Roll out the welcome mat. We have six new foreign exchange students from all across the world that have graced our small town with their enlightening presence. Teaching us their culture while we teach them ours, these new students have had to face so many new acclimations. Whether missing family or learning a new language, these people have faced challenges for different reasons. Students have so much to learn from the foreign exchange students who have braved a new country for new knowledge, new experiences, and more. 

Currently, six new students are here from a variety of countries and continents. These countries include Spain, Thailand, Germany, Taiwan, and Vietnam, all of which face changes in daily life.

“The classes,” said junior Mencia Garcia Caro. “We stay in the same classroom all day with the same person, and here it’s the opposite. I am also really excited for your Christmas and Halloween.”

Mencia comes to America from Burgos, Spain, a city located north of the Iberian Peninsula. This city brings many loving memories of home to Mencia.

“Family and friends,” said Mencia as she explained what she misses most about Burgos. “Moments with them and staying together.”

This family includes two siblings, a brother named Alvaro and a sister named Lara. 

“With my sister,” said Mencia. “I have a better relationship than my brother.”

Despite missing home, there are still many reasons Mencia is here instead of with family.

“To leave,” said Mencia. “A new experience, meet new people, and improve my image.” 

Mencia arrived here last month and is scheduled to leave around June or July. This schedule matches up with other exchange students, such as junior Freeziana Daorueng or Freezia, who will leave at the end of the school year after arriving here from Bangkok, Thailand, on August 28. 

Freezia will experience various new adventures, from holidays to the first snow. 

“All of the teachers are very nice to me and always ask me if I understood or not,” said Freezia. “They care for every student that they teach. I’m also so excited about all of the festivals like Halloween Day, Thanksgiving Day, or Christmas Day because, in Thailand, we don’t celebrate. I’m so excited to meet snow because it is hot all year in Thailand, and I’ve never seen snow before.”

These new experiences do come at a price for these new students. Things such as language barriers and missing home have affected them greatly. It takes countless weeks, hundreds of class hours, and piles of hard work and determination to learn our fast-paced language in a real-world setting. These translations have affected Freezia significantly. 

“English is my problem,” said Freezia. “If it’s easy conversations or used in daily life, I can get it and understand what people talk about, but if in class we study, it is hard for me to understand because sometimes teachers speak so fast. When we learn, they have hard vocabulary or words that I don’t understand. I have already translated them, but it looks so weird. I get new vocabulary every day, so I have to remember it. Every day I have a lot of homework to do, and it takes time for me because it’s so hard.”

Some might ask why go through the trouble of acclimating to completely new circumstances and a completely different dictionary? For Freezia, the answer is quite simple.

“When I was in grade 10, I chose to learn science-math, and in Thailand, we had so much Covid at that time, so we must learn at home every day,” said Freezia. “We learn seven to eight hours per day, and I don’t understand what the teachers are teaching. They don’t have interactions with students. They only read from the book and teach us. After school, I will go home to study with my tutor because, in class, they don’t teach me to understand. If you want a good grade, you must study with a tutor, so I don’t have time to do what I like or take a rest. The education system in Thailand is not my type. It made suffering for me. That is why I decided to come here to learn and do new things that I have never done before. I would like to find myself, what I like and dislike and what in the future I want to be.”

Bangkok, the capital of Thailand and home to many cultural landmarks such as the Grand Palace or the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, has many qualities that Freezia misses.  

“I miss Thai food,” said Freezia. “In there, we have a variety of foods, but I didn’t mean I don’t like foods in here. I like it, but it’s kinda like the same every day, and I’m so surprised that they eat chips in meals.” 

Another thing that Freezia misses is her family, her parents, her younger sister Moji who is three years younger than her, and her cousin Deeja only three months apart in age. That and travels. 

“My family likes traveling,” said Freezia. “We go stay in a hotel, and you can do whatever you want.”

Freezia isn’t the only exchange student with family related to travel. New student Lilly Cachej is the second and last daughter in her family to travel to different countries for school.

“I have an older sister,” said junior Lilly Cachej. “She is turning 20 this November, and she was actually also an exchange student in Norway in 2019.”

Her only sister is a part of the reason Lilly decided to come to America in the first place.

“First of all, because of my sister,” said Lilly. “But actually, I think I had the idea before that too. I was watching Youtube videos of exchange students that were in America, and I really liked them. Also, because of all of the movies. I like watching the school spirit, and I wanted to. I knew it wouldn’t be the same. I mean, they are movies and books, but I still just wanted to experience firsthand if that’s how it actually is and if I liked it or not. I’m kind of surprised by myself that I adapted so easily. It hasn’t been that long, and I still already feel comfortable here.”

Lilly lives in a small town called Duttenstedt, five minutes from the slightly larger village of Piene, where Lilly goes to school. These two towns are located between Hanover and Brunswick in Saxony, Germany. Despite being a small town like ours, Lilly is used to train travel like most European countries, so our cars have come as quite a surprise. 

“What I miss most about Germany is that we have more freedom going somewhere,” said Lilly. “Here, because it’s a small town, you guys don’t have trains or something. When I was home, I could just go with a train to the next big city, and of course, most of you have driver’s licenses, but I don’t, so that’s probably what I miss most. I have the freedom to go wherever I want to.”

With this perceived lack of freedom comes other more exciting ideas, such as that of school pride and academic choices.

“I think the most exciting is probably the school spirit,” said Lilly. “That and you guys have all the games, and everyone is supporting everyone like being there cheering for the other sports. Also that you guys get to choose what you have; you get to choose what field you want to do, like art, what science you want to do.”

After going to a grammar school in Germany where the choices are not as varied as ours, this was a pleasant surprise to Lilly. These choices, however, come at the simple cost of self-doubt and changing tastes. Instead of sausages and schnitzel, Lilly is adjusting to foods like pizza and burgers, foods familiar to us but potentially foreign to her.

“The language,” said Lilly. “Even though I feel pretty confident with my English, I’ve been practicing English since third grade, I still feel sometimes insecure about speaking English. And then the food, I like the food, but it’s also like I have to get used to it, the differences. Also, missing my family. It’s hard to be that far.”

 Lilly arrived in America on September fourth in New Jersey. She stayed there for four days, including the day of arrival, for sightseeing and meetings on how to act in America. She leaves on June 11 if plans don’t change.

“That’s the day they reserved my flight, but it can still change,” said Lilly. “During winter in January, my parents have to decide if they want to pick me up, so if they want to come here and we do a road trip through America, and they meet my host family. That will change the date, but otherwise, everything goes as planned, and I will leave by then.”

Before Lilly heads back to Germany, there is a bundle of general activities she looks forward to participating in. More specific wishful experiences will come with time as more research is done and knowledge is gained.

“I don’t know that much about Minnesota because it was really a surprise to me that I was placed here,” said Lilly. “I didn’t have the chance to research something but I’m excited for my host family to take me to some places that they like and that they know of and their friends, so I get used to it and see their life and world. Just in general living the American life differently than Germany, having new experiences like meeting new people and making international friends, that’s probably the goal.” 

These three perspectives are only half of six, soon to be seven, of this year’s foreign exchange students. Other students with their own stories have come and gone through generations and will continue for generations to come. It is important to most that we continue to honor this tradition for the cultural knowledge gained on both sides of the globe.