The smell of Kraft macaroni and cheese wafted up the noses of all the students seated in a circle on the floor of Mr. Barry’s third period Anthropology class. The usual teenage scene: talking, laughing, food. But there was something different; the words exchanged between students were not all in English. German, French, Hindi, Portuguese, and Korean filled the air.

 The 14 foreign exchange students at Fossil Ridge this year shuffled into this classroom on Nov. 29 to share about their lives and their culture. Students from France, Brazil, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, South Korea, India, and America sat together for a class period as though they were all from the same area and discussed—plain and simple—life.

Questions raced across the classroom, as a wide range of accents provided an answer. Some questions were basic such as “What is school like in your country?”  or “What is your favorite kind of food?” But some became more intimate; questions about their personal lives and families and who they really were as people. The intense school life of South Korea with five and a half to six days a week of school and studying until 10 p.m. each night greatly contrasted the school life of Brazil, with early school until 12:30 p.m. and testing on Saturdays. The elaborate homemade meals filled with beans and rice in Brazil differed from the croissants in France. But, underneath all of those differences, there was a world of similarities.

It was quite surprising actually how much each student could relate to the other. When I first entered the classroom that morning, I was a little bit nervous. Would anyone talk? Would it be awkward? Would people offend each other? But those fears departed as soon as Mr. Barry broke the ice and the entire class erupted into laughter. If we could laugh about the same things, then we could definitely converse about things together.

 This class period not only taught me new facts about different countries but also helped me to realize something much bigger. No matter where we are from, whether it is the coastal area of Japan to the majestic Alps of Switzerland, we are the same. Yes, we have our differences, we have many differences, but we also have so many similarities. We all smile and laugh; we all love to have fun and to experience new things. Viewing life through our personal cultural lenses with our own opinions and ideas is great, but what is even better is taking off our lenses. That is when the magic begins.