Tinley Park Sister Cities Commission Chairman Randy Tietz talks to students and teachers from Budingen, Germany, and students, teachers and administrators from Andrew High School last week during a special reception at the Tinley Park Municipal Building. (Dennis Sullivan, Chicago Tribune)
After nearly 25 years of Tinley Park students and others visiting Budingen, Germany, and students from there visiting here, their differences are becoming less and less noticeable.
"I've had trouble telling them apart," Mayor Ed Zabrocki said last week during a reception for 30 students from the Werner-Ernst Gymnasium, their host families and the Victor J. Andrew High School faculty who organized the visit.
The Germans, who arrived Oct. 7 for a two-week visit, were matched with students in Andrew High School's German language program, although at least a few speak English. Principal Robert Nolting, in a prepared statement, termed the visit an opportunity "to showcase our school internationally" as the visiting teens experienced life at Andrew.
The visit by the German followed a trip in 2011 to Budingen by Andrew High School students in connection with the village's all-volunteer Sister Cities Commission.
Commission Chairman Randy Tietz estimates 1,000 visitors have passed between the two municipalities in the past 20 years. Like Zabrocki, he had trouble determining which teenagers were local and which were from Budingen during the current visit.
Coming upon a group of students, "I'd ask the Germans to raise their hand," Tietz said. "I was always surprised. I would have guessed it was the other one."
Tietz said it's understandable that Andrew students and their counterparts at Werner-Ernst -- a preparatory school -- would have many things in common despite that fact that Budingen, approximately 25 miles east of Frankfurt, is centuries old and known for the Jerusalem Castle which was built by a knight returning from one of the Crusades.
"They're economically in the same plain and have a fashion taste that's similar," he said.
Plus, communications technology plays a big part, Tietz said. "They're on cell phones, smartphones, skype - they're wired. These kids are connected 24 hours a day, and being connected internationally is just that easy."
Still, Tietz said there's no substitute for the experience that visiting students get from staying with local families.
"Invariably the host families will say, 'We go to this restaurant, we want you to go with us. We go to this particular activity and we want you to come. We have this place we go to in the summer; let's go.'"
And relationships form, Tietz said.
Host families at a pizza party thrown by Zabrocki told Tietz, "We really don't want to send them back."