Dear Readers,

This will be my last post on my "Rotary Youth Exchange" blog.

I have decided to open up a new blog called, "American in Thailand"

You can find this link at: http://american-in-thailand.blogspot.com/

Thank you for reading this life-changing experience I had, and hopefully you will follow me on my next!

-Ben Mau

I thought that after a year on exchange I wouldn't be the least bit surprised when I received my 2nd country selection call. The first time it wasn't so bad... I mean I wanted to go to France, but they just put me in the country right next to it... no biggy.


This time I KNEW in my mind that I would be going to South America. I had absolutely NO DOUBT. Everyone I knew who wanted to go to a South American country got it like THAT... When they called and announced that I was going to a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CONTINENT THAN SOUTH AMERICA... ASIA... I WAS FLORED! South america is completely foreign to me... but ASIA... ASIA is a DIFFERENT planet.





This is SO exciting... I was worried that next year would be just a nice fun year.. but after hearing that I'm going to THAILAND... and I know that it will be quite an eye-opening experience. I can't begin to imagine all that I will absorb while I am living there. All of the the culture, and art, and food, and tradition, and religion, and way of LIFE! This is such an enormous challenge and I am more than happy to accept.










I know that this kind of challenge is what I want my future to be like. I want to be in constant motion, traveling and experiencing from one place to the next. I want to push myself to my limit, break down cultural barriers, observe humanity through completely new perspectives, and adapt to anything on the surface of this Earth! I'm ready for a new life!

I AM GOING TO THAILAND!

THIS WAS TOTALLY OUT OF THE BLUE. I TOTALLY THOUGHT I WOULD BE GOING TO SOUTH AMERICA... OMG! I AM REALLLLLLY EXCITED!!! THIS IS GOING TO BE AN INSANNNNNE YEAR! HAHA... I CAN'T BELIEVE I AM GOING TO... THAILAND... I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THIS COUNTRY! WOOOOOW!

Winter Break 2010 has been absolutely amazing thus far! It has been an awesome time to chill, have fun, see friends, and just enjoy my last few weeks as a minor. (I turn 18 on January 8th) I'm enjoying senior year so much. LIFE IS GREAT! I am 100% re-submerged into my American life and it feels wunderbar!

quick update:

- Accepted as a 11-12 RYE student
- Received my first college acceptance letter- Minnesota- Twin Cities
- Cast as a lead in the school musical Cabaret (Emcee)
- Have maintained my 3.9
- Low stress
- Relationship with my parents and family is better than it EVER has been
- Close knit group of friends has opened up to a bunch of awesome people
- Enjoy my job and have a steady income.

... life is good ;)


Happy Holidays!

If you are going to be a Rotary Exchange Student for the 2011-2012 academic year, please join the Rotary Youth Exchange 2011-2012 facebook group.
invite your friends, and start an exchange community with people from all over the world.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=58258628633

!JOIN!

It has been quite a while since I have last written.
Here's a recap on what has been going on...

Two weeks ago I attended the Rotary Interviews in Wisconsin Dells.
I, along with some other rebounds, were asked to help answer questions before the outbounds went to be interviewed, and we also were on a panel interviewing students and parents. It was a very nice time, I enjoyed the company of all of the rebounds and it was nice to talk with all of the prospective outbounds. They all reminded me of my sophomore self SO MUCH! I'm excited to see what an exchange year will teach them, and how it will make them grow into the amazing young adults. Every district of exchange students is unique in its own way, but this wave of students will be more unusual than normal because all of the outbounds are female, except for one male (and me). I have never come across such a district! Teenage guys really have to step it up, I am disappointed!

Before the interviews I had a little chat with the district chair about my gap year and we went over what it would entail. I believe it still would be a fantastic time, and a perfect education opportunity before college starts up. It looks like there are 17 open outbound spots, and 19 people who are signed up. As of now, one other rebound and myself are alternates, but I am not too worried about being accepted because there is bound to be someone who drops out after country selections, and even if no one does drop out, I'm sure we could find a way to send two more students abroad.

