Collage Noviembre 2012

1 VOL. 21 No 30. September 2010

THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE MAGAZINE LE MAGAZINE DE LANGUES ÉTRANGÈRES

By Rasmus Sobel

To start all over again, to leave everything behind isn‟t easy. I did just that for about one month ago. At 9:15 my airplane took off from Swedish ground and 22 hours later I found myself in a country I knew very little about, with a family I had never met before. This unknown country was going to be my new home for the coming next eleven months.

Here in Mexico, everything is different from Sweden: the people, the language, the culture, the school, the weather, the buildings, the food; yes everything is totally different. Of course it has both pros and cons with coming to experience something different. If it were very similar as Sweden, it wouldn‟t be much of an experience, but its being too different, makes you feel very lost and insecure.

For example I am a quiet calm person (even though I sometimes can be really wild) and I need some time for myself. Unfortunately, here in Mexico it‟s quite hard to get that time here since you‟re expected to go to parties every weekend, and that is a very big change for me because you don‟t party that much in Sweden. Of course we have parties, but not as frequently.

Another thing different from Sweden is people and how these people act with people they don‟t know. Swedes tend to be shy and avoid talking to strangers, but here, everyone wants to talk to you. Because of this, I sometimes feel very uncomfortable when someone i don‟t know just starts talking to me. But that is a thing I have got used to now and it is not such a big problem anymore. I am learning the culture.

I have been here for a month and I must admit it has been the most difficult month in my whole life. I don‟t understand a word the teachers say in school, I feel very tired all the time, I miss my friends at home and most of all I miss my girlfriend.

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I know eventually it‟ll be better. I‟m learning more Spanish every day, I‟ll get used to the fatigue, I‟ve got new friends here but I won‟t see my girlfriend for another ten months; unless I leave earlier.

I have actually thought a lot of going home, especially the first two weeks when I felt really bad. Sometimes I wonder what i was doing here. Why did I leave when I had it so good back home? Why not just go home if I don‟t feel good here?

I have considered it very seriously, because if I go home now I will maybe regret it when I‟m older. So before deciding, I needed to be a hundred percent sure i was making the right decision. The first weeks were much more difficult than I have it now, perhaps I will feel great in a few weeks more.

The reason I travelled here was because I like to see new places and I want to learn to speak Spanish, but most of all because I want to experience new things. One of these experiences is learning how to handle a situation when you are very uncertain on what you should do, so whatever I do I know I will be taking with me a great experience.

I don‟t know whether we were so busy in our hectic lives that we never realized we were heading straight towards destruction. We just wonder, where did we go off course? How did we lose track? When was it that everything just spun so drastically out of control that when it finally stopped we found ourselves deeply immersed in a fictional world we thought existed thousands of light years away from us?

Was it because of our losing faith, or maybe our forgetting about God and principles? Has it been our selfishness, or maybe our tolerating everything? Or was it even worse, us becoming -

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part of this rotten show we have learned to live with and have even accepted as something natural?

The city we once knew as kids and teenagers does no longer exist. It just vanished. It can only be reached in pictures, memories, and songs. I try hard to get it back but it seems harder each passing day. I reach out and still can‟t get it. Why did all this happen? Is it because we deserve it as a country? Are we so responsible for all this that divine intervention punished us with no mercy?

I don‟t know, but it sure hurts. Everything seems so surreal and yet so vividly real. Our habits and routines have bitterly been altered and this was something we had to do in order to play it safe. The use of common sense has become a strategic tool to keep going. I am finding it tough to actually believe Tampico has at last shown it fangs. Blood has been shed. I try to see my city through these same eyes of mine, but I can´t focus on how things used to be. Images are blurry and seem to drift away. What irony but I honestly wish I had those negative things I used to complain about all the time….What heat, look at that bump down there, how annoying this traffic can be, oh not again, floods down Hidalgo Avenue.

Will the city we knew and loved ever come back again? I hope so, because I really miss it with all my heart. I am living in an unknown territory I certainly don‟t want to get used to.

