Outbound Exchange Student
2009-2010

Our outbound exchange student this year is Michael Hottman, Michael is spending this school year in Germany.










Michael keeps us up to date on his experience by e-mail:

February 6, 2010

Hey everyone,

It's been a while since I've written a report so I'll start off with x-mas time.

The christmas atmosphere started around the 5th of December when the christmas market opened up in the center of town. This is a huge festival in which vendors from different places come and try to sell various christmas items and foods. It was a really cool thing because there is nothing like that in the US. Christmas day was a little different here too because the family didn't set up the tree until the night of the 23rd and then they celebrated everything on the 24th at night. We ate a huge dinner, went to church, and then opened presents. It didn't really feel like christmas time for me because everything was so different. It was like I just skipped it for the year. But I still loved the experience.

For new years my family took my and a friend of mine from Argentina down to Austria for a week ski trip. This was amazing because I have always wanted to ski the alps and finally I got the chance to. I also get the go back in the middle of march with my second host family.

I still haven't changed host families yet, but we are planning on doing that on the 20th of Feb. I'm a little sad to go because this family is such a good family but I'm also excited because I know the next one's are really cool too and it'll be something new.

The language is also going good. I am having less and less troubles speaking and understanding. Although my english is kind of going down the drain. I have had a couple dreams in german and as I was riding a train to my friends house the other day it finally hit me that I'm living in a totally different country and I am bilingual.

As for that nothing too new has really happend. School is also going good, I understand more in my classes than I did at the beginning of the year and I'm excited about that.

Und das ist alles!

Michael

October 1, 2009

Hey all!

So its been exactly 9 weeks and five days today and I still absolutely love it. One thing I have noticed with learning the language is I have started to forget my english :/ sometimes I will say a sentence and it really just sounds terrible.

I have started to get a little homesick. I just miss everything back home a lot. The one thing I think I miss the most are my two dogs. Because my whole life I have never lived without a dog and now none of my host famlies have them. I am really trying to keep a positive attitude about it though because I know its just a phase. Tomorrow is the first rotary trip of my exchange! We are taking a bus to Berlin for 5 days and I can't wait. It should be an amazing experience.

Understanding and talking is becoming a lot easier. I have really adapted to hearing the language everyday and it is getting much easier to communicate. I still can't understand a lot in my classes but I'm hoping that in a couple weeks I will be able to get more of what's going on.

I hope all is well back in the Fort!

Bis nächsten mal!

Michael

August 25,2009

So I have been here for 4 weeks and 1 day now and I absolutely love it. This town is so amazing. I started school about 3 weeks ago and it hasn't been too bad so far. I love my English class because its the only class that I actually have an idea whats going on. One good thing is that all of the teachers are nice and understand that in class I don't understand much so all I have to do is pay attention and try to understand. I have met many people from my school that are really nice and they are really fun to hang out with. Also, the night before last (the 22nd) I met up with all of the exchange students from around Bremen and we all hung out in the town center.

I went to my first rotary meeting on the 12th of August and met many very nice rotaries. Unfortunately I didn't understand most of the meeting because they all talk to fast :) My next rotary meeting is on the 9th of September and I'm hoping I'll be able to understand a little more.

When I have slow conversations with people I can understand them and speak back but when there is a group of people talking I can hardly understand anything. Well I hope all is well back home in fort collins!!

Viel spass und bis spaeter!

Michael

July 1, 2010

Moin Moin, So this is my last report and I'm leaving in 11 days and it just hit me the other day that my year is over. I don't really believe it because it went by faster than I wanted. But I guess time flys when you are having fun. The last couple months i've done a lot of cool things including going sailing in holland, and visiting kristine in norway with my family. It was really weird to see my family here in Bremen because it was like I had 2 lives and they were finally meeting up with each other. But it was also really nice to see them. Other than that I've really just been saying goodbye to all my exchange student friends. In the past 7 days i've been at the airport 14 times and i'm going there again tomorrow at 7 am. I've just been trying to enjoy the final days of the best year of my life. And although i'm super sad about leaving and would love to continue this year forever, I'm also very excited about coming home.

This has really been the best year of my life, I thank Rotary for that because they made it all happen. And if I were to do it again, there wouldn't be any piece of it that I would change.

See you all when I get back!

Michael

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