All things are relative. It's a common expression, and our new exchange students at Tyburn Academy are a good example of relativity, at least when it comes to their reaction to our weather.

Antti Kariluoto, from Kotka, Finland, hasn't yet been seen in long sleeves, and has escaped inside several times to avoid the heat on our warm, sunny afternoons. Italo Brilhante arrived from Recife, Brazil on Labor Day weekend, and immediately began to dress in layers. His host family felt terrible when they took him to a Doubledays game, and he spent the evening shivering on the bleachers.

Meanwhile, our third newcomer makes the equation sort of like the Three Bears - Tillmann Echterhagen's home in Aachen, Germany is just slightly north of the same latitude as Auburn, so he's feeling “just right.”

Recife is a large city in Northern Brazil which is known for its beautiful beaches and historical sites. Aachen, a large city near the Dutch border, is most famous for its cathedral. Tillmann also noted that it was the first German city to be liberated by the Americans at the end of World War II. Kotka is a port city on the Gulf of Finland, about 90 minutes from the capital, Helsinki.

Aside from the weather, all three have been thrown into the frenzied schedule of the first month of school and appear to be surviving. They'd only been here a day when we announced, “you'll be on the soccer team,” and carted them off to school so that they could get in their required number of practices and play in a game. Our exchange program requires them to get involved right away in school activities, and serves its purpose of getting them to know other students right away. In Tyburn's case, it has the added benefit of increasing our numbers. Unlike last year, when all 11 boys on the team had to play the entire game, the players this season will actually get a few short breaks.

Although this is the sixth year that Tyburn has hosted students through International Student Exchange, this is the first time we've had no girls. Having done this for many years, I see a few differences right away; girls usually are in close contact with their parents through e-mail and phone calls. Already I've had e-mails from two of the boys' mothers, asking “is my son still alive?” But all three boys seem to be settling in with their host families.

Italo has had a bit more of an adjustment than the others; in Brazil he has one 11-year-old sister. His American parents, Wayne and Cheryl McEvers, are a blended family, and Italo suddenly has three younger sisters and a brother. Tillmann left two younger brothers behind; Ed and Lisa Blackman have five children, including Tillmann's first “little sister.” Antti has left his engineer father and nurse mother in Finland, and has coincidentally moved in with me, a nurse, and my husband Pat, an engineer.

Most exchange students will say that they wanted to spend a year in the United States to improve their English, and all three agreed that that was a major factor. Antti is the oldest of the three, and hoping that this year will give him some extra time to make career decisions. Besides improving his English, he says he wants to “see the world.” Italo plans to go into his parents' real estate business when he is finished with school. Tillmann is hoping to become a jet pilot with the German Army; he will have two years of high school left when he returns home before the long course of study which that requires. He also notes that he actually lived in the United States for a while when he was 5. His family lived in Massachusetts while his father worked here, but he doesn't remember anything about it and that was part of his decision to come back.

All three boys, incidentally, speak excellent English, and are taking a full load of courses with our seniors.

All three agree that they find Americans very friendly and interested in meeting them. We are proud of our Tyburn students, who always go out of their way to welcome our exchange students. Our teachers appreciate the different viewpoints they bring to class, and it#'s fun to hear about the differences in schools. We're looking forward to learning more about three new countries this year.

Barbara Murphy is the school nurse and does publicity for Tyburn Academy