Hello! My name is Lorelei, I´m 21 years old, and I´m from Dallas, Texas. I am so excited to be a Foreign Language Assistant through the Fulbright Germany exchange program! I currently help teach English at two schools, Mittelschule Bad Reichenhall und, of course, Mittelschule Piding. A little about my background - I lived in the Dallas area my entire life until a month ago! This past May, I graduated from the University of North Texas with my Bachelor´s in English and two minors in Education and German. I also worked as an English tutor in the DFW area (Dallas-Fort-Worth) where I assisted some students who were learning English as a foreign language. Because of my passion for teaching and language learning, I decided to apply for a Fulbright grant ... and I never though I would be lucky enough to get it!!

Many people wonder why I started learning German and wanted to move here. For me, it seemed like a no-brainer. My dad speaks German. He learned it in highschool, just like me, except he is much better. Both of my parents love travelling, and my dad is obsessed with language learning, so as a kid I was interested in different cultures. When I had to pick a language to learn for school I picked German because I liked the way the language sounded. I never would have believed I´d be teaching English here in Piding!

I´ve only been here for a month and a half, but I´ve definitely learned from this experience that it´s important to challenge yourself to get out of your comfort zone!! I definitely am; I´m miles and miles away from my friends and family (of 13 people), my two cats, and my wonderful friends. But, I am having a blast learning about German culture and language while helping students improve their English skills! I think my favorite moment so far has been attending Oktoberfest in München, but a close second was carving pumpkins with three classes at Mittelschule Piding! I loved hearing about how students do or do not celebrate Halloween, and I got to share American Halloween traditions! The funniest part was that some students were scared to touch the seeds of the pumpkin! At the end students got to "trick or treat" as they left the classroom. It was a great time! (Text: Lorelei Nichols)