Sean Davidson
Reporter
To students who have lived in New Canaan for most of their lives, New Canaan does not seem to be that unusual of a town, but to students who recently transferred to NCHS, life in New Canaan requires some adjustments. Sophomore Maddy Brust experienced such adjustments when she moved to New Canaan. “I’m from North Carolina, and we do things a lot differently down in the South,” she said. “I never got a plate of cookies when I moved up here, and whenever you move in the South you always get a welcome basket of cookies from your neighbors.”
Maddy’s experiences in New Canaan have been quite different from the Southern hospitality she knew in North Carolina. “Southern hospitality is definitely a real thing,” she said. “In general, people are just nicer down South.”
After spending the past few years in several international schools as far away as Taiwan, sophomore Isabel Marshall also faced adjustments when she moved to New Canaan. “I’ve adjusted much better than I thought I would, because this is a place that is so different from anywhere else I have ever lived,” she said.
Unlike Maddy, Isabel was pleasantly surprised by New Canaan when she first arrived. “To me this is a typical American school, which is something I have never experienced before,” she said. “The people here were very nice and welcoming.”
Tina Hasenauer, a junior exchange student from Germany, found New Canaan welcoming as well. “I adjusted pretty quickly, and more easily than I expected,” Tina said. “Of course it was a struggle at first to be all alone in a country and to speak a different language all day long, but the endless support of my host family and the open community helped me to feel at home pretty quickly.”
Tina was surprised by the sense of community at NCHS. “Something that I definitely consider unusual is the school spirit that we have here, because we didn’t really have sports in my German school,” she said. “Back in Germany, we don’t have any school spirit, so I’m definitely going to miss the school spirit when I go back in July.”
Another adjustment new students have to face is the food. “There is more fast food here, and a larger variety of foods,” Isabel said. “America is the idea of a melting pot, but it’s not authentic.”
Tina also misses the food she grew up with. “I really miss German food; like the bread and German chocolates,” she said.
While the food here may be diverse, some believe the population is not. “There was definitely more diversity in the international schools,” Isabel said.
Maddy agreed, and was surprised by the lack of diversity. “I’ve never seen so many white people in one building before,” she said.
In addition to the lack of racial diversity, English is the single dominant language, unlike in an international school. “Hearing English all the time is not something I am used to,” Isabel said. “My family always spoke English, but it’s different to hear it in public.”
Tina enjoys the size of New Canaan, rather than the “really small German village” she grew up in. “I like how everything here is closer together,” she said. “Where I grew up, things were very spread out. New Canaan, on the other hand, conveniently has all you need right in town.”
Although transitioning might be a tough process, some new students are thankful for the friendly and welcoming environment of NCHS. “New Canaan is like a second home for me,” Tina said. “As an exchange student, you never know what the place you’re moving to is going to be like. I was really lucky, because the open community and all the nice people made it a lot easier for me to feel welcome.”
