Felix Rudolf Döpfl is the first American Field Society foreign exchange student that will be written about in The Hilltop Echo’s AFS Student Profile series. Felix was born on November 17th, 1997, and lives in wonderful Matzendorf, Austria. Matzendorf means “the village of Matzen” and only has about 1500 inhabitants. The closest major city is Vienna, which is about 50 miles away. He is an only child who has quite a few hobbies. First, he likes to take care of his pets. He has a dog, a cat, and around 20 snails. Felix says the snails on average are almost a foot long; he keeps them because they are cool, and there are already a lot of snails around where he lives. His favorite color is red, and his favorite food is Cordon Bleu. Felix loves to play sports, his favorite being the winter sports of skiing and snowboarding. He also enjoys playing soccer, tennis, and volleyball.
Felix’s native language is German, but he has been taught English ever since he was 8, and has always been interested in American Culture. When he got the opportunity to come to America, he took it, and subsequently ended up in Chardon. Felix says he wanted to come to America because, “I wanted to learn about the culture more, because it’s one thing to learn about it from a textbook, but another to actually experience it.” One thing Felix is interested in trying here that he has never had the opportunity to try before is Cleats’ Atomic Chicken Wings; Felix really likes spicy foods. His favorite experience here so far was, “Homecoming!!,” which he said with excitement and a chuckle. Felix has been staying with the wonderful host family, the Willis’, and could not ask for anything better. When asked to wrap up his whole stay so far in one sentence, Felix responded with, “America is amazing!” Felix is extremely excited to stay here, and although he misses home, would like to stay here in Chardon, Ohio for a while longer.