All of my paperwork is done, my check is sent in, and all I must do now is wait to see what comes out of it. I do not know if they will automatically assign me a country, or if they will wait. It is to me a mystery! I am just along for the ride. It should be quite interesting to see how it turns out. I am very excited at the unique process I am going through. If it were to be exactly the same as last year, It would not have been half as interesting!

In other news, about a month ago I visited two of my best exchange friends in NYC. It was so nice to catch up with them, and actually see living people who share so many memories with me from my year in Berlin. One of those friends in NYC is coming to visit me after Thanksgiving, and it will be SO MUCH FUN! exchange students are awesome! Speaking of... I was just hanging out with three of them last night ;) (Finland, Germany, Holland). Ohhh exchange students!

I am also happy to announce that I have successfully sent in all of my college applications. I applied to Macalester College, UW-Madison, and UM-Twin Cities. Everything on my apps leads me to believe that I should get accepted to those colleges... except my ACT score. I took the ACT last month and studied a lot before taking it, but unfortunately, I did very poorly. I was expecting to do MUCH better, and was quite shocked when I received my scores. Honestly, I have no idea what happened- on all of my timed practice tests I did much better... but when the real test came about- I bombed. I RECOMMEND TO ALL OUTBOUNDS TO TAKE THE ACT BEFORE YOU GO ABROAD, AND ALSO WHEN YOU COME BACK! I regret not taking the test because now I have only one more chance to take the test in December, and if that doesn't go well, I may jeopardize the likelihood of my acceptance into Macalester. (where I reallllly want to study!)

All Applications are done- rotary and college - and it feels fantastic. My hours at work are a bit lower than normal, but that is due in part to the role I just received in the School Musical. This year James Madison Memorial is putting on Cabaret and I got the Emcee part! I am thrilled to get to work on the musical... it will be so exciting to be a part of! Between work, school, cabaret, and forensics (I'm doing 3 events: DI, Duo, SOS), I really do not have much time to think about exchange. This time 2 years ago I was ecstatic and could not focus on ANYTHING except exchange! Doing it a second time definitely is easier because our (rebounds) patience has grown so much!

I will try to post up more updates as they come. Life is so great! Senior year is GREAT! living in the moment is great! I continue to attribute all of my happiness to my exchange year. It really did drastically impact me, and molded me into the passionate person I am today..

Good Luck Outbounds!!!!

I just wanted to inform all readers that I have officially turned in my Rotary Youth Exchange Application last Friday and my top 5 are as follows.
(I only am eligible for 8 out of 40 because of my age)

1. Argentina
2. Brazil
3. Bolivia
4. Thailand
5. India

Next year should be quite a change from Germany!!!

In other news I am just about finished with completing my College Applications. It is a piece of cake in comparison to Rotary Applications so I'm not too worried. I decided to apply to three schools, and after I get answers I am planning on deferring acceptance for one year!

I am just excited about life :)

So as I said before, I am currently applying for both college and Rotary Youth Exchange!

I'm SO excited at the prospect of going out AGAIN for another exchange year! If that somehow doesn't work out, I'm still very excited about going to college. It's looking like I will probably be going to either Argentina or Brazil... but who knows?

I'm pretty much done with my application. All I have left to do is basically put my pictures in, make copies of everything, and get signatures!!! Who knew I'd be going through this again..


... actually the more I think about it... I kind of KNEW it the whole time that I would be applying this year. I even had an inkling when I was filing out forms last year.

I have had no time to write ANYTHING!

school, work, homework, college applications, rotary applications.

I still don't know where I'm going to end up. I am applying to college and I am applying to Youth exchange. We will see what happens! I will try and update ASAP!

I miss it, I miss it, I miss it... I miss exchange so much.