There is a shadow hanging on people´s face. It looks as though they experience sadness. Happiness is slowing subsiding in our lives. Why did this come to be?. As soon as the sun descends, fear sets in, and a different scenario appears. A stage we knew nothing about. We don‟t want to learn this role in the script we have unfortunately begun to perform. I have come to believe that somehow we have forgotten about God, In case we have, it is never too late to look for and ask for forgiveness. Please God, do not forget about us.

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By Emmi Salo At first Finnish people may seem introverted, shy and almost hostile to foreigners, but after you get to know us better we become open and more talkative, and we are also hospitable, helpful and very loyal friends. It is said that once you make a friendship with a Finn, it will last for ever. Finns are also very honest: e.g. when we say something nice, we really mean it. We are also very strict with time: if you have arranged a meeting it is better to be there earlier; coming late is considered as impoliteness.

Finland has a low-contact culture, which means that people need a lot of personal space. You have to know the person well before you can e.g. hug him or her; otherwise Finns feel it very uncomfortable. For people from other cultures this may seem like we are cold people, but for us giving space and appreciating personal privacy is just considered as polite behaviour. We are also passively polite: it means that e.g. sitting alone in the bus rather than sitting next to a stranger is polite.

Honesty, perseverance and stamina (known as “sisu”), nature, education and equality are all very important Finnish values. Finland is one of the most equal countries in the world, thus it‟s a feminine culture and we have soft values. It is also quite liberal country when it comes to religion and such. In Finland power distance is low and we don‟t have any clear social classes.

And it is very common, for example, to call your teacher by her or his first name, even though we might be very formal in some other situations.

Finland is bilingual country, where Finnish and Swedish are the official languages. Finnish belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family and is considered as one of the most difficult languages in the world for instance because of its 15 different cases. The majority of Finns are Lutherans, but religion does not usually play a huge role in people‟s everyday lives. Finnish families are often nuclear families rather than extended families, only parents or just one of them, if the couple is e.g. divorced, and their children live in the same house.

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Even though family is very important for a Finn, especially for adolescents, friends play a very big role in their lives. It is very common to spend free time with friends, especially in weekends. It is also normal that the members of a family don‟t eat their dinner at the same time. Of course this varies a lot in different families, but because of the work, school and hobbies it might be difficult to find a time which is fine for all. This only makes the moments and occasions spent together even more valuable.

Finns love winter sports, and we are good at ice-hockey. The official national sport is pesäpallo. Also nordic walking, floorball and football (soccer) are very popular. Formula One is probably one of the most watched sports in TV. Finnish music is usually melancholic and heavy, like some of our most famous bands: Nightwish, HIM, The Rasmus, Apocalyptica and Lordi. The national epic of Finland is called Kalevala and it‟s also known abroad. It is an epic poem made by Elias Lönnrot and it is considered as one of the most significant works of Finnish language literature. Finland is acknowledged of its developed technology, like Nokia and modern design, for instance Marimekko.

Probably the thing that we most love in our own culture is sauna. It is a very important weekly custom, almost a ritual, for nearly all of us. Many foreigners find it very weird and uncomfortable to go to a small room with a very high temperature, especially without clothes, but in fact it is very relaxing. Another weird custom of ours is avanto: it is a hole in the ice, for example in a lake in wintertime. Swimming in the icy water and going to the sauna after it is very healthy and good for circulation of blood.

The most important holidays during the year are Christmas, which is celebrated already on the Christamas Eve, New Year‟s Eve, Easter, May Day, which is traditionally a celebration for “working class” and undergraduates, Mid Summer‟s Fest Juhannus in late June and The Independence Day on 6th of December. Eating well, decorating the Christmas tree, giving and receiving the presents and Santa Claus, who of course lives in Finland, are all Finnish Christmas traditions. This holiday is often spent with family and relatives and different families have different traditions. Some like to go to church in Christmas, but after all Christmas is quite commercial. Our way to celebrate Mayday resembles carnival. Many people dress up with different kinds of costumes, and especially children have balloons and streamer. In Juhannus, Mid Summer‟s Fest, people often gather in countryside in their summer cottages to celebrate together and there they have a midsummer bonfire (kokko). In archipelago many people make poles decorated with flowers.

