German exchange student experiences school and life in Small Town U.S.A.

Imagine, if you will, that you're a high school sophomore with a burning desire for adventure, a need to see the world and learn how other people in that world live their lives on a daily basis and you decide to do a foreign exchange year. Then, imagine that choice would mean you had to repeat your eleventh year when you returned home. What would your choice be?

That's exactly the situation that Klara Marxen found herself in. Marxen, who normally says she is from Hamburg, Germany, because people are more familiar with it, is actually from Itzehoe, a smaller town about 45 minutes north of Hamburg. She arrived in the United States on August 28 as part of a foreign exchange student program with her host parents, Peter and Patti Larson, and her host sisters, Joanna and Sandra.

While living in Sheyenne with the Larson's, Marxen has been attending school in the New Rockford-Sheyenne district. The exchange student year is 10 months. Her parents will be arriving on June 2 to stay for a few days and see the New Rockford and Sheyenne areas. Marxen said they plan to go to church, meet the people and see the places where their daughter has spent the last ten months of her life. Then, they will all go to Fargo for a few days, where Klara's oldest host sister, Joanna, is attending college at North Dakota State University.

It was a family trip to Miami last April that sparked an interest to see more of the world than you can see in a short trip. Her interest in how people live their daily lives ignited a desire to see how people in the United States lived. At that point, she started the process of becoming an exchange student in the United States. The first thing she needed to do was find an organization that still had openings.

Marxen attended a seminar and went through an interview process. The organization she was working with needed to be reassured that she had English skills at a level where she would be able to survive in our English-speaking culture. She was concerned that her English wouldn't be good enough, but said she's been amazed how much her English and her vocabulary has improved since she got here. After finding an organization that had openings, Marxen prepared to come to the United States.

The Marxen family said good-bye at the airport in Germany, knowing they wouldn't see each other for 10 months; then Klara got on a plane and flew into Minneapolis by herself. The flight was a little scary for her, as it was the first time she had flown alone. Being on a plane for so long by herself required her to talk to a lot of different people, something that she felt was a little out of her comfort zone.

On her first day at the Larson home, they took a bike trip out to Warsing Dam, which was one of the first time she would experience the freedom that she would come to value while living here. Another thing she appreciates are the animals at the Larson's home. Marxen's family in Germany doesn't currently have a pet and she is loving the dog, cats, horses and even the cows at her host home. "I love animals," she smiled. "I can't really imagine a life without them." However, she says before she will try to have animals of her own, she will graduate from school. Then,she plans to visit South Korea; maybe even attending university there for a semester.

Marxen lights up when she talks about going to school at New Rockford-Sheyenne. She explained that the German high school experience is very different from one in the United States. Her school in Germany is larger than New Rockford-Sheyenne, with about 200 students in her grade level. She is also in a bilingual program in Germany where she has been learning Latin, French, Korean and English.

In her school, at the end of the fourth-grade year, the teacher writes a recommendation on what line she recommends a student's further education should follow. As they grow older, the students are placed in profiles, or their areas of study, such as math, music or even sports. By the time a German student reaches the eleventh and twelfth grade, his or her scores and independent study are extremely important. Every test or assignment completed is added to their final score.

Before finishing school, the students must prepare a fairly lengthy presentation that is worth 25 percent of the total score. The teacher then ask questions about the project to see how well the student has prepared and to determine if they have a good knowledge of their subject. In contrast, she said the United States' credit system for high school graduation requirements is much easier to understand.

Technology in school is something she appreciates here; the fact that everyone has a Chromebook, enables them to take neater notes and to keep track of them. She said it also helps with researching information when you don't understand something.

"In Germany, we still write our reports out with pencil and paper. It makes my hand hurt just to think about it," she said laughing. "With a Chromebook, it's easier to send the teacher an assignment. You can even send the teacher something you're working on, have them look it over and offer suggestions before you finish your project."

