You may have noticed some unfamiliar faces in the hallways dressed out of uniform a couple of weeks ago. On September 24, 10 German students arrived from Hildesheim, Germany, a village near Hanover. JC was the last stop on their trip, and they were eager to meet the students and their families who were to host them for two weeks.

The German students went with their hosts to each of their classes to experience school in America. For some, this meant going to a Physics lab while another sat in on a Psychology class. After classes were over for the day, the students also either watched or took part in after school extracurriculars.

Each family was encouraged to do their best to show as much American culture as possible to these students within the two weeks they were here.

Senior Jules Donnelly took this to heart as she put in effort to plan out extra trips and meals for her student.  Jules took her student, Vivi, to a day-trip around Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, a Ravens game, Legends of the Fog and a couple softball games of her own.
Jules also took Vivi to a Wal-Mart, a common trip here in Maryland but an experience for a German teenager.

“She was in awe because you could find everything you need in one place. She really thought she could get lost in the place,” said Jules.

Jules noted that she wanted Vivi to experience both the special trips of her stay and the day-to-day life that gives a good idea of what American culture is really like.

The students were not just introduced to American culture, but they experienced the culture of Maryland as well. After a meal of crab in all forms, Vivi still could not understand why Marylanders were so obsessed with crabs. Jules laughed about this as she tried to give a better explanation.

Although the 10 students were with different families, they still gathered to go places or just hang-out at someone’s house.

Junior Bailey Swart invited the students and their hosts over her house to make s’mores over a fire, something the German students had never even thought about.

When it came to classes, some students were more engaged than others. In one of the Intro to Business classes, two German students helped a group conduct research on a selected company for their project with information ranging from basic facts to stock values.

Some decided to listen rather than take part, but many of the students really liked how our school day is organized at JC.

After two weeks of staying in the same home, eating meals together and shadowing classes, a couple students grew very close with their students.

“I didn’t expect to gain a best friend in a week. I just thought she would go through my daily life and experience American life, but we were able to bond and become friends,” Jules said.

This is not an uncommon experience here at JC. There were similar experiences from the French students’ visit last Fall.

The dates of when JC students are to head over to Germany are still being decided, but the host students hope to have the chance to take in German culture and learn from their students as they had from them.