Gretchen ♦ German Exchange Student ♦ Year Program Alumna
In 1959, newly-graduated Gretchen Holstein (17) of Manchester, Michigan boarded a 
sixteen-hour Flying Tiger Airlines flight bound for Amsterdam. The plane was packed with lively, eager YFU teenagers from across Michigan on their way to an exciting summer program in Europe. From Amsterdam, Gretchen took a long train ride to Balingen, Germany where she was greeted by her new ‘sister’ Renate at the train station. “I remember talking a mile a minute to Renate, the only one in her family to speak English.”
YFU ‘Sisters’ Celebrate Fifty Years of Friendship
School was interesting even though I didn’t understand any German. Dances and parties were frequent as well as walks through the town and weekend trips to castles. Longer trips took us 
to Schaffhausen am Rhein, Koblenz and the Black Forest. 
amily for almost a year. Being an only child, she loved the big family of five kids and our dog named Heidi. There was always something happening. She kept busy with classes in American history, literature and French as well as volunteering at the International Institute of Detroit where she met many interesting people from all over the world. Living in the U.S. sparked her interest in international travel and learning about other cultures. 
each other about nineteen times over the years- both in the US and Germany. My parents also visited her parents several times and were present for the groundbreaking of Renate’s house in Vaterstetten in 1976.