German foreign exchange student comes to Costa for a new experience

By Nick Lee
Staff Writer

Taking on a completely new lifestyle in a foreign country as an exchange student is not easy. However, Junior Linus Weber, a German exchange student, attends Mira Costa with big plans and intentions.

Weber left Munich, Germany in late August to come to California. He will be living in Manhattan Beach for the next ten months with senior Devon Feaster and her family.

“It seems weird having someone in your house, but overtime he has become apart of the family,” Feaster said. “Since my brother left for college, it’s like having another brother.”

At the start of summer, Weber signed up to come to school overseas. Later that month, Weber’s AAU basketball team came to California to play in tournaments and practiced in Manhattan Beach. Here, he met Marx and the Feaster family who helped him get to Costa.

“I hope Linus will experience being in a new social culture, have a new academic experience, and experience extracurricular activities,” Marx said.

Along with learning and understanding the cultures and traditions in the United States, Weber has exposed his host family to a little bit of the German Culture by cooking German meals and teaching the Feasters German.

“The food is alright, it has the same ingredients that we use, but has a strange abnormal flavoring that I’m not use too,” Feaster said. “I’m working on my German, but the words are very long and extremely hard to pronounce.”

After his first couple of weeks at Costa, Linus realized how different his previous school was from Costa. At first, Weber thought language would be his biggest challenge, however, he did not anticipate the amount of homework and studying Costa demands.

“School in America is very weird,” Weber said. “In Germany, the subjects are a lot different and we have different classes on various days; we hardly take notes and there is little to no homework”.

Weber spent his summer exploring all over L.A.. The Feaster family has taken Weber to many tourist attractions such as Hollywood, Venice Beach and Universal Citywalk.

“I love L.A., the weather is wonderful here and a lot less rain,” Weber said. ” I also love the people because they are very welcoming and diverse.”