HOLT — For more than two years, Baker School sixth-grader Jordyn Barnes has corresponded — the good old-fashioned way, through the mail — with Lilly Fischer, a German girl.
On Oct. 18, the girls at last met in person.
Lilly, 12, and her dad, Tilman Fischer, traveled from Berlin to Crestview, where he is visiting a college friend.
When the girls met Saturday, Lilly’s apprehension over her limited English skills instantly vanished as Jordyn presented her with a puppet she made to welcome her friend.
Both girls said meeting her friend surpassed expectations.
“It was amazing meeting her! She’s even better in person!” Jordyn, 11, said.
“She is not what I expected: She is even better!” Lilly said, her dad assisting with translations. “She is very friendly, and her family has great pets.”
In Berlin, the Fischers, including Lilly’s mom Sabine and older brother, Jonah, live in a 1920s apartment complex. Pets are limited to Lilly’s turtles, who live in the family’s courtyard garden plot.
FUN AND GAMES
With the assistance of “Speak & Translate,” a translation app her parents, Dawn and Chris Barnes, loaded on Jordyn’s iPhone, the girls instantly leapt any communications barriers and discovered even more similarities than they’d discussed through their letters.
“Jordyn likes to play roll-playing games like me,” Lilly said. “She doesn’t just sit in the house. She has imagination to make up new games.”
“We’ve been playing soccer, swimming the pond and playing in our trailer,” Jordyn said, referring to a utility trailer in the family’s backyard. “We pretended it was a plane, then a car and then it was a taxi.”
“It was also a bus, and the dog was the driver,” Lilly added. “Then he became a police dog, sniffing for clues. We threw down popcorn so he would sniff.”
TWO SISTERS
Having another girl in the house has had unexpected benefits for Jordyn’s little brother, Zack, 9.
“He’s been having so much fun,” Jordyn said. “We actually got him to go outside now that Lilly’s here. He usually sits inside with his computer or the TV.”
“It feels like I have two sisters now,” Zack said.
The girls’ parents share their daughters’ excitement, and appreciate the opportunity to broaden the girls’ cultural experiences.
“I think it’s really amazing how it is expanding her horizons,” Til Fischer said. “It is so cool for her to live in a similar but so different culture.”
“It’s been a lot of fun,” Dawn Barnes said. “Jordyn is learning a lot about Germany and picking up some German words.”
That will come in handy. The girls are already planning their next reunion, which they hope will be in Germany.
“I wish to visit Berlin someday to see Lilly at home and see what her family acts like,” Jordyn said.
LILLY’S IMPRESSIONS
After her first week in America, Lilly Fischer formed several impressions:
•“The food is fantastic! There many things that taste very good that we don’t have in Germany. Desi’s was so cool!”
•“The drinks are bigger.”
•“The cars are bigger.”
•“The school bus is cool and it is amazing that cars have to stop for the buses.”
•“The parents don’t get on your nerves as often as in Germany.”
• “Kids wake themselves up in the morning. They get up when the alarm goes off. The parents don’t have to come in and wake them.”
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Dear Lilly, Dear Jordyn: Pen pals hold Crestview rendezvous (PHOTOS, VIDEO)