To be an Exchange student

Every year students from universities and secondary schools leave their country for a foreign country
to try a different life, leaving everything behind them to go to a totally unknown place to live in an unknown society.
There are different programs.
The secondary school students live in a host family and the undergraduates live in a college or alone in a flat.
But why do they do this?

The first reason can be to improve their language skills and when they are living there they get get to know the country
and it`s culture, which is tiring but as the time goes by they accept it without forgetting their own culture.
No culture is better than any other.

I am 17 and I am also a part of this program.
In October 2007 I read an ad which said that you could study in another country for one year.
I found it really interesting and exciting. I told this to my parents they approved of it.

I started my exchange year in Sweden in August 2008.
First, all students who were going to live in this country had a camp to get to know each other and more
about how our year was going to be. There were about 50 students from all over the world, most of them were from the US.
We spent 4 useful days at the camp and after we split up, everyone travelled to his/her own host family.
I was really curious because I did not know my family I had not even seen them.
I did not have a choice, because they chose me I only knew that I was going to live in Sweden.
It was quite an adventure to find my place.


Now I have been here for 6 months and I have gotten to know a lot of things.
In Hungary I know nearly nothing about other cultures and foreigners but in Sweden I have met
a lot of different people from all over the world and I have become more open and now I do not have
any prejudices if I see a Chinese or an Arabian people.
I realized that if something is different it should not be worse.
I can also speak better English and I know a little bit of Swedish too.

To be an exchange student is not all about extending your knowledge about the world,
but to get to know yourself how much you dare, endure how you solve your problems
and as the time goes by you are getting better and better.