Peter Köhler from North Dakota

You want to know what an exchange year is like? Just keep reading! I've been an exchange student in the USA for 6 whole month now. 

My exchange organization ICX, corresponding with the American organization PAX, found a very nice family in North Dakota that was interested in such an cultural exchange. My hostfamily lives on a farm near Rutland, a town with 187 inhabitants. 

My hostfather's occupation is farming and ranching. I've helped Earl several times in different farm jobs. This way I helped chasing cattle with pickups from one pasture to another, helped chopping corn, helped to put up a fence around a new pasture, helped feed the horses and stacked haybales. But that is not the reason my hostfamily wanted an exchange student. My hostfather also took me to a Bob Dylan Concert in Fargo, the biggest town in North Dakota (80,000 inhabitants). Earl also has his own country western band. It consists of his family. He's the leadsinger, he plays guitare and harmonica. He let me play the drum set in his band and we have had 4 concerts since I came here. 

My hostmothers job is bookkeeping in a car repair shop. She lived in Germany several years ago and was interested in meeting with the German culture again. She showed me her office in the shop, where her son Jimy often works, when he is home from college. Susan also took me to Minneapolis, Minnesota, a big city with scyscrapers, where some relatives of my hostfamily live. They showed me the "Mall of America", the biggest mall in the world. She is also a singer in the family band. 

I've got two hostbrothers. 

Evan is a junior in highschool. That means he is in his 11th class. He's involved in very much activity at school. He runs the scoreboard at sport games, sets up light and soundsystems for school events and participates in school music competitions. He knows a lot about farming especially machinery and he likes to play the guitar. He sometimes sings and plays guitar in the family band. But mostly he plays the keyboard in there. Evan took part in an environthon marathon and won a trip to Washington DC with his group. 

My other hostbrother, James, goes to a machinery college. I only see him on the weekends. Like Evan, Jimy likes to drive around in towns, looking for parties or just people. That's what most kids like to do here, since they are allowed to drive at the age of 14 years! Jimy also works as automechanic on the weekends. That's what he studies at college. 

My hostbrothers took me to several American parties, streetdances or driving around sessions and the second day I was here I rode with them and some friends to Fargo, where we had a good time shopping and watching the movie "Triple X", that starts with a "Rammstein" song. Many students at my school really like the German band "Rammstein" over here. 

What about school? My school (Sargent Central) here is ten minutes away from my new home, when you drive by car or ride the schoolbus, and teaches about 130 students. When Evan and I had drama practice we drove by car. But usually we ride the school bus. Now, since basketballpractise started this month, Evan's best friend Rob takes me home by car. Now I always come home from school at about 6 o'clock. 

But now about my classes in school. I'm a senior (12th grader). Class periods are 50 minutes and brakes are 3 minutes long. 

My first class is "English IV". In the beginning we had boring grammar, but at the moment we are reading the "Catcher in the Rye" by JD Salinger, which is very famous book over here. An interesting thing about English classes is, that students have to read books to collect points, that influence their grade in English. It's called "Accelerated-Reader-Test". 

My second class is Algebra III. This juniorclass is not on the same level as 11th grade math classes in German schools. (I would be in 11th grade at home) To catch on with my German math class I'll have to switch to Advanced Math. In Algebra III all students always get a bonustest, that contains the exact problems, that will be on the next test. (Of course the digits will be different) So you know exactly what to study for, if you have to study. 

As third class I've got POD, which is the government class. You learn about the functions of the US-government and how it works. Sometimes you have to read magazines about current events in the world. But most time in POD we get worksheets, we have to work on. Later on in this schoolyear the whole POD class will visit government institutions in North Dakota's capital Bismarck. Some kids that have government classes will also fly to Washington D.C. to have an government trip for several days. 

My 4th Class is a studyhall. That's an hour in which students can study, do homework, or read for accelerated reader points. Most times in study hall it's quiet, but sometimes Mr. Hill listens to music on his computer or jokes around with students. 

Then at 12:06 the lunch brake begins. That is a half an hour brake. Now you have oppurtunity to eat either in school or drive up town and get other meals. The meals in school are OK and cheap (1.20 $ per meal). So I never drive uptown. In this brake the students have time to have fun and talk to each other. Or you can take an accelerated reader test. Because there is no specific room, where students can spend the brake, we stay in the school corridors in wintertime and when there is bad weather and in summertime we can be outside school. There is no schoolyard. 

After lunch brake I go to highschoolband. Every student that likes music can learn how to play a woodwind instrument or percussion when they get to the 5th grade. The stage band, that I also join, participates in state competitions. And students that are more intersted in music can go to competitions and are much supperted by school. And the highschool band plays, if there are local events. When highschool band is over, there is one of the 3 minutes brakes that is there after every class. Now you have time to find your locker and have a drink at the waterfountains. 

Then I go to physics. Mister Fawcet only has us take notes on the material that will be on the test. In tests you get a formula sheet, so you don't have to memorize the formulas. Sometimes we have a lab in groups of 3 students, on which we also get a grade. 

My last class is "Advanced Biology". It is the most difficult class I have, because there a many unusual words for me I have to study to understand, what Mr. Kjelden is talking about. 

In several classes we have had extra activities. 

For example: 

I went to Aberdeen with my "Advanced Biology" group to listen to speeches by doctors, nurses and medical students. As part of the presentation we got to see donated human's organs. 

Another activity was the trip with my highschoolband to the Fargodome, where we got free tickets to a Ray Charles concert. He's world famous for being a black and blind jazz musicien. 

There is a bunch of extrcurricular at my school. You can participate in yearbook, photagraphie, speech, drama, band and quire cmpetitions, student senate, and for sports: basketball, volleyball, track, football, golf, wrestling, cheerleading and danceteam. You can spent your whole schoolyear in school participating in all these activities. But all activities are only for a shorter period of the year. There are quite a few schoolevents, too: labor day (no school), homecoming week (fun week, every day there was another topic of the day and you could wear appropriate clothes to school, it included a parade through the city of Forman (the schooltown), a football game and a streetdance), teachers education (teachers have a meeting, no school), parent teachers conferences, Veterans Day (no school), concerts of the schoolband and schoolchorus, start of hunting season (no school), thanksgiving brake (no school), christmas vacation (only 11 days), and there'll be other events in the future  . Compared to our school there is much more going on, although its size is a seventh of ours. In sport games students meet each other outside school and you do more activity with each other, because school is not only academic. The students of my school have, as well as every other school, their own school mascot. It's the "Cadet". And in sportgames the cheerleaders write posters like "Go Cadets and crush the Indians". The "Indians" is the mascot of another school. 

I really like to be an exchange student. And although you feel homesick sometimes (especially when traditions are different or when there are events like christmas or newyears eve) you get a member of the family very fast. I'm lucky to be in this family, because I get to see much of he country. I've been to 5 different states of the USA now and got to like America. Over christmas vaccation, I've been to Montana. We (Earl, Evan and I) went Skiing to Red Lodge near the town Billings. Red Lodge is a part of the famous Rocky Mountains. While driving though Montana I realized, that North Dakota is not the fewest populated state of the USA. I recognized a distance of about 100 kilometer between two villages with about 50 inhabitants!!! 

After my schoolyear here, my parents will come and we'll make a trip through the USA. We'll drive to San Francisco and plan what we want to see on this trip, at the moment. 

If you are interested in languages and culture you shouldn't miss the chance for an exchange year. I think it's a great experience. 

Behave yourself and see you later,