First Impressions

Belén Weckström

It’s been almost two months ago since I left my home in Finland and came to America to be an foreign exchange student. The morning of my first day in Waterford High School, I was terrified – would I be left alone? Would I be able to understand what people said? Luckily, I met another foreign exchange student – Elin – who was going to go to WHS as well.

Both Elin and I became exchange students since we wanted to experience a culture different than the one we’ve grown up in and we wanted to meet new people with different backgrounds. Personally, I chose to come to America because I’d heard the country is very diverse.

Being a foreign exchange student in WHS has been a good experience so far. Students came up to me the first day of school and started talking, which made me feel welcome. The teachers were very nice and helped me understand the school system. I noticed that people here are interested in getting to know different cultures, just like I am, since they asked me a lot of questions. Elin and I have had a good laugh about some of the questions we’ve been asked; “Do the clouds in Finland look like the ones here?”, “Do you have cars in Norway?”, “Do you know what a hamburger is?”, “Does your country have a government?”

Some questions have made me realize how far away from home I actually am. My friends and family are seven time zones and a nine-hour flight away, but I still feel at home here. It took some time, but now I’ve started to adjust to the cultural differences between the USA and Finland. I still struggle with the American coins, though. I think they all look the same and I still don’t know how much a “dime” is worth.

It’s fun to experience the American “school spirit” in real life and not only see that in movies. (Yes, in Europe we think High School Musical is like high school in real life.) In Finland, there are no such things as school sports, clubs or events and I was surprised by the wide range of activities WHS has to offer when I came here. I’m glad that I chose to be a foreign exchange student in America, and even though I feel terribly homesick some days, I am happy that I’m going to spend the rest of the school year at Waterford High.