International young students come to the USA every year looking forward to doing so many things with their host families and with their American high schools and communities during their exchange year. Here’s Emma to tell us how her exchange experience has gone in Tennessee:
Hi! my name is Emma, and I am a 17 year old FLEX student from Budapest, Hungary, placed in Tullahoma, Tennessee.
It’s so hard to believe that I have been here for almost 8 months, because time flies by so fast! I have met so many new people on the way and made such good friends, whom I know I will stay in connection with even after I leave.
I have played volleyball, basketball, and now I am on the softball team. The feeling when all your friends cheer for you, whether you did something right or wrong is one of the best experiences I had here. I never played softball before in my life, but everyone here was so helpful and the coach was really patient with me and treated me as an equal member and the whole team was so welcoming, even though I just joined when the season started.
I clicked with my host family so well ever since the beginning, but since then I can confidently say that they became my second family. They are always so happy and excited to hear about my country and are patient with explaining something I didn’t know before about America. I learned about the U.S from them a lot.
Overall, I feel like this almost a year has changed me in a great way, showed me a part of the world I have never seen before and opened my eyes. The basketball, football games, family and organisation trips, made it able for me to visit many places I have dreamed of going to and do things I have dreamed of!
Thank you FLEX and Greenheart for this amazing opportunity, I’ll do my best to get everything out of my exchange in my remaining time here and use all the things I have learned here to make changes in the future!
Interested in hosting a student like Emma? Visit HostwithGreenheart.org to learn more, to Meet our Students, and to apply.
