She stepped off the plane.

A thousand thoughts raced through her head: what if my family doesn’t like me? What if they’re not there? What if they came at the wrong time?

She saw her own emotions mirrored in the eyes of the surrounding exchange students.

Last year, senior Riley Remington took an incredible once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study abroad in Berlin, Germany by becoming a foreign exchange student.

After three plane rides- a nine hour long trip, she found herself standing nervously before the people she would temporarily call her family. The 10 feet between them symbolized the gap among them. An ocean away, a world apart.

“I wanted to be an exchange student,” Remington said. “My aunt did it during college and I know lots of people from Germany. We also have a lot of German foreign exchange students here every year. They were my influence to go there.”

Remington went through the Rotary International program- an overall eight month process. She was assigned a host family in June of 2012, and left for Germany that July.

After months of anticipation, she and her host family were able to meet. Riley recalls the awkward embrace in the airport.

“They were the typical German: tall, blonde, and beautiful,” Remington said. “They all hugged me, but you could tell everyone was kind of uncomfortable. They (took) me in (and) were sending their daughter out through Rotary program, so it’s not like they were super excited, they were just as friendly as they could be.”

Remington was able to live with four different host families during her 11 month and two week stay in Berlin.

“My first host family and I didn’t get along with very well,” Remington said. “They’re very strict, typical German stereotype which kind of harmed my view of Germany at first. But when I switched, I ended up living with some very cool families.”

According to Remington, she became very close with her host families and enjoyed the diversity among them.

“I lived with a family where the dad went to the University of Michigan for two years and my mom was Japanese,” Remington said. “In another host family, my mom was Russian, and I had a host sister. It was really nice getting to know them and all of the unique cultures they had within their families.”

Even though she would switch families, Remington remained in contact with her previous clans and visited them often. Throughout her transitions, she attended the same school during the year.

If you can remember back to your first day of high school, you’ll probably recall the jittery stomach, the excitement bridging with anxiety, the high hopes and your fears. Imagine being in another country, half way across the world, walking into a class who speaks a language other than the one you know.

Remington mentioned how nervous she was on her first day. She was a junior in a sophomore class and didn’t speak German. She befriended the one other exchange student at her school, Camille, who translated for her to the class.

“It was hard speaking through a third party,” Remington said. “I clung to her and we tried to make friends. Everyone kind of stared at us and it was nerve wracking. I just really wanted to fit in and I wanted people to like me.”

Eventually, she became close with her classmates. Riley was with the same group of about 20 kids for the duration of the school year, having the opportunity to get to know them and their divergent lives. However, she mentioned that they were a grade younger than her and could be immature at times.

“The class was super diverse,” Remington said. “It was easier to get close to one group of kids. I liked them a lot. They were really rambunctious and really funny, but they did things like glue stuff to the wall, steal the teacher’s books, change their grades in her book or break things and throw chairs.”

Remington disclosed that the schooling was more challenging in Germany.

“There were a lot of tests and I took maybe 15 subjects in a year,” Remington said. “I was taking three science classes, three languages, German at a tenth grade level, and physical education, but it was just really hard stuff.”

When she wasn’t busy in school, Remington would spend time with her host families and friends that she had made. She started adapting to the German culture, and started eating organically.

“It was really wholesome food,” Remington said. “I tried eating organic when I came back, but it’s really hard here. They had biostores all around so you could buy organic food. They also tried to sell organic food cheaper so it’s not so hard to eat healthy.”

Although she was so far away from home, it was uncommon for her to feel nostalgic. She lived in the American sector of Berlin and by the time July 2013 rolled around, Riley admitted that she missed her family, friends and macaroni and cheese, but was ultimately not ready to come back to the United States.

“I didn’t want to come home at all,” Remington said. “It’s not that I don’t like it here, it’s just I love it there so much.”

Remington revealed that the journey has changed her life and her plans for the future.

“Before I went, I was in choir and I really wanted to be a musical or a theatre major,” Remington said. “Once I went and started learning a language and started getting the experience of speaking more than one language in a sitting, I realized I wanted to be a translator.”

Originally, the language difference was a large challenge to overcome, but she learned to accustom and appreciate the unique environment.

In addition, she made many relationships and now has connections around the world. Remington believes that this trip has also prepared her for college.

“When a lot of people go off to college, it’s their first experience leaving home and it’s not going to be such a shock to me,” Remington said.

This summer, Riley will be returning to Germany for two months before she gets tied down for college. Although she will primarily stay in Berlin with her third host family, she will also be exploring the Netherlands.

“I’m hoping to move there,” Remington said. “I’m hoping to transfer either my sophomore or junior year (in college) back to Germany to a university over there. I’ll see how it works out, but I really hope I end up living in Germany.”

Remington recognizes that becoming a foreign exchange student is not for everyone, but that it is a great opportunity.

“In my ideal world, everyone gets that experience once,” Remington said. “As exchange students, we are from all over the world, and being together with all of these people from all over the world we had no conflict whatsoever. I feel like if everyone had this experience, there would be less conflict in the world.”