Liv Gerlach shares what it’s like to be the only exchange student on campus

The statistics MIPA workshop director Chad Sanders shared with campers on Sunday missed the most interesting one of all: one person from Germany. Liv Gerlach has never been to America before, but most students wouldn’t know it if they met her. Melissa Higgs, an Editing student at MIPA, was skeptical.

“Are you lying? Is she really from Germany?” Higgs asked. In fact, Liv is from Darmstadt, Germany, it even says Lichtenbergschule (the name of her school) on her name tag.

So far, Gerlach said she really likes the people she has met. “They are very offen (German for “open”),” Gerlach said. “They are very friendly and will share a lot about themselves with you. They are really cute and sweet.”

Gerlach is only here for eight weeks this summer because she said she wanted to learn about the United States and experience the culture.

“At this camp, I want to take a lot of pictures, have fun and experience American students, but I didn’t want to write in English,” Gerlach said. “This is why I did not want to go to school. I wanted to meet lots of people, but school is a lot of work. I wanted to have fun in America.”

Gerlach is enrolled in the Beyond the Basics photography course. She spent her time on Monday in the garden with her classmates, taking pictures.

“The first day was really strange,” Gerlach said, “but it is fun now.” She took a picture of a girl in the park with her hands clasped in front of her, running across the path. “I really love this one,” Gerlach said. “She is so happy. I just watched her and made photos, oh, she was so cute.”

On Monday afternoon, Gerlach made her way out onto Shaw Terrace to tie-dye her camp T-Shirt.

“Every time I have done these, they have been so bad,” Gerlach said. “I hope not this one.” She took the rubber bands off the T-Shirt and laid it on the grass, “Oh, I like it!” Gerlach said. “The purple is not so nice, but otherwise it looks good.

“I really like it here in America,” Gerlach said. “At first it was really strange, but it is better now. It is different than Germany, but I like it. It’s a good different.”