Linda Dreier

2009-10 Inbound from Austria

Hometown: Wolfurt, Austria

Sponsor: Bregenz Rotary Club, District 1970, Austria

Host: Sanford Rotary Club, District 6980, Florida, USA

School: Seminole High School, Sanford, Florida

Bio

Linda's Bio

Hi there! My name is Linda Dreier, I’m 15 years old and I’m from Austria. I live in the most western state of Austria, called Vorarlberg, in a small village named Wolfurt. It’s located near Bregenz at the Lake of Constance. My mother and my brother Luca (13) live with me in a quite big house with a fantastic garden.

Currently, I’m staying in Sanford, a beautiful city in the middle of Florida, and I love it here! My host family is really nice and they are all trying to give their best making this year unforgettable for me. Thanks a lot!

I’m attending Seminole High School here, a big school with about 3,000 students. It has such a great number of classrooms and buildings and I got lost there on my first day. 

My hobbies are mostly taking pictures and editing them, eating food, hanging out with my friends, swimming and, most of all, laughing and having fun. Since I was a little child, I’m also very interested in languages and travelling.

I’d describe myself as a caring, honest and independent person. Sometimes shy, sometimes outgoing; sometimes happy, sometimes sad; sometimes strong and sometimes weak; making mistakes just like everybody else.

I also wanted to say Thank You to my family at home and to my friends, above all my Mum, my best friend Sophia and my boyfriend Mathias. They supported me in every situation and helped me whenever they could. But my biggest Thank You goes to Rotary, because they made it real for me! It has always been my dream to study abroad and now I’m living it. Thank you so much!!

That’s for now!

Hugs, Linda

September 6 Journal

So, this is my first journal. I’m here in Sanford for nearly 1 month now and things changed a lot.

But let me start in the beginning of my trip, on the way to the airport. It was August 13, 4:30 a.m. in the morning and we were all awake. Nobody could really sleep that night, so we were pretty tired when we packed the car and got ready to leave. My mum, Mathias, Sophia, our exchange student Hannah and I finally left our house in Austria and headed the airport in Zurich, Switzerland. It was so sad to see the things I saw for the last 15 years of my life quite every day passing by, leaving them for one year. When we got to the airport, we had breakfast and walked around a bit. Then we sat down and took some last pictures. This was the moment when I noticed that I really had to go. The moment I’ve dreamed about the last couple of months. The moment I was most afraid of. It was here. It happened now! The moment I had to say good bye. I wouldn’t say that it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done; I think I was too absent-minded. I thought I would cry tons, but I didn’t. Not even when I had to say good bye to Mathias, the most important person in my life. When I passed the passport-control and had to look for the right gate, I started crying. They were away now, for one year, 10 months. I’m on my way to Florida, on my own. Alone!! Some people told me they felt free when they were on the airplane. I didn’t. I just felt alone. I just wished that there was somebody to talk to, but there wasn’t. Then I arrived in Toronto and had to wait there for 7 hours. I thought I’m just going online on the internet a bit, leaving messages for my mum and Mathias. But there was no free internet and also no store to buy internet. So I just sat around, did nothing but staring out of the window. Finally, my airplane took off. When I got to Orlando, it was already 11:37 p.m. My host family waited for me to welcome me. I was so tired and just went to bed.

On my first day here, my host mum Renee and my host sister Kaley took me to the beach. I tried boogieboarding for the first time of my life, and I must say: I love it. Some days later, John Siegel, our district chairman, took all the exchange students and their host siblings from district 6980 to Wet’n Wild. We spent an awesome day there and had tons of fun.

The weekend from August 21 to August 23 was the inbound orientation camp at the Lake Yale Conference Center. All the 78 (!) Floridian inbound exchange students were there and had the chance to get to know each other. It was a great experience to meet people from all over the world, just in one building. We had an awesome time together and I found out that I’m the youngest exchanger with my 15 years. 

Then, finally my school started on August 24. I’m attending Seminole High School, a huge school with 3,200 students. My classes are: Physics, World History, Photography, English, Geometry, Web Design and Spanish. I don’t really like Physics and World History, but I love Spanish and Web Design. I’m a sophomore, what means I’m in 10th grade. I like school, but the homework drives me insane. I never had so much homework before.

