Exchange of Cultures

By Jill Seiler Enrollment Manager

Mater Dei experienced a European invasion of a fantastic kind this school year. For the first time (in recent memory), three foreign exchange students have walked these hallowed halls at the same time.

Emile Rejou-Mechain arrived last September from Niort, France, and is living with Jerry and Melanie Blanton and their son, Gabe, who will graduate in 2022. Michael and Julie Forcum and their daughter, Gretchen (Class of 2021), hosted Caterina Salpietro Cozzunella. Cate, as she likes to be called, arrived in January as did Linda Rattman from Straelen, Germany. Linda stayed with Jason and Marie Allen and their daughters MaKayla and Austin (Classes of 2022 & 2023 respectively).

I had the pleasure of sitting down with each of the exchange students to talk about their experiences during their time in Evansville and some differences they noticed in American culture compared to their own. Linda Rattmann, Age: 16 Languages spoken: German, English, French & Dutch

Tell me about your hometown, Straelen, Germany. It is a very small city, only about 500 people live there. I can ride my bike to all my friends’ houses and the Netherlands are at the end of my road. I can walk there. Also, my town is known for flowers and making flower pots.

What are some major cultural differences that you’ve experienced in America? Everything is bigger, everything is fried, and everything is extra large! And Americans are lazier (she giggles) in the way that they drive everywhere and have drive-thrus for everything. I also noticed there aren’t many family-owned businesses, most are big corporations that I see. Where I’m from, everything is family-owned. Also, we are more environmentally conscious. In Germany, there are no plastic bags, and we recycle almost everything.

How does the education system differ in Germany? We start taking English classes in 2nd grade. In fourth grade, we decide what school we want to go to, a lower, middle, or upper school. I’m in the upper school. If you decide after a while that you want to switch to a better school, you can, but it adds a year more to your education.

What do you want to do after you graduate? I want to go into either media design or marketing. I’d like to make commercials! Evansville is home to the Fall Festival which is known for offering some bizarre foods, have you tried any foods that you thought were weird? (She laughs) My host family mentioned the Fall Festival! I tried a donut burger one time. It was weird and ok, but I don’t want it again. I do love Chic-Fil-A though and wish we had those in Germany!

Do you miss any food from home? Ahh! Yes, the bread! Ours is homemade and whole grain, not white, and we have it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It is so good!

Did you pack anything that you thought for sure you would use, but haven’t here? Yes! I brought my electric toothbrush, but it won’t work in the outlets here. It’s a totally different plug! (laughing) I also packed about 15 t-shirts and have only worn about 5 of them.

What do you like best about your host family? Lots of action! It is never boring and they know how to have a lot of fun.

Tell me what you’ve enjoyed most about Mater Dei. Two classes are my favorites. I love yearbook class with Mrs. St. Clair and 3D Art with Mrs. Wallace, she’s pretty chill. But I love the school spirit. In Germany we don’t have school sports, so being able to participate on the cheer team and going to Archery State are memories I will always cherish!

Emile Rejou Mechain, Age: 16 Languages Spoken: French, English & a little Spanish

Tell me a little bit about your hometown. It is about the size of Evansville, but with lots of old buildings. The architecture is really cool and it’s only about an hour from the ocean.

How does the food compare to what you’re used to in France? Here, there is a lot of cheese and a lot of fast food. Not so much in France. Are there many differences between French and American Schools? The people here are very welcoming here and school is a lot different. In France, we are with the same students each day in the same classroom and the teachers change classes. I like changing classes here much better.

Are there any words or phrases that you’ve learned here that you didn’t know before? The word “garden”. Here it means to grow vegetables. In my English classes, we learn British English, and “garden” means something like you would call a “flower bed” here.

How about drinks? I tried sweet tea for the first time and I love it! In France, we don’t put anything in our tea and it’s so much better here. Americans love sugar.

Do you miss any food from home? No, American food is much better. What have you struggled with the most during your stay in America? Definitely the language. It’s much better now, but at first, I was scared of ordering fast food because they couldn’t understand my accent. Also at first, I couldn’t understand the teachers very well, but now I understand them. The teachers have been so patient with me and I thank them so much.

What do you like best about your host family? They are so welcoming. One of the best families I could ever have. I’m lucky about that. They’re always happy and smiling. I love them and I’m going to miss them so much when I leave.

Are there any memories you’ll always cherish? Hanging out with my host family and friends. I’ll miss driving around and going to baseball, softball, and lacrosse games, and going to parties.

Todd Niemeier O.D. Class of ‘91

Morgan Hussmann O.D.

Professional Eyecare Associates

2311 West Franklin Street Evansville, IN 47712 812-425-5131

Caterina Salpietro Cozzunella Age: 18 Languages Spoken: Italian, English, and a little Spanish

Tell me about your hometown in Italy. It’s very small, about 4,000 people. It’s a very rural town with a lot of farmers.

What are the major differences that you’ve seen between Italy and America? There are a lot of big cars and trucks, we have small cars. In Italy, there aren’t a lot of fast-food restaurants, and there is more obesity here.

Does the food taste better here or in Italy? Definitely Italy! (laughs) American food is much worse, more fattening. We don’t eat a lot of meat or fried things. We eat pasta at least four times a week, lots of vegetables, fruits, fish, and of course pizza! My favorite is tortellini and now that I’m 18, I’ll be able to drink wine which is very good in Italy!

Have you tried American pizza? I’ve tried Pizza Hut, the cheese pizza is pretty good actually.

What food do you miss most from home? My grandmother’s cooking! She makes real pizza, Italian desserts, and homemade pasta like carbonara, pesto, lasagna, and ragu. 22 Hold on, Ragu? Is it like the jar of spaghetti sauce you can buy at the grocery? (She laughs) No, ragu is a bolognese sauce!

Is there anything about American culture that you think is very strange? Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are always at the same time in Italy. Here, there is no set time. The cars are much bigger here and you can drive at age 16 instead of 18 in Italy. Also, school is different here, but better.

How is school different in Italy? We have the same classes all 5 years of high school and the same classmates. We don’t move classes, the teacher comes to our classroom.

Have you learned any new words or phrases that you weren’t taught in English class? Yes, a lot! (she laughs) Some of them are “no clue”, “bars”, “lame”, and “awkward”.

What job would you like to have someday? I want to be a dentist.

What do you like best about Mater Dei? All of the teachers are very nice and I like all of my classes especially Psychology with Mrs. Mitchell. Also, we don’t have sports in Italy. There we have to study every afternoon. Here I’m on the tennis team, so it’s so much fun going to practice or games every day after school.

What will you miss most about America? My host family. My host dad is very similar to me and likes to try new foods with me. And my host mom and sister are very kind. My two host brothers are funny and weird, but in a good way (she laughs). I am going to miss them. Any favorite memories you will cherish? Trips with my host family to Branson and Chicago. I also loved being at Mater Dei, all the new people I met, and all of my teachers, especially Mr. Goebel because he always gave me his (cinnamon) Goldfish cookies!

Do you have a favorite souvenir that you’re planning to take home with you? I’m taking a Mater Dei sweatshirt for my friend and a Mater Dei hat for my grandfather. We don’t have school brand clothes in Italy, so it’s something very special to us.

Sometimes it’s nice to take a few minutes to see your school and culture through the lens of someone else. While these exchange students’ experiences were all wonderful, thanks to the hospitality of their host families and Mater Dei’s welcoming atmosphere, I think it’s important to step back and realize how lucky we were to experience some diversity in the form of European culture for a year. Understanding these variations helps us appreciate the differences in our countries but also discover how similar we all are despite the distance.