By Milla Suomi and Astrid Wirnfeldt
We are from Finland and Denmark, and we wanted to become exchange students in the United States, because we wanted to improve our English, meet new people, and experience a new place. In our home countries, we have been taught that American people are extroverted; after we have spent three months here, we can definitely agree.
Before we started school at Anzar we were very nervous. It meant a different language, as well new people and school subjects. During the first few weeks at Anzar, teachers and students helped us to overcome these difficulties. At first, the new language was very hard. We were having trouble understanding the teachers in the classroom. The teaching style was different than what we were used to. Luckily for us, the teachers at Anzar are very nice and helpful. We got a lot of help from them with, for example, understanding different types of texts.
In our opinion, Anzar has good school spirit. Although the school is small and almost everyone knows each other, everyone is nice to each other. Teachers and students get along well. The atmosphere is relaxed, but still the school is taken seriously by most students. School also feels safe, which improves the school spirit.
Anzar’s sports teams are also fun, and joining the teams is easy, as it should be. The schools in our countries do not have sports on the school, so this new experience has been interesting. We have joined some of the school sports teams; for example, volleyball team, and we had a lot of fun with this experience.
We like going to Anzar High School and we are really going to miss all the students, teachers, school sports, and school spirit next year when we go back to our home countries. This opportunity to be an exchange student at Anzar has been an unforgettable time so far.