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Finnish cuisine consists of ingredients found in the Finnish nature, such as potatoes, berries, mushrooms, root vegetables and different meats. Our food is not usually spicy. Finns love dark bread made out of rye, “ruisleipä” and crispbread, “näkkileipä”. We have some traditional food in relation to some specific parts of Finland or some holidays. For example, Karelian pasties or pies come from Karelia, although they are well-known all around Finland, and mämmi, which looks very interesting but is in fact quite good, especially with sugar and cream, is traditional Easter delicacy. Also, nowadays pasta, pizza and other international and ethnic cuisines are just as ordinary in Finland as everywhere. A Finnish sweets called salmiakki is a thing that Finns love and others don‟t – it is kind of salty liquorice.

By Edna Leticia Romero.

Years ago a friend told me a story of a dead girl, who used to appear at the ranch of her uncle. It was about 8 years ago when Gaby (my friend‟s cousin) was about 4. They used to spend weekends on their ranch, the ranch had the main new house and an abandoned old house.

Gaby used to play in the old house, she always spent hours in there, and she always returned happy because she said she had a friend who lived there.

Her parents thought that she was lying or that had an imaginary friend, which is common in young children. And so this happened several times, whenever they went to the ranch on weekends, she spent all day long in the old house playing.

Her parents started to worry about her and started to question her.

One night her father, was talking to her and Gaby told him a story that “her friend” had told her. Her father in shock and just being able to speak asked her daughter of where she had heard the story.

She answered very quietly that her friend had told her the story. Her scared father began to ask her more about “her friend”, he was in shock because he knew those stories; those stories were told when he was young.

He started to remember all about his childhood, more exactly about the time they used to spend in the ranch. He recalled about a little girl who used to live in the old house, she was the daughter of the caretakers of the ranch. He knew that the caretakers left the ranch when their 4 years old daughter died, so he concluded that maybe that little girl was his daughter´s friend. They stopped going to the ranch, and years later they went again and the little girl hasn‟t appeared again.

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By Estela Quezada Romero Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Amanda who liked to lie and play jokes on people. One day Amanda was playing alone at midnight in a little wood house.

That night there were two old men walking near her house and then they listened to somebody singing.

While they walked towards the little house, the voice of the girl faded.

When they got there, the girl wasn‟t there.

Sometime later, the two old men were walking near the wood house again, and again, they listened to her.

When they went to the house, she was singing a beautiful song. One of the men asked to her about her name. And then she responded “My name was Amanda”, they were so confused and then they asked again where her mother was. She responded “my mother and I are dead, but she left me here, and I can‟t find her.”

Two old men said to her. “Well we were looking for you, because we know your mother, she asked us to get you, so we need to go”. They took her away and nobody has seen Amanda again. Midnight is spirits time, so don‟t walk alone at streets at this hour.

By Jesus E. Camacho Over the centuries the people of London in the United Kingdom have survived plagues, fires, war and disaster.

And they have also lived through times when cruelty was everywhere and it was part of life. In one of oldest parts of London an unusual museum reminds Londoners of this much harder time.

The London Dungeon exhibits the way in which people were punished, tortured and executed in the past.

Maybe the most chilling exhibit of all is the one related to Jack the Ripper, the name given to the man who committed some of the most dreadful murders London has ever known of. These took place between August and November in 1888. The murderer seemed to came out of the thick fog, which shrouded the city at this time and then disappeared without a trace.

The first known victim of Jack the Ripper was Mary “Polly” Nicholes. John Neil found her body in the street in the early hours of the morning. He was shocked to find her throat cut and her body badly hacked by a knife. It looked like the work of a surgeon gone mad.

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Juan´s Flowers Once upon a time a body called Juan woke up in the morning, he went to the bathroom because he wanted to take a shower and when he looked himself at the mirror he saw a flower on his head he was very surprised about it and started to imagine all his friends would laugh at him.

That‟s why he took an old hat and put it on his head when he went to school his friends asked him about his strange hat and they told him that it was ugly and old.

