After a group of students from Marburg, Germany, visited Manhattan High School for two weeks last fall to learn about Kansas and the United States, 11 MHS students took a two-week trip to visit those same German students at home in Marburg.

“The trip was awesome,” junior Ava Bunnell said. “I made a lot of really fun memories. I got to meet a lot of really cool people and see a lot of awesome things.”

This was the second time German Club president Connor Buchanan had the chance for an exchange trip to Germany. 

“I went on a different exchange my sophomore year so it was awesome going back, and it was even more fun to visit someone who had already stayed in my home for two weeks and meeting her family and all of her friends,” Buchanan said.

While in Germany, the American students traveled around the country and even to other countries like France and Switzerland. 

“We visited the Black Forest and would have certain times where we could roam around and look at the architecture and kind of compare it to the U.S.,” junior Sam Spiegel said. 

A couple days each week the students would go to school with their German exchange student partner.

“It was really interesting to see how a teenager from a different country functions in their day-to-day life,” Bunnell said.

At the very end of the trip of making memories, the American and German students, as well as the families each student stayed with, joined each other for one final dinner send-off. 

“I’d like to thank the German program for letting me go on such a fun and special trip,” Spiegel said. “I definitely won’t forget it.”

Later this month, MHS is partnering with the same school in Marburg to have a new batch of students come to Manhattan High for another two weeks from Sept. 29 to Oct. 15 with a new group visiting Marburg over the summer again. Those interested in helping with the exchange can reach out to president Buchanan or Manhattan High’s German teacher, Elke Lorenz. 

“The exchange is an awesome experience on both sides,” Lorenz said.