It’s pronounced SHTef-ahn, “but if it’s too difficult you can just say Stef-ahn,” he doesn’t care. Stefan Betz is sitting comfortably in the University of Nebraska at Omaha library, sporting a gray UNO Mavericks shirt.
Betz is one of only four German business administration students accepted to be studying at UNO this year.
He’s adapted to his Omaha University surroundings quite well – the 23-year-old originally from Goettingen, Germany, has only been in the United States of America since August 12.
Betz knew that he wanted to study in the United States ever since his first semester of college in the German town of Braunschweig. Finally, after a year and a half, the mechanical engineering and business administration graduate student decided to attend the Master of Business Administration program in the United States – an opportunity he says he is lucky to have, since he is lazy.
He is so lazy, in fact, that he didn’t even know he would be taking the 15-hour flight here until just a week before the plane was scheduled to take off.
You see, he explains, in order for him to have the German equivalent of a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and to be allowed to attend the University of Nebraska at Omaha, he had to pass a thermal dynamics test – a test that he failed two times.
Fortunately, the third time was a charm. The test, however, was graded only six days before Betz had to be in America, leaving him very little time to pack, make plans and say goodbye to family and friends.
But Betz went with the flow; something he is somewhat of a pro at.
After he finished high school and completed his nine months of social service work – in Germany, males must either do nine months of social service or join the army after high school – Betz had six months with nothing to do before he began college classes in the summer.
He decided to take the down time as an opportunity to spend four and a half months in Australia – alone. Not only was he alone, but he only knew where he would be staying for the first two nights – after that he didn’t know where he was going, and he loved it. Betz says that the experience was the best ever.
“I can just recommend it,” gushes Betz, with a smile on his face.
Betz is well traveled, to say the least. He has been to Australia and just about every country in Europe – it’s easy when you don’t need a visa to cross the country lines. Now, he can check off America on his list, too.
Ah, the life of a foreign college student. His visa doesn’t allow him to get a job in America, he uses scholarship money to pay for anything and everything, and on top of that, he attends classes Mondays through Thursdays starting at 6 p.m. and going only until 8:40 p.m.
“We have the whole day off - we can go party every night because we don’t have to get up early. It is perfect.”
And party he does. When he turned 16, the laws in Germany allowed him to drink alcohol legally, although now the legal age has been switched to 18. In addition to a lower drinking age, it is also legal to drink in public – in the streets, in the daylight and even on public transportation.
Betz thinks that this alcohol situation is one reason why he and other college students in Germany parties even more than people in America.
“Me and my friend, we used to – we don’t have these pre-parties very often, we just get together, get drunk and go out. Me and my friend, we always bought a bottle of vodka and orange juice and we used to go to the intercity downtown with a bus. So we went into the bus and greeted the bus driver, showed him the bottle, ‘Hey, we’re gonna get drunk on the bus’.”
According to Betz, life in Germany isn’t all that different from American life. Sure, in Germany you can’t get free refills on soda, and sure, checking out at the grocery store in Germany is a race to see who can ring up all of the items in the shortest amount of time, but for the most part things are similar.
Apparently, though, the candy here is bad, too. Betz is a huge fan of gummy bears – in Germany. In America, too many artificial ingredients are added and alter the taste.
One other difference? America wastes so much! Betz complained about watching his roommate wash the dishes with the water constantly running for a good hour – he expected this before he left Germany.
Betz was clearly somewhat educated about American life before he left his home in Germany. He knows who is involved in the 2008 presidential election and knows about the war in Iraq, among other things.
Most Americans, however, can’t rattle off facts about any country other than their own. Although he doesn’t think he knows all that much about the United States, he has a theory on why he knows what he does.
Betz theorizes that Americans only live on their big island like northern America and don’t get out of the country, nor do they need to.
“Why should you be interested in Europe, for example? And Germany? Because your country’s a whole continent, basically, and your country consists of different states with culture and variety.”
Betz also points out that the United Sates is a world leader and everything in the news having to deal with politics and the economy is related, in some way, to America.
“Since you guys control a lot of trade for the whole world and you start a lot of wars,” Betz chuckles through his words, “everyone knows about you.”
Betz is smart; he has earned a scholarship, which is actually a requirement for him to be able to study abroad, and can speak English fluently – he began learning the language as a fifth-grader and uses it in some form every day in Germany, a lot of it through music. Along with being smart, Betz is funny – cracking jokes every few minutes and smiling all the while.
Betz is certainly enjoying himself and the ones around him while he spends his year studying in Omaha. He celebrated his first Halloween dressed as a “pervert” in a dress and full eye shadow. You can find him frequenting parties in Omaha with an array of new American friends and a beer in hand. And somewhere in between all of the partying, he is studying and working hard on receiving his Master’s degree in business administration.
“So basically, I love Omaha because, I don’t know, I think we just met the right people.”
