OSWEGO — It was simply over one week earlier than Emilia Georgi was set to board a airplane to the United States to start her international alternate program.
The solely drawback? She had no concept the place the airplane can be taking her.
“Some people get their host families like half a year before. I got mine a week before my flight,” Georgi stated. “They called me and were like, ‘OK, you’re going to go to Oswego next week. … I had, like, one call with them before I came over.”
Georgi, a native of Germany, has spent the 2021-22 faculty yr as a international alternate scholar at Oswego High School, making new associates, studying new sports activities, and cultivating unforgettable reminiscences.
Even with the late discover as to her home for the next yr, every little thing labored out, as Georgi stated the time along with her host household has “been really good.”
“We’ve had a lot of fun experiences,” she stated. “We had a great time.”
Georgi stated she quickly seen a lot of variations between the United States and Germany, together with in relation to sports activities.
“The school is totally different, and how you guys celebrate Christmas is different. The food is different,” stated Georgi. “I could literally say everything, everything’s just different here.”
Once the college yr started, she was fast to make associates, with varsity ladies lacrosse captain Azalia Avery saying she launched herself to Emilia in the course of the first interval of faculty.
“We have our first period class together,” stated Avery. “I went up to her and was like, ‘Hey, here’s my Snapchat. I’m on the lacrosse team, I do volleyball. You should play.’ She was really nervous at first, and I would just make her talk to me every day. And now we’re, like, really close.”
While she is a determine skater again home, Georgi didn’t take part in any fall sports activities at OHS. Come winter-time, nonetheless, that modified.
“I did not play any fall sports, and I was just sitting in my room all the time,” Georgi stated. “You get some school friends, but not really connections to people. So I was like, ‘I’m just going to try something to get involved, meet friends.’”
That one thing ended up being hockey, with Georgi saying she signed up “because I thought it’s interesting to try.”
“About a week before the season, she stopped in my room and asked if I was the guy to talk to for hockey,” stated OHS varsity ladies hockey coach Mike Fierro. “I said yes, and she said she’s a foreign exchange student from Germany and she’d like to play. I asked her if she’d ever played before, and she said no. I said, well, hockey’s a tough sport to pick up.”
Similar to Georgi’s preliminary flight to the U.S., the late discover labored out, as she joined the staff and “picked it up really fast,” based on teammate Kat Winchek.
“I heard that we were getting a foreign exchange student on the hockey team, and I was so excited. I met her, and she’s such a fun-spirited person,” Winchek stated. “During hockey, I tried to help her out. She picked it up really fast. But I would pass to her, and we would talk. Now I drive her to and from lacrosse practice. I got to know her really well, and she’s such a fun person. I can’t get enough. She’s so much fun.”
Fellow hockey teammate Bella Koproski stated she first met Georgi in the staff’s locker room.
“I saw her in the locker room, she picked out her locker, and I was like, ‘Who is that person?’” stated Koproski. “After a little bit, getting to help her and know her and everything, it was like an immediate click, a bond together, and it was awesome.”
Fierro stated that Georgi “fit right in” with the Bucs’ squad, and she appeared to agree, saying her teammates “were all super nice.”
Her athletic exploits didn’t finish at hockey, nonetheless. Georgi additionally joined the varsity ladies lacrosse staff at Oswego in the spring, taking part in with not solely lots of her hockey teammates but additionally beneath Fierro, who’s an assistant coach for the ladies lacrosse squad.
OHS varsity ladies lacrosse head coach Ted Beers, who stated he spent six months in Germany in school, “had a nice conversation” with Emilia after she approached Fierro about becoming a member of the staff.
Beers stated Georgi was clear in her want to easily “have fun and be a part of the group.” Just as Winchek stated with hockey, Beers famous that Georgi was fast to select up lacrosse.
“After she really started figuring things out, she’s really done well with it,” stated Beers. “She’s played in several games for us. She’s had a blast. I think she’s really enjoyed herself here.”
“For lacrosse, I helped her out a bunch, and she picked it up so quick,” Koproski stated. “I was like, ‘How have you never played this sport before?’ She’s such a quick learner.”
Georgi stated the expertise of collaborating in highschool sports activities is way completely different than in Germany.
“It’s so much better here. We don’t really have school sports. When you go to school, you don’t play a sport through the school. When you want to play a sport, you just pick a club in your hometown,” Georgi stated. “It’s totally different, but I like it a lot more here. It’s easier to get into a sport, you can try a lot more. I picked my sport there for seven years and I never did something else. Here, you can try what you want. I really liked it.”
As for the choice to play sports activities for the Bucs? Georgi stated it was “the best decision” she’s made since coming to Oswego.
“Just because I made so many friends, and both of my teams, they were so supportive and helped me through the whole year,” stated Georgi. “It was the best thing I ever did here. … From the first second, I’ve felt really welcomed, and it was so nice. … And also, I can literally feel it when we’re playing lacrosse, they’re hyping me up and being so nice. I really love it.”
But because the lacrosse season winds down, each the college yr and Georgi’s time in Oswego are also creeping to a shut. Upon returning to Germany, Georgi must end one other yr of faculty earlier than graduating, one thing she stated was “worth it.”
“Not many people do it, because I would be done this year,” she stated. “All my friends are graduating this year, but I’m going to have another 12th grade. But I learned English, I made new friends. I got to know a whole different culture, so I think it’s worth it.”
Her teammates definitely thought it was price it as nicely, with all three saying they discovered issues to remove from their expertise with Emilia.
Koproski, who’s dedicated to play girls’s lacrosse at Clarkson University, stated it was “surprising” to listen to of the variations between the 2 nations in relation to sports activities.
“Like, I love lacrosse, and she’s never heard of it before. That’s so interesting, like what do you guys do that we don’t do?” Koproski stated. “And then to hear the stuff that she does back home and the sports that she plays, that sounds amazing. Like, I want to just go there for a year like she does here, just to try it out.”
“Getting to experience her first time playing it is so much fun,” stated Winchek. “Also, the words she taught us.”
Avery stated her time with Georgi helped her take away an “appreciation for different things,” noting that Georgi discovered lots of these in Oswego.
“I feel like it’s the small things that matter,” Avery stated. “The sports, the new people.”
While Georgi will quickly return to Germany and go away the United States behind, the reminiscences she made will stick along with her for a lifetime.
“I’m sure she’ll stay in contact with quite a large number of the girls,” stated Beers. “For Emilia, I think she’s built quite a lot of memories to go home with too.”
“I’m always going to have family and friends here, and I’m going to tell everyone how cool it is to try a new sport,” stated Georgi. “How the whole experience is so … everything’s different. Take a small thing out of everything.”