The weather was incredibly hot and humid, and it took my body a couple of weeks to get used to the exotic weather. Miami is a very beautiful city; with palm-tree alleys as far as the eye can see, with a blue sky and sunshine almost all year long that means it never really gets cold down here. There are about 2 million people living in Miami and you can find people of all different nationalities in Miami and surroundings. There are a lot of Cuban immigrants which influence the life in Miami a lot. You can hear people speaking Spanish everywhere and even in school, where some kids with Hispanic background jump from language to language, speaking “Spanglish” as the Americans call it, is not unusual. Already after a few months living in a new family and waking up in a foreign home every morning to take the bus to school just seemed to be so normal, ever since then time flew by and now most of my exchange year is already over. I attend 11th grade in Miami Palmetto Senior High School and have the same classes every single day that means even in the same order. My day starts off with P.E., followed by American History and after French I have lunch. The lunch break is 35 minutes long and after that I am going to my 4th period, Math, then English and my last period of the day is Chemistry. In general school is pretty easy, compared to Germany. Homework is much more important and counts together with tests most for the final grade. Verbal participation is rather unimportant. A lot of kids in school are more superficial in terms of friendship, with a “Hey! What’s up??” everything is said for the day. I only have a few closer friends who are actually interested in what I am doing and how I am feeling about various things. Generally, the people in Miami are very nice and welcoming. They care a lot about me and try to show me as much as possible of their country and culture. People here are usually very generous. I have seen a lot of different things since I came here and had numerous good experiences. All this is made possible by Rotary International. I am being hosted by the Rotary Club of South Miami, which is situated in the District 6990. Rotary organizes most of the trips for me and all the other Rotary exchange students, and also tries to make this year as special as possible. If you need any information just contact your closest Rotary Club. Have any questions? Don’t hesitate to ask me and if you want to see more about what I have experienced and done here so far, just check out my homepage under: www.miamiarne.homestead.com email: arneteiwes@hotmail.com Just a couple more months and I’ll be back in my old life again and of course I am looking forward to seeing all my friends and family again.

last change: 10.03.2004 15:35