After a long awaited dream trip to study in America, Paul Dirk finally arrived in Elmhurst this summer to be one of York’s two exchange students. Dirk traveled all the way to Illinois from Hamburg, Germany, only travelling to the states once before.

Dirk described his hometown as similar to Elmhurst, however the aspect that differed was school. Dirk’s school has only 400 students, while York has a whopping 2,692 students.

“There are so many opportunities at York,” Dirk said, “The people here are so friendly and very open.”

Dirk is currently running on York’s Cross Country team, and is unsure of what other sports and activities he may do in the future.

Dirk began learning English in fifth grade. More impressively, in addition to English, he speaks Romanian, French, and Spanish. If you count his native language –German– that adds up to a total of five languages!

Thus far, Dirk has went to the beach in Chicago, but plans on doing a lot more sight seeing. Dirk said that he misses his family, but speaking with them often helps. As for the American stereotypes, all Dirk had to say is that “everything is bigger here.”