When Arik Dinkel ‘26 started his exchange year in Iowa City, he expected the worst. Coming from Munich, the third-largest city in Germany, Iowa City seemed like it would be boring in comparison. However, he has found himself pleasantly surprised.
“I thought it would be worse. I thought there wouldn’t be so many nice people,” Dinkel said. “The things you can do, the activities here, are way better than I imagined. Also, the school life is cooler than I imagined.”
Dinkel’s experiences of American High School have mostly been similar to his expectations, with the exception of the teachers’ attitudes.
“I thought the expectations are pretty much the same as the reality,” Dinkel said. “I would say that although I knew everything was going to be a bit easier, I feel like the teachers also are very welcoming, and they’re making sure you understand everything and making sure you feel welcome.”
Dinkel is taking AP Environmental Science, Economics, Culinary I, US Humanities, and AP Calculus BC.
“I would say the [biggest difference is the] size of the school, because in Munich the school I’m at is in the center of Munich, everything’s very crowded, and the school is not as big as here,” Dinkel said. “If I were to compare the lessons or general subjects, they’re way easier here, but the school in general is bigger and there are more people here.”
Though Dinkel hasn’t found himself as academically challenged as he was at his high school in Munich, he has found it difficult to speak in a different language all the time.
“I would say constantly speaking another language is pretty hard, like understanding people when they talk in slang language or not proper English,” Dinkel said. “Understanding people that speak very fast, that’s been pretty hard.”
One thing that Dinkel didn’t expect was the quality of school life. So far, his main experiences with that have been City High’s homecoming festivities.
“I thought PowderPuff was very cool. In general, the football field [and] football games were very cool,” Dinkel said. “I really liked the parade.”
To American high school students, who have grown up with a football field right outside their school, it may seem like an odd thing to note. However, Munich has almost four times the population density of Iowa City. So, there is far less room for a field of 5350 m^2 (and a traditional soccer pitch is even bigger).
“[The biggest surprise was] everything being so spaced out because you have a lot of farm land and in general, land,” Dinkel said. “If you compare the football fields, or in general, the sports centers like Mercer or the Hawkeye Recreation Center. It’s like you have more space for everything.”
