‘Twas the night before departure, and all throughout the land
Next years exchange students with plane tickets in hand
they said their farewells, and hugged everyone goodbye
not knowing of the crazy adventures in front of them that lie…
A room full of memories all packed in a hurry that night,
“Hey Mom, can you sit on this for me while I zip up it tight?”
Visions of faraway places and foreign lands they dream
It’s all fiction until tomorrow, when their planes will leave
Half way across the world their new friends awake
they don’t know it yet, but he/she will be their best mate
their dreams continue, all exciting and stoked
little do they know, this time next year they’ll be broke
The moon gives way, for the bright sun the next day
they wake up to reality, for today is the day
A day of tears, fears, and many make-up smears
A day of joy, adventure, and a little maturity I might add
I love you so much, I’ll miss you Dad.
“Hey Mom, who’s gonna do my laundry?”
“Just kidding, I’ll miss you real bad.”
“Hey Sis, I took your favorite dress (hehe)… no I
didn’t, but I wanted to real bad. I guess I never said this,
but I love you to death.”
The tears trickled through, but the excitement prevailed
All proud and adventurous, as my moms arms “flailed” goodbye
I never thought I’d miss them so much until they weren’t by my side
The plane took off, and the flight attendant brought drinks,
A little turbulence got me nervous, but I’m ok, I think…
The flight continued, and in their dictionaries they looked
Actually, this was the first time they had ever opened this book
“How do I say ‘Hi’? ‘Goodbye’? What if I need do to go the bathroom?
I don’t know!” The fear inside them began to grow.
Another night passed, and thus another day
They are all needles in a hay stack, special in their own way.
The flight attendant woke them all up, “hey lady, I don’t want any orange juice,
why did you have to wake me up?” They say…
A great way to start off such an important day
A smooth landing and they were there at last
about to meet their new host families, not knowing
their year would go by real fast
A big smile, and some good-old morning breath
“I can’t wait to take a shower, I hope they have one, I wept”
A new culture, a new family, a new language and land
“Anything else? … I don’t even recognize the sand”
“Where am I, who are you, how do I say… and what’s this?
I feel really lonely, I can’t stop thinking about everybody I miss.”
“I wonder what my friends are doing right now, what happened
at the party, and who kissed.”
The story continues on, for about a nine months to a year
The adventure has just started, and the end doesn’t seem near.
Their days pass, and their friendships grow, “leaving my new home
is the toughest part… I wish I had known.”
Their eyes are wide, they’re flaunting overwhelming smiles alike
I hope mom and dad don’t mind my new tattoo, curfew, study habits, and insight
I’ve changed a little bit, gotten out on my own, you know
I’ve lived by my own rules for a year, I thought you should know
It just won’t be like it was before my friends
I’m lost in my own paradise, I no longer need your advice.
Hey, what’s up? Not much I say.
If I told you, you wouldn’t understand, anyway
The sun sets, and back in their own beds they lay
A year of their life, well worth the extended stay
So many stories, and so much to tell
The experience of a lifetime, “I went through heaven and hell
I can’t say it was easy, and I can’t say I loved every minute
But I grew a lot, I learned a new language, and no that’s not it
sometimes I like to keep it to myself, that way I don’t ruin it.”
What is exchange?
Exchange is change. Rapid, brutal, beautiful, hurtful, colourful, amazing, unexpected, overwhelming and most of all constant change. Change in lifestyle, country, language, friends, parents, houses, school, simply everything.
Exchange is realizing that everything they told you beforehand is wrong, but also right in a way.
Exchange is going from thinking you know who you are, to having no idea who you are anymore to being someone new. But not entirely new. You are still the person you were before but you jumped into that ice cold lake. You know how it feels like to be on your own. Away from home, with no one you really know. And you find out that you can actually do it.
Exchange is learning to trust. Trust people, who, at first, are only names on a piece of paper, trust that they want the best for you, that they care. Trust, that you have the strength to endure a year on your own, endure a year of being apart from everything that mattered to you before. Trust that you will have friends. Trust that everything’s going to be alright. And it is seeing this trust being justified.
Exchange is thinking. All the time. About everything. Thinking about those strange costumes, the strange food, the strange language. About why you’re here and not back home. About how it’s going to be like once you come back home. How that girl is going to react when you see her again. About who’s hanging out where this weekend. At first who’s inviting you at all. And in the end where you’re supposed to go, when you’re invited to ten different things. About how everybody at home is doing. About how stupid this whole time-zone thing is. Not only because of home, but also because the tv ads for shows keep confusing you.
