Student Exchange with Texas

Here is an excerpt from an article published in the Weekly Rotary Newsletter and a picture of their first official meeting with their sponsors, the Lakeway/LakeTravis Rotary Club.

Willkommen in Texas

The Lakeway/LakeTravis Rotary Youth Exchange Students arrived from Zell am See, Austria on Tuesday, August 10th.  Their first introduction to US air travel was a flight that was running only a couple of hours late. When your entire travel time takes 14 to 16 hours, a couple of extra hours is almost negligible.  For the first three months of their visit, Julia Steger will be living with her host family Kim and Mark Nearburg of Lakeway, Johannes Krammel will be living with his host family Julie and Michael Wolf of Lakeway, and Kathi Grosse-Ophoff and Katharina Hörath will be living with their host family Anne and Marc Rosenberg of Lake Point.

The students have had a busy week, on Thursday they were guests of the Rotary Club for the meeting and lunch held at the Lakeway Inn.  Afterwards, Johannes had the opportunity to spend a few hours playing pool and video games with Matt McClure before Melena McClure introduced him to wakeboarding on Lake Travis with her friends.  Friday morning all host moms and students spent a couple of hours at the High School registering for school.  Anne Rosenberg gave the new students a tour of the High School and showed them where their classes would be.  Julia met Kenny Vise and joined the High School Band, she will be playing the saxophone. 

Julia spent the afternoon having her nails done with Elizabeth Nearburg and attending the Band Picnic that evening.  Johannes had a guys only night out with his host father Michael Wolf, who took him to the Lance Armstrong Party.  Kathi and Katarina spent the evening with Michael and Dolise McClure who introduced them to the Barton Springs Chuy`s where they ate spicy food and bought T-shirts.  The girls were given a short tour of the Capitol before they went to the Lance Armstrong Party.  After a couple of hours at the party the McClure`s took the girls for a walk down 6th street.  The girls were not allowed to walk into any of the establishments but got to experience a collection of Austin`s local color, the live music, and the people.  After a trip to Starbucks on Congress and a ride home, the girls were returned to their host family exhausted but ready to see and learn more about Austin. 

In less than a week these students have become an integral part of each of their host families, their attitudes, their manners, their thirst for experiencing and learning is what makes these kids such a joy to be around.  My family and I have enjoyed meeting and spending time with each of the students to the point that we want to be a host family next year ...