Louisa Fricke and Arne Schlegelmilch from Germany and Zuzana Oravcova from Slovakia spent their 11th grade year attending a public high school in Amherst, Ohio, with the help of the International Student Exchange organization. They sat down with author Robert Taylor to discuss their impressions and experiences in making friends in a new country, dealing with a different academic environment, and adjusting to America's automobile and fast-food culture, and their plans for the future.

Taylor has written three novels— The Innocent, All We Have Is Now, and Whose Eye Is on Which Sparrow?—and is an affiliate scholar at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio.

The International Student Exchange [www.inter nationalstudent.com] makes it possible for students around the world to attend schools in countries other than their own. During the 2004-2005 school year, three exchange students came to Amherst, Ohio, just west of Cleveland, to spend their 11th grade year at the Marion L. Steele High School. Louisa Fricke and Arne Schlegelmilch both came from Germany, Louisa from Hamburg and Arne from Bad Saarow, 30 miles east of Berlin. Zuzana Oravcova came from Okr. Presov, Slovakia.

Their stay in the United States was coordinated by Linda Petkovsek, who lives in Amherst and has been assisting the International Student Exchange for five years. After she received the names of this year's students, Petkovsek worked with the high school's associate principal, Tom Lehman, to get them enrolled for the year. She then matched each student up with a family in the Amherst area that had volunteered to give exchange students a temporary home.

At the end of the school year, several weeks before they would be leaving the United States, Louisa, Zuzana, and Arne met in the school library to talk about their lives and their experiences.

When asked what made her want to come and study in the United States, Louisa said, "To see how other people live—and because of English, to learn to speak the language better. I want to be an air traffic controller, and for that you have to speak English very well. Also, my sister and some friends had already come to the United States for a year, and they all had a good experience."

"I think it's the same thing with me," said Zuzana, "because my brother came five years ago, and he kind of told me how this exchange program works. Pretty much I came here because of the English, to learn to speak it better, but I also wanted to have the experience of a completely different kind of life, a different culture and people."

"I've had this dream for a long time," said Arne. "It developed maybe around the first grade. I had a friend who went to the U. S. as an exchange student, so I got acquainted with that pretty early. But I guess I wanted to come here, also, to have a new start. You come here, you don't know anybody. You have to start all over again. That makes it interesting, very interesting."

LIFE IN THE USA

As for what her life has been like in the United States, Louisa said, "I've been very busy the whole time. I made friends pretty quickly, first because I was playing soccer and then I was swimming. Other than that, the days have been pretty much the same. You come home, do your homework, eat, and sleep. And then the next day it's the same again."

Zuzana had a different experience at first. "At the beginning, when I came," she said, "I didn't really do anything except go to classes. I didn't play any sports, but then, I got involved in the art club and the chess club and was busy with that. Also, in the winter I was in the ski club. Now that I know more people, I enjoy going with friends to concerts or to movies, but it's not as easy to do that here as it is at home. In Slovakia, you can take your bicycle or a bus or a train to go anywhere, but here, if I want to go someplace, I have to make sure somebody is going to take me or pick me up, and it gets complicated."

Arne, an articulate, gregarious young man, surprised the group by saying, "Actually, I had some trouble making friends at first. I'm really extroverted, but that seemed to bother a lot of people around here, so I had trouble making friends. I had a lot of people that I talked to and they talked to me, but I didn't have people that I actually hung out with after school. It just takes a while. People are open here, they talk to you, but they won't, like, start hanging out with you immediately. Then, during the winter, I was playing indoor soccer, and that's when I started making friends. By now, I have a lot of friends. I really do."

LIKES AND DISLIKES

Asked what she liked most about being in the United States, Louisa said, "In the fall, I liked going to football games, because we just don't have that at home. We don't have this big 'school spirit' thing, and I really enjoy that. And I enjoy the way the teachers are here. They all are fun. Our school is much harder in Germany, I would say. Our teachers are still a little strict."

"For me, life seems simpler here than it is at home," said Zuzana. "People here don't seem to have problems. They don't look like they're really stressed. They really don't. Everyone sees everything so simple, and they're full of optimism. And the teachers do make education more fun. They make you like a class and try to make everything easier for you. It may be better sometimes if you get a stricter teacher, but still, I liked that part."

"I think I feel a little differently here," said Arne, "about the 'fun' classes. All of mine were really hard. My school at home required that I take all these advanced placement classes, so I took advanced English my first semester, and that kept me really busy. I had to work hard in class all the time. What I did like most was doing stuff on the weekends. The whole life here goes on during the weekends. As soon as school is out on Friday, everybody starts to be themselves. Outside of school, you actually get to know the people. Inside of school, there's a lot of 'want to be,' I believe. There's a lot of masking."

What Louisa liked least was "the lack of freedom. In Germany, I don't have a curfew. On weekends, I have to be home at 12 o'clock here, but in Germany I'm coming home at 4 o'clock in the morning sometimes. Because we're allowed to. I think our parents trust us more."

"What's bothered me here," said Arne, "is that you can't always rely on people. I'm serious. People say, 'We might pick you up at maybe 5, 5:30,' and you call them at 6, and they say, 'Well, we're still over at this other place, but we are gonna come pick you up.' And they do, eventually. So, I guess what I really liked least was not being able to drive myself. That was a real problem. Everybody here drives, so they go places all the time that we can't go unless we can find a ride."

"What I didn't like," said Zuzana, "was the culture of the fast food. I had a hard time getting used to it when I came."

"I gained 35 pounds [16 kg]!" said Arne.

"I gained pounds, too," said Louisa. "I don't want to think about numbers, but I gained a lot."

"Luckily, I was able to lose most of it, though," said Arne, "finally."

FUTURE PLANS

Asked about her plans for the future, Louisa said, "Since I'd like to be an air traffic controller, I think I may want to go to college here in the United States. What I hear from people who are already going to college here is that it's not that hard."

"I'm hoping to be a journalist," said Zuzana, "or maybe on the radio. That's the reason I wanted to come here, to learn to speak English well. But I'll probably go to college in Slovakia. After that, I might go somewhere else to live, but I don't think it would be the U.S. I really like Europe a lot. Like I live close to Poland, and if I go a couple of miles away, I'm in a completely different country, with a different language and a different culture. You have to know other languages over there. That's what makes it more interesting."

"I've been thinking about what I'd like to do," said Arne, "while I've been here, and I've actually narrowed it down a lot. I'd like to either go into diplomacy or do some kind of international business. I suppose I could go to college here in the U.S., but I also speak French, so I may want to go there for a while, to study and enjoy the French culture. Because that really does open a lot of doors, speaking other languages."

VISITS FROM FRIENDS

Asked if some of her friends in the U.S. might come to visit her in Germany, Louisa said, "I know that one of them will."

"Yeah," said Arne. "Her boyfriend here is going to fly back with her. He already has a ticket. She knows for sure."

"And I know for sure my host family will be coming to Europe," said Zuzana. "They have relatives in Macedonia, and they are going to go visit them. So we are going to try to meet each other in Europe. Also, one friend would like to visit me. She's already in college and has a good job, so she can come spend some time with me, like two weeks. It's not that expensive, my country, at all. Going to Germany, for example, is still very expensive, but going to my country is very cheap for everybody. It is. That could help people who want to come because they won't have to spend that much money."

"I know my host parents are going to come visit me," said Arne. "They've been to Germany before. And my best friend here is planning that, after he graduates, he's coming to Germany. I really hope this is going to work. That would be so good."

The bell for their next class rang, and all three got up to go.