German Foreign Exchange Student Adapting to Life at Crockett High School
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
CROCKETT – Bamberg, Germany is probably about as far from Crockett, Texas as you can get in the world before you start coming back around again. For 16-year-old Lena Kruger, the journey has been an interesting one – even if not exactly what she had in mind.
Considered one of Germany’s most beautiful towns, (and this reporter can attest to that) the city dates back to the 9th century with a classic medieval design including an picturesque bridge over the river Regnitz.
Kruger arrived in Texas in mid-August before the current school year and will be our guest until June of next year before she returns home to graduate high school.
Texas is a big place which can accommodate a lot of foreign exchange students – which is why Kruger was hoping for placement somewhere no one in her circle of friends had ever heard of.
“When I got my placement, I was thinking the whole time, ‘I don’t want to go to Texas’ because I have a lot of friends that were also exchange students and they’re all went to Texas!” Kruger laughed. “So I thought, ‘I want to go somewhere else.’ I didn’t know where, just anywhere else but Texas. And then I got my placement and thought, ‘Please don’t let it be Texas.’ And I opened it and thought, ‘Oh, Texas.’ I was kind of expecting that but I was glad to come.”
Kruger, like any European arriving to Houston County last summer was surprised at the intense heat. She also began to understand the phrase, ‘everything’s bigger in Texas’ when she saw both the food for sale in the supermarkets and the portion sizes at the restaurants.
American schools go longer than in Germany, to Kruger’s surprise.
“I go from 7:45 a.m.-1p.m. in the afternoon in Germany,” Kruger explained. “And here it’s so much longer and then if you do sports, it’s like, ‘I have soccer practice today until 6:30.’ So it’s all day in school. That was different.”
Kruger says she has found the curriculum itself easier than her classes in Germany and with her superb English has begun to make friends quickly.
She is grateful to her host family and has been able to travel both to Galveston and Washington D.C. to meet up with other foreign exchange students from other parts of the country. Her favorite food so far? A fully loaded baked potato.
Kruger plays volleyball and soccer and for 10 years danced ballet. Kruger misses dancing ballet along with her family which include three younger brothers and two older step-brothers.
Like most visitors from other countries, Kruger misses the ability to walk anywhere in more compact towns and more extensive public transportation. She plans to return home and study in Berlin to be a doctor.
Kruger is happy she was placed in Crockett and not a bigger city. Before her family moved to Bamberg she lived in a city with only two streets. She said the people make the difference, especially in Texas.
“It’s just people here are more open than in Germany,” Kruger said. “Just so sweet.”
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
