Last week I had a very interesting experience as I went downtown with three German exchange students.
Junior Henrieke Bockelmann is staying with me for a month, and I’ve also been spending a lot of time with the other five exchange students at Lawrence High.
They have a very different perspective on Lawrence than I do. They say it’s very big and busy compared to Eutin, the town they are from. All of the cars are huge. Also, where are the trains?
On Monday, we went downtown. First we tried to change euros to dollars at Bank of America. I’ve never converted currency before, so it was interesting to see how it works (and doesn’t work!).
Bank of America required an account holder to convert money, so we went to Intrust Bank next, and we were able to convert the money using my driver’s license. It seems weird that it isn’t easier to change cash to a different currency.
Compared to Germany, Kansas is incredibly hot, and the sun is very bright. After the banks, we went to Juice Stop. They were happy to get smoothies and talk for a while. My friends spoke auf Deutsch (in German) quite a bit. I just started German II, so I have trouble speaking German, but I’ve spent so much time with the exchange students that now I mostly understand what they are saying. My vocabulary is limited, but I pick out the words I know. It’s crazy how quickly you learn a language when you’re always around it.
Henrieke says that speaking English is getting easier and easier for her. She already speaks English incredibly, so soon I bet she will be completely fluent. It’s exciting to see how good people can become at foreign languages. It inspires me to become better at German.
The Germans are also excited about American culture. They really wanted some KU apparel, so I took them to the Kansas Sampler. Katharina and Henrieke bought shirts, and they were very excited. It’s interesting to meet people who know absolutely nothing about KU. I explained, for the first time in my life, that KU is good at basketball, but not football. I also explained who the Royals, the Chiefs, and Sporting KC are.
After learning about Kansan sports, we went to Urban Outfitters. After about 30 seconds, Katharina exclaimed that they absolutely love the store. They would definitely be coming back with more of the German girls.
I learned about Lawrence when I was with the exchange students. I’ve never considered what Lawrence is like to an outsider, and now I see it differently.
If you have the opportunity, talk to someone who isn’t from here. It seems odd, but you might learn something you didn’t know about Lawrence from a foreigner.
