Living in The United States as a European

Written by: Martin Wandres

Edited by: Mikaylee Gunderson and Cheyenne Haney

Unfortunately, my exchange year at Lakeview is almost over. I had a lot of fun and I am so happy that I was able to spend my exchange year in this amazing community. Over the course of this school year I noticed a lot of cultural and everyday life differences. There were so many things that surprised me and what differences I saw. 

The first major difference between living here and in Germany is car dependency. In Germany I would walk to the supermarket, bike to school and any other traveling I did outside of the city was by train. This built a lot of independence at a young age. I was already very independent without even having a car. Here I cannot get anywhere without a car and have to face the biggest struggle of all exchange students in the US: asking for rides. To be fair, in Germany I live in a city and Cottonwood is a very rural area. But in Germany, even if you live in the country,  you can get places by bike or public transportation. Germany is much more dense than the United States, causing this cultural difference many people might not think about.

As a whole, Germany is close in size to North and South Dakota combined. While the Dakota’s combined population is less than 2 million people, more than 84 million people live in Germany. 

Additionally I was surprised to learn that most people have their drivers license by the age of 16. Back home, you have to be 18 to get a drivers licence and take a lot more drivers ed classes than the US requires. The biggest shocker was definitely the average total cost of a drivers license in Germany is between $4,000 and $5,000, a very different price than in the US.

There have also been American laws that shocked Europeans like how Germany’s shocked them. The most notable would be the gun laws. In most European countries you can not legally own a gun as easily as in the US. Here, almost every household owns at least a couple, which totally blew my mind as I have never even seen a gun in real life other than on police men.

The last notable difference I experienced in the US was that school life is very different here compared to Germany. In Germany everyone goes home after the school day, totally exhausted. School in Germany is much harder compared to school in the US. We do not have any school sports and hardly any school activities. While you could participate in sports and clubs they were more linked to your city rather than school. I played Tennis in Germany and was part of a club where people of any age could join. I definitely prefer having sports operated in a way that connects them to the school more, because it adds to the excitement to school and makes it feel like a real part of the community.

All in all, I have had a lot of fun during this school year in the United States, and I learned so many things that I'm excited to share with others back home. I am really grateful for this opportunity and the community that I got to spend my exchange year with.

Thank you Lakeview!