Ever dreamed of going overseas to experience a different culture? Why wait until you’re grown up when you can travel as a high schooler just like Anton Kuespert!

Anton is visiting the United States, living with a host family in Brighton Township until early June as he experiences American culture.

Leaving his home city of Hamburg Germany, Anton decided to become an exchange student to learn about different cultures and improve his English skills, inspired by some friends.

There are several major adjustments across the ocean. Firstly, and most importantly, the food. Anton shares that the fast food here in the States is more greasy.

Another notable difference is the number of guns.

“The gun law is very strict in Germany. I don’t know anyone who has a gun at home, and everyone who I’ve met here has a gun.”

Sports played in high school have their changes, too.

“There are seasons for every sport here. In Germany, soccer, for example, is the whole year. It’s mostly just soccer and not any different sports. Here, it’s like basketball, baseball, and hockey.”

In Germany, many of the sports are exclusively club organizations rather than being sponsored by the school.

As many of us know, schools look different around the world. In Germany, the “teachers come to your class, and you’re in one class with the same kids all day. There’s no school bus either. Everyone rides their bike or uses public transportation.”

Germany, and Hamburg in particular, has exceptional public transportation. Unlike the United States, Germany prides itself on high levels and quality of public transportation that is highly accessible to everyone.

Back home, Anton lives with two brothers and one sister. He says he misses “family and friends, and just being around the things I know, like the sounds of the street where I live.”

He notes that family and parenting styles are different here as well. The host family he is staying with is relatively young, aged 28 and 31.

“From what I saw from other parents of friends, it's more strict [here]. You can do more [in America] but everything is more like . . . the parents want to know what you’re doing and where you are. In Germany, you can do mostly whatever you want and don’t have to tell your parents.”

The reason for this more lax style of parenting is thanks to his hometown being safe, so parents don’t have to be scared about it as much as they do here.

During the transition across the six hour time difference, Anton was most looking forward to seeing “how the school was different here than Germany and getting to know new people.”

His expectations weren’t too high, he says, in order to not be disappointed by reality. He laughs about the “legendary school bus” seen in American films back in Germany.

“I was thinking that everything was more like in the typical American movies, for example the school buses are super legendary in Europe from the movies and everything. When I got here, I realized that you don’t really like to ride them with the small benches and everything, but I can see that as a person from Europe, it's super new and exciting.”

Learning English as a second language wasn’t a sweat for Anton—or any German student.

“Everybody has to take English classes from grades 1 through 12, so my whole life [I’ve been speaking it], so I didn’t really have to learn a new language. I could speak it, but just not fluently.”

Like many students here, he took Spanish as well.

“I took the class for four years, but I can’t really speak much,” he admits.

Popular music genres, according to fellow friends on his soccer team, include UK rap and American rap, as well as some German rap. He says that just like here, popular music “depends on what age group you're in.”

After graduation here he will return to Germany and complete more schooling to get all required credits. However, later in life he hopes to visit Norway to see the northern lights.

One word everyone should know, according to Anton is one many AP Lang students should recognize: Übermensch.

As a final fun fact, Anton is passionate about soccer, and he can play the drums!