Thinking about what’s right and what’s wrong. About how stupid or rude you just were to someone without meaning to be. About the point of all this. About the sense of life. About who you want to be, what you want to do. And about when that English essay is due, even though you’re marks don’t count. About whether you should go home after school, or hang out at someone’s place until midnight. Someone you didn’t even know a few months ago. And about what the hell that guy just said.
Exchange is people. Those incredibly strange people, who look at you like you’re an alien. Those people who are too afraid to talk to you. And those people who actually talk to you. Those people who know your name, even though you have never met them. Those people, who tell you who to stay away from. Those people who talk about you behind your back, those people who make fun of your country. All those people, who aren’t worth your giving a damn. Those people you ignore.
And those people who invite you to their homes. Who keep you sane. Who become your friends.
Exchange is music. New music, weird music, cool music, music you will remember all your life as the soundtrack of your exchange. Music that will make you cry because all those lyrics express exactly how you feel, so far away. Music that will make you feel like you could take on the whole world. And it is music you make. With the most amazing musicians you’ve ever met. And it is site reading a thousand pages just to be part of the school band.
Exchange is uncomfortable. It’s feeling out of place, like a fifth wheel. It’s talking to people you don’t like. It’s trying to be nice all the time. It’s bugs.. and bears. It’s cold, freezing cold. It’s homesickness, it’s awkward silence and its feeling guilty because you didn’t talk to someone at home. Or feeling guilty because you missed something because you were talking on Skype.
Exchange is great. It’s feeling the connection between you and your host parents grow. It’s hearing your little host brother asking where his big brother is. It’s knowing in which cupboard the peanut butter is. It’s meeting people from all over the world. It’s having a place to stay in almost every country of the world. It’s getting 5 new families. One of them being a huge group of the most awesome teenagers in the world.
It’s cooking food from your home country and not messing up. It’s seeing beautiful landscapes that you never knew existed.
Exchange is exchange students. The most amazing people in the whole wide world. Those people from everywhere who know exactly how you feel and those people who become your absolute best friends even though you only see most of them 3 or 4 times during your year. The people, who take almost an hour to say their final goodbyes to each other. Those people with the jackets full of pins. All over the world.
Exchange is falling in love. With this amazing, wild, beautiful country. And with your home country.
Exchange is frustrating. Things you can’t do, things you don’t understand. Things you say, that mean the exact opposite of what you meant to say. Or even worse…
Exchange is understanding.
Exchange is unbelievable.
Exchange is not a year in your life. It’s a life in one year.
Exchange is nothing like you expected it to be, and everything you wanted it to be.
Exchange is the best year of your life so far. Without a doubt. And it’s also the worst. Without a doubt.
Exchange is something you will never forget, something that will always be a part of you. It is something no one back at home will ever truly understand.
Exchange is growing up, realizing that everybody is the same, no matter where they’re from. That there is great people and douche bags everywhere. And that it only depends on you how good or bad your day is going to be. Or the whole year.
And it is realizing that you can be on your own, that you are an independent person. Finally. And it’s trying to explain that to your parents.
Exchange is dancing in the rain for no reason, crying without a reason, laughing at the same time. It’s a turmoil of every emotion possible.
Exchange is everything. And exchange is something you can’t understand unless you’ve been through it.
Urbandictionary definition - Foreign exchange student:
Most awesome person you will ever meet. Exchange students willingly decide to get off their butts, leave their home country, and go see the world. For that reason, they should be given a heck of a lot of credit. Usually, a foreign exchange student will have a funny accent and not speak your language very well. This is all the more reason to hang out with them, because everything will suddenly become that much more hilarious. Also, they are generally young people, and have the tendency to be extremely good looking. In conclusion, mad props to all exchange students out there.
~Please excuse the length of this post, but I just wanted to reblog these gems that I found about student exchange, the first on Tumblr and the others on Facebook.
Enjoy!!!
-Still no significant events of my own to share TT.TT I will update just as soon as I am updated myself ^_-
Love,
Nico! ^_^
PS: Please also excuse the white highlight-stuff in this post, I can't seem to get rid of it. -_-
