Hi, I’m Sarah Rasmussen, an exchange student from Denmark.
I decided two years ago that I wanted to do an exchange year, so my parents and I started to look into it. Now here I am, two years later and almost done with my ten months in the U.S.
July 24 I left my home, all my friends, and my whole family to follow my dream to do a year of American High School life. I had 3 days in New York with other students from all around Europe. July 27 I arrived in Asheville Airport and was minutes away from meeting my host family. It was amazing to finally see them and they turned out to be the best host family I could ever have dreamed about.
Before school started I joined the tennis team and got some good friends, especially my friendship with Kinley Andress who turned out to be my best friend.
I was very nervous for the first day of school. It took a month to get into the routine and then I started to enjoy it. I was lucky to have some good teachers, coaches, and classmates.
In Denmark we go to the same school for the first ten years with the same students for all of them. So for me it was fun to try something else. I have enjoyed doing sports for the school, like tennis and swimming, which helped me make friends and made the months go by very fast.
I had some great trips with my host family to Washington state and to Disney World, and to Houston by myself to meet some of my family friends from Denmark. Keeping myself busy and distracted helped me get through the tough times with homesickness,but I have been lucky to be surrounded by the best people who also helped me.
I’m going to miss it: my friends, host family, school and all the experiences. I feel very lucky and rich in memories.
I have learned so much. I have learned to be more independent and outgoing, a lot about other cultures and ways of living, and most of all I’ve learned to appreciate what I have back home in Denmark.