I wish I could be back in Berlin. I miss German life. I miss going to school on the subways in the morning, I miss waking up to "Guten Morgen" and eating Broetchen every single morning! I miss hanging out with my friends at Hackesher and Potsdamer! I miss the life of the city and the multitude of languages heard while walking down the streets. I miss late night Doeners and having umlauts on the keyboards. I miss the movement, the uniqueness of architecture, and the rich German culture. But most of all, I miss with all of the wonderful people I met. :(






(photos by German classmate: Marie Stoltze)

First day of school was on the 2nd... I am not saying it was bad, I am just saying that I need some time to adapt to this new atmosphere. It has been a long time since I was in American High School. I am NOT used to the sassy attitude of students (on the first day I accidentally bumped into an underclassman girl, politely, I smiled and said, "oh, I'm sorry about that." She responded by, "shoo boy, you betta be!"), the crazy amount of cliques, and the massive student body! It will be an interesting year. talk about culture shock.

I have been in a bit of contact with my District Coordinator. She told me that outlook on next year is not ideal. If I decide to go abroad again, I will most likely be an alternate (which is fine, I don't want to take the place of an outbound)... and I will probably have a very limited country choice. I will be going to an inbound orientation next week to meet all of the new exchange students and hopefully I will get to talk with some Rotarians that will help me make some decisions.

I have no idea where I'm going to be in a years time. I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA! It's actually kind of exciting! Will I take a gap year? Will I go to college? What will I be doing?

All you have to do is read and find out... (easy for you)

Yesterday I gave my rotary presentation to my sponsor Rotary club: Madison West Towne Middleton. It was a really special time because I gave the presentation exactly one year after I left for Germany. While at the meeting I met a new inbound at the meeting who is from the Netherlands who will be attending my school next year. I also just received word that there will be another inbound who will be going to my school from POTSDAM! (a boarder city of Berlin).

Also, in other big news... I have been really thinking about my future and what I am going to be doing after my senior year. I want to go into the working-world with as much experience as I possibly can. I want see as much of the world as I can, learn as many languages as I can, and learn as many lessons as I can. I'm really trying to figure out what the best bet for me will be...

Do I want to go right to college and sometime in my years pay $20,000+ for a semester abroad?
Do I want to go to college, get a degree, and after, join an organization that allows me to travel?
or... do I want to go on Rotary Youth Exchange again?

Since I signed up for RYE I always considered doing a yo-yo year. I learned SO much last year and doing another year would enable me to learn another language and experience a new culture . But... I would have to repeat a year of high school, and I could possibly experience a "been there done that" sort of feel. Also, there are more complications- WHERE WOULD I GO? There are several age restrictions on the countries I could go to... I would be 18 and 7 months if I were to leave, but the age limit on many countries is 18 and 6 months. I wonder how strict they would be in accepting me? I'd love to be fluent in French (because I've taken 4+ years).. but my mind says SPANISH. (because its the third most spoken language on the planet).

Anyways... I have been going back and forth with this idea in my mind. I definitely have NOT made a decision yet, but I'm just relying on god to help me out with this. I'm going into next year with a completely open mind! We'll see what happens.

I feel it is fitting that I write a sort of "closing" post to sum up this exchange year even though this will probably not end up being my last blog post. I plan to update everyone every so often throughout the coming months to share how all of my grades end up transferring, as well as how my year abroad affects my college plans. Feel free to contact me at any time to ask questions about Rotary Youth Exchange or what it MEANS to be an exchange student abroad. I would be more than happy to answer your questions as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

So... After being back in America for just under a month I find myself thinking less and less about Germany, and more and more on the present. It kills me to say it, but Germany seems a bit like a dream- sometimes I can't believe it really happened! I feels so LONG ago- like a distant memory, or a dream! ... I still feel like no one except other exchange students truly understand what last year really meant to me, but I'm okay with that. I guess my it is kind of like my little secret that I have inside of me. My year is a unique part of me- something that will never leave me.

