Yes, it's not just Germans who are enjoying our country!
With the exchange rate right now, the Euro goes further here, so many Europeans are spending vacation time in the good ol' USA. A lot of Europeans speak English, since it is taught in schools as a second language in many European countries. We met a Dutch family a couple of years ago. The husband/father is a big traveler, and has made solo trips to the U.S. several times. Two years ago though, he brought the entire family (wife, daughter,and son).The father had met my sister-in-law in a small town WWII museum in northwestern PA on one of his previous solo trips, and they kept in touch. He helped her acquire things for the museum on one of her trips overseas. He is a huge history/military buff!
Long story short, because of that chance encounter with S-I-L, we had the luck to get to know them. They spent 2 days with us here in VA, and we all hit it off so well that we now have their daughter (who is 18) as a foreign exchange student this year. We have had her since August. Her father came to visit in January for 3 weeks, and spent a lot of time touring the civil war and military sights around Fredericksburg, VA along with visiting NYC, VA Beach, and Chincoteague Island. Not to mention PA Dutch country! One of the things they find so amazing is how big everything is here. One of her Dad's fun things was to drive our Ford Excursion on a trip home from Walmart. He could not believe how big it was!
Her mother will be coming for a 3 week visit in late June, then mom and daughter will go back to Holland in late July. We are treating them to a week long camping trip in the RV over July 4th. We figured that since our Dutch "daughter" was here to experience America this year, we'd wrap up her stay with a good old American tradition--camping on the fourth of July! Swimming, BBQ, Country music, S'mores, a campfire, and fireworks--they'll get it all!
By the way, the whole exchange student thing has been GREAT! So glad we took the chance on hosting her, we have had an amazing year with a great teenager. She will be returning to Holland to go to Medical School there!