As she sits down, strands of her hair fall across the stripes of her starry bandana, her own American bandana. “I’m America today,” she says as she raises her head a little higher and smiles proudly.

It wasn’t always like this for Maria Krasnova, one of Tomball’s foreign exchange students. America seemed exciting, but too distant for reality.

“We were all really awake, I probably only slept about ten minutes, I was so excited,” she said, recalling her trip to the U.S. last summer. “At one point you just want to get out, you want to see it. And then we started talking and asking ourselves do we really want this, do we really want to be an exchange student, one year not at home!”

She remembers looking at Alina and Nina, now fellow exchange students at Tomball, as she danced in her seat and waved to the other excited travellers.

“I remember we landed on the ground and we couldn’t come out for an hour, and so we sat there and we started saying things like ‘We’re in Houston! I want home! I don’t want to be here!’ ” she said. “You start to think, ‘Why did I do this?! I want the next airplane back home. I don’t want America’ … but it’s America!”

Red. White. Blue. Maria adjusts her bandana that flaunts the colors, in appreciation for her new home away from home and prepares herself to explain the anticipation of meeting her new host family.

This is the climax of the event, it makes the annoying time spent on the plane worth it, makes the uncomfortable seat bearable, it even lightened any doubts she had.

“They hug you and you’re like ‘That is my family for the next year,’” she said. “You just have a flash, and after this first flash or shock, you just start talking, a real conversation. They are interested in you and you’re interested in them, but you’re really tired! It’s a lot of emotions all at the same time.”

Her face brightens up when asked about her ‘new family.’ Her eyes scan the table as she reminisces of the profound memories she has made so far and tries to put it into words.

“Most of my friends have siblings, so I know how it works, between siblings – how they fight and how they love each other one moment,” she said. “It’s funny how the mood changes fast.”

Maria and her host family get along well, but for her it’s very different because she’s an only child. In Germany, she lived with her mother and occasionally other women in her family, so siblings have been a very new factor in her life.

“It’s a big experience! They are funny though,” she said of her new sisters. “One will say ‘You took my Skinny jeans!’” she says with her hands in the air, “and I think to myself ‘Guys, there are plenty of skinny jeans!’”

Maria has been on the go since she’s arrived. She’s in band and a number of AP classes.

Her wrist flies into action as the bell rings. She checks the time on her watch as time, again, winds her up like a spring – and she’s off to take on the next task of the day, which is usually school work.

In Germany, she is a sophomore, but here in the US, she is a junior because of the differing school systems. She enjoys experiencing school in America, it’s different and exciting.

“If I was rich and old, I would start my own exchange organization!” she said. “I would suggest it to all young people, if you can and you have the opportunity to go somewhere, to just take a look into other worlds, not just the one you’ve grow up in”

Of course, the education systems differ, but the culture and the definition of a “normal” high school experience is also very contrasting. For instance, Germany doesn’t have Prom.

“Of course, I miss my friends ” she said, “But then I think ‘I’m not going home, I’m going to the prom here!’ I don’t care what parties you have, I went to the prom in America!”

When asked about the difference of the kid’s attitudes and traits in America compared to Germany, Maria said, “German kids are much more independent.”

In Germany, there are many options to get away from parents like taking the train and going downtown.

Other than difficulty of keeping in touch with friends and family, Maria also expresses some of the things she misses about Germany and what she’s going to miss about America.

Maria admits that she misses the flat land of her hometown.

“I could just grab my bike and I could just be like ‘Okay, I’m coming over,’ and here you need a car to go anywhere – it’s awful, especially since we can’t get our license when we are seventeen”.

Maria flips her hair up mimicking the breezy feeling of her bike ride to her friends house, but gets distracted by the thought of ice cream, and quickly puts her hands over her face ashamed.

“But the ice cream here is much better, like I love Blue Bell and the cookies.” she said. “If you want my love, get me cookies and brownies and I will love you forever! I will also really miss the trucks- I love trucks.”