For her junior year, Jette Schone left her home and family in Germany to be an exchange student in Florida. She says she decided to move here “to improve my English skills so that I’ll hopefully be fluent by the end of the year.” She also says, “Another reason is the overall American experience that I always wanted to have…like I know it from the movies.” Jette also wanted to start a new life in a different culture to become independent. One of the things Jette looked forward to in Florida was the climate. She also says “I’m hoping to collect some more memories which I can actually remember,” since she had been here on vacations when she was very young. After she applied for an exchange year, she had to wait for six months, “which was a very nerve-wracking time,” she says. Jette first arrived in New York with many other exchange students from all over the world before they spread out and went to their final destinations. Luckily, she says “there was another German girl who was also placed in Florida, so we had the same final flight.” When Jette finally made it to Florida, her first friend was her host sister, sophomore Zoe Marks. She also became friends with some of the cheerleaders at Sunlake. She says being on the cheer team “made my American experience perfect.” She had always wanted to try the sport, and “as I expected it was so fun and I loved it,” she says. When it’s time to return to Germany, Jette will miss the school spirit, Thursday’s cheerleading, and Friday’s football games, and “obviously the second family I have here now and the friends I made,” she says. To sum up the experience, she says, “the whole process is an emotional roller coaster, but the moment I got the confirmation [to go to Florida], I couldn’t have been happier.”