Our Exchange student 2013-2014 from Switzerland

So please let me introduce myself.

My name is Cloe ROM. I live in the German speaking part of Switzerland in a small town near Berne, the capital of Switzerland. I was raised bilingually in German and French. At home we speak French, but I attended primary and secondary school in German. At the commercial school I have attended since last summer, however, all lessons are held in French. This is a great opportunity for me, as it gives me the chance to improve my skills in French and to learn technical expressions.

I am basically interested in all courses, but of course I prefer some subjects to others. We have classes in three languages: German, French and English. I like all of them. As Iwas raised in French and German, English is the one language I really have to improve - and I hope to do so during my exchange year! Apart from the languages we also have courses in mathematics, geography, accounting, economics and computer sciences. Of all these, I prefer French, English and geography.

In Switzerland, we usually have school from Monday morning to Friday afternoon. Luckily, for the moment my schedule stops at Friday midday. As the school I am attending is located in the French-speaking part of Switzerland and thus about one and a half hour from where I live, my day starts at six o'clock in the morning. I go to school by train; I have to walk about a quarter of an hour from home to the train station, and another few minutes from the train station to my school.

The lessons start at a quarter past eight and normally last until late afternoon. Usually my

classmates and I take our lunch in the classroom, or, if the weather allows it, at the lakeside near the school building.

Each class have their own schedule. In my case, some days school finishes early. But as we

have exams nearly every day, and as we have to do a lot of homework, this does not mean that I have a lot of spare time. We have to work at home a lot! This is also the reason why I have had to give up my membership in a volleyball team. But I would like to play volleyball again as soon as possible.

During our first year at commercial school we cannot choose any voluntary courses because we already have 32 compulsory lessons. From next year on, however, we will have the opportunity to choose additional courses, and then I am going to take supplementary informatics.

Unfortunately, we do not have any sports at this school. If we had, it would probably be my

preferred course. Accordingly, I use part of my free time for doing sports. Although I have to work hard for school, I try to do sports twice or three times a week. I often go to the fitness studio and also regularly go jogging if the weather allows it. During holidays I love to swim and to go diving. I received my permit to dive last year in Spain, a year after my first diving experience at the Ningaloo Reef in Australia in summer 2011. This spring I will go diving again with my father and apply for the permit for advanced diving.

Apart from sports, I like spending my free time with my friends and my family, or just doing nothing and listening to music. I also love cooking, and I often help my mother or my father in the kitchen. I have never really liked reading, although I have read quite a few books. I do not know why, maybe just because I have not found the really good and exciting books yet! I am also convinced that I might get interested in art if I had the opportunity to receive a good introduction to ii. But as I mentioned before, at the moment I really have only little spare time, which I would rather spend with my friends or doing sports.

Years ago I took piano lessons for about four or five years, but the piano did not really appeal to me, and so I stopped. Playing golf and tennis did not turn out to be my thing either. I prefer playing in a team by far, that is why I chose volleyball, which I enjoy playing very much.

I have always enjoyed travelling very much. Since I was a little girl, me and my brother have often had the opportunity to go abroad for holidays. Together with my mother and my father we have seen many countries in Europe, from Ireland to France and from Italy to Spain. As I mentioned before, I also spent four weeks in Western Australia in 2011, and I have visited England and Egypt. I really liked Australia because of its space, because of its very special nature and, of course, because the people we met during our holiday were very friendly and open-minded. All these encounters with other countries, people, languages and cultures

have always been an enrichment for me. Even if ii was only for a short time it showed me

new facets of the world. I would like to know more about other people and nations, and I'm eager to learn from them. I believe that only by knowing a lot about other people and cultures it is possible to become a sympathetic and tolerant person oneself. I really dislike discrimination of any kind, be it of the race, looks, skills or characteristics of a person.

In Switzerland, I live with my mother and my brother in Zollikofen. This is a small town near Bern with about 10'000 inhabitants. We live in a house adjoining a forest and the agricultural zone. Therefore we live in a very quiet, natural area although we are only 10 km away from the capital of Switzerland! Zollikofen is more like a village than like a town. We do not have big companies or industrial plants here, only a few service-based businesses. Therefore most inhabitants of Zollikofen work in Bern and only come home in the evening.

The house we live in is relatively spacious, we have seven rooms, and one of the biggest is mine. I love to retreat from the noise and activity and to withdraw to my room. It is also where I do all my homework. At least twice a week I go to my fathers' place to spend time with him. He supports me when I need help with my homework. I am very happy to see that despite their separation, my parents are on very good terms with each other. That makes it easy for me to spend time with each of them whenever I want to. Now and then we also spend time

all together.

My mother learned the profession of a draftswoman in civil engineering and also of a commercial employee. At present she works for an architect. She loves the contact with customers, and she supports the team in all kinds of matters. I believe that for her, this job is a very good balance to what she has to do at home.

My father has run his own office as a consultant for more than twenty years. He graduated in economics at university and now works as a certified tax consultant and management consultant. He has more than ten employees and is always very busy. I believe that his job is very diversified and interesting even if I often do not really know what he does all day.

But since I have been introduced to bookkeeping and economy at school, I have begun to

better understand some aspects of what he is doing.

For me, my father has always been an example for a hard-working person. I realize, of course, that one has to work well if one wants to make one's livelihood. That is also why I work so much for school and why I try to give my best. It is my objective to get my entry qualification for university by way of the commercial school I am now attending. Maybe I am going to do some work as a commercial employee first to get some practice, and start studying afterwards. My primary goal is lo get a good professional qualification for a job I really like to do, including using my language skills. But it is still difficult for me to determine exactly what career I would like to go for. I do have enough self-knowledge to be sure that I would like to work and communicate with people. I like languages, I think I am a good mediator, I am reliable and trustworthy, even if I can sometimes be impatient and impulsive. But knowing that, it still remains difficult to choose a specific profession. Fortunately I have two or three years (including my exchange year) of school left, which gives me some time to get more experience and find out what I want to do in my professional life! Therefore, I am very grateful to get the opportunity of this exchange year to improve not only my language skills, but also to meet people of a different culture, to make new experiences and to learn about myself in new, challenging situations as well. I do believe that this is going to help me become a tolerant and understanding person.