Regina Haberl
Well, I guess I don't have to tell you guys that this summer was the best of my entire life… But there are still some things left that I'd like to tell you…so you get an imagination WHY this summer was the best.
You have to know that I was completely stressed while the 8 Americans were here…of course it was the most beautiful stress, but when they had to leave I was out of it. This one week between their departure and ours was really bad. First of all I was sad cause I missed them all so much and then suddenly there were so many problems coming up. My friends who were a bit mad on me cause I neglected them for 6 weeks started to complain and so did my father who was mad cause I didn't visit him together with Koryn. Believe me, I had good reasons for not doing this … After everyone stopped complaining they organized some parties and I was glad because so I had no time to think to much. But I was not really happy… I guess there are some people who can tell you what I was saying all the time: I need to get out of here! Out of my life! I need a break! So I was so happy when we finally started our journey. We all had no idea that it would be that great I guess.
In America I started a "new" life and told myself: No problems, just fun! and thank the lord it worked out fine. I spent five weeks without really thinking about everything that would wait for me at home or whatever will happen the next days. But the day of days came closer and closer…my fears grew…I had to leave my "perfect" life for going back to a "destroyed" one?! I thought that can't be true…but it was….if I had the chance to erase one day of my life I guess it would be the 2nd of September.
I still see us standing at the airport…I can remember everything like it would have been just 2 days ago or so…but only till Chris Naderer told me to go on cause the plane would leave in a few minutes…I seized my backpack and moved on to the gateway…in this door I stopped and turned around…and the following sight was the worst I ever saw…everybody was crying and screaming (me included)…even our "Bad" boys! J and then one of the others made me go on…so I turned and from this point on I can't remember anything…total blackout! The first thing I remember after this is when the plane started to roll to the runway…and we saw them all standing at the window of the airport…the last view.
It was really hard and it took me a long time to feel better at home…but I made it! I changed my life completely and now I'm happy … Tempe will always stay my second home and my "perfect world" I guess… But sometimes when I have a really bad night…I can still hear and see everyone standing in front of me crying and screaming. But more than that I can hear and see us all having the greatest time ever! And I found a saying some weeks ago…that is comforting me all the time:
"Our memory is the only paradise we can't be driven out of."
yours Regina
Amy Evans
Tempe Sister Cites gave me the best summer of my life. In December of our junior year in high school, we turned in applications for the program. The following selection process was the most stressful time in my life. I have never been so anxious about one thing before. We had interviews with the selection committee. That was hard. There were eleven of them surrounding one of you. It was very intimidating. There were dinners and other social events we had to go through. Final cuts were in March. Forty people tried out and twenty-six were selected. Everyone was assigned to a particular country: Macedonia, Germany, China, New Zealand, France, and Ireland. We went to our country for five or six weeks and then brought our foreign students back here. There were fifty-two students, from seven different countries, all hanging out together for the summer. I learned a lot about other cultures and a lot about other people. I made a ton of friends, and I know that not many people can say that they have best friends in six other countries, but we do now. Tempe Sister Cities is AWESOME!!!
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