, anything
useful to cheer, a book with all football players etc. is sold. I enjoy watching
the games ‘cause they are very exciting especially because we have some
absolutely talented players like CJ Spiller, Kevin Alexander, Chris Perry, or
Kasey Nobles. Of course the games are a time of socializing, where I already
made lots of friends. I think I talked enough about football.
My school is very ……… purple!!! The colors of my school
are purple and gold, so the parking space are in purple and yellow marked,
the lockers are purple, all the walls are decorated in two different kinds
of purple, even the chairs are purple, also the folders where the sheets
with the attendance are kept in are purple or yellow. I could write pages
about that and I think this is really amazing!!! I think my school is very
well provided with equipment for everything; there is nothing I could
compare with my school in Austria.
I love about my school the sport teams. At the moment I am
in weight lifting, I plan to play basketball, but I’m not sure yet and I’m
pretty sure that I will join track team. In my school we also have an
Interact club of which I’m not just a member, I’m the Vice-President!!! We
haven’t started a project yet where we work together but we have already
some ideas.
About the students: They are adorable!!! In my school are
only about 600 students and I am so lucky that people here love gossiping,
so it didn’t take me a long time to make more friends than I ever thought I
could make. There is nobody I don’t like and I hope there’s also nobody who
doesn’t like me.
Exchange students: I never thought so, but there are three
more students in this tiny school. Victor is from Brazil, a Senior and one
of my best friends if he isn’t my best friend and he is also staying with a
Rotarian, but he is not a Rotary exchange student. The other two students
are from South Korea, a boy and a girl, Andrew and Sunny.
My host mother, Ms. Sandra Langley Gass, has an impressive
personality. I don’t know how she can handle all that, but her organization
concerning her job as an English teacher in my school, as the owner of her
own office with just one secretary and keeping her house that pretty and
clean as it is, is something I should learn from! Almost everyday after she
worked in her classroom, she moves directly to her office, or takes me home
first, works for a couple of hours in her office, comes home eats a snack
goes to the computer and keeps on working. As the teacher who is in charge
of the Interact club there will be a lot of work coming up and I’m sure that
even then she will stand in front of my bathroom at seven a.m. with fresh
washed and styled hair, her pretty make-up and one of billions of outfits
asking me: “Are we about ready?” To summarize: I’m glad that I have such a
nice lady as host mother, who takes care of myself and treats me like her
daughter..
Finally I would like to say some words about difficulties
with the English language. Actually I understand the vital things people say
to me and often I get everything they talk about. There was just one
sentence in my first week in school - a guy, who is a good friend of mine
and I didn’t see him for a while, said to me and it took me ten minutes to
understand what he was talking about. The question was: “Don’ ya tok to ya
homboy no mo?” It honestly sounded a bit like Chinese to me, but now I know
that it means: “Don’t you talk to your Homeboy anymore?”
This Friday is Homecoming in my school and in my next
journal I will talk about that and about my birthday which is coming up on
the 24th of October: SWEET SIXTEEN!!!
Bye, bye
Love,
Eve
P.S.: Everybody who is interested in it: I have a Homepage
where I try to put pictures on regularly. The address is:
www.ameisen.cc/evameetsflorida |
November 13 Journal
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| Well, it has already been two months and it’s still an amazing
world…..
So what happened since my last report?
First of all my school had Homecoming and it was quite
fun, but not that big that I supposed it would be. The Tiger Growl, where
the Queen is usually crowned and all the classes have their skits, was
cancelled, because of thunderstorms. The parade was then after and some
students and me were riding in the Interact car. Right behind us, Mrs. Union
Co High was in her convertible…..what a pretty girl!!! Unfortunately, when
my host mother, who is the teacher in charge of the Interact club, wanted to
take me to a friend’s house with our car it broke down. Although it was a
nice experience.
Something very entertaining to me was when people here
taught me Redneck-English! y’all; wichi dichi; d’cheat; mayonnaise etc. That
was really good, because the next day I had my first conversation with a
Redneck and so I understood at least some of the things he said.
