Kia Lehmann

2008-09 Inbound from Switzerland

Hometown: Augst, Switzerland

Sponsor: Rheinfelden-Fricktal Rotary Club, District 1980, Switzerland

Host: Clearwater East Rotary Club, District 6950, Florida, USA

School: Countryside High School, Clearwater, FL

Bio

Kia's Bio

Hello! My name is Kia, like the car, and I am from the mountain country Switzerland. And no, it is not the whole year winter there - we have 4 seasons. And yes we have Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Burger King.

I live in a small town called Augst and that’s close to Basel which is one of the biggest cities in Switzerland. I am 16 years old and I have brother who is 14 years old. I also have a dog called Bixi, she is 3 years old. My parents, my brother, and my dog live all together in a big house close to the river Rhine.

I played soccer in Switzerland and I will do the try outs for my school team too. I hope I can play soccer here too, I heard soccer for girls is a popular sport here. I would like to learn the rules of football and baseball because we don’t have these sports in Switzerland. I love to go shopping or hanging out with friends at the beach or the pool. I really like the weather here - it's always warm. I love the beaches in Florida because we don’t have an ocean in Switzerland. I like to learn new thinks about the country, I already learned that you love air-conditioning! For me, it is way too cold so I always wear a sweatshirt. :D

And here lot more people go to church than in Switzerland, and there is this program for kids called youth group I really like. I go there once a week with all my friends.

I really like it here in Florida, and I am not homesick. I am glad to stay in this wonderful district in the Tampa Bay area. With the two best counselors ever, Marcelle and Laurie. I really want to say thank you to them, because they helped me when I had problems with my host family and they are always here for me if I need them. I also want to thank my Rotary Club back in Switzerland and my Rotary Club here for giving me this great chance to learn more about the American culture and the language. I also want to thank my parents for letting me go to this wonderful chance. I hope this will be the best year in my life.

September 29 Journal

My first impressions in America:

My first two month here are very interesting. I learned a lot of new things . I learned the basic rules of Baseball and Football, I still don’t get it :D.

The American culture is so different than in Switzerland. It is not like some things are different - everything is different. From the food, the weather, the school, the sports, the people, the religions…. But one thing that is different but I like it is the weather. It is so hot every single day, even if it’s raining outside it is still hot. I love it!!!! But because it’s so warm here the people love air-conditioning. I am always freezing if I am somewhere inside. Probably the worst place with air-conditioning is the school, it feels like being in a refrigerator. I always wear a sweatshirt.

The food is also a big difference. The have a lot more fast food restaurants here. Only on my way to the school (10 min. with the car) there are about 20 different fast food restaurants. It goes from McDonalds, to Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Burger King, Starbucks, Thai food, Subway, Arby’s, and a lot more.

The food is really cheap here, I think that’s because so many people go and eat out in a restaurant. But I have to say I love the food here :D. It's not as healthy as in Switzerland but it tastes so good, it’s delicious. I have to do a lot more sport here to keep my weight the same.

Another big thing in America is there are all really proud to be an American. They have the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all.

And that’s something everybody knows here. It's the first thing you learn, it was also the first thing I learned in school. They say that every morning in school, at the beginning of the first period. The principal speak sthrough the loudspeaker: "Good morning, Countryside. Please stand up for the pledge of allegiance." And everybody stands up, turns to the flag (there is one in every room) hand to the heart, and everybody speaks with the principal together the pledge of allegiance.

Oh and they have a lot of rules for their flag.
- the flag can’t be outside if it’s raining.
- at night a light has to shine on the flag
- if you have two flags the American one has to be on top.
- if you take the flag down it's not allowed to touch the ground (you can go to prison for that)
- and they have a special way to fold up there flag, and it has to be like that, nothing else.

THAT’S AMERICA :D

School: The school system is complete different, it's like the opposite from what I am used to. First you can choose your classes, and the classes you choose you will have for a half a year. Each class is 1 hour and 30 minutes long, and you have 4 classes each day. And you will have this 4 classes every day… everyday the sammmeeeeeeeeee... haha I am just kidding :D

My day starts at 7:05 with French 1 (we are learning the alphabet and the numbers J). My second period is World History, after that I have a 15 min. break. After the break I have marine science, my hardest class but really interesting. But after that I have my favorite class: SOCCER :D. The school is finished at 1 :30, but most of the kids have their sport practice after school.

