avgdexter2019

November 4

Jana: It was such a great time and I think everyone should take part in such a programme, if they get the chance to do so. It was pretty funny and cool to experience another family’s lifestyle and to learn more about their country. I think this exchange definitely changed me in relation to openness and independence.

Michelle: This exchange was probably one of my most important experiences! I’ve met amazing people and I got to know another culture the best way possible – what else could you ask for? I am so glad I was able to take part in this programme and I hope many more students will be able to share a similar experience.

Sarah: This year‘s exchange program with Dexter High School, Michigan, was a real highlight for all 11 of us. We got to see a lot of Dexter and Detroit with the other exchange partners or with our host families. We all made friends with great kids and we hope those friendships will last for a long time after the exchange.

Patrick: I enjoyed the last 10 days very much and it was a enrichment to all of us. We improved our English and experienced a new culture.

Daria: The student exchange was a really good chance to get to know a new culture better and to compare the American lifestyle with the German lifestyle. It also was really interesting to attend another school and to see what’s different and to find out if they learn something else than we do. And actually they learn the same things, just a little bit slowlier, but there are also subjects which we don’t have, for example Health. I‘d really like to go to Dexter again because I made new friends, had a lot of fun und made new, cool experiences.

Diana: In my opinion these 10 days were absolutely amazing. I was able to make new friends and I got to know the American culture better. I am already looking forward to the time that we are going to spend together in June.

Oliver: The time we spent with our exchange partners was fantastic. It was a great experience and it was very interesting to see how the Americans live. I hope that lots of younger pupils will get the chance to have a wonderful time there, too.

Johanna: An exchange is an unforgettable experience where you can make friends with people from another culture. I would recommend taking part in an exchange to everybody.

Schorschi: I really liked our exchange in the USA. Especially staying at another family‘s house was a great experience.

Leonie: The exchange with America was a great experience and I really enjoyed it. I tried many different things I had never tried before. I would recommend taking part in an exchange to every student who has the chance to do visit another country.

Hannah: We really enjoyed experiencing a new culture and getting to know fantastic people. I am really looking forward to meeting my exchange partner again in June, but I already miss her, even if we had to say goodbye only a few hours ago.
I think everyone should take the unique opportunity of doing that exchange to improve his or her English and to get to know new people and a new country.

Host mothers keep posting very kind parting remarks. I would like to share two of them with you:

Thanking Mollie Sharrar, the American coordinator, for the excellent organisation of our stay.

November 3

We spent our weekend at Lake Michigan. My day started at 8 o’clock in the morning. We made some delicious waffles and enjoyed them with syrup for breakfast. After that, we started to figure out what we wanted to do today. We had lots of options. At first, we decided to try to go fishing again, but it was too cold and windy. So we went to a little dune and climbed that. It was really fun to run down. On the way back to their grandparents’ home, we stopped at a little fairy garden, but most of the little houses had already been taken away because of the snow that will be coming soon, but the little houses which were still there were very cute. Later we drove to PLANET 3 (Airhop)!!! It was super super cool, and after one and a half hours we were really happy and exhausted. So we started our way back home. In the car, we watched “ The Greatest Showman“ and had lunch. When we arrived in Dexter, we went to a candy shop and bought candy for all my friends. After that, we had a small dinner and tree desserts: caramel apple, birthday cake, and s’mores ( which I had for the first time :p). It was an awesome day!!!

Diana Conrad, 9c

November 2

Today was Saturday, so there was no official programme for all the students. In the morning my host family gave me a chicken to hold, which was cool, because the chicken stayed calm in my arms. In the afternoon my host family and me went to a soccer game that my exchange partner played in. Her team won the game. After that we went to a theatre to watch the movie „Joker“. The theatre was beautiful and different from all the other theatres I’ve seen so far: they had a bar and at the so called „E cuisine“ you could get different types of popcorn and even pizza. When we went into the auditorium I was surprised because you could move the reclining seats so that you could almost lie in them to watch the movie and there were couple seats, too. When we got home after the movie we saw a deer in the back yard.

Leonie Bender, 9a

Fun at Air Time

November 1

Today we woke up late and my host mother made some pancakes for breakfast, which tasted delicious.
On this day there was no school so we had time to visit the Botanical Gardens in Ann Arbor. We could see a pineapple plant and cocoa palms.
Then we had lunch at Olga’s Kitchen and we had some time to stroll through Briarwood Mall.

