Katharina
  Germany to Will Rogers (Tulsa), OK

On November 30, my school had the Jingle Bells Ball, which was a really fun evening. We got all dressed up and rented 
a limo with some friends. We went out for dinner and went to the ball. After that, we decided to go bowling in our dresses 
and suits, which was pretty funny.

From December 6 to 10, the Rotary District 5770 invited us to go on a ski trip to Breckenridge, Colorado with their inbounds. 
We drove there in a coach bus over night, so we could ski the next morning, and the bus trip was already a lot of fun. In 
Breckenridge we stayed in condos directly at the lift, which was perfect. We got to ski a lot and in the afternoon we often
 went to the hot tubs that belonged to the condos. I really enjoyed that and I’m so happy about all the nice people I met on 
this trip. I’m so looking forward to seeing them again soon. The whole trip was great! Thank you so much for that experience!

When we came back, the next unforgettable experience was waiting for us. While we were gone, Oklahoma was hit by a very 
bad ice storm. Trees were falling down and most of Tulsa was without power. I had never seen ice like this. On the one hand
 it was fascinating and looked great, but on the other hand sometimes it was kind of scary how the trees were just collapsing 
under the weight of the ice. School was cancelled for the rest of the week, so we stayed at home and kept ourselves as warm 
as possible.

Once our power came back on, my host mom and I started baking candy for Christmas. We did some of her recipes and 
some of my family’s recipes. We loved each others, although they were quite different. I will definitely take some of her 
recipes home with me. We also decorated the Christmas tree and it was fun to put that many different ornaments on it, 
each with its own story. The actual Christmas was absolutely great. I really enjoyed it, although I had to be patient and 
wait until the 25th to open presents, instead of the 24th, when we do it in Germany.

New Years Eve was fun, too. I stayed at home, but a friend came over to celebrate a bit. We had a really good evening.

It's kind of late now, but I wish everybody a very happy new year!!!

Hello! My name is Katharina Herrmann. I’m from Solingen in Germany, but I spend 

this year in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve been here for a bit more than three months now 

and I really enjoy it. Since last week I’m already in my second host family and I can’t

believe how fast this goes by!

My school is Edison Preparatory School. It took me some days to get used to the 

American school system, because its quite different from the German one. But as soon 

as I found some friends, who showed and explained everything to me, it became much 

easier. Besides my normal classes I’m in my school’s swim team, which is hard work 

and takes a lot of time, but it’s very fun. The others on the team are really nice and I enjoy

 practicing with them. Our big goal is to go to the State Championships in February. 

We’ll see, if we can reach the qualifying times. Something else, I do in my free time, 

are the German and the Spanish Club at school. We sell advent calendars with the 

German Club at the moment. With the Spanish Club, we go to different Mexican Restaurants

 in town and eat dinner there. It is fun and I get to meet a lot of nice people in those clubs.

Wednesday nights, I usually go to Young Life, which is a Christian youth group. I’m always

 looking forward to our meetings. We do something different every time. We already played 

dodgeball and ultimate frisbee and did a scavenger hunt. Afterwards we usually go to Braum’s

and eat ice cream or french fries.

I met the other inbounds in the area for different occasions and it was always a really fun time. First we met in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, during the District Conference in September. We were introduced to the Rotarians and had an orientation as the official part. Besides that, we had a lock-in in a High School gym and went to a concert. The other occasion was the Halloween weekend we spent in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I enjoyed the time we spent together so far, because I really like our group. Now I’m looking forward to our ski trip in Breckenridge, Colorado, in December, when I finally get to see them all again!