Many students in Europe or other continents grow up watching television, all filmed and taking place in America. The way school and life are for teenagers is very different to growing up outside of it, this is something some students dream of experiencing. The feeling of longing for the American high school experience and then being able to live it in real life for yourself is a feeling that is hard to explain. Becoming an exchange student and seeing all the differences in cultures and everyday life and living the life one has seen only on tv. The feeling of life being like a movie is a very rare feeling.
Being an exchange student is no easy feat. As someone who has had the pleasure and privilege to experience a year abroad, it is truly a life-changing ten months. At Rex Putnam high school, there are quite a few exchange students this year and I had the pleasure to speak to a few of them. One from Norway, Catalonia (Spain) and Germany in addition to a junior who will get to be an exchange student for her senior year next year.
Personally, I have had the privilege to have a very American name, but many exchange students experience their name being mispronounced. Thankfully, most Putnam students are really good at respecting proper pronunciation, once corrected. German exchange student Maren Ewert simply goes by the nickname Mae to make it simpler.
There are so many different organizations with which students can travel, some of them are Rotary Youth Exchange, Ieduex, or Education First. The majority of these organizations give students the option to choose a country and then a number of host families volunteer to host an exchange student and the exchange student can normally choose the family. With Rotary Youth Exchange, the student lives with a total number of three different families, and they switch in order to experience different cultures and different family situations. This is the case for Mae Ewert. She is a Junior and living with Chelsea Jahn, who is set to be an exchange student for Rotary Youth Exchange for her senior year next year. She discussed how Mae will stay with them through the end of December. Getting to know your host siblings and host family is a detrimental part of being successful and happy as an exchange student. “Mae is an awesome friend and sister, and I have a lot of fun getting to know her and hanging out with her.” Jahn described.
Spanish Exchange student Mar Manresa Brunet can speak a multitude of languages: Catalan, Spanish, English and Italian. In addition, she is learning Norwegian and ASL. Norwegian exchange student Live Nelson speaks Norwegian and some German. While she is fluent in English, she still struggles to understand a few things and her accent. Ewert mentions how sometimes at the end of the day she gets kind of tired and “words don’t come out of your mouth the right way and sentences don’t make sense anymore.”
Generally, all of the students have had the past few months definitely live up to their expectations. Getting to know new people, friends and family for life and being a part of the school community in a way never the way school spirit is in most European schools.