Patrick's Adventures in Germany

Quick Facts...

	Nickname	Patrick
	Birthday	December 2
	Hobbies	Raquetball, basketball, swimming, reading, writing, film, studying laguages, Academic Bowl, architecture, art, mathematics, philosophy, photography, playing the piano, chess.
	Education Goals	Attend college to study English Literature and Philosophy
	Hometown	Tulsa, OK USA
	Sponsoring Rotary Club	Tulsa, OK Rotary Club
	Hosting Rotary District / Club	1870

Notes from Germany...

(These are listed with the most recent message closest to the top.)

11/2000	RETURNED TO USA
Tuesday, September 19, 2000 3:03 PM	I live in a city called Duesseldorf in the Nord-Rhine Westfalia(Northwest) State in Germany. The city is very large with about 1.5 million inhabitants. Duesseldorf has the most Japanese inhabitants of any city in Europe. I live in an old section of Duesseldorf called Kaiserswerth. It's very beautiful and very very old; most of the houses (including the one I live in) are over three-hundred years old. Everything is very close together and very accessible by foot; my school is a five minute walk and the Rhein River is just around the corner. I go to a private Catholic School called Suitbertus Gymnasium, it's owned by the Archbishop of Koeln. The school has about 1000 schuelerin from grades 6-13. Overall the schools are not much different than those in America, the only big difference is that European schools have MUCH better language programs. On the other hand, the students are much different: Every single student keeps very neatly-kept, color-coded binders; every graph is perfect, nothing is missing, there's nothing scribbled out... One huge difference here, though, is you turn none of your homework into the teacher; the students are graded only by a few tests and what the teacher thinks. My German is coming along rather steadily and I'm taking German as a Foreign Language classes three times a week to refresh my memory; I don't think the classes are very necessary and they're a tad easy but I'm anxious to understand what they're saying in my classes so it's not quiet as boring. It's also a bit difficult to learn German because everyone speaks English, my friends understand when I ask them to speak German so I can learn but often when I start speaking to someone I don't know in German they'll just reply in English; it's often very embarassing. But who expects to be a foreign exchange student without being embarassed? 9.19.00 Patrick Dillon Duesseldorf, Germany
8/8/00	Patrick's mother reports that Patrick lives 5 minutes away from the train station in his village. By train it is only 15 minutes into Dusseldorf. And the people he's met so far have been very gracious. Some are eager to practice their English with him. His host brother leaves soon for the US. And, it sounds like Patrick is having a terrific time.

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