My American Experience

Almudena from Spain

My name is Almudena, I’m 16 years old, and I’m a foreign exchange student from Spain. That’s a sentence I have said so many times during my life in the United States. I arrived to America nine months ago and I feel like I got here a few weeks ago. Time went by very fast and I have enjoyed every minute of my school year in the USA.

I spent three days in New York for the orientation with more students from all over the world. I would say that New York is one of the coolest places in the world, especially if you meet people from other countries, make friends and have fun. I remember that the orientation was like an introduction of the school year. All the coordinators explain you the rules of this year, what you must do, and what you mustn’t do. They talk a lot about the cultural shock, which can be positive or negative, and it’s when you are impressed with everything. They also tell you about the three D’s: not Driving, Drinking, or Drugs. That’s something that I got tired of listening to…but it isn’t worth it to go back to your country just because you did something stupid like the three Ds. After staying in New York learning, visiting the city, and having fun, I flew to Tampa (Florida) and then to Dallas (Texas).

I had some trouble with the flights, but after all, I arrived to Wichita Falls, Texas, August, 1. I had to spend a week with my Local Coordinator because my host family was travelling. I had a wonderful time living with my LC and her family. They were really nice to me and I will never forget that. I remember that the first week here was like being in another world…I could hardly understand what people were saying and communication is something important when you are in another country.

After that week, I finally met my host family. The first thing I have to say about this family is that it’s AWESOME! And the second one is something that makes it a special and different family, is that their religion is Mormon. They have 11 kids and I got to meet 10 of them. They believe in certain things, but that’s like every single religion in this planet. I go to church every Sunday with them, as an American experience, and I made a lot of friends at church, all of them great people. I have to recognize that listening at church makes me think about moral things in life. As a good host family, they respect my religion and they haven’t tried to convert me. Their religion is a big part of this family, as they have told me. But that doesn’t mean they are weird or anything like that. Otherwise, Mormons are very nice people and you can learn a lot about helping others from them.

I still remember the first day of school as it was yesterday. My high school, Holliday High School is a really small high school…and when I say really small is because it has around 240 students. I had to walk everywhere to find the room and the teachers…so I was lucky to be in a tiny school. By the time school started, my English was a little bit better, but it was hard to understand every person…especially with the Texas accent from here! For me, school is so much easier here than in Spain, but I still have to do my homework everyday and sometimes projects. Another good thing about being in a small school is that everybody gets to know you. My first name is pretty hard for them to say…so I guess for some of them I’m still the FOREIGN EXCHANGE STUDENT. If not, I get called a hundred different kinds of nicknames, which I like. School is one of the places where you are going to spend most of the time at, so it’s better if you start making friends from the first day. That’s what everybody says, but I’ve talked to other foreign exchange students and we all agree that it’s hard to get accepted in a group of friends when you are new. By the end of the year, you have a lot of friends…some of them might last forever, and some of them are just simple friends, or classmates. But I can tell that I’m going to miss a lot of people from here.

If you play sports, you are going to have so much fun in the United States. Schools and sports go together, and it depends on the sport, but usually you miss a lot of school because you have games. You make a lot of friends playing sports and I have to say that sports were a cultural shock for me…but I love it! In my school, a lot of the coaches are teachers, and after spending a lot of hours at practice with them, you get to know them very well.

There are more exchange students from CIEE in Wichita Falls. We do a lot of fun activities together or community services. You can make friends really easily, because all of them are exchange students too and you always talk about things from America, and you compare things…so it’s pretty cool. About community services…I was scared, because we have to do 16 hours…and that’s a lot! But I have to recognize that it’s really easy to have all the hours done, because you always find things to do as community services. I went to clean horses’ stables, I went to downtown to a homeless place to help with the food, and I got to help with the Special Olympics for the handicapped.

Now, I only have one month left until I leave and I’m excited, but at the same time it’s going to be sad. I look back to everything I’ve done this year and everything was amazing. One of the hardest parts is to be away from your family and friends day after day, week after week, and month after month. The first semester went by really fast. I think Christmas was the saddest time for me, because it’s when I missed my family really bad. And after Christmas…everything goes really fast again…until April, when you start the countdown. I know it’s going to be sad to leave a family I have been living with for 10 months, and I hope I get to see them again. I’m travelling with my natural family over the United States during the month of June, so I’m looking forward that.

My overall experience in the United States was…awesome, amazing, embarrassing, confusing, fun, happy, scary…a mix of feelings that I can’t describe until you live them. I would like to encourage future exchange students to live this wonderful experience. It’s a great time in your life when you learn not only English, but you learn things about life. You learn how to push yourself whenever you need to do something, and you learn how to live in another country with a different language. I’m going to remember this year forever as a perfect time in my life, and I would like to thanks to every single person who has helped me over this year, and who has made this my successful year in the United States.