I still think about Berlin every day- I still am dreaming in German - and I love all of the amazing people I met in Germany. I miss it so MUCH...but I feel like it is time to move on. Its time to focus on other things now than my exchange year. I know that my year in Germany was the most important, most influential year of my life... but I have had a whole month to get back on track and now I need to start thinking about my future- finishing high school and finding the right college.

All I can say in closing is THANK YOU of you people who took the time to follow me in my adventures in Germany this year. It really gets me excited to think that all over the world, exchange students are getting ready (or just starting) their year abroad. To all of you outbounds reading this... this year ahead of you will change your life. Go into it with an open mind and HAVE FUN! It is over soooo quick! (you'll hate me for saying that because it doesn't feel fast until it is over).


It was a pleasure to write- I hope you all enjoyed my far from grammatically correct blog, and possibly gained some insight to a year abroad through rotary youth exchange. I wouldn't trade my year for the world! It changed me, it changed my prospect on the world, and it taught me immeasurably more than I ever thought I would learn my Junior year.

I have officially been on American soil for just under a week!

Tracing back in time-

On July 5 at 5.00 in the morning I made my way to the Tegel airport in Berlin with my host family. A few of my close friends from school came to the airport at well, and a bunch of exchange students came. After saying goodbye to all of the people I had grown close to this year, I boarded my plane and took off at 7.15 to Amsterdam. During the flight I read all of the letters that my friends had written to me and looked through a photo album that was made for me. It was a very emotional time and I cried for a good 20 minutes. In Amsterdam I made my way through the airport in a confused haze- tears were in my eyes, I was in awe that this year was actually- OVER... After getting something to eat I got myself into shape, and really started to just focus on all of the amazing experiences that I had this year and it made the whole situation a lot better. The flight from Amsterdam to Detroit went pretty smoothly. On my last leg of the journey to Chicago, I talked to a girl my age about going home, and she really helped me prepare for my reunion with my parents.



Once I got through security I was veryyy excited to see my family. I walked down the escalator into the baggage terminal and slowly my family came into view holding a "welcome home" sign. Everyone looked so DIFFERENT! It was as if I was looking at the whole reunion from a bystander's perspective. I ran towards them and gave them all hugs... and it was GREAT to see them again after SOOOO long!



After the airport I went with my family to eat some great TGI Fridays- and it was so great to get free refills!!! After eating we drove home to Madison. I gave my family their presents that I had collected over the months- and then I surprised my friends later that night. I had barely ANY jet-leg the first few days home... it kicked in right as the adrenaline stopped about 2 days in. I just spent my first days adjusting to the new environment... unpacking, meeting with friends... and spending time with my family. It felt good to be back home.

On Friday morning my Mother and I drove up to Grand Rapids, Michigan for the Central States conference that I attended last year as an outbound student. It was quite different than what I experienced last year. I realllly did NOT feel like going to the meetings planed for us to get us "re-adjusted"... I much preferred just hanging out with other rebounds and talking about our life. Our past-present- and future. Probably one of the coolest moments was when I was with my old friends from last year and we were going around a circle saying how to say certain things in German, Spanish, Turkish, Japanese, and Czech... not many friends can sit in a circle and do that! It was amazing to just reconnect with everyone after a year. I love how everyone changed so much... but they still are exactly who they were when they left. (that probably doesn't make sense at all).

So now I am home again. The weekend was like I have already said- GREAT... but it still sucks to not be able to hang out with everyone for a longer period of time! I guess it was nice when it lasted! As of now- I'm really trying to just live... I got a lot of stuff going through my head at the moment, but in the scheme of things... yeahh... I guess I am just trying to wrap my head around all the stuff I saw, all the people I met, and all of the relationships I made this year. I have no idea where I would be if I had never done exchange. I can not imagine my life without it.

I have some thinking to do.

I am leaving to go to the airport in 5 short hours.

Im a bit anxious- I can not believe it is actually happening. It hasnt set in yet.
I really dont know what to say other than this has been the best year of my life and I enjoyed every minute of it. I'm really curious to see how life will be after this year... it should be interesting to see.

