My mother spent her junior year abroad with Rotary in Sollentuna, Sweden staying with the Jävervall family. Her year there led to her desire to return intending to show my father the part of the world she had found, on their Tenth wedding anniversary. They traveled as planned in June of 1996, I was scheduled to be born late that August after my dad's birthday, the Eighteenth. Not scheduled were the complications that led them into the aforementioned hospital during late June. I had decided coming into the world in Sweden sounded nice. After a healthy deal of time spent in Uppsala handling me, a flight was arranged to take my mother and father home to Iowa. Unfortunately I was born a week or more later at Des Moines Mercy, not My plan!
Later in my childhood once I could understand, I learned of how I was showered in a special "Born in the USA, not Sweden!" celebration when I was born. That made me conscious of something I had felt the whole time, my desire to be born abroad. Particularly in Sverige! This story resonated in my mind and as a kid excited my interest in the world and the land that I could not call my home by birth technicalities. Forever impacted by her year, my mom and dad raised myself and my brothers to be open to that interest giving us the opportunity to travel all throughout the US to the National Parks from an early age. A direct impact, noticeable in our lives, was how she taught us to refer to our Grandmother Joan, her mom, as "Mormor." This was our name for our Grandma, until I was much older she wasn't even Grandma to me, just Mormor. This is how the Swedish language titles the maternal grandma, as mother's mother, and so we did with ours. To this day, I trip up when I speak of Mormor to my cousins, they just don't know who I mean until I remember to explain. From this exposure, the world was opened to me as a book to be read, and boy do I enjoy reading!
My eldest cousin Amber lead the Hoffman charge into Rotary next, taking her gap year to Northern Germany, refreshing the idea of this experience in my mind, and that of my brother Jon's. I spent my early years up to now studying the world, memorizing and drawing maps, studying histories and amazing myself with it all. After Amber came Jon and by this time the joke was on him, as my plans to pursue the program were set already by then. From his year I learned a much closer view of what exchange is, and then I had the opportunity to travel and see him in it. Taiwan sealed the deal. I felt giddy the first moments I took foot on Taiwanese soil. This was to be my path.
Ein Tag mir, und ich gehe aus Österreich! One more day and I go to Austria! I will fly Des Moines, Chicago, Berlin, to Vienna and in Vienna/Wien I will meet my host brother, or as I say Gastbruder, Philipp Dumfarth. With a day in Wien and a day to travel to my host town of Gutau, I will kill the time between my arrival and the language camp. Said to be one of the top experiences of the year, I cannot wait for it. Moreover I cannot wait to touchdown in Wien and see Philipp and the country playing host to my dream turned to reality!
Once done with camp I will meet my host parents, Gabriele and Christian Dumfarth who will take me away from the beautiful mountain lake location, Altmünster on Traunsee where my camp will be, and drive me to Gutau to live with them. There I will meet Tobias, my 16 year old host brother, already wonderful friend! To make things understandable to everyone back home, I choose to describe my living situation in this manner: It is comparable to living in Kellogg and then later moving to Baxter to stay with host family #2, while attending school and Rotary in my official host city of Newton. In reality Freistadt is my Newton, and Kellogg and Baxter are my Gutau and Weitersfelden, the host towns my families live in. Freistadt is a Pella sized city, a center for all the nearby towns making up the Mühlviertel, a historic quarter of my host state of Upper Austria. The towns I live in range from 1,000 to 3,000 people in population. Roughly 30 kilometers to the north lies the southern border of the Czech Republic, and in the opposite manner to the south, in equal distance lies Linz, the modern European city and capital of my state, Upper Austria. Very nearly like my situation living a half-hour from Des Moines, our state capitol of Iowa!
Combining my interests from day one of my life with this wonderful setup: my most gracious host family, the Dumfarths and the Rotary clubs of Freistadt and Newton I have my upcoming year in Austria. See you soon in Austria! Bis bald, in Österreich!
