First Exchange Student – Christian #1
My first exchange student Christian #1 (left) and his younger brother Sebastian at their home in Seeheim, Germany.
Christian #1 went to El Modena high school. He was the first of my exchange students all going to Elmo.
He also took AP classes and the obligatory German class I made sure he signed up for. The German teacher had no idea what was in store down the road. LOL.
Christian #1 and Sebastian at home. That’s the parent’s Mercedes Benz parked in the driveway behind them. The same car they insisted I use while I was staying at their house. They rented a car for their own use, while I was there, even though I kept telling them that wasn’t necessary, but they wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Christian #1 sleeping in his room at my house in Huntington Beach, CA. (left)
Travis (center) with Sebastian and Christian #1 at their house in Seeheim, Germany.
And the running question that would be asked every time I’d say the word “Seeheim,” would always be “Lufthansa?” And my answer, “No!”
It didn’t matter what the situation was, whenever the word “Seeheim” came up, it was always the same question.
I later learned that Lufthansa’s headquarters was located in Seeheim. Then it made sense, but still irritating.
So eventually I would just preempt the question, as soon as I saw their mouth start to move I’d say, “No, not Lufthansa,” before they could even ask the question, for my own sanity-preservation.
Me visiting a recreation of an apothecary and medicine from the 1500’s.
Christian #1’s brother Sebastian gave up his room for me while I was staying with the family.
His parents booted him out of his room while I was there to sleep on the couch. I felt bad about that. I told them they didn’t need to do it.
He also went with Christian, some of his friends and me to a dance club in Darmstadt, a nearby town.
Once inside, Sebastian sat next to me at the bar and decided he wanted to try some tequila shooters. So I showed him the proper technique: lick the salt off your hand near your thumb, drink the shot, then put the lime wedge in your mouth.
He drank one and immediately wanted another one, and then another one, until he must have had five or six—complaining after every shot:
“I feel nothing!”
About 45 minutes later, I saw Sebastian come flying out of a huge mosh pit, sliding across the floor and crashing into a wall. By then, he sure was “feeling something.”
I do remember that he got screamed at by his parents when we got home. I could hear it from his semi-soundproof bedroom/drum room in the basement. I felt bad for him, but he wouldn’t listen… so what am I supposed to do?
Christian #2 – Second Exchange Student
Christian #2 and me back at his home town Mainz, Germany. While attending El Modena high school he also took AP physics and/or AP calculus classes.
Of course, I had him sign up for a German class, where he ended up correcting the teacher repeatedly throughout this semester. The German teacher wasn’t done yet…
The Mainz neighborhood where Christian #2 and his best friend Mathias lived growing up just down the street from each other.
Christian #2’s car.
Christian #2 (left) chilling during a trip we took to check out Hamburg, Germany.
Me plowing down some food (below).
We rented these cars with a group tour package to around the city streets of Hamburg. We drove around for at least an hour, maybe more, in a group of probably eight or ten cars in the middle of traffic on busy inner city streets. They were really fun to drive and were actually pretty fast.
Christian #2, his girlfriend Sarah and I all went out to have some fun at my local watering hole one evening during their visit to Doha.
This is the same restaurant where Yanuar worked, the kid I met and became friends with working in Doha and later visited him in Bali where he was from originally.
When Christian #2 came with his girlfriend to visit me while I was working in Doha, Qatar. We all bought arabic clothes at an open-air marketplace/souk ‘just because’. After returning home, I used to dress up like that for Halloween in my dress whites,’as I called them.
Outside Christian #2’s house in Munich, Germany on a return trip I took to Germany years later.
Christian’s friends and I out celebrating during one of my trips back to Germany.
Christian #2 (center) and his best friend, Mathias – AKA ‘The Machine’, who lived in the same neighborhood growing up, (2nd from the right).
I thought I was pretty good at tennis, but Mathias’s mom kicked my butt several times when we played. I blamed losing on everything and everybody, except for the fact that she was better than I was.
Jon – My Third Exchange Student
Jon was my third exchange student. The first kid I hosted from Norway. He spoke several languages, one being German. He played varsity soccer and took AP classes and was voted Homecoming King while he attended El Modena high school in Orange, CA.
Ironically, years later our paths crossed again when I was in the Middle East, working in Dubai, UAE.
Mikey one of my workout buddies and roommate eventually (above left) sitting at my office desk doing some coding work I taught him.
Jason (above right) was the third workout partner in our group sitting in my backyard patio area with me.
Me at 35 years old when I was working out with my 18 and 19 year old workout partners, Mikey and Jason.
This was also the start of a great friendship, new experiences and opening doors into their church world.
It was around this same time that Jason, Mikey and I played tackle football with a bunch of their same age friends, WITHOUT pads, helmets or protection. Kinda dumb now. But boys can be boys!
Lucky, I took care of myself and was in decent shape, or it could have been much worse for my extremely sore body, which lasted for about a week afterwards.
Yanuar back home in Bali, Indonesia, when I went to visit him on a vacation while working in Qatar.
Yanuar and me. Bali beach at my hotel (below).
This was the route we traveled to go to the island where the custom was to ‘bury‘ their dead above ground.
