Ironwood, USA ----> Rottenschwil, Switzerland

I found out a while ago now that I will be spending my exchange in the small town of Rottenschwil Switzerland. It is in the Canton of Argau, and is right outside of Zurich. Okay so small town is a little bit of an overstatement. It is a small village with a population of about 340 people. But it will be awesome because I could just get on the train in the morning and be in Zurich in a half an hour or so. So I guess you could say that I have the best of both worlds.

Ironwood, Mi, USA

Rottenschwil, Ag, Switzerland

Been a while i guess... so now I have a lot to write about.
About a month ago I started to Email my host sister back and forth. My family seems really cool and I'm really excited to meet them. In my first family, I have two host sisters at 19 (Fabienne) and 14 (Flavia) years old, and a host brother who is 17 (Yves) years old, but will be spending a year in Peru on a Rotary Youth Exchange so I won't get to see him at all. My older host sister (Fabi) spent a year in the US in 08-09 on an exchange not through Rotary in Virginia so she speaks English fluently... but we already agreed not to speak any English. Unless I'm really lost... which might happen a lot.... let me rephrase that... will happen a lot!
She also told me to bring my skis because each year her family goes on a week long ski trip in the Alps!! So I bought a Ski bag so i can bring them... I still have to get a bag for my boots though. And I guess that one of my other families goes on a ski trip too! I'm excited if you can't tell.

So here is a picture of my host family for ya.
Left to right: (Dad, Fabi, Flavia, Yves, Mom)

My school is called Kantonsschule Wohlen... and I get to travel by TRAIN every day to go to school! haha

This is a tiny little bit from an email about my school.

"Schooldays here are much longer than in America. Usually we start at 7:30 or 8:30, and can leave at 4:30 or 5:10 pm. it depends on the day. Every day is different, we don't have English every day, only twice a week."

My other two families are called 'Familie Lehmann' und 'Familie Ernst'. One of them is the next door neighbor to my first family, and the other one is a ways away, but still in the same village. My second family 'Familie Lehmann' has three sons the oldest 20 and moved out, and the youngest 12. My Third Family 'Familie Ernst' has two daughters and one son. the daughters are 19 and 18, and their son is 14.

So now for the USA news...
Yellowstone National Park

I've had two or three conferences/parties since i last wrote... We had an outbound party last week which was hosted by Andrew Kroll an outbound going to the Faroe Islands. It was three days long. It was surprisingly a lot of fun! Andrew lives out by a lake so we got to use his boat and go tubing and swimming. We had a fire (we burned a hollow log which was really cool), played Frisbee and volleyball. He had a 5 person hot tub... and we fit 12 people into it. (I'd say that's just pure skill there) haha. It rained both nights and we were in a tent... didn't hear a thing though. the girls got the camper. One of the nights we had a dance party in his garage.... then watched a movie. Now our next conference is the Grand Rapids conference in Grand Rapids Michigan. We get to take over the whole Calvin College campus and we sleep in the dorms. It Starts on Thursday the 8th and goes till that Sunday. But I get to go down on Tuesday because I'm in the show and we are performing there... in front of thousands of people.. It's going to be EPIC!
This week I am practicing for the 4th of July parades, I am marching in the Band for my school. We have a parade on the 3rd, and another one on the 4th. It will be the last time I get to see some of the people from school for the next year.

Almost forgot about our trip out west. On the 12th after I took the ACT test, we (as in me, my two sisters and my dad) left in our Motor home to go to Utah to drop my Sister Abbey off at college at BYU. the trip was a lot of fun, but at the same time really busy. we drove there through South Dakota, and over through Montana and Wyoming then down int Utah. On the way we stopped at the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Cody Wyoming, (we went to a rodeo there), and Yellowstone National Park. Then we spent about 4 days on campus so Abbey could get moved in and oriented. Since then it sounds like she is having the most fun of her life there..... except maybe the year she spent in Japan. Then the drive back was just a straight shot home, and we drove a lot every day.... The last day we drove about 900 miles!! So it was good to get home. Even though I left for the outbound party the next day.

At one of the campgrounds along the way, there was this huge Jumping Pillow. It was really fun.

Then after the Rodeo in Cody Wyoming, we went to Wendys to get some food, and only the drive through was open so what would you do?

So I guess that's it for now.... as my Econ teacher would say, "Thank you, and goodbye!"