While they use computers in her classes in Germany for complex presentations, smaller reports are still done in longhand. She smiled when she said she just might bring her laptop to class with her when she gets back to Germany!

She laughed when she talked about the differences that she sees in watching people live their daily lives. The number of people who eat peanut butter toast every single morning is new to her, as is the idea of putting crackers in soup. "And people eat ranch (dressing) with everything. Which is good, I like ranch; I just would never think of putting it on chicken...and everything..."  

Marxen continued to talk about the differences in the daily life of a student. "You have school sports. You go on a bus to a town and they play each other. If you win, the ride back is so fun." She went on to explain that while they don't have team sports; they do have a 90-minute sports class once a week, and they have a type of fitness test once a semester that counts toward their school score.

"Here it's so different, even going to practice for 2.5 hours every day is so much fun; you get to be with people and you get to know them. Doing workouts together is just more motivating," she said.

She also loves music class. "Mrs. Hovey is great! She is the best teacher I have ever had. Really, I'm not even kidding," Marxen said. "The great thing is that you sing every day and I play my clarinet every day. And I take it home and practice, every day. So, you really get better so fast." She explained that she took clarinet lessons in Germany, but she had a half hour session and she didn't even want to practice. Doing it every day makes you get better fast enough that you want to practice and keep getting better.

She had never been to a wedding before she came to North Dakota and has been to six since she got here. She's enjoyed traveling to Fargo and to Minneapolis and visiting the Mall of America while they were there. "I don't understand how you can have a roller-coaster in the mall!" she exclaimed.

The cold temperatures are a big change for her; when she is in Germany, they feel lucky when they get a little snow. "Here, snow is everywhere, I feel like I'm in a winter wonderland." It was almost unreal when the first snow came, and it didn't melt right away. It stayed.

Her host sister, Joanna, took her snowmobiling around the farm, in the fields and out to Warsing Dam. It was her first time on a snowmobile and she had a blast. She even got to drive it, which she said was a little scary but so much fun. Even bundled up though, it's really cold!

It's been eye-opening for her to see so many young people driving in North Dakota; as she said no one in Germany drives before the age of 18. Even then, many don't drive because the cost of obtaining a driver's license is so prohibitive at 2,500 euros which would be equivalent to about $2,700. Add to that the cost of a car, insurance and gas. Her twin sisters are 18 years old and Marxen said that only one of them drives.

She has been enjoying her stay here; her host family has been so great that she is not as homesick as she thought she would be.

"Before I came, my grandma was hoping that I would be able to go someplace like California or Florida where there would be more people and more things to do," she said. However, Marxen said she's glad she didn't go to either of those places because of the freedom that she has been able to have here. Her walk from the school to the newspaper office, and then to the Fitness Center is an example of the freedom she gets that she probably wouldn't have gotten had she gone to one of those larger places.

"I am really glad I got placed in such a good family," Marxen said. "They've taken me in like a member of their family. I help out with chores around the house and stuff. Celebrating Christmas and New Year's were so much fun."

Marxen looks around at her room at the Larson home and wonders how she will get everything back to Germany. She has accumulated "so much stuff" since she got here, that she really would like to take home when she goes. She's been shopping, so she has more clothes to take home, but she says that her activities have also added things that will need to go into her suitcase on the way home. She's already warned her parents to pack light, so she can pack some of her things into their suitcases on the way home.

Quilting is a new hobby she's taken up while at the Larson's home. She hopes to have the quilt completed before it is time to leave, and she wants to make sure she has room for it.

Marxen hopes she will be able to come back for next year's graduation, as she said it would be so fun to watch her host sister, Sandra, graduate from high school. She knows that saying good-bye will be hard. Good-byes are always hard; whether you are saying good-bye to your family at the airport as you embark on an exciting journey or you're saying good-bye to new friends who have become like family. Luckily, between the good-byes are sweet memories you will never forget.