This school year, CFHS has eagerly welcomed three new foreign exchange students, including one senior from the Netherlands, Mathijs Staal. Mathijs came to America through AFS, the American Field Service, an organization that hosts exchange students for ten months. He decided to spend the year abroad to fill his time between high school and college. Encouraged by the welcoming students of CFHS, he quickly adjusted. In fact, Mathijs was so popular on the first day of school, that “multiple people wanted to sit with me at lunch and I had to awkwardly choose between them”. Mathijs is participating in football, wrestling, and baseball to stay in shape from frequent visits to Panda Express and Chipotle — his favorite American restaurants. Even though he didn’t know what to expect, Mathijs says that he really likes Cannon Falls, and is looking forward to the rest of the year.

4,200 miles from the Eiffle Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the Mona Lisa, Cannon Falls’ new foreign exchange student Stanislas Magnier probably went through an enormous amount of jet lag. But even just a couple weeks into school it is clear that he is acclimating well.

Nerves affect everyone, however. As Stanislas (Stan for short) admits, “I was very nervous to come here but pleasantly surprised by how nice all the people were.” Friendliness at Cannon Falls meaning gaggles of lunch table cohorts and boisterous classes.

A culture shock unique for him as a student was the change in class sizes. While Cannon Falls has a graduating class of about one hundred (miniscule when compared for the class sizes of Northfield and Hastings), Stan’s contains a scant thirty.

Whether it’s a few thousand miles from fresh croissants or a few feet from some Minnesotan hotdish, the exchange program has a lot to offer its travelers.

If anyone saw Magdalena Heynicke, a sophomore currently attending Cannon Falls High School,  walking down the hallway, they’d think she was just another student. Magdalena, however, is from Germany and is one of our exchange students this year. She lives in Ratzeburg, Germany, which is a small town surrounded by very picturesque lakes. The reason she decided to join the exchange program was because she hoped to try something new, and have different experiences. There are many things that Magdalena enjoys doing, including

watching movies and reading books such as Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, playing sports such as tennis and basketball, and playing the violin. One of her favorite foods here, that isn’t very common in Germany, is pancakes and waffles. She’s able to speak multiple languages such as German, Spanish, French and, of course, English. Currently she’s staying with the French’s, then switches host families after Thanksgiving.