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Living in another country learning a new language and culture may seem glamorous. But as FHS foreign exchange students discovered, it can also prove a difficult experience.
“I was nervous because I hadn’t spoken a word of German before I left,” said senior Aleta Bassett, who was in Switzerland for a year. “I was worried about meeting everyone because I didn’t know if my lifestyle would mesh with theirs.”
When FHS students leave, they know little or none of the language they are thrown into, and the process of learning the language takes at least five months.
“It’s not easy,” said senior Jason Curtis, who went to Italy. “When you first get there, you don’t understand a thing, you don’t really feel a part of anything.”
For others, the hardest part was the realization that this was going to be their life for the next year.
“The hardest thing for me was the beginning,” said Bassett. “I cried the whole night knowing I was actually going to be here for a year.”
As months go by, students finally begin to feel that they are a part of the culture; they know the language and feel accepted by their peers. They suddenly realize they are having the time of their lives and find themselves hiking up the Alps or boating to the most northern point of Norway.
“After I knew the language everything became more fun,” said senior Vanessa Shaw, who went to Hamar, Norway. “Being able to talk to them in their own language meant that I got to experience their personalities.”
While living abroad, students meet people from all over the world, and soon they find that they have made friendships that will last a lifetime.
“I have friends who write me from all over the world now,” said senior Peter Jostrom, who went to Portugal. “Friends are the most important thing.”
As their years abroad drew to a close, students found that the ways of life to which they had just become accustomed were about to end.
“The last two weeks were as hard as the first,” said Bassett. “I didn’t know how everything would be when I went home, and I knew I was going to miss my new friends.”
After finding themselves once more in the comfort of their own homes, students had realizations about themselves as well as the culture to which they had returned.
“After you experience something like this you look at everything from a different angle,” said Jostrom. “It makes you appreciate Kalispell and how beautiful the mountains and everything you haven’t seen really are.”
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