Sini Chirappurathu, a foreign exchange student from Germany, lived with us from August 1997 through June 1998. When she came to live with us she was 16 years old and really shy. Coming from Essen, NRW, Germany, Sini  graduated as a part of the Class of 2000 from the German equivalent of American high school in Essen. German schools are different from American schools in that they go to school 13 years. Sini has kept in touch with her "adopted" family here in the states. We hope that she enjoyed her stay in America and we hope to visit Germany some day. 

It was a really sad day when Sini went back to Germany since we had grown very close and she even got over her shyness by the beginning of 1998. 

Keeping in touch with Sini is really easy thanks to the internet email system and even a chat room set up on another web site. Not quite as good as talking with her in person but still a lot better than snail-mail letters. Sini is currently going to a university in Southern Germany majoring in Business Administration. We're hoping that, after receiving her college degree, that she will return to the United States to continue her career in the business world.

A Bit About Sini's Hometown

Essen is a city of slightly over 620,000 in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the Ruhr River. An industrial center of the Ruhr district, it was the site of the Krupp steel works and is Germany's chief producer of electricity. The city grew up around a 9th-century Benedictrine convent and was a small imperial state until it passed to Prussia in 1802. Badly damaged during World War II, it was rebuilt in 1945. Landmarks include its cathedral which was built during the 9th-14th century.

As an exchange student with the Center for Cultural Interchange she attended Rio Linda Senior High School as a Junior. Marie, Jeanette and I welcomed Sini to our home on August 25th, 1997 and quickly "adopted" her into our family. Sini's email address is Tiny17@hotmail.com. We have lots of pictures of her and some of them can be found in "Our Photo Album" at this web site.

Last Updated 17th November 2001