Written by Eeva Parikka

"What an exchange year means to me"

Writing about this subject is so easy for me. I'm in a group of exchange students, which I am going to write about now. At this time these 18 exchange students are part of my life. We share everything together, because we are in the same situation. There are 19 exchange students altogether, including me. We are just like a big colourful rainbow. Everyone has their own color.           Maybe Hugo is a blue person, and I might be yellow. Everyone is their own person. You can't find the same two people alike in this group. We are different, yet the same. The same situations; the same feelings. Everyone comes from a different background. Some students are from countries which are fighting together. Still those students are like best friends. Maybe you think this isn't true. They should be enemies, right? But -- It is true!           We don't care what country you are from. We just care that you are our friend, of course only if you want to. We have such a good spirit in our international group. We accept everyone, whatever they look like or whatever type of personality they have. We are all going through the same feelings. We always have a person with whom we can share our joys and sorrows. That gives us a feeling of safety in this big country. There is always someone. As we are a big rainbow, we are also a big family. All members are important, regardless of the way they are.           Usually an exchange student has homesickness. Homesickness can be a good or bad thing. Everyone will have two types of homesickness. The first type of homesickness is at the start of our exchanges. We begin to miss our home countries, then we miss our friends. Because we haven't made any friends yet. We all miss our real families. Because what our host families do at first might seem silly or strange to us. Our host families do things in a different way. We have to accustom ourselves to doing their way of things.           We all miss our home language. You can go through a whole year and not hear your own language. Some are lucky and they don't really hear and speak that. So they learn English faster and more easily. Just like me right now. I am from Finland and speak Finnish. No one speaks Finnish in Florida. But Ignacio is from Chile and speaks spanish. He lives in Miami where everyone speaks spanish.           The second type of homesickness will come when we have to return home. We will miss our friends here and our host families. And all of Florida . . . . .           We will be back home with our old friends and our own family, and it will feel silly because we would have spent one year away from home and so many things would have changed.. The same routine before we left our countries starts again. We might feel like we didn't learn anything. But memories are there.           We are all in the middle of a storm. A storm of emotions. Everyone feels the same feelings and the feelings are so strong. These emotions are like a purple sky before a hurricane comes or like a beautiful sunrise on the beach. Hot water in the shower or a cold wind blowing during the winter. There are many emotions each student experiences in everyone's own time. Some have those feelings when their experiences begin and some get those feelings at the end of this great year. All these emotions fill the group all over again and again.           We become intoxicated by emotions. With these emotions come all kinds of sadness, madness, and happiness. We start a new life and we are in the zero-line. You can decide what kind of person you are. Of course with new people you are different as in your home. Everybody knows that. You are not the same human in home as in the school, you are acting.           In this group we can't act. We have to be ourselves. We don't cheat. During our meetings they come out. Laughing, jokes, and hidden homesickness. Emotions are running very fast. Homesickness and new friends, experiences face to face. Ready to fight. A couple of minutes pass by, more laughing, and the fight is over. Curiosity towards new friends have won and we are getting to know each other. We can begin.           We are on the beach. It's night and we have had a very great day with this international group. We know each other better now and we are all like best friends. It is time to share our feelings and experiences. How funny American kids are--it's a main subject in our conversations. So many funny things that they say. Different things like rainforest, igloos, penguins, and even pizzas pop up in our conversations. Time is going so fast with these people; you feel like you have known them all your life.           But that's life . . . Parting from this group will be so hard. I know this year will go so fast and I will be so sad when I have to go back to my home country. I will miss Florida and my host family so much. I will survive, though. Two years later we can still think about this year. We might miss our group, host families, and way of life here.           It will be the best year in our lives, I can say that.

This page was last updated on August 25, 2002

Written by Eeva Parikka