Now, I just got home from a fantastic weekend in Jacksonville and St. Augustine with my host family. A relative of my host mum married in Jacksonville and the whole family was there. They are all wonderful people and I’m lucky to be a part of them for this year. On our way back, we stopped in St. Augustine to do a bit of sightseeing and shopping. We also had lunch there.

To be honest, I’m missing Mathias a lot. It has nothing to do if I like it here or not, because I have a wonderful time here. I just miss him, because he is not here. I know that Rotary doesn’t like to deal with something like that, but for me it’s a part of my exchange. He is a part of my exchange. It’s one of the hardest things you can do, going on exchange with having a relationship. I knew that before. But I love him and for me it was no option to break up with him and it’s still not. I guess everybody should do what they think is good for them, and for me it’s better to be with him.

So, what else could I tell you? Yes, to all my friends in Austria reading this: I wish you a good start at school next week and be a good kid as you always are. 

I love this thing called life! I love it with all its ups and downs.

January 4 Journal

“Every man has his own destiny: the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him.” – Henry Miller

I can’t believe that 3 months passed by since I’ve written my last journal. Those 3 months were probably the hardest and at the same time most wonderful 3 months of my whole life. I’ve experienced the institution “family” more than ever, appreciated Rotary in a way different than normal and learned to know what it means to me to have real friends and people who care.

First, I want to talk about my first “Halloween Experience”. Well, Halloween is not really celebrated in Austria, so I was kind of excited to see how Americans like to spend it. A friend invited me to her house. When we got there, we started going around in their neighborhood “Trick and Treating” right away. It was so much fun and I got tons of candy. I first thought that this whole Halloween thing is just for little kids, but I can now proudly say that I know it better. :D I really loved it, although the movies and everything on TV scared me a little bit.

Then, on November 7th I had my Sweet Sixteen. I was so excited. In Austria we have drinking age 16, what basically means that your 16th birthday is all about drinking and stuff. So people kept asking me: “Aren’t you sad you can’t drink on your birthday?” But surprisingly I was all like: “No. And you know what? That’s going to be the most wonderful Sweet Sixteen you can ever think of.” My best friend back home was all excited because she watched the reality show on MTV and wanted me to have a party like that. I never really had a big birthday party but my host family wanted me to have one. So they planned to make it a bowling party and organized all that kind of stuff. And if one of you guys just read this, thank you so much! You are the best host family an exchange student could ever ever ever wish for! OK, but God wanted it to come different. I guess it’s not really a secret so I want to write about that real quick.

I went back home to Austria on November 7th, the day of my birthday. My Mom was enormously sick, so my Grandma decided to get me back home. We got the phone call at 8 AM and I was supposed to be on the airplane by 2 PM. So, my host mom took me to the bank to cancel my account and to Publix to get my so beautiful birthday cake. Without even thinking if it was my birthday or not my host sister Kaley and I ended up packing, or better, throwing my stuff in suitcases and get me ready to go in half an hour. When I was on the airplane, without even me knowing, my Mom passed away. When I got off the plane, my whole family welcomed me at the airport. For me, it was a really happy moment because I didn’t know yet what bad news they are going to tell me. I didn’t know yet how horrible this day would end. When we were in the car heading to the hospital to supposedly “visit” my Mom, they told me that she passed away the night of my birthday. I felt like losing the ground under my feet. She was one of my best friends, the person knowing me inside out and the best Mom ever. I know that everybody says that, but no Mom with that kind of disabilities would handle a full time job, 2 teenage kids and a household just by herself. I guess I’m just going to post a picture here to thank her for everything and as a good memory for a wonderful person, the most important person in my life. Thank you Mom, I love you!

So I spent 4 weeks in Austria. 4 weeks full of emotions. I got to see all of my friends and saw how much they actually mean to me. But above all my family showed me again how much we stick together and how caring and loving each family member is.

Then, the time of decision came. I actually wanted to stay home because I couldn’t imagine being apart from my family again and yet in this situation. But after having an endless seeming conversation with my Austrian counselor, I decided coming back to Florida. Though, I wasn’t sure if this was the right way to go, but I did it for my Mom and all of my exchange friends here in Florida.

