Earlier this month, Waterloo welcomed two students from its German sister city of Porta Westfalica.

With their month-long visit concluded, Angela Stratman, the student exchange coordinator for Sister Cities of PortaLoo, offered insight into the program and all it offers to those who participate.

Stratman herself took part in the program in 2015, being the only student from Waterloo to travel to Germany that year.

“I’ve been slightly involved since then with the board, just trying to give back to an organization that gave me that great experience,” Stratman said.

She briefly described her time in Porta Westfalica, bouncing from one host family to the next each week and getting to experience a small taste of student life in Germany.

Stratman placed particular emphasis on the importance of relationships formed during her trip.

“Two of the girls that I stayed with I still talk to every single day, and that was in 2015,” Stratman said. “The fact that we’re still talking every day is amazing to me. It formed lifetime friendships, and they’re always asking me to come back over to Germany, and they know when they come to the U.S. that they also have a place to stay. It just gives you that sense of not just friendship, they also feel like family.”

It’s little wonder why Stratman would wish to stick around the Sister Cities organization, helping other students have the kind of experience she was able to enjoy.

She recently took the reins from previous exchange coordinator Debbie Cummins.

“They kind of elected me to take over the position since I was an exchange student myself so I had an understanding of how the program works and kind of the experience of it all,” Stratman said. “So it kind of fell into my lap a little bit, but I was very happy to take it over.”

The first visit Stratman oversaw this summer seems by all accounts to have been successful, with visiting students Jordis Funke and Cecile Homeier bidding Waterloo a fond farewell Monday evening.

As Stratman, Funke and Homeier recounted, the students have spent the last few weeks experiencing all Monroe County and this region has to offer.

Of particular note was the time spent in St. Louis, where they were able to visit the Gateway Arch, City Museum, St. Louis Zoo and Missouri Botanical Garden. They were also able to spend a day running around Six Flags.

Like Stratman did in Germany, the pair spent their month in town with various host families. Funke noted how friendly each of their hosts had been.

Stratman said she served as host for one week, taking the girls on a trip to Holiday World in Indiana. She noted that this means Funke and Homeier were able to visit four states, including a brief period in Kentucky during their trip.

While several days of their trip were spent on what locals might consider to be tourist destinations, the students did get to experience more typical Waterloo life.

This included spending some time at the Monroe County Fair, which Stratman said tends to coincide with the student exchange each year, allowing the visiting students to experience something very unique to their life in Germany.

Of course, there was also unique fun to be had in some of the quieter moments, as Stratman recalled playing cards with the girls for hours on end.

“I can’t tell you how many hours of just playing cards we did at my house because they just wanted to relax and get to have fun and do that kind of thing,” Stratman said. “I don’t know if that’s something that they do super often, but my family plays a lot of cards.”

Both Funke and Homeier previously spoke very briefly with the Republic-Times, speaking rather positively about their time in the community.

They also both expressed a similar reason for wanting to take part in the student exchange.

“I’m very interested in the culture, and I really wanted to see the differences between Germany and America,” Homeier said. “Also, I wanted to improve my English.”

As Stratman was able to catch up with the two of them at the end of their visit on Monday, she said they seemed to have an enjoyable time in the U.S.

“They got to do a wide variety of things, and they both seemed when I talked to them that they had a really great time,” Stratman said. “And it almost sounds like they’re wanting to plan another trip already.”