Juan started to feel mad about the situation, he wondered why that was happening to him and he decided to go to the beach alone, away from the others.

There he found a girl that was walking alone too, and when she was in front of him. The wind took his hat away and the girl saw the flower on his head, she told him that she loved that gift because this made him special. Juan started to think about his flower in a different way and never came back to hide his flower.

By Maria Rodriguez Gaytan.

Once upon a time a family went camping. They arrived to the forest and started to put down all their things . Later at night they were eating some fried fish when they heard some noises saying “G0 AWAY FROM HERE” everybody got scared and ran out of their tents. The next day their mother told them not to worry about what had happened the night before and to continue with my activities they had planned.

In the afternoon a man came and told the family that they were in danger if they decided to stay there, so everybody asked him why? The man answered that a man was killed there and the police never found his body and in some cases people who stayed there are meant to die too.

Without thinking twice the family picked up all their things and ran away: and they never came back to that place.

By Anaid Alejandre Gonzalez One day my father told me a scary story, this was real and it happened to him. My father is bus driver and one night while he was driving along the road when he saw a beautiful woman dressed all black in the middle on the road and he thought… maybe something had happened, so he slowed down to see if she needed help. When my dad went to her side, she had a deformed face and torn clothes as if she were dead.

My father was scared and when he told this story to his colleagues, he learned that on that part of the road that woman always appeared at night.

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My first week at school was amazing, I made friends right away. I met the most wonderful people you‟d ever imagine. They were already a nice and compact group of friends from different countries: Brazil, Switzerland, Germany and South Korea. They took me in quickly and without questions, they made me feel welcomed.

I felt like I had found home in the hearts of people I‟d never thought I‟d meet. I opened my thoughts and my heart to these strangers only to find appreciation. Nobody judged me, nobody messed with me. I was happy, comfortable and safe. I felt, like I said, at home. Those were the best six weeks of my life.

Vancouver, and my friends, gave me the chance to rediscover myself. I now find myself a happier and self confident person. I left Vancouver with e-mails, home addresses and promises; promises that I‟d e-mail, send letters and postcards but most important, promises to meet again. A few people thought it‟d be too hard but I believe it‟s possible.

To this day, I keep in touch with some of my friends. Some others are busy still traveling around. I think of Vancouver and the people I met there every day. I see the pictures they upload of things they‟ve done after I left.

For my next vacation period I have so many choices: South Korea, Germany, Japan… I have a hard choice ahead of me, but this is a long life, there will be time. I‟ll see them again someday, I‟m sure.

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Lucie Peckel Bonjour, je suis Lucie Peckel et je viens de Belgique!

Je suis ici à Tampico et à l‟IEST pour un an d‟échange avec le Rotary, cette année sera faite de folie, de découvertes, de changements et d‟apprentissages!

En effet tout est très différents de la Belgique, la culture, les personnes, les mentalités, les règles, l‟école, la nourriture, la vie de famille, la ville, l‟architecture! Chaque jours passé ici je découvre un nouvel aspect de ce pays magnifique!

Je suis à Tampico depuis de 15 aout, je vis dans une famille d‟accueil pour 4 mois, ensuite je change de famille encore deux fois.

J‟ai choisis le Mexique car c‟est un grand pays très riche culturellement, on y fait toujours la fête et surtout les mexicains sont très accueillants, chaleureux et aimable, quelle plaisir!

C’est une expérience unique que je suis en train de vivre, loin de mes habitudes, de ma famille, de mes amis! Je suis arrivée seule et petit à petit je me refais une vie ici! C‟est très enrichissant! J‟apprend à être indépendante et autonome et surtout ne plus avoir les parents derrière sois, j‟apprend à me débrouiller dans une autre langue! En effet, j‟apprend l‟espagnol depuis un mois maintenant! C‟est très fatiguant d‟entendre une autre langue toute la journée, de réfléchir sans cesse pour trouver les bons mots, et surtout comprendre ce que l‟on nous veut ( surtout à l„école! )Mais j‟adore cette magnifique langue latine!

