Foreign exchange students studying in the area this year hail from Germany, Chile
The world is brought closer together – as well as right to our doorstep – through the addition of foreign exchange students who attend classes for a school year. This year, there are three such students in the area; and all three are attending Mountain Lake Christian (MLC). Two of the students hail from Germany, while one comes to southwest Minnesota from Chile.
All three students are in the United States through Ayusa, a high school exchange program sponsored by the Department of State.
Following is the opportunity to individually meet each of the young adults.
Denise Bakkar
Name: Denise Bakkar.
Age: 17.
Grade: 11.
Home city/Home country: Willich, Germany.
Home parents/siblings: Nicola and Jouman Bakkar and brother, Daniel Bakkar.
Host parents/siblings: Ivan and Delores Flaming of Mountain Lake.
Hobbies: Spending time with friends.
School/community activities you will participate in while in America: Cross country.
Compare your home school to schools in America: I am in a smaller school here. Also, there are sports in school here; we do not have that in Germany. Schools here also have mascots.
Tell us about your home city/country and how it is same/different as compared to the host city in which you are living: My home city is bigger with more people (it has a population of 50,599), lots of buses and discos. Willich is in east-central Germany, and is not far from The Netherlands.
Have you visited America before? If so, where – and do you have a favorite spot; if not, where would you like to visit?: Yes I have. I have been to New York, Florida and California. Florida so far is my favorite place to visit.
How do you view America and/or its citizens: American people are very friendly.
What do you want Americans to know/remember about your home city?: That my home city has a lot of old buildings, like churches, places and castles, including the Schloss Neersen, which dates back to the 13th century.
Pedro Maureiro
Name: Pedro Maureiro
Age: 16.
Grade: 10.
Home city/Home country: Santiago, Chile.
Home parents/siblings: Dad and mom, Pedro and Paola Maureiro, and a 21-year-old sister, Sopia Maureiro.
Host parents/siblings: Matt and Amy Crowell of Windom, along with Gavin, age 8; Harper, age 5; Abram, age 3 and Ezekiel, age 1.
Hobbies: Playing games on the computer and playing soccer.
School/community activities you will participate in while in America: Go to class for sure; we will see about anything else.
Compare your home school to schools in America: In Chile, my school is much bigger – and I do not even know everybody that is my same class.
Tell us about your home city/country and how it is same/different as compared to the host city in which you are living: Chile is a long narrow country on the western side of South America, next to the Pacific Ocean. In Chile, there are a lot of mountains and Santiago is the capital and largest city in the country with a population of 5,428,590. The city is home to the tallest building in Latin America, the Gran Torre Santiago.
Have you visited America before? If so, where – and do you have a favorite spot; if not, where would you like to visit?: Yes I have. I have been to Los Angeles and San Francisco in California. My favorite thing to see was the Golden Gate Bridge.
How do you view America and/or its citizens: American people are very nice, but they keep their distance.
What do you want Americans to know/remember about your home city?: That the wine made in my home city is very good (as well as that the grapes are great, too). The weather there is a lot like that of France and Italy, so we can raise the same type of grapes.
Finn Hoppe
Name: Finn Lukas Hoppe
Age: 16.
Grade: 11/12.
Home city/Home country: Sankt Peter-Ording.
Home parents/siblings: Dad and mom, Bjorn and Andrea Hoppe, and a 12-year-old sister, Anina Hoppe.
Host parents/siblings: Jason and Jody Lepp of Butterfield, along with 14-year-old Jorja, 11-year-old Jack, six-year-old Ava and three-year-old Abbey Lepp.
Hobbies: Swimming, biking, badminton, playing computer games and reading.
School/community activities you will participate in while in America: Football; I’m on defense.
Compare your home school to schools in America: My school at home is bigger with 500 students, so class size is bigger too; and we have more variety of lessons and classes. Here I have nice and funny teachers (ours at home are mostly not that nice), with little classes – and a study hall!
Tell us about your home city/country and how it is same/different as compared to the host city in which you are living: In Germany, I live in a town of 3,700 people on the North Sea coast in the northwestern part of the country. It has a lot of beaches and is known as a seaside spa, so we have a lot of tourists. In fact, it is the only German seaside resort that has a sulphur spring and so calls itself “North Sea healing spa and sulphur spring.” Here, I live in the country on a farm near Butterfield – somewhere in nowhere.
Have you visited America before? If so, where – and do you have a favorite spot; if not, where would you like to visit?: I have never been to America before. I missed visiting New York City because I was late for that weekend with my exchange organization – but would still like to see that.
How do you view America and/or its citizens: Everyone is very nice and ready to help – and sometimes they are a little bit crazy! 🙂
What do you want Americans to know/remember about your home city?: That we can be friends together. Come visit the seaside spa and relax!