In the evening there was a play off game at Dexter High School. A few other students watched it, too. Everybody wore many layers of clothes because it was colder than at the match last Friday. Unfortunately they lost the game, but not by many points.

Most of the kids went to watch tonight’s football game. In the past the DHS team was not very successful, but they have had a great coach for a few years and last year they made it to the playoffs for the first time ever. Keep your fingers crossed that they will win this year.

At my host family’s house we did some panda face masks with her younger brother and watched a movie on TV.

Johanna Schmidhuber, 9c

And what about the other kids???

others to Frankenmuth, a Bavarian village with an all year round open Christmas shop,

and two girls went horseback riding, while some others relaxed at a pool.

Some families are gone for the entire weekend. These boys are exploring Chicago.

October 31 Halloween

My day in Dexter started at 6:00 am when I had to get ready for school. Rayne’s school doesn’t start until 9:00, she goes to Eastern Michigan University, but we had to leave at 7:30 because we had to drop off her little brother at his school. When we arrived at her school, I met some of her friends and we went to the first lesson, Biology. At lunch we got Chick-fil-A, it was really good food and it’s very sad that we don’t have that in Germany. Some random guy had a banana costume on and he was very cool and nice, also some teachers dressed up.

Costumes that gave you the impression that the kid was riding on a dragon were just the fashion.

Very few kids had self-made costumes.
They were great!

After classes at 3:20 pm, we headed outside to wait for her mother so she could pick us up and drive us back home. Today we were in a hurry because of Halloween and we wanted to prepare for „trick or treating“ as soon as we came home. So we went to our rooms and got ready. We had planned to start our Halloween tour through the neighborhood at 5pm. In America all houses are decorated with creepy things on Halloween and my host family hung up some cool stuff which you can’t get in Germany. Before trick or treating, we wanted to watch the movie Beetlejuice with our friends outside in the garden, but unfortunately the weather was too bad. Everyone dressed up, also my partner’s parents and older brothers. My costume was a female version of Freddie Krueger from ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ that had we bought a few days earlier in ‘Spirit Halloween’. We were going through the whole neighborhood and got a lot of candy (actually we got 2 bags for each of us) and I really loved it, even though it was rainy and windy (it also snowed for a bit!). Actually we didn’t walk, but we drove from house to house with the car and got off every time we saw a decorated house. Finally we went to the Clubhouse to have some pizza. We came back home at 8pm and watched a horror movie called ‚Pumpkinhead’. We enjoyed ourselves and we all had a great day. In my opinion you have to experience Halloween in America to understand the real fun. For me, this was one of the highlights of our visit to the United States.

Daria Laib, 9c

October 30

Today I got up at 7 am to get ready for school. I only stayed there for an hour and my exchange partner had a history class, which was pretty cool because they did a simulation of the beginning of World War I. After that, we left school together with some French exchange students at 9.15 am.
We went to Ann Arbor to see the Michigan Stadium, the biggest stadium of the US and the second biggest stadium in the world. A tour guide told us a lot about it and we were even allowed to see the locker rooms and walk on the field. After that we had lunch at the Cottage Inn. It was delicious.
Later, we went to the university of Ann Arbor and saw the law library and the Ross School of Business, for example. We only had a short walk around the campus because of the bad weather. Then we had 40 minutes to go shopping and I bought two sweatshirts.
In the evening, most of us went to the Blast Corn Maze. It was so much fun! It was actually quite cold and it rained, but we didn’t care. We thought we’d never get out of the maze, so some of us just went all the way back and then we were only five people in the maze. At one point, it was enough for me, too. So I decided to look for the next exit and left the other four.

Hannah Wagner, 9a

One of the nice features of DHS are the wonderful paintings on the walls.

In front of the graduate library of Michigan University with the exchange students from France

Inside the law library of Michigan University

Cider and donuts at the end of an eventful day

October 29

Today I woke up at 6am to get ready for our trip to Wacker in Adrian. For breakfast my host mom made me a bagel with cream cheese and some fruit like oranges and bananas – it was so yummy! At 7.10am my host Chloe and I went to the bus stop to go to school where she had band in the first period. I stayed there with her until 8.30 and then I went to the meeting place where I met the other German students. Actually, I almost got lost in this huge school, but luckily I encountered Sarah, Hannah and Daria with her host and together we found the way.😂 When everybody had arrived, we headed off to Adrian with one these cool yellow school buses we Germans only know from movies.

