Enhancing the student diversity here at North Penn High School, Nana Westen arrived here from Hamburg, Germany ready to spend a year in America to improve her English, to immerse herself in the culture, and to create everlasting memories.

“I really like it here!” she exclaimed. “I was a little scared coming over, but I think that that’s normal. But mostly I was really excited because I didn’t know what to expect. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.”

Nana is spending her year abroad with the James family, whose daughter Diana James is a sophomore here at North Penn. This year Nana went from living as an only-child to having three new host-sisters whom she loves and adores.

“I don’t have any siblings so it’s really cool here because I have three host sisters,” she shares.

Though since back in Germanyshe was the only child in the house, she solemnly admitted that, “[her] mom was really sad when [she] left.”

Yet the apprehensive fright of leaving her hometown, friends, and family did not impede on Nana’s ambition to follow her dreams. “Ever since I was little I wanted to do an exchange, and it was my dream to go to America. I don’t know why, but it was my childhood dream. I love to travel, so later in life I would love to do something where I get to travel a lot. It’s just a dream of mine. Before coming to America I went to three preparation weekends provided by my organization, the AFS (American Field Services),” she shared, “where I got to talk to people who already went to America, and I got to hear about their experiences here. I was able to get an idea of what it’d be like.”

Usually the exchange students who come to North Penn partake in the experience with the help and organization of the International Friendship Committee (IFC) where the IFC is a North Penn association that has sister schools set up in Germany, France, and Spain; however, Nana applied through a separate organization, the AFS, making the chance of such an experience available even though North Penn does not have a sister school in Hamburg.

Nana still, however, participates in the IFC club here at North Penn, along with the German club, Philosophy club, and she is also running for the track team since she unfortunately missed tryouts for the girl’s tennis season.

“The IFC and German clubs are my favorite,” she said, “because it is so funny when people try to speak German with me as I try to figure out what they are saying. Sometimes I can’t understand, but I tell them ‘good job’ anyways. I’ve met a lot of really nice people in these clubs.”

Nana not only was able to broaden her interests through clubs, but also picked electives that intrigued her – classes she claims would never be offered in her school in Germany.

“The best part of the day is my digital photo class; it’s the best class ever. I love it so much. Our homework is to take pictures, and then in class we work with Photoshop, and get to work on different projects. We don’t have classes like this in Germany, so to me, this is awesome!” She excitedly stated.

Instead, in Germany, she explained, “I have German (which is like English class here, but in German), then Math, Chemistry, Physics… but at my school we also have a dancing class and gym. Oh, and we have History, too, but nothing like the digital photo class.”

Not only are class options different, but Nana also found herself bewildered by the immense size of North Penn. She said:

“My school in Germany is really, really small, especially compared to North Penn. There’s about 200 people total in grades from first to twelfth, and we are all in the same building.” She added that “in Germany we have a different relationship with the teachers. Here, the teacher seems more like a friend when in Germany where it’s a lot stricter.”

“Also, the style here is so different!” Nana proclaimed. “For example, in Germany I would never wear sweatpants to school but here it’s totally normal. And some people come to school in pajama pants!” She laughed. “That would never happen in Germany. It’s kind of funny.”

Of course though, the biggest change she came across was the language – switching everything over from her native German into foreign English.

“It wasn’t that hard learning English,” she proudly stated, “because I started learning English in fifth grade, but it wasn’t too intense. It was more like singing songs rather than really learning to speak English. But my parents can speak English: my dad went abroad, like me, for half a year.”

She continued, “In the beginning it was hard to understand because everyone was talking so fast. I would get a headache those first days, and plus I was really tired because I had jet lag, but it got better. Now I am thinking in English – well it’s like a mix. At school I usually think in English because I’m thinking about the stuff we are learning, but it’s really funny, because one time I was trying to explain my digital photo class to my parents over Skype, and I couldn’t explain it in German because I learned all the words in English, so I was at a loss for words. My mom had no idea what I was talking about.”

Since she has been here Nana got to travel and see the nation’s capital, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and New York – of course New York being her favorite.

“New York!” she exclaimed with a gleam in her eye. “It was awesome. I love the city. I went twice: the first time with the forty Germans who were here for two weeks, and we went to places like Times Square and Central Park and walked down Fifth Avenue. And then I went another time with my advisors, Mrs. McGuirman and Mr. Brett, and the other exchange students, and we saw the Broadway show Wicked. I really liked it, it was really funny. After we had lunch in Central Park, and we even got to go to the Rockefeller Center. We went ice skating there, and it was really early in the morning, but we didn’t have to wait at all, so it was nice. I felt like I was in a movie, because you always see people in movies ice skating at Rockefeller Center.”

Having already seen several of America’s famous cities, she happily admitted that “I’m looking forward just to the second half of the year with my family and friends.”

It took her a while for the fact that she was in America to hit her; “I was so tired the first night that it didn’t faze me at all that I was actually here in America,” she shared. “But I got here two weeks before school started so I was a little bored the first two weeks, and I kept thinking to myself like ‘oh my gosh, what have you done? You are so stupid. Why are you here? What are you doing?’ But then school started and I was so busy that I didn’t think about home as much.”

Her only longing, besides missing her family and friends, was the “freedom” that she had in Germany, as “There, you can go everywhere my train or bus, but here you have to ask for rides all the time. It gets annoying,” she stated.

She also conveyed that, “We eat a lot of bread in Germany and I find myself missing the bread so much. But then again, there is pasta. I love pasta. I could eat pasta seven days a week.”

Being a vegetarian, it makes sense that she thoroughly enjoys pasta dishes. She started her vegetarian habit five years ago, and has been meat-free ever since. Her motive?

“I don’t like to eat meat, and I just don’t like the idea of eating dead animals,” she claimed, “so I became a vegetarian. In the beginning it was really hard because I was like ‘I need to eat meat!’ but now I don’t really care. I don’t really feel like I need to eat meat. Plus my dad is also a vegetarian.”

Luckily for her, her vegetarian lifestyle is not hard to follow, and she has no difficulty remaining on a strictly veggie diet.

“At restaurants there’s always some option with no meat,” she explained, “so going out isn’t that hard, but I think it is a little hard for my host family this whole vegetarian thing. My host mom always cooks me a separate vegetarian thing. When they cook meat, I just eat the vegetables, which is fine with me because I don’t mind if other people eat meat, I just don’t want to.”

Even though a year seems like a long time, Nana’s time here is limited, and a return date is already booked:

“I go back in June,” she said. “Well, my parents come in June. They are coming to pick me up and then we are going to stay here for three weeks and visit America. My ticket was for June 26^th, but because my parents are coming I get to stay longer. I am excited to see them again. I miss my family and friends, but then again, now I have a second family.”

It’s normal to be missing her family and friends back home, but Nana has no regrets coming to America. In fact, Nana is eager for what the year has to bring, and appreciative for all that she has gotten to do so far.

“If I could do it over again, I would still come to America. I love it here,” she said.