I have once a week soccer conditioning and 4 times a week cross country to get in shape for the soccer season. Soccer season starts in November. Every sport has 2 teams, a good one (varsity team) and a bad one (JV team). I am in varsity soccer and varsity cross country. Cross country is jogging, we have meets against other schools and we have to run 3.2 miles.

Here in America you play your sport in school not in your town, but you can choose from a lot of different sports. It goes from football, to soccer, baseball, volleyball ,swimming, basketball, but you can also play in the ultimate frisbee club, what is also very popular.

I really like school - it's not to difficult for me. And your grades, they don’t have 6-1 they have A-F. A is the best and F the worst. It´s A, B, C, D and F. If you have a D or F you will fail in this class. But the teachers give you most of the time your grade in percent, if you get 91% you know you have an A.

My host family is very nice, they showed me the beach, they went with me to a football and baseball game, to a real American wedding with a huge wedding cake :D My host mom Lucile works in real estate, she tries to sell pretty houses to people. My host dad Donald (we call him Don ) is retired, he worked as a principal in my school. Countryside High School.

I really like the life here in the warm state Florida, it's just beautiful here. I already have a lot of nice friends. They take me to parties or the mall or show me typical American things. I really love my life here, and I never get bored.

I could tell you so much more things but my fingertips hurt from typing. :D I hope there are not too many mistakes and you all understand me. You will hear from me again soon.

November 12 Journal

Halloween, Homecoming week, Busch Gardens, and some other stuff

Halloween is a pretty big deal here, not like in Switzerland. We don’t celebrate Halloween. I am invited to a Halloween party like every single weekend from October… I really love the dress up :D I am a sailing person. On the Halloween parties we play game like who is the murderer or find the candy and lots of other things.

Homecoming week was the best week since I’ve been here… it is so much fun.. you have to dress up everyday different. We had these themes: Monday: nerd day! Tuesday: 70`s for the juniors! Wednesday: twin day! Thursday: spirit day! And Friday was the homecoming game, and they had a black out so everybody had to dress all black and paint themselves black :D it was a lot of fun :D

Finally the best day was Saturday the homecoming dance day. I went to a friend’s house to get ready together, I curled my hair for the first time in my life. I thought it looked really pretty. At 5 o’clock we went to a before-homecoming party to take pictures and eat something. After that is was finally time to go to the real party. We danced the whole night, I love how the people dance here and I love the music. I danced with all my friends the whole night and it was so awesome. The only thing that wasn’t good.. I was so freaking hot. I think the whole school was sweating… but we got free drinks and food. The homecoming dance was over at 11 o’clock but that wasn’t the end of the day for me :D I went to an after-homecoming party and we danced there the rest of the night. I will never forget this day and week. I had definitely an amazing time this whole week. so now I am looking forward to the prom night I hope it will be as fun as homecoming :D

Busch Gardens weekend: we all met at Friday night at Laurie’s house in Tarpon Springs. It was Baptiste, Ying, Dora, Takuya and I, Linus couldn’t come because it was his homecoming week. We ordered pizza and watched a movie and talked a lot, It was the first time in a long time that we saw each other. Saturday morning we started our trip at 10 o’clock. We first went to the International Mall in Tampa and we could shop for an 1 hour. After the power shopping we eat lunch at Chili’s, and then we were all ready for Busch Gardens. We arrived at Busch Gardens around 12:30 and we decided to do all the roller coasters we can find. And we actually did every rollercoaster in Busch Gardens, it was so funny. At 5 o’clock the park closed but because we had tickets for the Hallo-Scream we could stay in a special area in the park and wait until it gets 7:30 and the parks reopened for Hallo-Scream. Hallo-Scream is so scary I think it was one of the most scared things I ever did. People just jumped out of nowhere and screamed at you. They were also the haunted houses where you had to walk through and they tried to scary you. They just came out from frames or they stayed behind the walls so you couldn’t see them and they just jump in front of you and tried to scare you. They scared me a lot. In the Hallo-Scream we all met my friends, Tanya, Rose, Kellie and Troy. We all had so much fun with them and at the end all the others exchanged their number with them. We will hang out again soon. In Hallo-Scream there are also scary zones where it's all dark and white fume is all over so you can't see the people that good. These zones were more scary for me than the houses because the masquerades person just follow you and stare at you, and then out of nowhere they scream something and you just start running. It is funny but on the other side is really really scary. It was a really good weekend and I had a lot of fun. I hope I will see the other exchange students soon again.

