This year, Colorado Springs has adopted students from all over the world to live and experience the American culture. Air Academy alone has five exchange students from Finland, Germany, Denmark, Spain, and France. The students stay with host families for ten months. They experience American school, sports, holidays, food, and daily life. This year I have the opportunity to host an exchange student and meet other exchange students that attend Air Academy. Two exchange students that I have befriended are Elina and Helen. As I have become friends with these girls, I have learned a lot about them and their countries.

Elina is an 18 year old from Helsinki, Finland. Her favorite sport is soccer; however, she enjoys most athletic activities. Elina became an exchange student because she has always wanted to experience the American school, culture, and daily life.

Helen is from Germany and just turned 16. Helen loves singing and playing tennis. Like Elina, Helen wants to experience the American culture and learn to speak fluent English.

So far, one of Elina’s favorite things about Colorado is the nature and the mountains. She feels so lucky to live in such a beautiful place. Both girls agree that another great thing about Colorado is the people. They are kind, outgoing, and always make newcomers feel welcome.

Obviously, the girls miss their friends and family, but technologies such as Facetime, Instagram, Snapchat, and texting make it easier to keep in touch. In America, neither Helen nor Elina have a driver’s license so public transportation is also something that is greatly missed. In Finland and Germany public transportation is a major way for people to travel. It allows teens to have more freedom because they can travel to and from places whenever they please.

Helen thinks that one of the major differences between America and Germany is that everything in America is bigger. She notices that the houses, parking lots, streets, stores, etc, are all larger in America. Elina also recognizes that Americans use “small talk’ when they see each other. In Finland people just greet each other with a simple hello, they don’t ask “how are you.”

According to Elina, the hardest part about living in America is the language. In Finland, Elina only spoke English in her English class, but now she is forced to speak it all the time. It is challenging for her, but she is learning a lot. The hardest part for Helen is “learning to live without the people you love.” Ten months without your family is a long time and can be a very difficult adjustment to make.

Before coming to America, the girls expected to be very homesick, but so far they feel good and are enjoying their time. The students didn’t expect American schools to be so easy, Helen says “the concepts we learn in American school are easier than in Germany, but still hard for me because English isn’t my mother tongue.” On a stereotypical note, Elina expected everyone in America to be fat and was surprised to see that most people in Colorado are fairly skinny and fit.

These are only two of the five wonderful exchange students that attend our school this year. Air Academy is fortunate to have exchange students and can learn a lot from these kids.