"A pair of juniors from Buffalo Grove High School commanded the room last week at the Rotary Club of Arlington Heights lunch meeting. Lauryn Lintner and Christina Ruterschmidt, both of Arlington Heights, captivated their audience with descriptions of their summer exchange trip taken with Buffalo Grove's German Club to Neu-Ulm, located in the Bavarian region of southern Germany." For Eileen Daday's full story in the Daily Herald, click http://www.dailyherald.com/news/20171120/rotary-connections-aid-teens-visit-to-germany . For additional comments from the student's presentation, click "read more".
Daday wrote, "Among the nearly 80 club members in attendance was Mike Silverman himself, who beamed with pride as his granddaughter described her impressions of Germany. But club members pulled out a surprise when they honored Silverman himself, making him an honorary club member for life. In fact, Silverman and his wife hosted more than one dozen Rotary students over the years, and three of their four children lived overseas through the exchange program, including staying in Sweden and Brazil. "It's such a great thing, because kids go and find out that everyone around the world is the same." Club members recognized Silverman and his more than 45 years of service to the club with a standing ovation." For the complete story, click on the link above, or here.
In this exchange, German students were here in April; our students visited German in June, experiencing German culture and daily life of students. School there was different from here in the U.S. Teachers there have higher expectations and kids work harder to meet those expectations. There's a greater number of classes and a different set every day. Classes usually last until 1 p.m.
Classrooms there have more windows, with more of a feeling of nature as a regular part of life. Students use bikes more because they can’t drive.
Homes layouts are different too – they are much smaller. There is no air conditioning so window are open…and bugs come in.
They had enough German language study (6 years or so) to get on acceptably there...except that Germans also wanted to demonstrate their English.Other activities included visiting a site where an old civilization existed on stilts. There were "blue caves" which are a source of German legends.
The girls did a lot of hiking and visited Dachau – interesting and powerful when seeing it in person. They enjoyed old cities' architecture.
- No athletics in school, so enjoy sports thru clubs. At School, the main activity is study.
- School is more year round – summer vacation of 4-6 weeks, with a period off in winter for skiing, and one for Christmas
- Biggest surprise – windows in school and having to drink room temperature water.
- Families there didn't eat much "fast food". The families usually ate at home, with moms cooking home-made meals.