Sarah Seramur

2010-11 Outbound to Austria

Hometown: Deerfield Beach, Florida

School: Pompano Beach High School

Sponsor: Deerfield Rotary Club, District 6990, Florida

Host: Kirchdorf Rotary Club, District 1920, Austria

Bio

Sarah's Bio

Hi. I'm Sarah and I'm 15 years old. I'm from Florida! I love the sunny weather but Rotary is sending me to an opposite location: Austria! So I'm hoping for a great experience and that cold weather.

I attend Pompano Beach High School, go Tornadoes! I'm half Brazilian and half Polish technically because that's what my parents are but I was just born in Florida. I speak fluent Portuguese and I have been visiting Brazil every summer since I can remember, sometimes even go for Christmas or for a special occasion. I have family and friends scattered throughout the world. I've traveled to Costa Rica, Brazil and various states in the United States.

I enjoy hanging out with my friends at the beach and movies mainly. I like to longboard, go to the mall, hang out with my friends, go to church or sleep in my free time. A little thing I do is throw bonfires. I love it because I get to make s’mores and eat hot dogs. I like the traditional/original style so it's an in-ground fire pit with surrounding wooden logs.

I have an interest in many subjects in life such as languages. I speak English, Portuguese and French. However, my French isn't the best. I understand Spanish and Italian perfectly. One of my options to be when I grow up is an interpreter. I like to write too, which leads me to my second option: a journalist. And my last interest is the human mind leading to psychology!

I am most definitely ready for Austria. I want that once in a lifetime, unbelievable, experience. And to learn another language. Thank you so much, Rotary, for this opportunity!

September 5

Okay, so I'm in Austria! My host family greeted me with a big poster that said "Welcome Sarah" and some sunflowers, it was cute I liked it very much. It's very green and fresh here, it was chilly when i arrived.

So far there has been a few days of sunshine but mostly it lightly rains, it's cloudy, and cold. For Floridians, everyone would be in boots and jackets but I'm getting used to it! I spent one night with my family before I had to go to language camp in a very small town called Altmunster. We had classes Monday-Saturday 8am-3pm with an hour lunch break at noon for two weeks. And on Sunday we visited the world's oldest salt mine. We also went on two hikes that made me feel like I was in fat camp. To Austrians, the hike is considered short but none of the teenagers at the camp thought so! Neither did I... The view from both hikes, though, was gorgeous. I made a lot of friends at the language camp and I even met a few kids from the town and we got to be friends too. In Altmusnter, there wasn't much to do. When class was over everyone would usually walk to town, swim at the big lake that there was, go to cafe's or bakeries and eat. We ate very much at the camp, the food was delicious. We had traditional Austrian dishes and sometimes we would have things like pizza. On the last night at the camp, we had a talent show. I didn't participate but many of the kids did and it was a lot of fun. I was amazed at how much talent wwas around. By the way, there were 63 inbounds at this camp. Our teachers were: Doris, Vikki (not sure if I spelled her name right), Martina, Daniel and Ingrid. Doris was a big hit, she could speak Spanish, Portuguese, English, German, and French, as far as we knew. Everyone called her Dory from Finding Nemo and she would do the whale talk, it was hilarious. Ingrid was my teacher.

My host dad and little sister, Herbert and Hannah picked me up on Sunday from the camp after two weeks. I learned a lot of German compared to the little I knew before. My family was impressed. I got to explore my town, it's very small with 5000 inhabitants. I had a friend over already. Oh and the night I arrived in Kirchdorf(my town), my older host sister, Sophie who is now on foreign exchange in NY, and I went to a concert. I met many new people. Hannah and I baked a cake, and one day I helped with lunch so I now know how to make kanoodles. 

A few days after being home, which I was so glad to be, we went to Italy for vacation, which I just got back from. I had a great time! I bought some postcards for family and friends. We stayed in a city near Venice called Jesolo. We were there for four days, on the fourth we headed home. We spent a whole day at Venice, we rode in a gondola, ate pizza, spaghetti, lots of bread, tried on the famous masquerade masks the little shops were selling, took hundreds of pictures, and bought coconut from a booth. It was all thrilling. Venice is surrounded by water. The other days, we stayed at the hotel and lounged around the beach all day. I got some color. The water was freezing compared to Florida summer water! I got to practice some Italian in Italy so being on foreign exchange, I'm indulged in various languages, I love it! The chocolate is irresistible in Austria too, Milka is the most popular chocolate around. Hope to hear from everyone else too!

Liebe, Sarah

PS I have definitely gained weight already....!