Elli Chew, CFNN Reporter

Paula Bartel is our school’s foreign exchange student from Germany! She is a 17-year-old senior here at Cape Fear and is a member of New Colts on the block at school.

Every morning, Paula wakes up around 6:45 a.m. and heads to get ready for the day ahead of her. She usually starts her day with a slow start, often getting bombarded with affection from her host family’s dogs.

After Paula is finished getting ready, she lays in bed on her phone until 7:25. Once it becomes time to hustle, she makes her go-to breakfast: two slices of toast with butter. “Well, I’m not really a breakfast person. I’ll either have toast or cereal,” she says.

When she finally leaves the house, she and her host sister, Elli Chew, go to their neighbors to catch a ride to school. Upon arrival at school, Paula and Elli hang out with their friends until the bell rings.

Paula starts her school day off with English IV with Ms. Jones. After her first period, she heads to Math 3 with Ms. King. “I really like math, it comes naturally to me, so I enjoy it,” she says. Once Math is over she heads to her Drafting I class with Coach Haynes.

She ends her school day in Art with Mr. Lucchino. When asked her what her favorite class is she says, “It’s either math or art. Math comes pretty easy to me, but art is something I love though.” She said her most difficult class is Drafting. “It’s really hard because everything is in the US standard system, instead of the metric system.”

Paula’s family currently lives in Andernach, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany. She is the youngest of three children. She has two older siblings, her older sister Veronica, 29 and older brother Max, 22. Back in Germany, she has a 10-year-old cat named Mia who she misses very much. 

“She doesn’t really like me, but she’s always been that way. I usually fight with her; it’s a weird relationship,” said Paula. She likes to spend time with her family traveling around Europe and experiencing new things.

Paula is very passionate about art. “Ever since I was younger, I have always been drawing and sketching. I remember that I used to always show my dad my drawings and being proud of  what I made.” Her favorite type of art is sketching, using plain pencil and paper to create something beautiful. She primarily sketches flowers, finding beauty and simplicity in them. 

When asked why she chose to become a foreign exchange student, she said, “Well, My brother was a foreign exchange student in Japan while he was in High School and he had a good time. I also wanted to do it because I wanted to see something new, instead of the same things every day.”

She says that she chose America because she wanted to see if it was like the movies. “It is not at all like the movies. Yes, people have their groups that they hang out with, but there isn’t as much drama and people are really nice.”

We’re so glad to have you here Paula, and we’re proud that you’re a Cape Fear Colt!