Je suis motivée et curieuse pour apprendre =) Je vis à du 1000 km/h ici! J‟ai envie de profiter de chaque moment jusqu‟au bout et de découvrir, de visiter tout le Mexique, et ses mexicains! Je ne me rend pas compte que je suis ici pour un an, je vis chaque

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moment jusqu‟au bout et de découvrir, de visiter tout le Mexique, et ses mexicains! Je ne me rend pas compte que je suis ici pour un an, je vis chaque journée comme si je partais le lendemain!

Tout est très grand ici, comparée à ma petite Belgique!

Si vous avez l‟occasion de faire un échange ou de partir à l‟aventure comme moi,… Je vous le conseil très fortement! Car c‟est une chance qui ne se présente qu‟une fois et je crois que je vais passer la meilleure année de ma vie ici, au Mexique avec vous tous!

Per Sophie de Surlemont

Je me présente : Je m´appelle Anne-Sophie de Surlemont (ici tout le monde m´appelle Sofi), j´ai 17 ans et je viens de Belgique. Ma langue maternelle est donc le Français. Je vais essayer de ne pas écrire des phrases trop compliquées pour que vous puissiez comprendre.

J´habite dans un petit village qui s´appelle Villers-Perwin. (C´est difficile à prononcer, je sais.)

J´ai un grand frère qui s´appelle Martin, il a 19 ans. J´adore danser, écrire et dessiner. Je vais aussi aux Scouts. En Belgique, je suis animatrice pour des enfants de 5 à 7 ans. Je suis ici au Mexique pour un an dans le cadre du Rotary Youth Exchange. L´année prochaine, je rentrerai à l´université pour étudier les langues romanes.

Je suis arrivée à Tampico le 15 août et je suis super contente d´être ici! Ma famille d´accueil est très gentille avec moi. Les Mexicains sont des gens super accueillants et très souriants. J´aime vraiment ce pays! Tous les jours je découvre de nouvelles choses, j´apprends de nouveaux mots, je goûte de nouveaux plats… J´adore la nourriture mexicaine : tacos, tortas, quesadillas,… Je vais grossir, c´est sûr! Mes parents ne me reconnaîtront plus quand je rentrerai! Haha! :D Actuellement, je suis étudiante à l´IEST. Je suis en option “humanidades” et ma classe est vraiment cool! J En plus, cette école est très sympa. Les étudiants sont trop drôles et

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vraiment adorables! La cafétéria offre plein de bonnes choses à manger, ça change de mon ancienne école! Je suis également un cours d´espagnol avec les autres étudiants d´échange. Au total, nous sommes 7 et on s´entend vraiment bien tous ensemble! J´ai plein de nouveaux amis ici, et je sors souvent avec eux : à la plage, au bowling, au ciné, en soirée,… Je m´éclate vraiment bien! J Je suis déjà allée à Mexico City avec ma famille d´accueil et nous avons visité les pyramides de Teotihuacan. C´était vraiment genial!

Evidemment, il y a des choses auxquelles il faut s´habituer… Premièrement, le climat est très différent. En Belgique, il fait assez froid et il pleut souvent alors qu´ici, il fait SUPER chaud!

A l´école, nous devons porter un uniforme… en Belgique non. Ça fait bizarre mais ça va, ça ne me dérange pas… Une autre chose qui me perturbe un peu : les heures de repas. Ici, on mange n´importe quand. Une fois c´est à 20h, une autre fois à 22h. Chez moi, on a des heures bien fixes pour manger.

Je pense que j´ai encore plein de choses à découvrir ici… Votre culture est tellement riche! Je sens vraiment que je vais passer une année inoubliable!

By Ernesto Ostos

Last summer, my family and I had the opportunity to travel to Cancun Quintana Roo. The trip was great because I was able to visit new places and meet new people down there. Needless to say how different Cancun is from Tampico. During this trip, I visited many places but the one that I liked the most of all was Xcaret which is like a one-day safari where you see animals of all kinds and at night there is a show in which people from all over the world participate in a Mayan ritual show where they play the old game ball, and some traditional dances are performed. They also represented the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards more than five hundred years ago so that we got the idea how things had happened back then.