As soon as we arrived at Wacker some members of staff told us about Wacker’s aims and about the different kinds of products they make and they showed us two movies about it. While they were telling us all these things, we ate some fruit and pastries. Then they gave us short tour through a few laboratories, which was pretty cool and interesting. We were even allowed to take a few things with us like magnifiers and spectacle cases all made from silicone. After that we had lunch and had to say goodbye to the nice people at Wacker because we also visited a store called Cabela’s.

The visit to Cabela’s was very funny because they sell things that seem a bit strange to Germans, like guns and equipment for hunting and fishing. We took a lot of crazy pictures.

Our visit to Cabela’s, a shop where you can buy fishing tackle, hunting equipment and outdoor clothes

Admiring plastic animals
that you can use as targets

The Second Amendment grants every American the right “to keep and bear arms”.

After we had stayed there for about 45 minutes we had to go back to Dexter. There, we waited about 20 minutes for our hosts to pick us up. Chloe came for me and together we went to the bus stop and there it was very chaotic😂 It was like everyone tried to get into the right bus and I just stood there and didn’t know what to do😅. After we arrived home Chloe had to do some homework and then we ate tacos for dinner. They were soo delicious!

The last attraction of the day was a Halloween concert at the high school which was so funny because all of the performers wore crazy costumes! After this cool but also exhausting day I think I’ll be asleep within minutes 🙂

Jana Brause, 9b

Conducting an orchestra must be really easy as Mr. Delores can even do it with his head off.

But performing card tricks is so hard, he can’t even do it with his head on.

October 28

Today was the day we visited Ford’s River Rouge site and the Henry Ford Museum. At the Rouge we watched two movies: one about the history of Ford and one about how a Ford F-150 truck is built. That was very interesting. After that we got a tour through the Rouge and we were shown that parts of the roof of the factory were planted because this improves the insulation. The second station was watching the workers building the F- 150. We were no allowed to take any pictures of the assembly line, but at least we were allowed to take photos of the „milestone cars“ of Ford. Then we visited the Henry Ford museum and were allowed to take photos of fancy cars like the Oscar Wiener Mobil. In the evening my host family took me to a drive in a restaurant called Akw’s and it was fantastic.

Oliver Schäfer, 9a

Our visit to the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation

Sitting in Rosa Park’s seat on the original bus

Exploring the North Pole …

October 27

We all got to spend an awesome day with our host families on October 27th 2019. We started the day sleeping in and just being lazy. After breakfast we went to a mall, got some delicious ice cream rolls, tried on Halloween masks and did bungee jumping. At 2pm we went to watch the musical ”The Wonderful Wizard of Oz“, which was awesomely performed by the school’s drama group. After the play had finished, we bought pumpkins and carved them for Halloween. All in all, we had an awesome day with our exchange partners and host families.

Sarah Mathe, 9a

Today there was the final show of the musical “The Wizard of Oz”. It was amazing: great actors, delightful music, beautiful costumes and props … Those of us who went enjoyed every single minute.

At last Dorothy and her three companions reached the emerald city. Will the wizard help them?

At Wing Farms some girls enjoyed cider and donuts. Due to the heavy rain the night before, they could not do the hay ride.

Afterwards we went to the pumpkin fields.

Just about to start carving the pumpkins

October 26

My second day in America started with a typical America breakfast which consisted of some boiled eggs and bagles with cream cheese. After this we prepared for leaving the house in order to go on a tour around Dexter. We met at the bakery and started walking through the town centre where Mollie Sharrar, the American coordinator, showed us many interesting attractions like the cider mill where very tasty apple juice is made. They call it cider.

When the tour was over, my host family and I drove to Ann Arbor where we I got a first impression of the city and enjoyed a fantastic meal at Buffalo Wild Wings. On this day we all got to know our host families better and I experienced the cordiality of mine. In the evening we had intended to go to a cornfield, but it was raining. So we spent the rest of the day at a friend’s house, which was a lot of fun, too.

Patrick Scholz, 9a