Even though she studied French and visited France, she decided to expand her horizons. As a Rotary Youth Exchange student, she asked for Germany and began studying German at St. Olaf.

She got her wish. Stevens, the daughter of Stan and Jan Stevens of Dundas, is living this year in Mannheim (MAHN-hime) in western Germany near the French border. Mannheim is located across the Rhine River from Ludwig-shafen; between them, these industrial cities produce optics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, plastics, iron, machinery, and many kinds of vehicles.

Stevens is impressed by how densely-populated the district is. She was surprised by the grid layout of downtown Mannheim until she discovered that 97 percent of the inner city was destroyed by bombing in World War II. It has many beautiful parks, a riverwalk, and a castle.

She will live with the same family all year. Her host father is a former tennis professional who now heads a division of an Italian sportswear company. He, his wife, and daughter help produce golf and tennis magazines. He is not a Rotarian but is a Lions Club member.

Stevens goes to a small school. She takes courses in physics, chemistry, math, ethics, art, politics, German and English. Because most students are studying for an important examination, Stevens does not participate in all their academic activities.

That gives her more time to travel. Every weekend, she either travels or plans her next trip. Early on, she was invited to go on a group trip to Perpignan, a city in the Basque region of southwestern France. Since then, she has traveled to Speyer (a nearby city with a famous cathedral), to Neuschwanstein and Munich in Austria, to Italy for skiing with other exchange students, and to Vienna and Kitzbuhl(also in Austria).

She hopes to visit Berlin and London sometime soon. She also plans to visit Ole Sonderby, a Danish Rotary Exchange student who lived in Northfield two years ago.

As a result of all this travel, Stevens' appetite has been whetted.

"I now want to travel and experience the more-exotic countries of the world,"she reports.

"The language is not problem for me anymore,"she writes. Thanks to her training at St. Olaf, she began speaking German from the beginning, even though her host family wanted to speak English. Now she thinks in German.

Like many American students abroad, she found that meal times are different. Her family eats at 8 p.m., and the meals last up to three hours. At meals, they like to help with her German and often debate a detail of language for a half hour.

Life in Mannheim is pleasant. Stevens went to her first hockey game recently: Mannheim beat Berlin. The food that most impresses her are the pretzels. They supposedly originated in that city, and there are pretzel stands everywhere. They are "the best I've ever had," she writes. She will "definitely miss my Mannheim pretzels."

Stevens is one of about 7,000 young men and women between the ages of 16 and 19 who study in foreign countries sponsored by the Rotary Youth Exchange Program each year. Next fall, she will enroll at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She hopes to study French again, to become more fluent in German, and to learn Spanish. These studies will certainly prepare her for lots more travel.

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