Walking down the street, a yellow school bus speeds forward.
For Americans, familiar scenes like this seem like a small detail. But for junior exchange student Elissa Wiese, these buses were only the start of a sea of culture shocks.
“Everything was quite a big adjustment for me,” Wiese said. “At first, it was a little overwhelming because you arrive in a completely new country, live with a host family you have never met before, meet new students and you have to start settling in and building a completely new life.”
Along the Ruhr river, Wiese spent her youth in the city of Dortmund studying within the Bildungssystem. Initially studying in her first year of the Oberstufe, Germany’s secondary school, Wiese applied to the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) scholarship program to help bring German culture “closer to Americans on behalf of our German Parliament.”
When Wiese was informed she would be living in Houston, she felt a flurry of emotions.
“I feel very fortunate to be selected from over 10,000 applicants across Germany,” Wiese said.
“I’m happy now being in Houston, but it was pretty hard, and I got more and more nervous as the day I was supposed to fly approached. I don’t want to leave my family, and I feel like, on the day when I needed to go, I felt sadness I’ve never felt.”
On her first day at Bellaire, class structure and difficulty was “completely different” from her norm.
“In Germany, the schedule and the classes are stricter and more demanding,” Wiese said. “For example, a question that we are expected to answer in 20 minutes in the U.S. would only take us five minutes in Germany. But I don’t have as long of a school day compared to the U.S. so it kind of balances out.”
Junior Connor Gary, a classmate of Wiese, helped her get used to Bellaire’s classes.
“[Weise] still struggles with English at times, but she always has a positive attitude towards learning, which helps the people around her learn her own language and culture,” Gary said. “She seems to enjoy our school and our culture while also missing her own, which is very admirable.”
According to Wiese, with such a focus on academics, Germany “lacks sports or any kind of school spirit.” Afternoon football games, such as Friday Night Football, were a novel to Wiese. “Seeing football in my own eyes is shocking to me,” Wiese said. “You have like this unity in the football games, standing there in the crowd cheering for the team as a school. [Germany] doesn’t have it because nobody really cares. We don’t have school sports teams let alone weekly football games like in the U.S.”
Wiese’s perception of the U.S. was morphed by expectations set by social media.
“Through social media, you sometimes get the impression that the U.S. is quite one-sided and isolated in terms of culture,” Wiese said. “Fewer Germans wanted to travel to the U.S. because there were concerns about what could happen to international students.”
She soon realized that “couldn’t have been further from the truth.”
“Houston represents so many cultures, like [with] Chinatown,” Weise said. “The diversity of cultures and people from different countries here in Houston made me feel right at home.”
This kind of inclusivity didn’t go unnoticed by AP French Language and Culture teacher Heidi Florian.
“We have a few people who are very outgoing and welcoming in particular, who kind of noticed her and welcomed her into the class,” Florian said. “She connected right away with them, which helped a lot.”
Wiese’s trip happened through the Center for International and Educational Exchange (CIEE), which paired Wiese with a host family in Houston that closely aligns with her interests and German heritage.
“CIEE is responsible for me in the U.S.,” Wiese said. “My host mother is half German and speaks German fluently. Since we have so much in common, I connected with my host family better.”
Although her host family was there to help her, she learned life skills that will carry her into her future.
“I became more independent as well coming to Bellaire because, at my home, my parents are always there and helping,” Wiese said. “Coming here, I was escaping my comfort zone because you don’t know anyone, you’re just here.”
With future aspirations to become an international pilot, Wiese hopes her experience in the U.S. can help her develop English skills and independence.
“Experiences like these help my English, which is always nice, and I became more of an independent person as I’m confident in what I’m doing,” Wiese said. “Independent people can also grow in foreign countries, which I will need to be able to do.”
Being independent is nothing easy, but Wiese took up the challenge.
“I had to get out of my comfort zone to be myself,” Wiese said. “I now know that I have so many opportunities in life meeting all kinds of people. It really shows how different my life now is to how it was three months ago.”
Wiese will part ways with Bellaire at the end of the year on June 12, completing her one year abroad.
“It’s gonna hurt when I leave, but I’m sure I’ll visit Houston again in the future,” Wiese said.