I came back on Sunday, December 6th. My jetlag was enormously huge and I was really happy that I didn’t have to go to school on that Monday. I started school again on Wednesday, which was kind of stupid because our RYE trip to Disney started right the next day.

My time at Disney was awesome. Over 90 exchange students from all over the world got to meet each other again. It has been a long time since we’ve seen each other at the orientation camp in August. Everybody was really excited to be there and spend 4 days full of adventure. We were supposed to go to Hollywood Studios on Thursday, Magic Kingdom on Friday, Epcot on Saturday and Animal Kingdom on Sunday. Luckily, I am in the “Disney District” which means that we didn’t have to drive that far to get there. When we arrived, we got our room keys and our park tickets. We started going to the first theme park and returned exhausted. Everybody went to their rooms, which we had to share with 3 other exchange students in 2 beds. I shared mine with Anni from Finland, Tatti from Sweden and Rishika from India. Our room was connected to another girl’s room, so we kind of could hang out together and just talk and have fun. And that’s pretty much what we did on our first day. The second day, we started our day early and first had to solve a physics quiz. The rest of the day was fun and at night we had a pizza dinner at the hotel. Personally, I think the third day at Disney was the best. I actually got to know a lot of people on exchange in Tennessee, South Carolina and Mississippi. We had the whole day to explore the park and met at 7 PM to have our real big photo shoot with everybody their fancy “Rotary meets Disney” t-shirts on. Then we had a buffet dinner there and got to see the impressive fireworks and the light show. The last day was fun, too. I really loved the Safari track and how they built everything so authentic. I thought it was amazing to spend time with all those wonderful people and I was pretty sad when it was over and I was back in my Floridian home.

Next, there is my first and probably last for a long time American Christmas. Because we were on the road all the time, we already opened our gifts at home in the morning of Christmas Eve. Then we packed our stuff and headed to Crystal River, where my Dad’s uncle lives. He cooked sea food and amazing rice pudding and we exchanged “Secret Santa Gifts”. Then we went to my host Grandma’s house and spent the night there. In the morning we exchanged presents there and then we headed Tampa for dinner, where we got to see my host Mom’s family. The next 2 days we stayed at her sister’s house. They took me to the Dali Museum in St. Pete which I really loved.

For new years, my host family and I went to their friend’s house. We had a good time there deep-frying a turkey and Snickers bars. We also had tons of other food and at 00:00 everybody got crazy wishing a “Happy New Year!”

I want to say thank you once again. My first thank you goes to my host family because they really support me and I know they could have had it so much easier with any other exchange student. They are amazing people and I don’t want to think about leaving them one day. My second thank you goes to Rotary, for all the extraordinary stuff I needed and for all the time they were here for me. Then, my third thank you goes to every single exchange student in Florida. They supported me so much the last time. I got so many e-mails showing their love and care for me. Some of them really made me cry. They showed me what it means to have people all over the world sticking to you, in good but also in bad times. And last but not least, I want to say thank you to my great supporting system back home in Austria. They mean the world to me.

THANK YOU EVERYBODY FOR MAKING MY LIFE A LITTLE MORE BEAUTIFUL IN TIMES LIKE THAT!

March 18 Journal

Howdy! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dITNePiQoRg 

This is definitely the story or at least the year of my life. Honestly, I never thought I was going to say that one day but I don’t want to leave Florida no more and even the thought of only having about 3 months left makes me want to cry. My entire life changed this year for sure. I got to know amazing people from all over the world and the bond between us is hopefully going to last forever. I’ve also seen and done so many things I’d never thought it would be possible for me. I know that I say thank you pretty often but for me this opportunity of going on exchange and actually living my biggest dream since kindergarten is not even close to self-evident. It is the greatest thing ever happened to me and so are my exchange friends and my host family.

So, let’s see. I wrote my last journal in January and I’ve already got so many new things to tell you. First of all, we went to Sea Camp on January 28th. For me, that was one of the most wonderful trips so far even though they were all pretty cool. I left the house on Thursday morning at 5:30 a.m. in order to get to the place where my district chairman John waited for me. Then we picked up Lilla and Naey and headed to the bus pick up. On our way, we obviously had to stop by Chick-Fil-A to get some breakfast (I just wish we had that stuff in Austria!). Then we met with all the other 6980 and 6930-kids and finally got on the bus where many exchange students were already welcoming us. Heading South, our bus driver picked up all the other exchange students and, in an overcrowded bus, arrived at Pine Key. We got split up in cabins of 7-8 people each and dropped of our luggage. Luckily, I once again had really nice roommates. We ended our day with a more or less delicious meal and a pretty weird but also quite fun dance at a bon fire.

