Dominic Bandzaitis, Our Exchange Student

The guest speaker was Dominic Bandzaitis, our exchange student from Lithuania.  He recalled how his sister had been an exchange student so he was definitely interested and had two choices, Thailand or America.  He was met at the airport by Tom Brooks and was shown around by Dave Smith and another exchange student, Brock, whom he’d made friends with before he arrived.  Dominic was overwhelmed to be here and found one of his more pleasurable experiences to be the onion rings at Beef-A-Roo!  He was nervous about what to expect at school and this was his first experience with a school bus (at home, he was only 10 minutes away from school so he walked).  He had brought his saxophone, thinking he’d probably need it to occupy a lot of his spare time.  It came in handy as he was able to sit in with the Moonlight Jazz as well as play in the band at Harlem’s graduation ceremony.  Highlights of Dominic’s time here were his inbound orientation, which he really enjoyed and a boat trip around Lake Michigan with other inbound students.  He’s looking forward to a summer tour in a couple weeks to the East coast.  Something that stood out for him was how people seemed friendlier here than at home.  He said at home you wouldn’t normally walk up to a random person and start a conversation like here.  Thanks, Dominic, for sharing about your time here and we’re pleased to have had such a nice young man visit us.