Our Hometown
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 Holly writes home from Germany
For those who don't know me, I'm Holley VanStaalduinen, spending my senior year as an exchange student in Germany. I have always been interested in seeing the rest of the world. So last year I applied for a scholarship from Congress Bundestag. This is from both our Congress, and the parliament in Germany. After quite a lengthy application process, I was successful and received the scholarship. The year began with three days in Washington D.C., meeting all the other exchange students that have also received the scholarship and are with YFU (Youth For Understanding) organization. While in D.C. we toured the city, visited museums and monuments, and had seminars to help prepare us for our year in Germany. The third day, we flew to Frankfurt Airport. There we met every exchange student coming here with YFU for the year. We spent the night there, celebrating our first night in Germany. The next morning we traveled with groups of ten to our homes for a month, I lived with a host family in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck, a town with approximately 41,000 inhabitants, in the North-Western part of Germany. We stayed there for a month, every day going to a language camp for seven hours. There we had four hours of German, two hours of culture, and one hour for lunch. After school and on the weekends our time was filled with our families and friends. My family was composed of my father, the city-director (similar to that of a Mayor), my Mom, a housewife, two older sisters (26 and 23) studying at college, and my sister Mikaela, (20) living at home and working at an internship as a DJ, and at nights working at a pub. My first weekend, I hung out with my sister, Mikaela. One of the various places we went was the Schutzenfest. The Schutzenfest is a festival started from a tradition of the 1500's. King's were determined by their shooting abilities, and so at the Schutzenfest, men competed for the spot of the King. They shoot at a bird and the one to shoot it down is King. Each weekend this festival was at a different village, and never the less interesting. The second weekend, I went to an art show with my oldest sister and a Shakespearean play with my parents. The next weekend I was in Cologne with some friends at a music festival (Similar to the Warp tour) and on Sunday our class went on a trip to a Concentration Camp. After school, I often hung out with punks, went to the disco countless other things. My last weekend, I traveled to Freiburg, where I will stay for the year. This first month was filled with countless experiences that I will never forget. I've only begun to learn about this country, the culture, the people, etc. I also know that I've turned a corner in my life and I've found something good. Holley VanStaalduinen September 9, 1997 top of page Copyright © 1997 |
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"Always be willing to look around
the next corner to see what's there, sooner or later you'll find something good!"
This quote was shared with me by a man from Scotland on my train ride home from Cologne.
As I think about this now I realize this idea is what got me here in the first place!