"Some

of the prejudices against Americans are definitely true," said Verena

Bergemann, who recently stayed with a Fayette family as part of an exchange

between Sandy Creek High School students and those in Lessing-Gymnasium,

a college prep school in Braunschweig, Germany (see related story).

"Like

the one that most Americans use their car to get to a place that could

be easily reached by bike or by foot, and that there's really a fast food

restaurant at every corner."

But she discovered

that Americans are not all fat, apparently a widely held perception in

Europe.

Bergemann gave

her impressions in an e-mail exchange with The Citizen. Here are some

excerpts:

"I think

it's the people and the way they behave that I like best. The Southern

hospitality is amazing! Everybody is so friendly and helpful, if you are

a visitor (I don't know what its like when you live there).

"Everything

is so big! (even the milk bottles ...). It's really impressive to walk

through Atlanta downtown between all those skyscrapers with the glittering

windows and their modern style! It's just great, and sometimes so different

that it almost feels like another world.

"The most

interesting thing I experienced was that people are proud of the country

they live in. I didn't know this feeling from Germany, and at first it

seemed strange to me to see the American flag in front of so many houses,

but you get used to that after a while and if you think about it, it's

great that people can be proud of what they have and where they live.

"I learned

what it's like to live in a totally strange family ... but I was lucky

that I had a very nice family that made my "moving in" very

easy. I stayed with the Niggley family, and they are very interested in

different cultures and they are very openhearted, so I had a really great

stay and a big part of that was determined by the family I stayed with.

"The educational

system is totally different from the one in Germany. ... Children in Germany

attend the elementary school from first to fourth, sometimes to sixth

grade; after that it separates into three different schools, the Hauptschule

(lowest educational standard, could be translated into "main school,"

[which] means you just get a basic education). After the Hauptschule you

have to attend the Berufsschule where you learn e.g. how to cook and you

start learning for your later job. The other school is the Realschule

where you get an average education, after that you can make an apprentice.

"You have

to make an apprentice for every job you want to do (or stay unemployed).

"And there's

the Gymnasium (which I attend), the school with the highest educational

standard. Only if you pass the final test at the end of the 13th grade

(called Abitur) you are allowed to go to a university. If you pass the

university with good grades you can work in every job you want, all over

Europe. So we have no high school where all students (the gifted and the

ones who are not) are mixed together. German students are separated when

they are about 11 or 12 years old.

"... and

school in Germany is much stricter than school in America. Guess what

I like more."

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