Michelle Riley took us back three years and gave us a blow by blow description of
her being chosen as an exchange student - to traveling to Switzerland, and to her
time spent there.

Riley recounted her orientation in Russell & her flight to Switzerland and the help
she got along the way.

Shortly after arriving , she spent over a week at a language camp with other
exchange students to learn German.

The next year was spent with 3 wonderful exchange families who treated her as a
child of their own and whom she referred to as her Swiss Moms and Dads.
Michelle provided us with a bit of history on the canton of Uri where she spent her
exchange.

Uri is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland. It is located in Central Switzerland.

The canton's territory covers the valley of the Reuss River between Lake Lucerne
and the St. Gotthard Pass. German is the primary language spoken in Uri. Uri was
the only canton where the children in school had to learn Italian as their first
foreign language. But in the school year of 2005/2006 this was changed to English
as in most other cantons. The population is about 35,000 of which 3,046 (or 8.7%)
are foreigners. The legendary William Tell is said to have hailed from Uri.
Each of her host families took her on many memorable trips.

Near the end of her time Michelle also took a trip around part of Europe with a number of other exchange students.

She was also fortunate to have her parents come and visit for almost 2 weeks in late April last year.

Michelle Riley thanked Rotarians for the opportunity and was sorry she could not share more of the 18000 pictures that she took while there.