Hello, my name is Angelos, I’m an exchange student at Pasco High from Sweden, and I’m going to give you an inside look at how things work and what differences I experience in America compared to Sweden. So I’ve been to two different states for school. At first, I was in Alabama for most of my exchange year, about 7 and a half months or so, but I was given the chance to move and see another part of the United States, which I took, placing me where I am today in Pasco, Washington. I was a rare case since most people move because of problems with their former placement families or schools. While I got moved, I was never forced. Another student whom I lived with didn’t get along too well, especially with the sports and early hours I had to wake up, so I was given the chance to move to another family.

And while most wonder why Pasco? Well we don’t get to choose or know the family before our placement is confirmed so I got told that a lady with another kid was willing to take me and that all I got until the week before I moved where I was informed about things like where it was or who it was, so we don’t control a lot of the things that happen to us. We can’t choose schools, states, or anything; it’s the host families that choose you, and there’s nothing you can do about it. The only thing you can control is if you’re going to live with another student or not, since you can say no in those cases.

Another common question is school, and yes, school is very different where I’m from. For example, our subjects are way harder. We learn a lot more in a year than the people here often do, but our school system is also different, and in some cases, the American system is better. Things like grades we don’t get to see until the end of the semester, we don’t have the apps or anything, and the teachers don’t know what your grade is either, since they don’t get your grade from the system until the end of the year either. But our school life is also different, for example, a lot of schools have this phone rule, but I only had the rule of not using your phone during class and nothing else since our break between classes where often longer depending on the school. But I usually had between 10-20 minutes between each class and around 1 hour and 15 minutes for lunch every day. We could also leave school during whatever break without any requirements like here at Pasco, but my old school in Alabama didn’t allow you to leave the school at all nor did we have all the choices for lunch that you guys have at Pasco and it was the same in Sweden their was usually one or two options mostly vegetarian due to all the different eating restrictions and allergies people have.

In school, we weren’t allowed to choose our classes either; you got a schedule every year, and everyone had the same classes for the first semester and then the second semester, which were limited, switched to the half that didn’t have them. Things like other languages were required, so we had Swedish, English, and then your choice between Spanish, French, and German personally I take German, but I also speak Greek since my dad’s from there. At 16, the only class that’s harder is English.  Here at Pasco, you have trimesters as well and switch between classes and teachers, while at home I only had 5 teachers for 3 years or my 7-9 grade years, and we had the same subjects, with some being compressed to one subject with different lessons. When I get home, I also have to continue my education for at least another 3 years, but the education I seek and the school I’m going to will require me to take at least another 5 years of school. The first three years are like our version of high school, so I technically only graduated from middle school, but the thing is, we get our version of a GED after year 9, so you don’t have to go to school any longer.  But since I’m going to a law program, I have to. Something I get asked a lot is, “Don’t you miss your family?” And I think that is a dumb question, like, wouldn’t you? Of course I miss my family but I know a lot of people have their family come and visit them but I never did that I wasn’t new to not being with my family as I’d go to camps of different sorts during a lot of breaks so for me it was kind just like a prolonged camp. But I know some aren’t that strong and couldn’t hold out a whole year. There was this other girl named Hilda from Finland, she went to Kennewick and went home the week after I got here because she couldn’t take being away from home anymore. And she was only supposed to be here for 6 months, but decided to stay for the year, which might not have been the best idea, but a lot of other students who went home were only here for a year or 10 months. A lot of people miss their friends or families more and more the closer we come to the end, and that’s normal, I mean the other students here at Pasco can’t wait to get home since some have turned 18  and want to party or whatever. But I’m only 16, 15 when I first got here, and I’ll graduate from Pasco as a 16-year-old senior and then graduate back home as well.

I feel like this exchange year has helped me a lot. I mean, before I went on this experience, I was antisocial, lazy, and I was also very immature, but I feel like I’ve changed a lot. I’ve grown as a person, bettered myself, and lost some of my laziness. And some other students experience the same thing, but others don’t. I’ve seen some of the other exchange students still act like children at 8, and it surprised me. Another surprising thing is the way other countries eat or act, like with a lot of the Italians, their loud, egotistical, and drama-filled. While Koreans are nice, but very quiet, and to what I was taught, they eat with no manners, chewing loudly and not closing their mouth. And none of these things apply to everyone I’ve met.  People who break these norms, but it’s a common thing amongst them and I know as a Swede I don’t fit into the stereotype either I mean I’m not blonde, I don’t have blue eyes, I’m not very loud mouthed of myself, nor do I swear as much as people I know do. And while this is what I’ve been told and experienced, I might be wrong, maybe I fit in the stereotype to some and others not.