WAITSBURG – For foreign exchange student Alex Pietrzyk, leaving his home in Düsseldorf, Germany, with a population of nearly 600,000, to spend a year attending school in Waitsburg was a major adjustment.

"When I learned I was coming to a town this size it was a bit of a shock," Pietrzyk said. "'What will there be to do?' I thought." But he has now grown accustomed to small town life and says he anticipates a reverse adjustment in getting used to the noise and bustle of the city upon his return home in June.

Pietrzyk turned 18 in December and is attending WHS as a junior. In Germany, he would b...