I visited Mr. and Ms. Tillis, who will be my second host
family, a couple times and we sang Karaoke which was sooo much fun. On the
24th, my birthday, I also came over to their house and we went out for
dinner, I got a delicious cake from Publix, a gold and silver watch and
finally we got home to sing some Karaoke.
On the 22nd I met most of the Exchange students again and
it really seems like we become closer and closer each time. I was so glad to
see them again and some who had more difficulties with the language improved
a lot and so they talked more this time and I got to know some of them
better than before. Unfortunately two of my friends Olga and Olya weren’t
there, but I’m looking forward to seeing all of them and especially those
who haven’t been there in Disney.
In the first two months of my stay I didn’t have to think
too much about everything in Austria, but in the last couple weeks I thought
more often of them. I get asked every next day if I’m ready to go home.
Well, no I’m not. Of course I miss my family, friends, my country and I look
forward to seeing them, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I’d be
homesick, which I’m not. Many students also ask me what I like better,
Austria or the States. This would be the same question as if somebody would
ask me if I like vanilla ice cream or strawberries more. I love both, but I
can’t compare it at all. The best way is to just mix it like I mix the
Austrian and American culture in my environment this year.
This is mainly everything about this month.
Au revoir, Adieu, Ciao, auf Wiedersehen and Bye Bye.
I wish all the Exchange students a great year (inbounds
and outbounds)!!! And everybody else a nice day!!!
Yours
Eva |
December 30 Journal
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| Well, it’s been a while since I wrote my last
journal so I
thought I will go ahead and write one.
I still haven’t changed host families yet, but soon I
will!!!
So where should I start off? Well, a week after my first
journal I experienced an American wedding. It was wonderful!!! They booked
one of the largest churches in the area and had everything white and with
roses and there were men who brought you to your seat. It was just sooo
different from our weddings, but with so much love and style planned!!!
Of course we went to Disney, which I personally really
enjoyed because I didn’t just meet all my “old” friends again, but also
exchange students from South Florida. I think that it was very nice in the
different parks of Disney World, because they had (especially in Epcot) many
different cultures involved like our Exchange program.
I had my first weightlifting meet two days after we came
home and a second one shortly after. In both meets I won in my weight class.
I usually lifted around 10-30 pounds more than all the other girls in my
weight class. I hope I will stay so successful.
I will skip talking about the semester exams (they were
pretty boring) and keep on about Christmas. Well Christmas Eve we were at my
Host-mums house with the whole family and exchanged presents. Christmas
morning of course Santa was here and brought some more presents. Then we
went to church and after church we had dinner at my host-mother's sister's
house with even more people than on Christmas Eve the day before. After a
couple hours I went to the Tillis-house, who is my future host family, who
invited me over for Christmas. They also had some presents for me and lots
of cookies!!!!!
Oh, I almost forgot Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a really
nice tradition, but I think that for many people Thanksgiving is not anymore
about thanking the Lord for everything He has done for us and to thank also
family and friends. Some students in school said to me that it should not be
called Thanksgiving anymore, but “The Turkey-day”. This is pretty sad,
because the original thought behind Thanksgiving, that some people of course
still have, is a wonderful one!!!
The last thing, that I almost forgot to mention: I was
riding again in a parade. This time in the Christmas Parade on the float of
the Rotary Club. Another exchange student, Victor (from Brazil, not Rotary)
and my host-mother, who is in charge of the Interact club, and me were
riding on the float. The theme this year was “Merry Christmas all around the
world”. So, Victor wore a Brazilian Soccer T-shirt, I wore a scarf, hat and
gloves with snowflakes on them and my host-mother dressed up as a Mexican
(which looked really funny, because she’s blond and has light skin). We
wished everybody Merry Christmas, Feliz Natao, Froehliche Weihnachten, Merry
Christmas, Joyeux Noel and Feliz Navidad. Well and finally our float won!!!
(I think it was because of all the languages…)
I hope everyone of you had a joyful Christmas and I wish
you all a happy New Year and I will hopefully see most of the exchange
students at the parade tomorrow.
Love, Eva |
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