In the fall of 2015, LHS has already welcomed exchange students from three European countries: Spain, France, and Germany. From the differences in their schools to their favorite subjects, they have loved giving their opinions on LHS.

The students from Malaga, Spain, arrived in early September and stayed for three weeks with their host families.

Isabella Vesga, who stayed with senior Addie McKenna for her three-week trip and first-ever time to the United States, discussed the differences between LHS and her school.

“It’s just bigger. We have 700 students, and that’s big in Spain. And we don’t move classes — we just stay in one class all day and the teacher comes to us. We have the same subjects four times a week at different hours. And they do a lot of sports here,” she said, laughing. “They’re fun.”

Johann Wense, 16, is a junior from Germany who is staying at LHS for the entire 2015-2016 school year, rotating between families he will stay with. He has said similar things about the German school system that Vesga said about her school: “the teachers change the rooms so you are together in one class with the same people the whole time,” he explained.

Over the summer, LHS students traveled to France and stayed with the families of French students. In reciprocation, the French students then came to stay with the LHS students for a three-week sojourn. Eugénie Guerineau is a 16-year-old who traveled from Montreuil-Juigné, France, and stayed with senior Abby Jeffrey.

Guerineau gushed that “the teachers are cool and the high school looks [like] ‘High School Musical.’” In addition, she explained that “[the cafeteria] is very different because in France you can’t eat pizza, pasta, and chips… and there [are] a lot of sports at [LHS].”

When asked about their favorite class, all three of these students had very different opinions.

“Probably choir,” Vesga said, shyly commenting that she enjoyed singing. “And also,  chemistry. Because they do a lot of experiments, and we don’t do that much.”

For Guerineau, her “favorite class was physiology, and French class of course.”

“I like Introduction to Business,” said Wense, “because we do a lot of different things and it is just fun.”

When they weren’t shadowing students in school, the French and Spanish exchange students found a lot of other fun things to do, especially in Chicago.

Vesga said that “everything’s bigger, so much bigger,” than at home, and that there were many fun things to do downtown. “We went shopping and to the [Willis] Tower and to Millennium Park. We also went to Navy Pier and to the Museum of Science of Industry. It was so big and really cool. And we went shopping again,” she giggled. “They have stores that we don’t have. Like Walgreens or Target. And also Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters, we don’t have that. I bought a lot of stuff from there,” she divulged.

Guerineau also enjoyed visiting the Willis Tower. However, some of her favorite moments included time spent with new friends, doing normal American high school activities, like going to a school football game on a Friday night. She also found driving in the car with loud music to be especially entertaining.

Wense also commented that he “really love[s] Chicago.” He has visited twice so far during this year’s stay, but he has also visited before. In 2010, he stayed with relatives in Sleepy Hollow, Illinois.