Home sweet home

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Published on Thursday, August 11, 2016

Submitted photos. Nikki at the Sound of Vienna classical concert in Vienna, Austria.

By Nikki Tomoniko

Rotary Exchange Student

I sit at home, look over the fields I’ve grown up playing in and think to myself, “Crazy.”

My name is Nikki Tomoniko and I have spent the last year in Switzerland on a Rotary exchange. I, an unassuming prairie girl, left the safe valleys of our flat province to join the high life in the mountains. I arrived in Switzerland on a hot, August day with primitive German in my back pocket and nodding smiles as survival methods. My year grew and evolved from that day on, into what I can’t describe as anything other than extraordinary. I have made friends, found families, laughed with Rotarians and explored so much of what were once just foreign concepts to me. 

The difference

While I was in Switzerland, I learned how to appreciate my homeland. I loved the mountains, but I would miss my home. I would miss the fresh crisp morning air that breezed through the wheat fields outside our house. I missed feeling completely free outside and the quiet of the land. Of course, I missed the life I had lived before, especially at the beginning of my exchange. I accepted that I would have to do without these things and began to build my life away from home.

Foreign friends

I am proud to say that I am an international friend. I have shared this last year with some of the most amazing people from all corners of the earth. I was able to meet and build friendships with other exchange students at organized Rotary events and language courses. It’s very easy to relate to others when you are both experiencing very similar situations. Some of my closest friends come from Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Colombia. I also found someone who I love to call my best friend. Manuel Domingo is from Venezuela and not only was he a high school classmate, he was a ray of sunshine. He lifted me up and made sure I never took things too seriously. In German, one would say, “Er felht mir,” which roughly translates to, “He’s missing from me.” I cherish the global friendships that I’ve made in the past year. I hold them close to my heart, to make the distance between us a little more bearable.

From left: Nikki hiking with Manuel, of Venezuela, and Juan Diego, of Columbia.

Working it

I was a regular attendee in high school in Switzerland. The hallways were our runways. Every day was a new fashion experience, as everyone dresses up for school. I belonged to the ice hockey team and played rec soccer. Although classes such as Swiss Economy and Law were interesting, I attended school mainly to see the great friends I’d made throughout the year. Of course, we would go out together on weekends, but when school days would sometimes finish at 6:00 pm, you learn to have fun in school. I had an amazing class of friends and teachers, who included Manuel and myself in all things. We all became great friends by the end of the year, comfortable with and around one another. 

Friends to family

People who were not only friends, but family were my host-families. I had the honour of living with two great Swiss families. They took me around Switzerland and to neighbouring countries. I learned how to make the bread of the Gods (Zopf), celebrate a traditional Swiss Christmas with Fondue Chinois and how to make homemade mayonnaise. I came to love these families as I would my own. They were always there for me, no matter what. I’ve laughed, cried, taken extra pieces of dessert and loved with them. They treated me as family and for that I will always love them.

Nikki (right) skiing with her host mom in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

Highland highlights

My year has had its ups and downs, but how can one not be high on life gazing upon mountains every day? I spent some time up in the Alps, watching snow glide effortlessly over the curves of my skis. I backpacked along the Bodensee in Germany, completing a 100 km (plus) journey with some of my best friends and a few mosquitos. I explored the island of Mallorca in Spain, with my family by my side. I ate real gelato in the Italian part of Switzerland with my host sister. I somehow made making spaghetti an ordeal with two of my best friends. I partook in a 17-day tour of Europe, exploring cities such as Paris, Amsterdam, Venice, Budapest and many more! The highest of the high, however, was the life I lived every day: lounging on the couch, laughing about everything and nothing at all with my families, seeing my friends in school and chowing down on croissants at breaks, going out and dancing through the night, being part of the family interactions and jokes at the supper table, keeping company with the people I’ve grown to love- waking up in the morning, knowing that you, at that singular moment and slice of time, are exactly where you are meant to be.

Nikki at the Louvre museum in Paris, France.

Rotary: Making dreams come true

Without Rotary, I wouldn’t have been able to experience all of these emotions, places and hallmark moments. Rotary is a great organization, who live by their ‘Service Before Self’ slogan. They give so much to us, the exchange students. The Swiss Rotary program organized fun events, helped and encouraged us with German courses and made it possible to have the great year we all had. At the end of my exchange, I, not one to turn down food, was a regular at my Rotary club’s Friday lunches. Local Rotary clubs held events from Aston Martin showings, to shooting ranges, to making Swiss chocolate Easter bunnies! My counselor, Walter, took me many places, such as the beautiful country Lichtenstein, his home, to witness a traditional Swiss welcoming of the New Year and much more. I’ll forever be grateful for all of the varying experiences I’ve been privileged enough to live this past year.

Nikki in Lichtenstein with Rotary Counsellor, Walter Egloff.

On exchange, wherever you go, you will learn. You learn that you can conquer a language. You learn to be comfortable alone. You learn to explore and enjoy places outside of your comfort zone. You learn to reach out and take opportunities. But most importantly, you learn to be you. When you step off the plane, you leave behind expectations, opinions and colours that paint the person you call, Me. You enter another country and culture with a blank canvas and the palette of colours with which you wish to paint yourself is in your hands. You gather parts of yourself on exchange, in which you’re able to build upon and strengthen. You create a life, with the help of friends and family, that you’re proud of. 

And then it’s time to come home. Home, home. The excitement of seeing your family and friends conflicts with the profound sadness of saying goodbye to those you’ve come to love. Therefore, your tears are a mixture of happy and sad. You bring home this girl you’ve come to know and introduce her to the next chapter of her life. And she’ll forever carry in her heart, her home in Switzerland.

You never know where life may take you if you don’t take a chance and do something out of the ordinary. It may seem crazy, but afterwards, you’ll see the once plain things in life can become extraordinary. You may never appreciate just how beautiful and unique a sunrise over the prairies is if you don’t long for it in another home.

In the end, I’m just a prairie girl with a little European flair.

Liebe grusse, Nikki Tomoniko