Seven youngsters from around the globe who are in Bermuda as Rotary Exchange Students converged on Government House Monday night for a reception in their honour.

They have spent the past five months living lives as Bermudian teenagers — staying in local homes with local families and attending local schools.

Leo Quack, 16, who is from Germany, is at Warwick Academy, and the moment you meet him his host mother will warn: “Don’t make fun of his name.”

It’s just a small example of the way host parents have come to protect these children as their own.

Host mother Mingo Cook said proudly: “This is my son from Germany.”

Silja Saarinen, an 18-year-old from Finland, said of her host family: “They’ve been treating me like their own daughter. And they have a daughter the same age as I am. And we are like sisters.” Donna and Bruce Law live in Paget with their daughter Stephanie, and now Silja too.

The girls are classmates at Saltus where the young Finn is sharpening the English skills she began to learn at age nine.

Mrs. Law said: “It’s been a great experience for our daughter who’s learning to speak Finnish.

“I have an older daughter who is 21 away in university, so Stephanie has been without a sister for three years.

“Now she has one for a little while, and a friend for life.”

While Leo, Silja, and five others are here in Bermuda, eight Bermudian students are scattered around the world in Venezuela, Poland, Brazil, and France. One local parent at the evening’s event raved that his daughter was loving it in Venezuela.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has been the main sponsor of the exchange programme for four years. The firm’s partner Ian Davidson said: “It’s a wonderful programme. It opens their eyes to the fact that there’s a bigger world out there because we are a global community and we are an international financial centre.”

The students say they’ve been treated warmly at their various schools — both public and private.

However, Leo Quack said the warmth has not been extended by mother nature. “Cold weather, cold weather,” he mocked, “and rain all the time.”

He later conceded that it is much colder right now in his hometown of Cologne, Germany.

Young Mr. Quack will be counting the days until spring when he can spend his free time on the beach. The Rotary Exchange Programme keeps students until the end of the school year in June. Ms Saarinen said her coursework at Saltus has been very similar to what she’d have in Finland, but of course here, she’s forced to perfect her English.

She said: “It’s not more difficult, but some words you have to check in the dictionary and it takes time, but otherwise, it’s not bad.” Governor Sir John Vereker and Lady Vereker hosted the students and their surrogate families as has been tradition for the programme.