Exchange students find opportunities, lots of food

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) — Living in Vermont is a very different experience for exchange students, who are navigating everything from eating to transportation challenges to snow.

Coming to Brattleboro had come as "a big surprise" to Bennet Oetken, 16, of Germany, who signed up for the program but didn't know where in the United States he would be going.

"I really enjoy it because you have like everything," he said. "You have winter and summer, too. That's really cool. There's lots of opportunities here."

He liked watching the Harris Hill Ski Jump held in Brattleboro last month.

"I think Vermont's a really neat place," said Alec Daudert, 16, of Germany. "It's not as conservative as the south and the people are a lot more open."

Oetken visited New York City with other exchange students. He described it as "so great."

"It was crazy with all the skyscrapers," he said, "but it's really crowded. That's one bad thing."

Daudert said "everything was lit up."

"I really enjoyed New York. There's just something happening everywhere you look," Daudert said.

Both Oetken and Daudert find the community inside and outside the school to be welcoming. Like many of the other exchange students, they also enjoy being able to take classes not offered to them at home.

"Here we can choose," Daudert said. "You can really focus on your interests."

Arturo Rodriguez, 17, of Mexico said he is learning "a lot of different and new stuff."

"I like it very much here," he said.

One thing he is noticing is how normal fast food is here: Where he might consume it once every 50 days at home, he's finding himself eating it as often as once each day here.

His favorite are hamburgers from Five Guys in Keene, N.H. He called the new, meatless Impossible Whopper...