Hi, my name is Annelise Sandberg, I'm a sophomore at Tarpon Springs High School. I've played soccer since I was practically the same size as the ball, I'm in love with surfing, and the ocean! Every chance I can I'm at the beach with my friends. Switzerland is definitely going to be the most culture shock I've ever experienced in my short lifetime. The complete opposite of my home, land-locked, cold, mountains, snow? And I couldn't be more excited.
I'm the youngest, and only girl out of six children. My mom always told me I had a passion for life, that I go after everything with full force, I sometimes put too much of myself into things. I believe I still keep that philosophy for life. I don't let life happen to me. I look for every passing chance I can take hold of and make a new memory, share a new experience, live more life.
My life is a huge story, I'm more than excited to unravel another chapter of it! I can't wait to experience another country, especially one as beautiful as Switzerland!
I can't thank The Rotary Youth Exchange program enough for this incredible opportunity, or my family for being so supportive! Life is to be experienced, you have to anticipate starting a new adventure, in a new place, at any time. I can't wait to start mine!
Security was easy, smooth, and quick. Got onto the plane and set off for Detroit. Once in Detroit, I got a wonderful 6 hour layover. Thanks Bokoff Kaplan. I walked around for two hours because I had nothing to do. Then I found my gate. –Okay, so I know how ridiculously hideous, and hot these lovely Rotary blazers are….But OH MY GOD, WEAR YOUR BLAZERS WHEN YOU’RE TRAVELING. It’s one of THE best sights when you see someone wearing one. Especially when you’re wandering around the glorious “Olten, Switzerland” for half an hour trying to find the Inbound welcome meeting. They are actually very amazing!!!!- So I wait in Detroit for 6 hours, and make friends with girls from New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Texas. And Emily from New Hampshire has ended up being my best friend here. So Detroit was boring but painless. Then the 7 hour flight to Amsterdam….That was fun. I watched some French movies for a while. I mostly slept. Then the most fun part…Amsterdam International Airport. First of all…we had about half an hour to catch our connecting flight into Zurich. Secondly, this airport is by far the most confusing airport I’ve been too, especially when the signs are in God knows what language. Thirdly, it took us about an hour to get through passport checks, and customs…which Emily managed to leave her whole suitcase at, and didn’t realize it until we got half way to our gate. Fourthly, NO air-conditioning, and running, in huge hot blazers, and 50 thousand pounds of luggage. SO MUCH FUN. The good part was after you’ve been on a plane for 7 hours, running feels good. And also an hour flight feels like 10 minutes.
Upon arrival in Zurich, I was greeted by two of my host moms. They were waving furiously, trying to get my attention, trying to hurry along the obnoxious process called “The Baggage Claim.” Finally found all my bags and went to meet my family. They were both incredibly nice and told me it was time to go to a party….really? I’ve been traveling for two days, am completely jet-lagged, and we’re going to a party?! AWESOME. I fell asleep sitting up at my counselor's house. It was a lot of fun though, I got to meet my future host siblings, my counselor's sons, who I’ve gotten pretty close with, and my host families.
My first night in Switzerland I got taken to some wild crazy dance disco street party with my counselor's son and my two host sisters. We danced until 3am, and finally came home. Now that stupid Black Eyed Peas song “Tonight’s gonna be a good night…” will forever remind me and my host sisters of my first night of the best year of my life.
My first Rotary meeting was a little intimidating. It was 3 days after I arrived, so I spoke little to no German whatsoever. Not that that would’ve saved me anyways since they ALL spoke in Swiss-German, which I’ve found is by far, the most annoying thing here. No matter how much High-German you learn, you will still have no clue what they’re saying, unless you ask them to speak “Hoch-Deutsch bitte?” Which they will for about 2 sentences, forget what they’re doing, and start all over again in Swiss. In the end, the meeting was a success. My President asked me to come to his house for dinner with his family; his son had just arrived back from Chicago on Exchange so he could help me out and what not. His son Alex invited me to another party the next weekend. All in all, I LOVE my Rotary president and his family! Actually, in general I've found the Swiss to be incredibly relaxed friendly people. As much as they keep telling us they're strict and not friendly and work all the time. It seems to be a perfect balance of "work hard, party hard."
My family here is AMAZING. I’ve gotten so close with all of them, especially my mom since she speaks hardly any English at all, we’ve made so much progress with learning each other's language. My host dad is always sarcastic and making fun of my mom and sisters, so needless to say, my house is always laughing about something. My sisters have been a really big help to me also. Besides taking me to SO many parties, introducing me to SO many people, and showing me around my HUGE school, taking me bridge jumping into the FREEZING COLD river, they’ve been there for me if I’ve ever had a problem. Same with my counselor too. She’s an amazing woman, she’s helped me out with any little thing I need for school, she invites me to lunch at her house all the time, and we have a really great relationship. They all say they love me and I’m a million times better than their last exchange student…I think he got sent home early actually. So I’d hope they like me better!!!
