Kate Thomassen, our Foreign Exchange Student from Kristiansana, Norway, said “I love America!” when she was interviewed for the last time. She said she mad many friends and met even more through her participation in being a cheerleader for wrestling and singing in choir. While she was here Kate learned to love watching football and wrestling. She thinks it is absolutely amazing!

Kate was lucky enough to visit a few of the big cities while she stayed in America. She went to Boston, Chicago, and Des Moines. She said that the big cities were great and that she,” just loved walking around in the cities and watching people” and doing all the other things we expect to do in a large city. She added afterwards,” And of course… I love the shopping in big cities.” Of the big cities they went to Boston was her favorite. It was the first time that she was able to walk around a big city by herself and was able to do whatever she wanted. She doesn’t think that she would want to live in a big city, but she really liked to visit them. When asked if the big cities were the way she expected them to be she said that they were pretty much what she had expected because she has been to big cities before, but she said that to experience one by herself in a different country was “pretty cool.”

Kate Found that while in America she could not really pick a favorite food because she loved everything from Hu Hot to Coldstone to Panchero’s. “It’s delicious” Kate commented when talking about the food.

While in America Kate believes that she has improved a lot, but still has some “foreign moments”. Kate Wants to visit America again and even wishes to go to college here. For her final comment she said that she “will never regret the decision to go abroad for a year, will take the memories she has made this year with her through her whole life, and will miss all of her new friends SOO much when she has to leave.”

Our other FES (Foreign Exchange Student) came from Crimmitchau, Germany. His name is Toni Schulze. He made many friends while here through school, and his sports that he participated in Football and Tennis.

Toni was able to visit two major cities, Chicago and Minneapolis. Toni said,” it was amazing, i have never seen any skyscrapers like the ones in Chicago. It was so impressive.” Toni thought that the large cities were very impressive, but was certain he would not want to live among the millions of people in those cities. Toni’s favorite food in America was Tacos.

Although Toni had many American experiences he still “hates” baseball because it is “very boring.” Toni said that he would do this again in an instant and feels like his English became easy after about 4 months. He feels like he is still improving every day, but feels much more comfortable speaking English.

Toni plans to visit America again once he is done with his school back home. For Toni’s last words of the interview he said,” I made a lot of friends and memories. I got to know a lot of great people and cities, and I now know what i want in my life.”

To both of the FES we will all miss you and hope you come back to visit our tiny town again soon.