News

Exchange students learn more than academics during visit

By Tony Staley
Compass Correspondent

ALLOUEZ -- Talking with Elisabeth Jaschik and Stephanie Pereira is almost like talking to one person with two voices.

The two exchange students - Elisabeth is from Germany and Stephanie is from Brazil - have shared a room since August in the home of their host, Sharon McNulty, a member of Resurrection Parish in Allouez. They both attend Green Bay East High School.

McNulty had been a member of St. Mary Parish, Maplewood, until moving to Allouez in June. She learned of NACEL Open Door student exchange through a story in The Compass.

While Stephanie, who at first seems a bit shy, does much of the talking, either one can complete the other's thoughts.

"We kind of think the same thing, so don't think we're just agreeing with each other. We're kind of one person," Stephanie said and Elisabeth added "Yeah." The two 16-year-olds like the same bands - Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Beatles - and movies and get along well, they said.

Stephanie is from Coqueiral, which means "too many coconuts," a coastal town of about 7,000 in the state of Espirito Santo (Holy Spirit). She lives with her parents, Luiz, a chemical engineer, and Valeria, a chemistry teacher, and a brother Johan, who is studying chemical engineering in college. Stephanie said she will probably study chemistry or nursing.

Elisabeth is from Munich. Her parents are divorced. Her mother, Sabine is a lawyer, and she and her brother, Alexander, live with her. Her father, Krystian, a doctor, lives about two hours away with his wife and their two children.

When Stephanie heard she was coming to Green Bay she said she thought of "That '70s Show," the 1998-2006 Fox sitcom set in a fictional Green Bay suburb in the latter 1970s. Elisabeth had never heard of the show, but looked it up in Wikipedia.

Stephanie also knew something about Titletown and the Packers from her brother, an exchange student two years ago in Spokane, Wash.

Stephanie and Elisabeth said they expected Green Bay to be a big city, similar to Milwaukee. Now they see it more like a spread-out neighborhood.

They said they like Green Bay, but find that it's hard to get around because it's too far to walk and bus service is infrequent. They must catch rides with Sharon or friends.

Their favorite places are McDonald's - "it's heaven" - Hansen's Dairy & Deli and the Blackstone restaurant where they meet friends. They both like fast food - bacon cheeseburgers, fries and Pepsi for Stephanie, chicken tenders, fries and strawberry milkshakes for Elisabeth.

Here are some of their impressions about Green Bay:

• Americans love their dogs;
  
  
• Teenagers are depressed - cutting themselves and a high suicide rate - for no apparent reason;
  
  
• Green Bay lives for the Packers;
  
  
• Winters are very cold.
  
  
• Lambeau Field is nice - they have toured it twice - but what people pay for luxury boxes is "insane" because the money could go to help local homeless people.
  
  
• School is easier in Green Bay. Germany and Brazil have a 200-day school year and students take 15 subjects a year - including chemistry, biology and physics in the same year - as compared to six or seven subjects in Wisconsin. Although they both are considered juniors in their countries, they will graduate in June from East because they have enough credits.
  
  
• Americans don't have enough holidays.
  
  
• Football is boring on TV because of the commercials, except for the last 15 minutes of the Super Bowl. They enjoyed going to high school games where they could be with their friends. Elisabeth said she wanted to play football and was disappointed that there are no girls' teams.
  
  
• Green Bay people don't like to be hugged or touched, but they are nice so they made friends quickly. "Normally the exchange people come back home and say it takes two months or even three to have really good relationships or a friend. For us it was very easy, very fast," Stephanie said. Elisabeth agreed.

Although they've spent most of their time in Green Bay, they did go to New York for New Year's Eve with Elisabeth's family, and to Door County, which didn't impress them, and Washington Island, which they described as "nice, pretty, tiny and cute."