The first day of school was amazing. We played Hockey in PE, and Rugby. My class is all younger than I am, except one boy who is 18. So they’re all REALLY immature, but sometimes it’s very relaxing to just let the paper airplanes fly.
The stereotypes I get are really entertaining also. Like for example, I come from Florida so I get “OH YOU COME FROM MIAMI!??!” and “Is life in America just like American Pie?!?!” and “Are school lockers really that big?!” and “So you go to California like every weekend right?!” Those questions are always fun!!
Like I said before, there are not enough words to explain my experiences here so far. No one word can sum up these past 2 months of my life. If I had to pick words to describe Switzerland they would be: perfection, self-growth, unexplainable-beauty, and “my-head-hurts-from-thinking-about-what-I-have-to-say-all-the-time” and I couldn’t love this place anymore if I WANTED to!
I am in the 4th month out of 12.
I have been here almost 14 weeks.
I have been here almost 100 days.
I have seen some weird things.
I have tasted some interesting food.
I have met some amazing friends.
I have encountered some creepy train riders.
I have experienced the best 4 months, the best 14 weeks, the best 100 days of my life.
In 3 weeks I'll be switching families, I'll be moving to a new home.
AKA: I'm leaving my HOME.
Yes the world "home" has taken on a whole new meaning.
And the phrase "home is where you make it" has really started to apply to my life.
Because "home is where your heart is" just doesn't work anymore.
My heart belongs to two different countries now. My heart has been split down the middle.
I belong to my family, to my town, to my state, to my country.
I belong to Tarpon springs, to Florida, to The United States of America.
I belong to weird Swiss keyboards that are impossible to type on!!
I belong to my family, to my town, to my Kanton, to my country.
I belong to Oberbipp, to Solothurn, To Switzerland.
I'm not on vacation. I will not "come back home," I will not remain the same.
Change is the only consistent thing in life, and that is what I'm counting on.
I've been in school for a while now...I'm in a math and science profile... I HATE math and science.
Math teacher "I've noticed you are not very good at math?"
Me: "No. Not even in English."
German Teacher: "Annelise, do you know what a prenommen is?"
Boy in my class: I would go to America!!
Teacher: WHY would you go to AMERICA?
Me: Why WOULDN'T he go to America?!
Teacher: Why weren't you here yesterday?
Teacher: Annelise, where are you from again?
Me: School's over...why are you still here?
Them: Oh, we have a test in two weeks.
Me: so...why are you here?
Me: oh. What are you doing Friday night?
Them: Studying together at Fabians house, would you like to come?
Me: ........I have a Rotary event, I'm sorry.
So as you can see school's going wonderfully here!
Besides school I've been incredibly busy. A few weeks ago a few exchange students decided we needed to have a Halloween party since Halloween isn't really celebrated here. It consisted of this: Fondue, bread, "hotdogs", weird Swiss candy, a tiara, some devil horns, a way too revealing speedo on my guy friend, a movie about gay people, and my friend's host parents insisting we drink the "orange juice"....it was NOT orange juice.
If our Thanksgiving goes anywhere near the same as Halloween...well...I think I won't attend anymore make-shift American holidays in Switzerland.
Not that much has been going on. Life's starting to become completely normal now. Between school, learning German, hanging out with my two best friends....it's going really well.
I don't think anyone could ask for a better exchange than mine. I've met so many different people from different places. And with every new person I meet, I realize how different everyone is, how different every country is, and how amazing those differences can be when they come together.
The fact is that we're all so completely different, and at the same time, we couldn't be more alike. No one in the world can know how we feel except each other. No one could possibly understand what we're going through, and when something bad, good or indifferent happens here, they're the ones there to hold your hand, and tell you everything's alright...even if we don't speak the same language very well. Even though our skin isn't the same color. Even though our clothes are a little different, and our music isn't the same.
Everything gets stripped away when you're in a different country. Everything that makes you comfortable is taken away, and you're left to survive with only your mind, and your language skills. Everything about you in this country is foreign. So when you meet another foreign person, that automatic judging mechanism most people have...has completely disintegrated and you're left to solely understand, and make friends with that person. I now understand what Rotary was talking about when they said the point of this exchange is to make cultural understanding. To create peace between nations, as we live as an ambassador for our own country, we learn the golden rule all over again. To treat people as you'd like to be treated.
So next time there's someone that doesn't speak your language, or is lost because they're unfamiliar with the country, or town, instead of automatically judging... there will be automatic love and understanding. One day you could very well find yourself in the same situation. Someday, you could be that lost confused girl in the classroom, and one person will smile, and give you a helping hand, and that will completely make the difference and change your life. The best way to understand is to live and experience. To keep an open mind, and shut down judging at a glance.