Hello from Sami! : incoming student Benedikt : outgoing student Jarrod :

dear marianne, dear trevor

it's been a long time since my last email - and in fact, this one is (if I remember right) only the second since I left australia almost 7 years ago. first of all, thanks for remembering me and showing this with numerous birthday and christmas chards over the last years. in the same sense, thanks to all of my host-families (will you pass that on please - I have lost Ken's email adress once more with my old laptop). it might look like I wouldn't keep in mind anything of this year in australia - but it is not like that at all and my not-keeping-in-touch has haunted me for quite a while.

I've had a very busy time lately. got my bachelor's degree in philosophy&economics this spring and moved on straight to the masters studies in economics. besides that, I still do a lot in philosophy as I'd like to do a second master in this field. this is all a bit too much sometimes - especially in exam times which I just got over with today.
tomorrow I'll fly to portugal for three weeks with my girlfriend - to erase everything again:-) with a couple of friends, I'm organizing a little music festival (with around 1200 visitors) which took place this year in june - another reason why the exam time time was especially awful as I lost track with my studies during that time. and another reason why I'm looking forward to my holidays. music (saxophone) is still a big hobby of mine and I'm playing in a new band. we've had a couple of concerts in the last two months.

my parents are on holidays as well. in ireland, boat holidays. they say hello too.

so, this is about what I've been up to lately. I hope, i'll be a better contact keeper and wish you all the best. say hallo to everyone who has to be said hallo - if anyone writes me his/her email adress, I'll be happy to write back. promise!

incoming student Benedikt Vietmeier

Inbound student Benny (Benedikt ) from Germany arrives on Friday 27th July at 5.55am.  At this stage all three host families and President Karalyn planning to meet him at the airport. A BYO BBQis to be held at Karalyn's home at approx 12 noon on Sunday 29th. Please come and meet this young man and help him feel welcome.

If you would like to know more about hosting Benedict during his time with us please contact next years Youth Director Susan Wakefield.

Our outgoing student Jarrod Wheatley in Koln

Hello Lower Blue Mountains Rotary club!
Its Jarrod here sending you a big hello from the west of Germany! I thought I would fill you all in on what I have been doing for the last month and then Ill tell you of my planes for September.
I haven't really done any travel this month as it has been during my school term. However i did go to Bollendorf (on the Luxemburg border) with my 3erd host family, but only for 2 hours, because my host family booked our youth hostel for the wrong week! so instead of staying there overnight we drove to
their holiday house (around an hour away from Köln). It was nice to spend some time with my future host family. I will change my host families on the 15th of october.

I also played in my AFL Grand Final on the 1st of september, the match was played between Köln (my team) and Munich. The week leading up the game was quite exciting with an article written about our team in the German news paper. The game was also televised on TV which combined with the crowed
there to watch the game all made for a very exciting atmosphere. We managed to convincingly beat Munich with a 86 to 37 win. It was the first time Köln had won the Grand final and it was a great feeling to win the German championship after training and play with this team all year. My german counselor and some friends from my school came to watch the match.
Definitely something i will remember for a long time.

Also, I have been lucky enough to receive some great opportunities for the upcoming autumn holidays. Firstly on the 16th of September i will travel to Edinburgh for 5 days to visit family. As you can imagine Im really looking forward to seeing a new city and visiting my family (who I haven't seen for two years).

After that my first host family (who i still have regular contact with) have invited me to go with then to italy with them for just under two weeks! We will go through north Italy together, seeing Venice and Florence, however there wont be time to make it as far down as Rom. This is really a great
opportunity as my first host family have lived in Italy for 3 years, which means hopefully I will be able to get a taste of the Italian culture as we are planning on spending most of our time in towns and their friends houses!

What more can i say then how thankful I am to get such a brilliant opportunity through this program!
Well Lower Blue Mountains i hope all is running well fro the club and I will send another email when i return to Köln.

Regards,
Jarrod

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I can see why you are fond of the Youth Exchange Program, every year it provides thousands of truly wonderful opportunities for people all around the world. I know i am already grateful for the experience it has allowed me to have over here in Germany. I am really looking forward to the rest of my exchange, spending time with my Germany friends and enjoying the life i have created here. Also next weekend I play in the Grand Final of Germany's AFL compitition! It has been quite an experience being part of the team, playing teams from all around Germany and the people I have met through it.
Coming up to the Grand Final, TV crews and Journalist have been at our training which makes for a very exciting atmosphere...