Oh and I am really proud of myself because I made the varsity soccer team at Countryside High School.

So I really have a great time here in America and since I am here I never regret that I came here. It is absolutely amazing here, and I have some amazing friends that I really love.

I hope the time is not running that fast like it did the past 2 month.

Now I am looking forward to our Disney World trip in December and my birthday in a week.

You will hear from me again soon.

March 12 Journal

CHRISTMAS- ha I know it was a while ago, but it was a lot of fun. Here they celebrate Christmas different then we do in Switzerland. They celebrate it on the 25th in the morning. And Santa Claus is the one that brings the gifts. I had a lot of fun opening my presents in the morning and I got a lot of great things. I also got a stocking that they usually fill up with oranges, or magazines and other small cute stuff. So I really had a great Christmas, I just started to miss my family and friends from Switzerland a lil bit.

SEACAMP- Seacamp weekend in the Florida Keys with all the exchange students from Florida. It was just so much fun. We went snorkeling, even though the water was freezing cold. We saw some dolphins swimming right next to us, with a lil baby dolphin. We learnt a lot of things about the ocean and how to protect the ocean and the life that is in it. One night we had a dance and we all danced our butts off, it was so much fun. It was a great time and I am so glad I met all these people from so many different countries. But I am sad that it was the last time I saw all of them before we all go back home.

SCHOOL AND FRIENDS- In school I had a semester change so I have new classes now. I have Teachers assistant, French 2, Caribbean studies and volleyball. I love my new schedule. The sad part soccer season is over so now I am playing Flag Football. Flag football is basically American Football for girls. So instead of tackle the other team, you pull their flag that you wear around your hips. And if you pull the flag and it comes off it counts as you would tackle the person and they fall on the ground. It's made for girls so they wont get hurt. But for me, I think it's as hard as normal football because when you are running full speed and somebody pulls your flag you fall to the ground anyways. I love it, it's like learning a new sport because I didn’t know anything about football before. It’s a great experience for me, and I am quarterback number 2 on the team. And if I am not quarterback I am wide receiver. On defense I am the safety. I really really like it and it's so much fun to play, I wish they had that sport in Switzerland too.

I also met a lot of new people, I think I meet new people every week. I love my friends and I do so much different things with them. I go to the beach almost every weekend, if it's hot outside. I went to the fair with my friends and to the strawberry festival. I saw a real cheerleading competition, not high school cheerleading, this is a lot more difficult and interesting. You compete against other cheerleading clubs and it’s a serious thing. High school cheerleading you just kinda jump up and down next to the Football field and scream the name of your school. Cheerleading competitions are with a routine, and you have to dance and cheer and do flips and pyramids and everything. It was really interesting to watch.

Yes, I love America, and I enjoy my stay here so much. It is a lot different but I am already used to it, I have the size of a normal American girl I gained 10 pounds  but the food here is just too good. I don’t know what I am gonna do back in Switzerland without my daily breakfast at Chick-Fil-A, or without Checkers after partying Friday or Saturday night. Partying in America is also so much different, you don’t go to clubs, you have the house parties you see in the American college movies. Yes, they are as crazy as in the movies, but they are so much fun. It’s just kinda a get together with all your friends at a house where the parents aren’t home, and then you’ll see what happens. But something always happens, and you will always laugh and have fun. Or you just go to the beach at night and have big bonfires and grill some marshmallows with all your friends. You will always find something to do here. Even if it’s just a movie. And because everybody drives here, even though you can't drive you’ll get around pretty good. And it makes it so much easier to do stuff when your friends can drive. I think it a great experience and everybody that has the chance to do an exchange year should do it. It’s so much fun and you’ll learn so much about another country and their culture. It’s the best thing that could have happened to me at this time of my life.

This has been a wonderful experience so far and I really enjoy this year. I am so glad I did this, I met so many great people and made some great friends. I am so thankful that my parents let me do this and that I found such a wonderful host club here in Florida and in Switzerland who allowed me to do this. And I am so glad that I am in Florida in Tampa, it’s an amazing place on earth and everybody should come and visit me here. Or you should visit it another time. Florida is an incredible place that you should visit before you die. 