The next day, we had our swim test to make sure that everybody can keep their head above water. Unfortunately, the sea was freezing and all of us got goose bumps in our wet suits. The following days, we basically just spent snorkeling and collecting stuff. Ending the camp on Saturday, each group presented the theme they had. Ours was “water quality”.

After everything was done, the big Goodbye ceremony started among us. One district was not going to come with us to Key West. It was so sad and we recognized that this is the last time we all entirely get together. With mixed feelings, we got on the bus heading Key West. Arriving there, we had a couple hours of free time to discover the many stores. Of course, most of us ended up having at least two bags filled with souvenirs and other things when we got back to the bus. We were all pretty exhausted and on our way back, many people slept (obviously NOT Brazilians, they just came alive to our misfortune!) or were listening to music. I arrived back home at around 11:30 p.m. and didn’t have to go to school on Monday which was good.

At school, I asked a German teacher and my English teacher if I’d be allowed to present my home country Austria to their students. Both of them were all for it and even more when I told them that I’m going to bring some Austrian chocolate. So, I was making a speech in front of them with a small quiz in the end to give them the chance to earn some chocolates. That was probably one of the best things I’ve done so far at my school. It made people get to know me and who I am. I’m not just anybody anymore. Also, the German teacher asked me if I’d like to go on a German competition with her and some of her students. Like Rotary taught me, I said “I’d love to!” and she told me that it’s going to be in April and we get excused from school for 2 days. I was so content.

Then, February 25th there was the RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) conference at the Altamonte Springs Hilton Hotel. We were supposed to check in by 4 p.m. and got our room keys right away. I was so excited when I found out that I had to share a room with Lilla. There were also two other, local girls in our room but I was really happy to have an Exchange buddy. For the dinners on Thursday and Friday we had to dress up nicely so I decided to wear the traditional dress I brought from Austria called Dirndl. Everybody loved it! We were divided into groups the following day and I was in group 9. Each group had one leader, so-called Junior Staffer, who was responsible for the group’s skit preparation. When we weren’t practicing for that, we were listening to speakers that weren’t boring at all. Some of them really touched our hearts. Finally, on Saturday the groups had their skit presentations which were actually pretty funny. After that, the most asked question of the weekend, “[name], where’re you going Saturday night?” was answered with CLUB RYLA. If you had VIP beads, which you got through performing something to the other kids (we sang “Happy Birthday” in our first languages) you were allowed to go in earlier. It was for sure a night to remember and when we had to leave on Sunday, everybody was pretty sad and didn’t want to go. Personally, I had so much fun and many things to tell my American as well as Austrian family.

I can’t believe how much at home I am here now. Every day is so special in its very own way and so many people are part of it. Comparing just a regular day in America and Austria would maybe look like that:

America:

• My radio alarm clock goes off at 5:15 a.m.
• I take a shower, pack my stuff for school and practice and leave the house at 6:20 when I’m riding the bus or at 6:40 when I’m riding my bike (20-min-ride).
• I have 7 classes at my High School from 7:10 to 2:10 (1:10 on Wednesdays).
• I get changed for Lacrosse practice and am on the field from 2:45 to 4:45.
• I ride my bike home, do my homework and check my Facebook.
• Dinner with my host family is around 7 p.m.
• After watching TV for a little while and chatting with my host family, I prepare a sandwich for the next day’s school lunch and go to bed around 10 p.m.

Austria:

• The alarm on my cell phone goes off at 6:00 a.m.
• I have breakfast, pack my book bag and walk to the bus stop at around 6:45.
• I ride the bus to the next railway station, change to a train and finally get off the train at 7:45 a.m.
• I have varying classes every day starting at 8 a.m. and get out between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.
• I get on the train again, go home or to a friend’s house to do homework.
• Dinner with the family is around 6 p.m.
• After practicing Cello, talking to my boyfriend on the phone and hanging out with my family I go to bed at around 11 p.m.

