Isla Benham is the student that Dunedin Central sponsored to Switzerland. Below is her July monthly report:
 
'Hi everyone! So far I’ve had nearly three weeks in Switzerland which seems crazy when I think about it. The first few weeks of my exchange have been really fun, busy and a little hectic. I’ve really enjoyed my short time in Switzerland, everyone has been so friendly, warm and welcoming to me, inviting me out to things and making sure that I feel included. The Rotary language camp in Bischofszell was also really, really good. It went for two weeks with all the other January RYE Inbounds who are in the German speaking part of Switzerland. We had German lessons for most of the day, which were really good and helpful in explaining grammar and other funny things we weren’t sure about. I would really recommend that they keep doing them as it was certainly really helpful for me and it was nice to be able to meet the other exchange students in Switzerland too. On the middle Sunday of the camp we went on a day trip to the Rheinfall, Schloss Laufen, Schaffhausen and a little town called Stein am Rein. Last Tuesday my host mother and my host sister Lynn took me to Zurich to complete some things for my visa and then showed me around the city. Zurich is a really beautiful city. We took the tram down the main shopping street in Zurich, Bahnhofstrasse, which lives up to its reputation and is very classy. You can visibly see it getting more expensive and exclusive as you make your way down the street with shops like Dior, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany’s and Chanel. They also took me to one of the main churches in Zurich, the Grossmünster. The Grossmünster is a church with two towers, one of which is open to the public. You can climb up to the top of the tower and overlook the whole of Zurich below you, which is really something. I hope that the rest of my exchange here will be as good as these first few weeks have been.'