Krefeld Exchange Students Reunion

[May 4-5]

Nine years ago, when I was in 11th grade, our high school had an ongoing exchange with Horkesgath Gymnasium, a German high school (the link expains what gymansium means in German and includes information on the high school).

As part of a big group from Horkesgath, Marlene came to stay with my family for three weeks in the spring of 1996, and I visited her and my former exchange student Yvonne later that summer through our school exchange. Sadly, this program stopped running in 1999 and Horkesgath is looking for a new American school to partner with.
But my friendship with Marlene still continues and we were able to meet again!



She picked us up at the Dusseldorf train station and drove us to Koln (Cologne) where we met her fiance Thorsten. He is studying law at the Koln university. We went out for an Italian dinner where they had some bad live music. The piano player tried to accompany the singers by repeating their last lines in a deep voice, saying such things as "yeah," or "without you." It was really chessy and I couldn't help laughing. [Dean: Also, the music was painfully loud. Live music at dinner is mostly a distraction from a fine meal or good company. Bad music is the same, although potentially amusing as well. Make it loud enough to kill conversation and the delicate hearing cells in your ears -- that just can't be good for business.]

After dinner we drove back to Dusseldorf to find a bar. It was the night before a public holiday so the streets were pretty alive. We found a tropical cocktail bar that had so many fruity choices. After a drink, we headed to Neuss, where they have an apartment together. We called it a night and the next morning they treated us to a nice breakfast featuring the famous German white asapargus and ham. Mmmmmm!

Marlene had a nice album from her time in the happening town of Forest Grove and the other places their group visited. She even had my application letter to the program, complete with a picture of me with long hair and dorky braces. It was classic. The form required us to list many things about ourselves, including household chores, for which I had listed "feeding the cats" and "helping clean."

We said our goodbyes at the train station and were off to Koln. I hope we can meet again in the next nine years!