Exchange student dances to the States

Coming from a land absent of Oreo’s and where M&M’s are called Smarties, junior Lina Schneider barely made the trip from St. Ursula Gymnasium in Germany to LAHS of California on Wednesday, February 3.

After dealing with complicated student visas, armed gunmen and a confused immigration officer, she finally arrived to stay with family friends, senior Niklas Kunkel and his family, as well as spend the semester at an American high school.

“My family and Nik’s family have been good friends, and so when they were visiting Germany, they asked when I would be visiting America,” Lina said. “I have always wanted to come to America, so I decided to do an exchange program.”

At her first day of school, she was greeted with a six-page report on WWII and a dizzying amount of work. Considering the overwhelming amount of English, much of her first day was confusing.

“The language is the biggest change,” Lina said. “In physics I have no idea what the teacher is talking about sometimes.”

Not only is the adjustment to a different language difficult, but the schooling system is entirely different from that in Germany. Rather than going to all her classes in a single day like at LAHS, Lina attended a block schedule of classes from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. most days and from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays in Germany.

Even though her school schedule changed entirely, Lina finds her afternoons have freed up without her vigorous dance schedule with Tanzsportclub grün-weib Aquisgrana Aachen (TSZ), a competitive ballroom dancing studio back in Germany. Lina has been dancing for two-and-a- half years and is used to spending six to eight hours after school at TSZ. With tremendous hours devoted to dance, she is accustomed to the physical demand and dedication required from her dance studio back home.

“There is suffering and it’s painful, but I love it,” Lina said.

With TSZ, she has taken first at the Bonnersommerpokal Dance Competition, an international contest with teams utilizing complex formations and moves to score extra points with the judges. At one such competition, Lina danced through her team’s entire routine with a fractured foot. Her partner accidentally injured her during a rehearsal, but she braved an entire routine to take second place.

“I was screaming on the inside during [the dance],” Lina said. “But I had to finish it and just smile.”

Although she misses her home, friends and dance studio in Germany, she loves staying with her host family here and is very grateful for her own bathroom. In her spare time, she often finds herself “dancing through the house” with her new “little sister,” Isabelle Kunkel.

“I am an only child,” Lina said. “So having Isabelle around is very fun.”

In addition to enjoying the company of a little sister, Lina also enjoys the agricultural luxuries that Americans take for granted, such as the fresh strawberries.

“All the fruit is imported into Germany, so it is hard and not very good,” Schneider said. “But here the strawberries are so juicy.”

Not only has she fallen for the strawberries, she finds herself with a mild addiction to Oreos. When she heads back, she plans to bring back an entire bag full of them with her for her family, friends and her German shepherd, Diego.