When I was seeing all this from my seat, I felt really proud of my country and every part of history we have in Mexico. I felt proud of being Mexican. Sometimes we do not appreciate all the rich and long history we have here in Mexico. While I was at Xcaret, I even saw dolphins and many kinds of turtles and birds such as parrots and flamingos. There is this special room where they you can see this amazing collection of butterflies from all over the world. I also visited some natural reefs and mangroves found in this area. I even visited two of the most

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most important islands in Mexico. One is Isla Mujeres and the other is Cozumel. In order to get to Isla Mujeres you need to catch a aquatic ferry that in less than half an hour you find yourself on the island. It is a nice little island where you can rent a scoter or a bike and you can ride through the island and then go to have dinner at a restaurant where seafood and other kinds of food are deliciously served. The other island is called Cozumel which is also very beautiful. I can keep on writing about these incredible places, but it is better if you go there and discover everything by yourself.

Mon nom est Guillaume Canit, je suis Français d'origine Parisienne. Actuellement en formation économique et sociale en France dans le but de travailler plus tard dans le domaine du commerce international, je souhaitais , du haut de mes 18 ans, partir a l'étranger afin de découvrir une autre culture, un autre continent, parler une autre langue. La France est un beau pays, mais être seulement citoyen français ne m'intéresse pas, je veux être citoyen du monde, voilà pourquoi j'ai souhaité participer à cette expérience d'étudiant d'échange...

Ici pour une période d'un an, j'ai fais le choix de mettre ma famille et mes amis de coter afin de me construire de manière autonome. C'est toujours difficile de dire au revoir au gens que l'on aiment, de se dire que la prochaine fois que l'on reverra ses amis, ce sera dans un an... voilà pourquoi avant mon départ j'ai fait une énorme fête afin de vivre un dernier bon moment avant mon départ pour Tampico au Mexique.

Ici pour une période d'un an, j'ai fais le choix de mettre ma famille et mes amis de coter afin de me construire de manière autonome. C'est toujours difficile de dire au revoir au gens que l'on aiment, de se dire que la prochaine fois que l'on reverra ses amis, ce sera dans un an... voilà pourquoi avant mon départ j'ai fait une énorme fête afin de vivre un dernier bon moment avant mon départ pour Tampico au Mexique.

Après un long voyage je suis enfin arrivé a Tampico ou j'ai rencontré les familles avec lesquels j'allais vivre. J'avais la chance d'avoir dans ma famille un

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jeune de mon age celui-ci m'a donc présenté a tout ses amis et donc m'a permis de sortir rapidement et de vivre pleinement mon expérience ici.

Voici a présent deux mois que je suis ici et ma vie n'est pas du tout la même, venant de l'autre continent presque tout est différent.

Durant mes premiers jours j'étais un peu comme un nouveau né qui découvrais la vie...

Ici, il fait beaucoup plus chaud et l'aire est d'une humidité impressionnante.

La nourriture m'est également complètement étrangère: les tortillas, le piment, les haricots... ne sont pas choses fréquentes dans le domaine culinaire français... J'aime beaucoup la nourriture Mexicaine mais je là trouve cependant un peu grasse, il faut savoir qu'en un mois j'avais pris trois kilos; à présent à force de pratiquer du sport mon poids est redescendu et est plus ou moins stabilisé, mais il est claire que l'exercice est pour moi nécessaire pour ne pas grossir.... il faut savoir qu'en un mois j'avais pris trois kilos; à présent à force de pratiquer du sport mon poids est redescendu et est plus ou moins stabilisé, mais il est claire que l'exercice est pour moi nécessaire pour ne pas grossir....J'ai également découvert un paysage tropical que je ne connaissais pas, des différences culturelles notamment au niveau des « gens ».

