FHSTheFlash The Flash Volume 54, Issue 1 October 2013 | Page 6

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Features

The Flash Online: www.fhstheflash.com

An Exchange Student’s View

Karoline Asdal
Flash Staff Reporter

This year, Fraser High
School has welcomed six
foreign exchange students
from six different countries
all over the world. I’m one
of them.  My name is Karoline, and I’m from Norway,
a small country in Northern
Europe. I chose to move
abroad, thousands of miles
away from everything wellknown and safe, to get a life
experience, and see how
people live outside my own
small hometown, and to
learn English. 
As an exchange student
I get to learn another culture, another language and
another way of going to
school.  Before I came here I
had seen a bunch of American high school movies like
Mean Girls and High School
Musical. They have obviously given me some expectations, but how similar are
the movies to real life, and in
what ways is it different from
the Norwegian high school?
First, a significant difference is obviously the language. In Norway, we speak
Norwegian (not Norwayan,
which some people have suggested) and it is quite unlike
English. I’ve taken lessons
in English at school since I
was eight, so I usually have
no problem understanding
what is said, but responding is a bit harder. Well,
most of the times, people
understand what I’m trying
to say, sometimes after I’ve
repeated it a couple of times
and sometimes after I’ve gesticulated for a while. When
I get stressed out or excited,

I tend to start talking Norwegian, and people look
at me like I’ve gone crazy.
Altogether, I’m doing pretty
well with the language part
of exchange!
On the first day at Fraser,
I stood in the hallway with

a map, which confused me
more than it did good, and I
had absolutely no clue about
where to go. Up until then
I thought my school back
home was big and crowded,
but I was wrong. Very wrong.
Every single time I feel pretty confident about where to
find my classrooms, I seem
to get lost. The first week of
school I walked down the
stairs and I headed towards
room thirteen-hundred-andsomething.  I turned left and
was 100 % sure I was on the
right way, but suddenly I
found myself in the Fra’ Cafe

at the complete opposite side
of the school. For a moment
I thought there were two of
the cafes, but then I realized
I was lost. Again.
The lunch is pretty different in a lot of ways. We
have one lunch, not four

(tells you something about
the size) and we absolutely
don’t have nachos and pizza
and chips every day. Back
home we’re lucky if we get
warm food once a week, and
the days we don’t, we have
boring sandwiches and baguettes. The food tends to be
a bit healthier, though. The
cookies here are my favorite,
they’re just too good. It may
not be exactly good for my
health, but it sure tastes delicious.
An important part of
school is friends. Back home
I knew a lot of people, but

when I came here I was
suddenly by myself. It was a
really weird feeling all alone
when I stepped into the cafeteria and even weirder asking total strangers if I could
eat lunch with them. They
were really nice though. At

Asdal reading a map of FHS
Photo credit: Josephine Morenski

least I didn’t eat my lunch
at the restroom, which was
what I expected after watching Mean Girls. I joined the
swim team the second week
at school, and even though
I’m a pretty terrible swimmer, it’s a good way to meet
people and make friends so
I’m really glad I did that.
A big difference from home
is the school spirit. In Norway, it’s non-existing and
everyone disappears from
school as soon as the bell
rings in the afternoon. Here,
people stay to do sports and

activities for hours. Also,
every single student in this
school seems to own about
ten pieces of clothing with
“Fraser High  School” or “I
Love Fraser Ramblers” or
something like that written
all over it. I think I need to
get hold of some of those to
properly fit in. Right after I
started school, I went to my
first American football game
ever. I didn’t know a single
rule; I just applauded and
cheered whenever everyone
else did. I really enjoyed it
though, and that part is definitively like in the movies!
The worst part about
American High School? Oh,
that’s an easy one. The lockers, no doubt. You have no
idea how many times I’ve
been standing in front of my
locker, turning it around and
around like crazy. I’m always
so sure I’m doing it perfectly
correct, but it just won’t
open. After trying about ten
times I’m usually so afraid
someone has seen my desperate attempt to reach my
stuff inside the locker that I
just walk away and pretend
it wasn’t even my intention
to open it.
There are obviously lots of
other things that are different. I’ve never called a teacher by anything else than their
first name, I’ve never used a
hall pass and I’ve never had
dress codes. The language is
different and people dress in
a different way. Most parts
of high school aren’t like the
Hollywood-movies either, so
this was pretty much totally
unfamiliar to me when I
started. It’s a lot to adjust
to, but I really like it here at
Fraser and I’m looking forward to the rest of my year!