Hesperia High Sting

Have you ever pictured yourself in a totally different country, speaking another language and being part of a culture that is not yours? And most importantly, have you ever thought how difficult it must be to learn math in a language that you are not used to? This is what exchange students have to face everyday.

 

When I decided to stay a year away from my family and go to school in another country, I was thinking about all the movies I’ve watched about high schools in America. I wanted to go prom-dress shopping, I wanted to see my picture in the yearbook, cheer for the football team and be part of clubs. I also wanted to get away from how school works in my country. What I never imagined was that it would involve a lot more than just school.

 

During my first month here, everything was new, I was practically living with strangers. The thing about host families is that they choose the exchange student based on an application, so when the student gets to their host country, they don’t know a lot about their host families. That’s what happened to me. I didn’t really think about my host parents when I made the decision, so when I arrived I realized I should have thought more about them. 

 

The rest, however, fulfilled my expectations. I mean, of course my dreams of having an argument, shutting my locker door and walking away won’t come true since we don’t have lockers, and I am a little sad for that. Also, it was a little bit heartbreaking to know that the football games weren’t as popular as I thought. But, I love my classes and how different every student is. And, of course, some differences are good. I wouldn’t want to go to a school like the one in the “Mean Girls” movie and if we sang everything like in “High School Musical,” I would get into the first plane back to Brazil. What we see in movies is not always better. 

 

The funny part about this experience is the amount of weird and random questions people ask me about my country. Yes, we do have malls, ambulances and cars in Brazil. And, no, unfortunately I’m not related to Neymar. Part of being here is definitely telling my friends a little bit more about places outside the U.S. 

 

In general, the semester was really good, I can’t wait for the next one and for all the new adventurous I’ll go through. The experience that an exchange student is really changing my life and will, for sure, affect my future.

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