Les Mexicains sont beaucoup plus chaleureux et ouvert que les Français, la majorité des Mexicain viennent parler avec toi sans te connaître et je pense que c'est une énorme qualité car il est claire que je n'est pas eu de problème d'intégration, mais je ne sais malheureusement pas si cette accueille pourrait être possible pour un étranger arrivé en France…

Le Mexique est réellement un pays magnifique, il est dommage de voir que l'insécurité ne décroisse pas avec le temps, car pour le moment, c'est le seul point négatif que j'ai relevé. J'ai été sur l'ile de Cabo rojo: ou j'ai eu la chance de manger des noix de coco directement cueillite de l'arbre, à Guanajuato ou j'ai pu voir les momies, visiter d'ancienne mines...

Et j'ai également, pour la nuit du 16 septembre été faire la fête a San Miguel, en discothèque...Je suis ici depuis deux mois seulement et j'ai déjà des souvenirs plein la tête, vu des choses que je n'aurais jamais penser connaître auparavant, j'ai la chance d'être ici, je compte bien en profiter !

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Echange en Mexique Je m’apelle Aurelia Luongo et j’ai 17 ans. J‟habite en Suisse, près du Bale dans un petit village. Ce village s‟apelle Zwingen et il compte 2000 habitans.

J‟ai une soeur. Elle a 14 ans et elle s‟apelle Milena. Mon père est Italien et ma mère est Autrichienne. Je suis souvent à Vienne parce que j‟aime cette ville et j‟ai une tante qui habite là.

Mes hobbies sont jouer au volley, basket, fitness, sortir avec mes amies/ amis, lire des livres et ecouter de la musique. Je préfère de la musique du Rap Allemand, Hip Hop mais aussi du House, Electro et Latino. J‟ai fait 9 ans de l‟école à Zwingen et après une autre année au lycée à Laufen. Laufen est un autre petit village et ce village et près du mien. Avec le train c‟est seulement 4 minutes pour aller a l‟école.

J‟ai voulais faire une échange parce que j‟aime apprendre de nouvelles langues et je m‟intéresse beaucoup aux autres cultures, aux autres pays et à l‟histoire.

A l‟école mes matières préférées sont francais, italien, anglais et histoire.

J’ai toujours voulu aller en Amérique pour apprendre l’anglais. Mais après, je suis allée à une réunion du Rotary. Et là, quinze pays se sont présenté. Les gens du Mexique étaient très gentils et marrants. Ils ont chanté et dansé. Une fille du Mexique m‟a convaincue comme ça, j‟ai changé mon opinion et j‟ai choisi le Mexique.

Quand je suis arrivé à Tampico, c‟était très chaud. Ma famille est très gentille et l‟école me plaît parce que les écoliers sont très marrants et gentils. Je comprends rien aux lecons parce que le prof et les autres parlent très vite. Mais a la maison quand ma famille me parle, ou mes amies, je comprends un peu. Ils parlent

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lentement avec moi. L‟espagnol n‟est pas tres difficil pour moi, parce que je parle francais et italien. Je suis sûre que je vais apprendre l‟espagnol rapidement.

Mon expérience en trois semaines est qu‟au Mexique les gens sont très gentils, ils mangent beaucoup de Tortillas, Tacos et de la viande. On peut conduire à 16 ans et il fait toujours beau et chaud.

En Suisse on peut conduire à 18 ans, on parle quatre langues: allemand, francais, italien et rumansch.

En été le temps est souvent beau et chaud mais en hiver nous avons de la neige et il fait froid. Nous avons beaucoup de chocolats et du fromage en Suisse mais aussi de banques comme UBS ou Credit Suisse, des usines qui fabriquent des horloges et des couteaux.

J‟espère que je vais apprendre la langue parfaitement, que je connaîtrai le pays et que je vais passer une bonne année au Mexique.

DAVID GOMEZ FUENTES PRESIDENT

ALEJANDRO MONTANO DURAN INSTITUTO DE ESTUDIOS SUPERIORES DE TAMAULIPAS

ACADEMIC VICEPRESIDENT

KAREN BEATON ARVES

Avenida Dr. Burton E. Grossman

LANGUAGE CENTER

501 PTE. Col. Tampico-Altamira

COORDINATOR

C.P. 89609 Altamira Tamaulipas México

ALFREDO CASTILLO

Tel. ( 833 ) 230-2566

EDITOR