Austauschschüler

Exchange students are, to put it simply, the best kind of people. In the US, I was always very close to the students that came to my school from across the world. They brought cultures and knowledge to me, that I had never had the chance to see before, and I loved it. Now that I, myself,  am an exchange student I find them all the more amazing.  No matter what hardships they are going through personally, or what problems their pasts present, they always find time for you. They genuinely care about what is in other people’s best interests and could keep an interesting conversation going for days, if not weeks. 
Throughout this year, I have often had get-togethers with other exchange students. Whether that means we spent time together at AFS organized camps and events, organized our own little AFS camp or event, made great birthday parties for each other, or just found a way to be together, each moment I spent with these amazing, culturally diverse people will be cherished for an eternity...
From such people, I have developed much knowledge about different cultures. Whether it be that, in France, you give your friends rum in baby bottles for their 18th birthdays, or that, in Indonesia people often eat with their hands (and not just chicken nuggets... I got to struggle through a home-cooked-Indonesian-angelhair-reis-noodle type dish…), or even the amazingly simple fact that there are people in Istanbul who live in Asia, but go to school in Europe, traveling daily across continents. And, although I could make an entire post about random facts I have learned about other countries, I think the most important thing I have learned from exchange students is that there are people in this world that care far more about who a person is than where they come from. After you sit at a dinner table, filled with home-made pizza, good conversation, love, and people from seven different countries who speak five different languages practice five different religions and just want to continue hearing what interesting things the others will say next, you can no longer comprehend close-mindedness...
This year, I have given my heart to hundreds of other exchange students, and I know I can trust them not to hurt it, but rather to continue filling it with knowledge, and love, and encouragement.