Alan Reed|Williston Herald German exchange student Melly Straub, left, visits with Williston High School student Chris Houle Friday afternoon.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the exchange program between WHS and a college prep high school in Herkenrath, Germany, which is about a half hour northeast of Koln. This is WHS German instructor Jonathan Abuhl’s 11th year to play host for an exchange group that includes five boys, 10 girls and two teachers.
The students involved in the exchange had to submit applications to be considered. Abuhl describes the students attending this German college prep high school as “the cream of the crop” who experience a very full three weeks while in America.
The first week has included a trip to Bismarck where they briefly met Gov. John Hoeven at the Capitol and toured the area, with stops at Fort Lincoln and at the Lewis and Clark Center in Washburn. This also is homecoming week at WHS, something that exchange student Sabrina Drouven described as, “It’s like in American films. The school life, the football games.”
Classmate Vanessa Puetz said homecoming is so much fun and Abuhl said this group really came at a nice time as it got to enjoy all of homecoming week. A highlight of the week was the shopping mall in Bismarck, as exchange student Marina Kraemer said things are much cheaper here than in Germany.
“Some of the clothes we don’t have in Germany,” Drouven added.
The students arrived in America one week ago this past Friday. Abuhl said the German students also go horseback riding east of Watford City, along with traveling to the Black Hills of South Dakota, Yellowstone National Park and Devil’s Tower.
“We actually take them to quite a big corner of the West,” he said.
When WHS students travel to Germany, they are taken to Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris. The host schools pay for these trips the visiting students take, as Abuhl thinks the groups experience a comfortable amount of things to do.
“We are quite happy to get this opportunity to see all of that,” said Puetz of the stops that expose them to different cultures.
Kraemer thinks most of the exchange students are looking forward to the horseback riding as, “The countryside that is here we haven’t got in Germany.”
Exchange student Melly Straub said Germany is full of streets and traffic that doesn’t include open spaces like North Dakota.
The students also said the education system here is different from that in Germany.
“Our system is much stricter than here,” Drouven said. “We don’t have the same schedule every day.”
Puetz said she has 11 classes in a day and the classroom atmosphere is much different.
“Lessons here are completely different than the German lessons. Here the teachers say something and most of the pupils right it down. In Germany, there is more talking and exercises by the students,” she said.
Drouven said class periods last just 45 minutes in Germany, as Straub added students only get three breaks during the school day, “and they don’t last too long.”
Abuhl said the German college prep high school the exchange students attend is more strictly structured.
“If you can’t make it in this college prep school, you’re put into another school,” he said of the different levels of schools that exist in Germany.
Meanwhile, the German students enjoy the extra-curricular activities that are part of American schools.
“In Germany we haven’t got a football team for our school,” Straub said.
Drouven said German schools also don’t have mascots like the Coyotes.
American students also enjoy more personal freedoms like driving at a young age.
“I think it’s very good that the people here can drive when they are 14,” Kraemer said. “At home we always have to ride in the bus or with our parents.”
Straub said students must be 18 years old to drive alone, while Puetz added driver’s licenses also are quite expensive.
Overall, the experience so far has been very enjoyable and the students see long-term value in the trip.
“It is interesting because it is such another culture,” Kraemer said.
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