Miami is home to a plethora of people with diverse backgrounds and cultures, which makes adapting easy for most visitors. The task becomes harder for people like sophomore exchange student Romy Schwarz, who traded her life in southwest Germany for a completely new experience in South Florida.

Through a student exchange program, Schwarz left her small village in the outskirts of Stuttgart to visit Miami to practice her English. She has studied the language since the first grade, but now was the time she could really put it to use. Her visit is rather short – she will be leaving at the beginning of February, with one full semester in America under her belt.

“Being [part of] a host family for an exchange student is super cool. We get to learn about Romy’s German heritage while also getting to watch her learn about American culture. It also makes me look at Miami a little differently and appreciate it more. It’s a neat experience,” senior Brooke Donner, who’s family is housing Schwarz, said.

Attending Gables was one of the first major differences Schwarz encountered. Back in Germany, she would drive 30 minutes to attend a fifth to twelfth grade school. The difference in size of schools came as a shock to her, since the 700 students that made up the student body there could not compare to the over 3000 students at Gables.

“It’s much bigger here than my school in Germany. We have different schedules and more subjects. School is also different in Germany because we don’t do sports at school, so we do them at clubs in the towns we live in,” Schwarz said.

In the past months, Schwarz has gotten used to her life in Miami, which makes leaving it all behind sad for her. If offered, she would go through the whole experience again. Gables has been an important part of her journey and she will be returning to Germany as an honorary Cavalier.