“Going to Germany was a cultural eye-opener; I made friends and learned life lessons that will forever be with me,” said senior Molly McGiles about her trip to Germany last June.
For those who are unaware, Jacksonville High School and Herzog-Ernst-Gymnasium, HEG, have exchanged in a partnership program that began 28 years ago. In the fall our sister school in Germany sends a group of their students to come here and experience America. In June it is JHS’s turn to send students to our German sister school.
On June 3, eleven Jacksonville High School students and two chaperones made their way to Germany. The journey there took two sets of buses and two different planes, but after almost 15 hours of travel, the weary travelers finally arrived in Uelzen, Germany.
“The plane ride was really long. All of my excitement was building up and it was hard to sit still,” said sophomore Lydia Beard about her trip over to Germany. Molly agreed saying the journey was “crazy long,” but all that travel was worth it when they met their host families, whom they would be staying with for the remainder of time they were in Uelzen, Germany. Lydia said that she jumped out of the car to go hug Merle, a student at HEG who was part of her host family.
Although life there was different, host families tried very hard to make our students feel welcome. Molly said she wasn’t used to everyone sitting down to dinner and Lydia said the same about her host family’s sit-down breakfast. Both girls agreed that it was strange to not have the TV on all day and to never drink water out of the tap. Joyce McGiles, an adult chaperone, said it was hard for her to adjust to the new food and extreme conservation of water. Even though they were far away from their real families, JHS students said that their adoptive German families worked very hard to make them feel at home. “They were incredibly kind and welcoming. They made me feel like part of their family,” Lydia said.
During their three weeks in Germany, the group visited many sites. They toured Herzog-Ernst-Gymnasium, traveled to Luneburg and Lubeck, took many bike tours, visited a concentration camp, canoed, toured Berlin and Hamburg, and even saw a castle! Molly said that her favorite place they visited was the Berlin capital building. Lydia enjoyed Hamburg, and Mrs. McGiles said that she “marveled at the history” of many old churches and towns.
Through all their sightseeing, the students got to experience the Germany culture as a whole. Lydia said that people there were very kind and willing to help. Molly laughed as she remembered how blunt Germans are and how they were never afraid to say what was on their minds. Mrs. McGiles agreed that all the Germans she met were “very friendly.”
The McGiles family is hosting their own German student this fall, and Lydia said that she would love to visit Germany again. Mrs. McGiles went on to say, “I think that any student who has the opportunity to go should take advantage of the trip.”
It’s safe to say that all of the JHS exchange students had a very rewarding experience. They struggled with new adjustments to their lives and strange new customs but found that under all the layers of diversity and culture, Germans are just like us.