From Australia to Austria

Requested by our school director, I am writing a little something for the school website. In case you didn’t already know, my name is Katherine Dedman and I am “The Exchange Student” from Mandurah (one hour south of Perth) Western Australia. I came to Austria in January this year, not knowing a word of German. I had to teach myself by listening to German everyday and I can tell you it wasn’t easy! Now I can speak German, but only Steierish German, which in my opinion is the best German there is.
First of all I would like to say a big thank you to all my teachers, your patience with the Australian that could not speak much German was amazing, but most of all I need to thank my class. You really are the best class and some of the best friends I could have asked for; I will never forget you no matter how long it takes me to come back to Austria. I honestly cannot thank you enough, when I came here I was still very homesick and a little depressed from the hard months I had had before making the decision to move to a new family and school, but I am so glad that I made that decision and so grateful and lucky that I was sent here. Not only did I get Kulmer Fish as a host family but the best school too. Within my first week of being at BORG I really began to feel like my old self again, I was happy and if it wasn’t for you and how loving and welcoming you were I would probably be back in Australia by now, rather than waking up every morning wishing for just one more day here in Austria.