Well, I better go now. I need to get some sleep before I travel all of tomorrow.

Gute Nacht!

ROTARY YOUTH EXCHANGE 2009-2010
DISTRIKT 1940
BERLIN, DEUTSCHLAND
DAS BESTE JAHR MEINES LEBENS!!!

After last night- it is safe to say that this year was a success!

I went to a party of a girl friend of mine and all of the German's there did not realize that I was American until I told them. I got multiple compliments on how good my German was, some said I I had perfect German (not true... I still have MUCH to learn), and a lot of people referred to me simply as the American with amazing German! hahaha.... That was a GREAT last experience during my last weekend in Germany. I always dreamed of being bi-lingual... and never realize that I actually am. I have totally immersed myself into the German culture- I look, talk, and walk like Germans. I feel like I really achieved all of the goals I set for myself last year when I was preparing for this year.

I feel on top of the world!

I have less than a week left in Berlin and I am enjoying myself immensly.
I'm not scrambling to do all of the things that I havn't done yet- just focusing on being with friends and just being happy. I know that one day I will return to this city... so I'm not worried about seeing everything one last time. I have been doing a lot of reflecting these past few days about what all has happend this year- it has been quite a year. So influential, so interesting, so AMAZING.

I have been in the airport almost every day seeing my friends off to their homeland. I have been there so many times I believe that Monday I will be ready to go- It is my turn. It is time to get back into reality... I can not wait to see my family and friends again. Getting back into the American culture should be... interesting. I can not imagine actually driving a car, or speaking all the time English, or not eating bread all of the time, or going to American high-school, or how the architecture everything looks.. it seems very foreign to me. But I am none-the-less excited

I am mostly dreading what a lot of exchange students have told me that already home. They say that people just dont realize how much they have grown- they do not realize how LIFE CHANGING an exchange year is, and they simply act like the exchange year never took place. I can't just forget about my year in berlin. I can not just go right back into life in madison. This year like I have said so many times before- changed my LIFE. I am a completely different person- I can not just pick up were I left off a year ago. I HOPE there will be some people who understand that.

Anyways- Friday is my last day of school in Berlin. Today I am going with friends to go make a picnic in Wansee and tomorrow we must clean the school! On friday We have a very short day- a church service and I will recieve my report card. (which should be A LOT WORSE than my first one because I missed a lot of school this half of the year). After that there is a going away pool party that I am going to with other exchange students to say goodbye. On Saturday is the Germany vs. Argentina game and I am going to watch it with friends from school. After that I will hopefully go to a huge beach party on Wansee with my host brother and listen to music and things there. Then, on Sunday- I will be going to be doing some things with my host family- packing-saying goodbye... and before I know it- I will be on my flight back to the US at 7.15 on Monday morning.

Well I must go now. I have to meet my friends at the beach. I hope to write at least one more post before I leave. until then!

I have 10 days left in Berlin.

Each day I am thinking about all the things I have experienced this year.
I am juIst BOMBARDED with memories and emotions... to tell the truth it is quite intense.

This year has been the most influential year of my life. It has given me the chance to experience life in a whole new way and really has just opened my eyes to all that life has to offer.

One thing that I just realized today... is that I have forgotten to thank somebody for this year. It's actually the person who has made this entire life-changing experience possible- It's god. Without him I would not be here right now... I would be no one- have nothing. He has made this experience possible and it is a real shame that it took me 10 months to figure that out. He has been beside me this entire time and has had his watchful eye out for me. Though it took an immense amount of mistakes to see- god has really taught me some lessons that I fear I would have never learned if I had not gone on exchange...

Well my time in Berlin is definately winding down...

I have just realized that I havn't really written about what I have been up to in quite a long time- it has been almost a month!!! To tell you the truth I have not been on the computer all that much because I have been trying to be busying myself with everything and anything I have not yet done in Berlin. It feels like I have almost done more in the month of June than the whole year!

PRETTY MUCH SUMS US UP!!!