Marilyn Ehlers already had a full house. With a set of triplets (two girls and a boy) and another older son, her family “lives on top of each other,” she said. But when she saw a newspaper ad seeking host families for foreign exchange students she could not resist.

When she was in college and visited Germany on exchange, Ehlers stayed with a host family and wanted to repay the favor. “I wanted to see if we could pass along that experience to somebody else,” she said. “We thought it would be fun to see it from the other side.”

Ho-Ting Yang, known to her Cape Elizabeth High School peers as “Emily,” celebrated her first Thanksgiving with the Ehlers family on Valley Drive last week. She said the meal was “delicious.”

Prior to her Thanksgiving feast with the Ehlerses, what she knew about Thanksgiving she learned reading children’s books, she said. After the Thanksgiving pop-quiz conducted by Marilyn Ehlers at the dinner table, all of the kids were more informed about the history of Thanksgiving. “I’m not sure any of the kids passed with glowing colors,” said Ehlers.

Brought to Maine jointly by the Rotary Club and the American Field Service, a non-profit international student exchange organization, Yang is spending the school year in Cape Elizabeth with the Ehlerses, attending classes and practicing her English.

Yang comes from Taipei, a city of about 2.5 million people in Taiwan. Though she graduated from her own three-year vocational high school in Taipei last year, she is brushing up on her American history, English and word processing at Cape High.

In Taiwan, students graduate from junior high at the age of 15 and then have the option to go on to high school, vocational school or college. Approximately one-third of junior high graduates begin their specialized education at three-year vocational schools, according to a Taiwanese government Web site. Yang studied commercial layout and design at vocational school and will continue studying design at a university in Taiwan when she returns home.

Yang arrived in Maine Aug. 20, and has “absorbed into the general bustle,” of Ehlers family living, said one of the 16-year-old triplets, Rosemary Ehlers. As a city girl Yang has adjusted to a more rural lifestyle with the help of the Ehlers clan.

The Ehlers triplets are teaching Yang a few tricks to country living. Maxwell’s Field, their regular short-cut home from the bus stop on Spurwink Avenue, has recently become soggy with mud and snow. The solution? Build a bridge.

“They scavenged at the dump,” for scraps of wood to build a bridge said mom Marilyn Ehlers, “so they don’t have to leap across the stream.”

Yang is not the only one learning a few lessons. Lauren Ehlers, another triplet, said communicating with Yang poses unexpected challenges. Yang studied English in Taiwan but did not apply those studies consistently until coming to Maine. “You learn patience,” said Ehlers, who is still acclimating to slowing her speech and rewording her messages.

Triplet Ben loaned his bedroom to Yang for the year and said his biggest adjustment to their newest family member is “remembering she’s in my room, and I’m in the basement,” he said with a grin.

Emily Yang, a foreign exchange student from Taipei Taiwan and the Ehlers triplets (from left) Ben Rosemary and Lauren. Emily Yang, a foreign exchange student from Taipei, Taiwan, and the Ehlers triplets, from left, Ben, Rosemary and Lauren.

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