Jula Arnold

Junior Jula Arnold is a foreign exchange student from Germany. She does karate in her free time, since she likes to be able to defend herself. When she is not participating in a sport, she is often found spending time with her friends.

Arnold’s will to gain new experiences, to meet new and different people, and to make new friends, motivated her to do an exchange year in the U.S. She is very keen on trying out new things, for example, the journalism class. It is a subject that doesn’t exist in Germany and it is something she can see herself doing in the future.

“My family and friends shaped and influenced me the most, and I dearly miss them,” Arnold said, which shows that an exchange year can be hard sometimes, considering you can rarely speak to your closest people. Even though she misses some things about Germany, like her friends and family, she is happy to be doing her exchange year, since the good things outshadow the bad. 

“I don’t know if I would have imagined myself here as a kid,” she said honestly when asked if this would be the life she imagined. However, she also said, “I am very happy about my placement here. I really like my host family and would not change it if I had the chance.”

Her life here in the U.S. is very different from her life back home. She comes from Cologne, which is a big city and very different from the west coast. She lives with her host family, which consists of her host brother and host parents, in Los Osos. Her favorite things so far about the U.S. are the people and the new surroundings. Arnold hopes to be able to step out of her comfort zone in her time here.