Article written by Emilie Babkine

Every year, teenagers from all around the world decide to leave their school, family and friends to spend between a few months and a year abroad. There, they study the national language by living with a host family and going to school. This experience allows a lot of learning experiences like becoming fluent in another language, discovering a brand new culture, meeting new people, trying new things and just living a new life. Moreover, it is a great bonus if the student wants to continue his studies after that year. But it also does have some drawbacks, such as being away from your family and friends, and missing one year of school because most of the time this year counts as a sabbatic one.

Many organizations offer to to this. I decided to come here with WEP (World Education Program), but Franziska Gersten (11th), a German exchange student, is travelling with EF (Education First). Our programs are also different, I chose the state and city I wanted to go to and she did not. Such options depend on the price you are able to pay for your trip. Since it is really expensive (between $9 000 and $45 000 a year depending on where you go and which options you choose), some organisations offer  scholarships for one or two teenagers per year.  

The first thing I was interested in learning about was why people choose to spend a year in the U.S.A, Franzi explained her choice to me, “I had to choose between Australia and the U.S.A because those countries are the two biggest English-speaking areas and I only know how to speak English and German. And I wanted to live like people who go to American high school in movies or TV series”. I chose to come to Fort Collins because I wanted to live in a small city to see the “real America”. For me, Los Angeles or New York are not representing the U.S.A. They are really big cities and most of the time when somebody talks about the USA, they are the only things this person wants to see. I did not want this year to be like a touristic vacation but a real experience where I could see how people live.I have also always had a huge interest in school here. Those are the two main reasons why I came here. Albert Hastrup (11th), from Denmark, said to me “I only wanted to meet new people and my host family, anywhere in the world”.

Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins, Colorado welcomes exchange students every year. It is a new school which opened in 2004. This is an amazing school for students from all around the world because of the number of activities it offers everyone. Albert, a Junior from Denmark chose to play football and he immediately felt like he belonged this school activity: “I love being a part of the team”. Classes start at 7:30 and end at 2:50, which is really different from other countries. For example, in France, school starts at 8am and ends around 6pm. Here, the lunch break is only 45 minutes long, it is not a lot compared to the  hour and a half in my old school. Students do not eat a lot for lunch. They usually take a sandwich, some vegetables and snacks or buy something at school like a slice of pizza. In France, students have a cooked meal for lunch like the ones people here have for dinner. Moreover, the school offers students the opportunity to rent a computer. Most of the teachers use websites to teach on. Europeans schools still use notebooks and pens. Another different thing is that here, students can study what they are interested in and can develop what they are good at. For example, if a student likes to sing he can take a choir class or if another one loves acting, she can take a drama class. I was so happy when my counselor told me that I could take the fashion class and the yearbook class. The classes are way more lively, the teachers use slides, videos and the students do not spend the entire class taking notes.  They also often afford the chance to work as groups and to come up with projects. I saved the best part for the end, the Student Council organizes events throughout the year. During a week in September, students were allowed to come to school dressed up to a  theme. It was called the Homecoming Spirit Week. They had a bonfire on the Wednesday and the Homecoming dance on Saturday night. Both of these things could never happen in France.

Learning to know a host family is also an important part of the program, it can be difficult to get on well and sometimes it can’t work. I personally moved two weeks after I arrived in Fort Collins, my first host family was not nice and things were just not working at all. But since I have moved, my trip became so much better and I enjoyed every moment. Daniel, from Norway decided to live with his aunt and uncle “I chose to live with my family, I like that not having to pay!”

Let’s talk about an important topic: the food.The U.S.A have many amazing restaurants, “I went to BJ’s a few weeks ago, I had a burger and it was amazing” said Franzi. My favorite place to eat so far has been Chipotle, we do not have many Mexican places in France and I loved the chicken burrito bowl. I am probably not the only foreign girl who thinks that, but I feel like  people eat out all the time here.

The way people live is also very different, for example, many students go to football games every Friday and the other exchange students seem to enjoy it. When I asked Franzi what one of her favorite things here was, she said, “ I love going to the games on Friday nights”. She also talked about the differences, “Here, people don’t take their shoes off when they walk into an house”. To my mind, the most different thing in America is how  people organize their day, they have dinner around 5:30 and do things after eating, in France most people have dinner around 8pm and just hang out for a little bit after that.

So, becoming an exchange student is an amazing experience and being at Fossil Ridge High School makes it even better!