 Guten tag!! My name is Liam Doherty. I am a junior at Buchholz
High School. I was born in Gainesville and have lived here my whole life; next
year I will spend the year in Switzerland. I live with my parents, two sisters,
and brother. My older sister Makena is 18 years old, who went on exchange in
Brasil two years ago (thanks to Rotary). My younger sister Kylie is 9 years old.
My brother Conor is 13 years old. I have never been out of the US before so next
year will be a completely new experience.
My interests include anything with a board, like
skateboarding, snowboarding, wakeboarding, and surfing. I used to play
soccer, baseball, football, and basketball, but once I started skateboarding
nothing else could compare. In my spare time I like to hang out with
friends, and listen to classic rock.
I want to go on exchange because, one, I have always
wanted to travel, and two, I want to figure out what I want to do. Learning
a new language and culture will hopefully re-direct my life into something
fun and new. Peace. |
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My life as an ordinary Swiss person: Part I
Almost two months ago now, I left my family, friends,
city, and everything I’ve ever known, to spend a year in a foreign place. On
August 4th, 2007 my family, some relatives, some friends, and I drove to
Jacksonville airport for me to start my 23 hour journey which ended up being
25 thanks to a delay in Amsterdam. 23 or 25, it doesn’t really matter, I
would have been tired either way. Once I was in Detroit I met up with some
other exchange students. We exchanged pins and information before boarding
the plane. The eight hour flight wasn’t too bad. It would have been better
if I didn’t give away my window seat to a mother that wanted to sit next to
her daughter. During the eight hours I mostly listened to my iPod, and I
ended up watching a couple Disney movies in German to sort of get ready for
the next year of my life. After sleeping anywhere from 1-2 hours on the
plane I had to wait in Amsterdam for my next and final departure to Zurich.
After boarding the plane, someone came over the intercom saying there was a
problem with the plane and it would be fixed shortly. By that time I was
exhausted. I fell asleep for the 2 hour delay and the 2 hour flight. When we
landed in Zurich I woke up feeling recharged.
A view of the Alps
from my neighborhood |
After taking my luggage I walked down the hall to see a
familiar face. It was Madleina,
an inbound last year in Jacksonville, standing with my host family. At that
time I wasn’t sure if anyone in my host family could speak English, so the
initial greeting was a little awkward. Every word of German I had learned in
the few months prior completely left my brain. I’m not even sure if I could
have spoken English at that moment. The walk to the car was dead silent.
Once we were in the car, my host sister
Miranda, who is now an inbound in
Jacksonville, explained to me that it was an hour and a half drive to Bern.
On the way home, I saw the Swiss Alps for the first time. The scenery here
is so beautiful, and much different from Florida. The “hills” here are
mountains for me. Once we got home, my host Dad told me some house rules,
and gave me a tour of my new house in broken English.
The day following my arrival was my 17th birthday, which
coincidentally was also my host brother Livio’s 9th birthday. We started the
day by driving about 20 minutes to a place by the Aare, a river that runs
through Bern, to go swimming. Next to the river there were some pools with
diving boards and a slide. The river itself was extremely cold, so I only
went in up to my knees. That night we celebrated by having family over for
some Bar-B-Que. It was delicious, and also quite healthy. I drank sparkling
water with dinner, which was pretty gross at first but I quickly got used to
it. After dinner we had “cake.” Which isn’t exactly the same as a cake as in
America. It was really good, but it was like a pie mixed with a cake, and
didn’t have icing.
The first week and a half was pretty hectic, with Miranda
trying to get everything ready for her exchange, while she was showing me
around town, and teaching me some house rules. The first inbound meeting was
fun, and I met a lot of new people and received a lot of pins and cards from
people all over the world. The day after the inbound meeting was the first
day of language school. There were 11 of us on the first day, all equally
confused, besides two girls that ended up leaving the course after the third
day due to the fact that they had already taken German in school for 3-4
years. The 3-week course improved my German skills exponentially, but wasn’t
close to enough to get me ready for school on the following Monday after our
last day of “German for beginners.”
My school |
My first day of real school was a pretty easy day. I had
art, sport, and English. English here is actually really hard. There are
things that the students learn that I don’t even know. Over the first week
of school I made a lot of friends. Some of my best friends aren’t in my
class, but my class is pretty cool too. My school here is a lot different
from my school in America. Here, my school has 400 students. In America, my
school had over 2,000 students. In America, I had the same six classes
everyday with different people in every class. Here, I have different
classes everyday with the same people.
Life is still pretty frustrating not knowing German as
well as I would like. Sometimes I want to talk to my little host brothers,
but I can’t say everything I want to say. Sometimes I forget that I don’t
really live here, and I haven’t lived here for my entire life.
Right now I have a 3 week break, where most people from my
school go on vacation. This fall-break is new for me. In America, we only
have summer, winter, and spring break. I also now have a Swiss bank account!
I feel rich. I went to my first soccer game, and we won. It was extremely
cold and there weren’t that many people there, but I still had fun. I’ll try
to keep everyone updated as much as possible. Until next time..
Tschüss,
Liam |
Liam Doherty
