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In 1998, Julia Eckardt, a PKU teen from Julich, Germany was looking for a US family to spend a few weeks with in the in order to improve her English and to see some of the US. Through the PKU Listserv group, she found two interested families with teenage daughters in New Mexico and Minnesota. This is the story of the friendship that has grown between Julia and Julie Kelly from Albuquerque, New Mexico and of some of their adventures together.
Hello and Hallo! This is Julie Kelly and Julia Eckardt and we are currently somewhere above the Atlantic Ocean at 34,000 feet headed for Dusseldorf, Germany. Not only are our names very similar, we also are about the same height, weight and we are six months apart (Julia is 18 and Julie is 17.)
However we both have a very rare similarity PKU. We try and tell people we are twins, which is pretty believable except we live an ocean apart. Julia is from Julich, Germany and Julie is from Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
I met Julia from the PKU list service on the Internet. She was interested in spending her summer holidays in the United States to improve her English, which she studies in school. The summer of 1998 Julia arrived the 21st of June and stayed in New Mexico for three weeks, we visited Carlsbad Caverns and the Grand Canyon as well as other southwestern adventures. Then she went to Minneapolis for the rest of the summer and stayed with a family of the same relation.
The summer of 1999 Julia visited again for three weeks. We visited other areas of the southwest, for five days we stayed on a house boat on Lake Powell (On the Arizona- Utah boarder) we also went to Four Corners and White Water rafting on the Rio Grande. Needless to say we spent the rest of our time as average teens do, shopping, going to movies and visiting our friends.
We are now headed to Germany where we will stay at Julia's house in Germany. We will visit many cities in Germany, Koln, Aachen and Dusseldorf as well as the Rhine river. In addition Belgium and the Netherlands as well as living the life of any European teenager.
Even though we are close enough to be twins we both indulge in two different but outstanding formulas. Julia drinks PKU3 and Julie drinks Maximum XP. We both have siblings with PKU. Julia has a younger sister Ruth who is thirteen and Julie has a younger brother who is sixteen. Even though we both have siblings with PKU it isn't the same as having a friend your age. Having someone who knows exactly what it's like to have to drink a formula and eat the same foods when were out with friends is really comforting.
There were only a few differences in the food offered in the US and Germany. Germany has low protein cereal and milk, which I haven't been able to find here. America has low protein cheese and more recipes for low protein food. It doesn't matter where you live PKU is pretty much the same everywhere as long as you follow your diet.