On weekends, here in America I usually meet with my friends, go places with my host family and help out at my Rotary club. In Austria, it’s more about partying and clubbing. What I really love about being here is that actually nobody can really dance unless they are black (I’m not being rude, I really wish I could dance like them!). All you need to know is some stupid shuffles and you are good to go. For poor dancers like me, that is like heaven. :)

I’ve also joined a sports team, as you can read in my day schedule. I’m on my school’s lacrosse team and practice it every day. I’ve never had a lacrosse stick in my hands before or anything related to it so I had a hard time getting used to balls hitting me in my face (No worries, we are wearing mouth guards and goggles) and on every other part on my body. I collected black-and-blue spots and every day I added some new and extra pretty ones to my collection. But I kept working hard and practicing with my best friend, the wall, and made my way all the way to a A-Wing player. The girls on the team always help me and believe in me. That helps a lot.

Magic games on Sunday night are amazing! John takes us there pretty often and I must admit that I love it. I was never really into basketball but with my exchange friends it is so much fun. We like cheering for them and screaming their names. Also, we like making fun of our beloved Charlie (future district 6980 governor) when he gets too much into the game while seeing his team lose.

In only 7 days (March 25th) my real, blood-related family is coming over here to Florida. And when I say family, I don’t just mean my brother and my Dad. No, when the Dreier-Family goes on a trip, nobody stays home. So, they ended up booking a holiday for 8 people, including my Grandma, Grandpa, Godmother, Uncle, my 3 cousins and finally my brother. Also, my very special family had to book a bus shuttle to the airport and a 12-seat-van for their transportation in here. Oh well, and of course they don’t just stay in one hotel and spend their vacation nice and quietly. Nope, they go on a road trip through entire Florida and take me with them. That all might sound pretty crazy to you but I deeply love my insane family. Also, I guess we’ve all been through hard times and deserve to spend some time together. However, I can’t wait to see them again. I bet we’re going to have a blast.

My host sister Kaley is going to be an outbound to Italy next year. She already had her first orientation at Lake Yale and is really excited to go and see where her roots are from. I love seeing myself a year ago in her. It is so amazing how she asks me questions about being an exchange student and even though I was just like her one year ago I can now tell her what it means. I hope she’s going to Northern Italy because that is pretty close to where I live. For sure, I hope that she gets the chance to visit me while she’s on exchange. Since I live so close to Switzerland and Germany, it would be my pleasure to show her around. I’d also hope that some of my friends here and exchange students are going to visit me one day.

Lately, I’ve thought a lot about returning home and I really don’t know what to feel anymore. I just can’t imagine being without everybody here. I’ve already collected so many adventures and memories and just don’t want to leave. Every single exchange student, but especially the exchange students from my district, have and will have a big part in my heart forever. And so does my host sister. You could actually say that she is like a real sister to me, my entire host family is like a part of my real family now. I love you guys!

Casselberry Inter- national Festival	High School Lacrosse	My friend Ally and I
Lilla and I at the Magic Game	RYLA Weekend

June 18 Journal

So, here I am in Austria writing my last journal and with it closing my book full of memories and experiences as an exchange student.

I am so glad to be able to say, “I did it!” I fought my way through homesickness and forced trips home and made it all the way to the end. Well, I gotta say that this is not only my success. Without the help of almost uncountable people I never would have been able to accomplish this year. It is such a great feeling!

Austria – Florida. If you asked me right this moment which I like better, I’d honestly say Florida. I just love the weather, the beaches, malls and much more. I am back home now for almost 2 weeks and it’s never really stopped raining. Also, Florida has so much more to offer, especially for us exchange students. There are tons of things to do, places to go and people moving. Here, my 8000-people-town seems to be asleep like sleeping beauty… 100 years or something.

What I probably miss the most are the 12 exchangers of district 6980 plus John and Robin. It was so fun to even just meet up with them and hang out. But one day there will be a reunion in one fancy country out there. :-)

My next thank you goes to Al, for editing and publishing my journals and all the other things he did. You are great!

Oh sweet Jesus, I wish I could go back right now. Can I please go on exchange again?

Love and Good-Bye,

Linda