BY IZZIE BONILLA
Staff Writer

Baldwin students may complain about the class-selection process every February, but the 28 Austrian students who visited in September like Baldwin’s elective choices.  

“We don’t have all the extra classes like pre-school and photography,” Austrian Alexandra Petru said.

In Austria, students stay in the classroom all day while teachers travel among rooms to teach their various subjects.

“You can do so many things here and pick what subjects you like to study,” Emina Hasanovic said.

They agreed that Baldwin’s Partners PE class was something special, because children with disabilities in Austria go to a different school.

German teacher Scott Hindman organized the visit by the Austrians, who spent a week here. They visited places in Pittsburgh such as the South Side, the Incline, Carnegie Mellon Field Robotics Center, and Laurel Caverns.

“The real goal is for us to learn Austrian culture first-hand and for them to learn American culture first-hand,” Hindman said. They only stayed in school for the entire day once. The rest of the week they spent the morning in school, and then went on field trips.

“They said their best experience out of all of that was in school, so next time we’re going to give them more school time,” Hindman said. The next set of exchange students are set to come the first week of April.

Another surprise for this group of Austrian visitors was how friendly people can be here.

“It’s cool that the people here are automatically nice to you and enjoy talking to you,” Jenni Ebeid said.

Baldwin families knew the names of their Austrian visitors since last spring, and so had the chance to talk to them through social networking sites or through email. For hosts, Hindman first asked students who went on the Austria trip two summers ago, then students in his German classes, and finally students in other foreign language classes.

“You become like best friends because they rely on you to talk to them and you rely on them,” said Baldwin senior Meghan Varney, whose family hosed a student.

In addition to school activities, host families were encouraged to take their Austrian visitors to different places to eat and shop, like Priminati’s, Quaker Steak & Lube, and Wal-Mart.

“Going to Wal-Mart or hanging out with people and seeing them understand more than I thought they would was one of my favorite memories,” Baldwin senior Dzeneta Kajan said.

In an amusing side story, many Baldwin girls were star-struck by the Austrian boys.

 “They were really nice, easy to talk to, and easy to look at,” Baldwin sophomore Oliva Pfaff said.

Unfortunately for the American boys, the feeling was not mutual among the Austrian girls.

“American boys are not so good by looks and the way they act,” Hasanovic said.