Roman Karkosch

2006-07 Inbound from Germany

Hometown: Hemmingen, Lower Saxony, Germany

Sponsor: Hannover-Ballhof Rotary Club, District 1800, Germany

Host: Bartram Trail Rotary Club, District 6970, USA

School: Bartram Trail High School

Bio

Roman's Bio

My name is Roman Karkosch. I am a Rotary youth exchange student from Hannover/Germany. My host club here is the Rotary Club of Bartram Trail in Jacksonville, my sponsoring Rotary Club is the Rotary Club of Hannover-Ballhof.

I am 16 years old. Here in Jacksonville I am living at the River Oak Plantation with my host family. I've got two older sisters and a dog. You will see in Florida everyone has a dog! My school is Bartram Trail High school. It's a very, very big school. We don't have these big schools in Germany, so I was very excited about school. The school is built in form of a donut and so it's very difficult to find the right rooms, because everything looks the same.

My hobbies are every kind of sports and so I am in the swimming team of Bartram Trail. We have got 8 practices in a week. If you want to make friends soon, join a club! It's the easiest way to make friends. I am here 3 weeks and I can't remember all the things I have already done and the people I have already met. But one of the things I can remember is the exchange student meeting last weekend. It is soo cool. We were at Camp Montgomery and it is just fun to meet people from all over the WORLD.

And something else... don't be scared! Not every exchange student gets fat during his exchange!!!

Roman

October 20 Journal

We arrived there around noon and I was amazed by all the little restaurants. We had lunch in a little fast food restaurant called ‘Krystals’. I guess there is no place in the world which produces smaller hamburgers than there. After a little snack we arrived at the O’Connel Center for our little afternoon practice before the meet on the next day.

The pool there was one of the best I have ever seen… and the water was fast. In the evening we went to the Olive Garden, an Italian restaurant, and had dinner. The next morning we had to get up really early. Exactly at 5.50 am. After a good breakfast at our hotel, we went over to the pool. There, we had a little warm up until the meet started. Everyone in the team was more than ready and motivated.

At 1 pm the pre-races were finished and every Bartram swimmer made it into finals. The finals started at 6 pm and so we had some subs for lunch (thanks Parents!!!) and everyone took a little nap to be prepared for the finals. It was a great atmosphere when the finals started, because everyone around the pool was excited and supported his team. I swam the 100 yards Breaststroke and Butterfly. In the end the Bartram Trail swim team (including me) won the championships with 40 points ahead of Fletcher High school (It was the first time in Bartram history). So we went home with a big trophy and more than proud of ourselves. Back at home I had a great impression of American swimming.

December 25 Journal

This year's Christmas was a complete new experience for me. When I got up on the morning of the 24th, I called my family back in Germany to wish them a very merry Christmas. They were really happy to hear from me and excited to hear my stories about the American Christmas time. After that, I walked over to my last host family’s house to watch the Jags game. Over there I met around 20 family members. The game was horrible, but I enjoyed being around so many people who were all excited about Christmas. Of course we had a lot of food and so I was able to taste the different kinds of cookies, pies etc.

At 6 o’clock I went to church with my host parents and siblings. I saw a lot of my friends there and it took me about 15min to wish every single one of them a merry Christmas. Back home, I had a light dinner with my family. Afterwards we continued a little European-American tradition. The grandma, who was originally from Sweden was allowed to open one present on Christmas eve. And so was I. That was special for me too, because I was used to opening all my presents on the evening of the 24th. Before I went to bed, I watched a movie about Christmas and learned a lot about American Christmas traditions. Then I went, all excited about the next morning, to bed.

March 25 Journal

After a little breakfast the next morning I made my way to bus B. At 7.30am we left the hotel to make our way through snow and ice to Boston. It was a really quiet bus ride, because we were sleeping the whole time. Around noon we reached the city and to our surprise it was even colder, but we had a great time. Downtown, we had the whole day to explore the city in little groups, of no less than 4 people. When we met at the bus, we had seen a lot of Boston and had actually tried a real Boston Cream Donut.

The next day we drove to New York City (my favorite city on the tour). Since we arrived late in the evening we just had a couple hours on Broadway. The next day, we explored the city from 10am to 8pm. I was really impressed by the skyscrapers and other huge buildings. I spend a lot of time looking through the expensive stores on Broadway and looking for cheap offers in Chinatown. After seeing the Statue of Liberty it was clear that NY would definitely become the highlight of the tour.

After a short drive the next day, the two groups arrived in Philadelphia. It was great to try the real Philly chili cheese steak. I really liked the city itself and the “Rocky” monument was a great highlight, too. We also saw the Liberty Bell, something great to see for a foreigner. We didn’t stay long in Philadelphia and so I was excited to see the US capital, Washington D.C.

We started our day trip in Washington with the Lincoln monument. After that we had a lot of free time. With a couple other ES I saw the Constitution, the Capitol, and the White House. It was a funny feeling to stand in front of the building that makes the international news every day.

After seeing Washington it was time to drive back to Charlotte. It was sad to leave, because everyone had made new friends. But when we arrived later in Jacksonville, I was glad to be back “home”, not just because of the big weather change ;-)