The school’s newest students come from a little farther than Mason Creek, Block House or Horizon Park. From Europe to Asia, five foreign exchange students have become Raiders.
“I get to learn something different,” sophomore Yue Yang said. “[Like] how to make different friends. I also get to learn how to grow up and be by myself.”
Yang is the farthest from home, hailing from China. The other four are from Europe: junior Francesca Guidicci is from Milan, Italy while juniors Nicola Brumm, Helene Wittek and Sina Marchione are all from Germany. Brumm and Wittek are from the capitol, Berlin, while Marchione is from a little bit more south in Kaiserslautern.
“I like the weather, its warmer here,” Brumm said. “It’s always raining and cloudy in Germany. The sun is always shining here.”
But weather differences were only a small change for the students. At first, the students found it difficult to get use to the school hours. In Germany, for example, school times vary day-to-day and can be 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. some days. They also have 20-minute breaks to relax before the next class period. The rules were also a difference the students had to adapt to.
“I don’t like the dress code,” Brumm said. “In Germany we have no rules, it’s just no smoking, don’t drink and don’t do drugs. [Here] we also don’t have time to change classes and no breaks.”
For Wittek, seeing the stereotypical cliques from movies like High School Musical and The Breakfast Club was unexpected.
“I thought that high school wasn’t like the movies,” Wittek said. “So I was surprised that it was like the movies.”
By the school year’s end, the exchange students will have lived away from their families for nine months.
“I miss my family and friends, someone I’ve known for a while,” Wittek said. “Also, [I miss] living in a big city, moving in the metro and being on my own.”
Each exchange student lives with a host family who has a student attending the same school. Junior Aaron Sturk and his family are hosting Wittek who moved in just one week before school started.
“[It’s] experiencing a different culture and language,” Sturk said. “Making a new friend and a new person to meet with and live with, they really become part of your family; it’s hard to let them go.”
After the school year is over, Brumm, Wittek and Marchione plan on traveling in the United States with their parents.
“We will visit friends in San Francisco and go see other big cities,” Brumm said. “I’m excited to see something different from Texas and see if it’s like the movies, because New York was. It will be a great end to the high school year.”
