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USC exchange student Amelia Linke and USC staff member Kirstyn Wegner smile for the camera at the United South Central sign.<\/p>\n
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For United South Central English teacher Kirstyn Wegner, becoming a host family for a foreign exchange student was an entirely new experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my first year hosting an exchange student, and I remember getting an email from the school saying that teachers made for great host families,\u201d Wegner recalls. \u201cI thought that it sounded fun, and decided to try hosting a student.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Wegner, her husband Britt and daughter Nadia, are the host family for exchange student Amelia Linke, who is spending her fall semester as a student at USC. Linke hails from Frankfurt, Germany, and while this is her first time traveling to the U.S., this is not her first experience as an exchange student.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy school in Germany did an exchange program with other countries in Europe, so I got to travel to Finland as part of that program,\u201d Linke shares. <\/p>\n
However, Linke also notes that her decision to do an exchange program to the U.S. was a sudden decision \u2013 one that even her parents weren\u2019t sure about.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoining the exchange program was just an idea I had one day,\u201d Linke admits. \u201cMy parents had their doubts about it, especially since I\u2019m pretty introverted, but eventually I convinced them to let me sign up. We finished the application in January, and it all went very quickly from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite being signed up for the program, Linke and Wegner both shared that there were some unexpected difficulties in getting Linke to the U.S. on time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I was going through the process of getting my visa, Trump was trying to close the borders of the U.S. and didn\u2019t want any foreigners coming in, and that slowed down my visa interview process,\u201d Linke shares. \u201cI had to wait to get my visa, but thankfully I was able to get it before I needed to travel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wegner also recalls that she was given very little notice for Linke\u2019s arrival, only finding out a few days before she arrived.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew that Amelia was coming, but I had no idea when,\u201d Wegner explains. \u201cI got an email only a few days before she arrived telling me that she was coming \u2013 there wasn\u2019t much notice at all!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was because my school was missing a document that allowed me to participate in the program,\u201d Linke adds. \u201cOnce that document arrived, they sent me off right away without giving much notice to either of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linke also shares that her travel situation was unique, as she didn\u2019t fly directly to Minnesota, but instead landed in New York to meet up with a group of other German exchange students for orientation camp before flying to their final destinations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all had a kind of orientation day in New York City with our German exchange company, TravelWorks, before we split into small groups to fly to our designated states,\u201d Linke recalls. \u201cI flew here to Minnesota with another German exchange student. I think he\u2019s doing the exchange program with Northfield.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that Linke has made it to Minnesota safely, she has settled in with her host family and joined the student body at USC. While it took some getting used to for both Linke and Wegner, both of them are happy to report that everything is going well thus far.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiving with the Wegners has been great,\u201d Linke comments. \u201cThey\u2019ve been very welcoming to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAmelia really melted into the family and made herself at home right away,\u201d Wegner adds. \u201cShe\u2019s also been very open to trying new things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wegner isn\u2019t exaggerating when she says that, either \u2013 in the short time that Linke has been with her host family, they\u2019ve traveled all over Minnesota and done several activities together, including going to the State Fair, a trip to the Renaissance Festival, and watching a Minnesota Lynx women\u2019s basketball game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also got to try root beer for the first time!\u201d Linke shares. \u201cIt\u2019s really good, and we don\u2019t have anything like it at all in Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for her education at USC, Linke has already gotten involved with several activities, including joining tech crew for the fall musical and trying volleyball, though she admits that volleyball wasn\u2019t exactly what she was hoping for.<\/p>\n
\u201cI play handball back in Germany, and I was hoping that volleyball might be something similar,\u201d Linke explains. \u201cUnfortunately, it\u2019s nothing like handball at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually work as a manager for the theater department here at USC, and I noticed that Amelia mentioned wanting to do theater in her exchange student profile while looking through the list,\u201d Wegner remarks. \u201cI took one look at that and thought, oh, she\u2019s a perfect match for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linke also has a lot to share about her experience as a student at USC, noting the many differences between schooling here in the U.S. versus Germany.<\/p>\n
\u201cSchool is very different here compared to back home in Germany; it\u2019s a much more personal experience,\u201d Linke remarks. \u201cTeachers here get to create their own classrooms and engage with their students one-on-one. The class schedule here is completely different, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Linke also shared that she was excited for the changing of the seasons, citing that she would get to be in the U.S. to experience Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas before she had to travel home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very excited to get to experience Halloween \u2013 we don\u2019t really celebrate it in Germany at all,\u201d Linke shares. \u201cI\u2019m also excited to see a real Minnesotan winter, though I didn\u2019t have room in my suitcase to pack any winter clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n
For all of the new experiences that Linke has gotten to enjoy as an exchange student, she\u2019s also brought a piece of Germany to the U.S. with her. She and her host family have established a \u201cGerman word of the week\u201d activity, where she teaches her host family a new German word every week along with its meaning and pronunciation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve done a few words already \u2013 our first word was schw\u00fcl, which refers to warm, humid weather, and then there was Apfelschorle, which is a drink mixed with water and apple juice,\u201d Linke explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was also one that Amelia taught us while we were watching a football game, because it was cold outside and we had to stick together for warmth,\u201d Wegner adds. \u201cIt was kuscheln, which means cuddling.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked whether she would recommend joining the exchange program to other students, Linke said that yes, she would definitely recommend doing an exchange.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy advice to other exchange students is not to compare your experiences during an exchange to those of other exchange students,\u201d Linke comments. \u201cYou only get to experience the world like this once, so it\u2019s important to live in the moment and enjoy it while you can.\u201d<\/p>\n
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USC exchange student Amelia Linke and USC staff member Kirstyn Wegner smile for the camera…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[2000,299,1824,3611,153303],"class_list":{"0":"post-457222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-usc-exchange-student-comes-from-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115280488279310826","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}