The German Club will meet Oct. 18 from after school until 5 p.m. The club members and the German exchange students will go to Carmel Laser Flash to play laser tag.  According to club sponsor Laura King, there is a $13 attending fee for the event.

Emily Cornelius, executive board member of the club and freshman, said, “I think the German exchange students will really like (the event) because they don’t have laser flash in Germany.”

On Oct. 5, the German exchange students came to live with their host families for three weeks; Oct. 6 was the first day of school for them. German teacher Angelika Becker has participated in this program for 11 years.

“Yes I do (enjoy the exchange) because I get to speak German to the teachers. I learn a lot from them, and they learn a lot from us. It’s just a fun experience for everybody. It’s a lot of work too but it’s a fun experience,” Becker said.

Many students who have Becker as a teacher hear about the experiences that come along with the exchange. German student, Emma Schmidt is one of the many that experienced meeting the incoming students today.

“I love meeting new people, and especially when they don’t speak the same language,” Schmidt said. “It gives me the opportunity to use what we have learned in class since sixth grade in a real life situation.”

The shadow from Germany and the student at CHS develop a friendship for the weeks they are here. “Most of them stay in touch long after they have gone home, some in the past have gone back and visited again and sometimes the family comes and visits,” Becker said. “Some of them it’s just the three weeks they’re here but some of them it’s a long time and they do a lot of communicating after.”

There are usually no problems with students coming from overseas but according to Becker there are hardly ever complications.

“We haven’t had many problems. Sometimes you do have an issue when students don’t get along, sometimes there’s an emergency,” Becker said. “Like this time there is a family that has to go to a funeral during that time and of course they don’t want to take the exchange student with, so we just have to find a different family for the day or the weekend or sometimes they team up with somebody else. There are always emergencies but trouble, problems, not really. Sometimes the kids get homesick. They cry, so we’ve had tears but that is normal because it’s a lot of time away. The first time they are away from home for 3 weeks, across the ocean, in a country that speaks a different language. Homesickness I would say is probably the biggest issue but they get over it.”