Last week, Woodstock Union High School’s CRAFT Program welcomed 5 exchange students from Ingolstadt, Germany visiting for the 2nd leg of the very first CRAFT exchange. For some, it was their first time ever in the US, for all it was their first time in Vermont. A few of them had already embarked on journeys to Boston or New York City, but they found life in Vermont starkly different to life in the city. For a week they stayed with their host families and got to learn the ins and outs of the town and the state!
For some background, a few weeks ago five of our very own CRAFT students went to their school in Ingolstadt, Germany to learn about their culture and what the agricultural aspect of their country is. They stayed with their host family in Germany and our students hosted them here. Some of them grew up watching American pop culture television or even listening to American music. While doing so, they built up stereotypes about the country in their heads, most acknowledging that when they came to Vermont those stereotypes evaporated and were proven wrong. One of the biggest stereotypes that they all agreed upon was the food. “There is a German stereotype about the US that we only eat burgers and fries and fast food.” noted by Elisa. She had been to Boston recently and ate quite a bit of fast food because it was cheaper. Here she talked about how it was different because of all of the access to vegetables and fresh produce. There isn't a lot of that in Boston.
Along with the fresh fruits and vegetables, another aspect of Vermont that they got to enjoy and something it’s kind of known for, is nature. They live in a city of 150,000 people in Germany and here in Vermont we take nature for granted sometimes. Elisa commented on how fresh the air was here, and the privacy aspect as well. When speaking on the essence of Vermont they all agreed that it had a really “romantic feeling to it.”