“One of the biggest changes is being in a city of millions of people. My family lives in a village with a population of just four thousand people.”
Miriam Mende, a junior exchange student from Switzerland, said of the differences she had to get used to while living here for a year.

Miriam was born in Berlin, and her family moved to Switzerland when she was three years old. She lives in a small village at the bottom of the Swiss Alps, called Sachseln, about 10 minutes outside of Lucerne.  Her exchange lasts for a year, and she moves back home a couple weeks after graduation here at Blanchet, being able to see her family again since she left last August. Mende arrived here in Seattle on August 28th, 2015. She traveled to New York and Hawaii with her exchange organization, and went to Mount Bachelor, Whistler, Yellowstone Park, and Grand Teton Park in Montana with her host family.

“My mom met my host dad when she did an exchange to America when she was my age. He was living in Indiana at the time, and they’ve stayed friends ever since, leading me to come here and stay with him and his family here in Seattle on my exchange. They’re like a second family to me, I will really miss them when I leave.”

Mende had been to Seattle twice before choosing to stay and do her exchange here. She’s been having the time of her life, learning about other cultures and meeting new people. Mende went on to explain her favorite parts of the exchange here so far.

“American food is very good, and all the international foods, like Mexican and Chinese. We don’t have anything like that back home. It’s SO unhealthy, but SO good.” She said.

“I also like how the extracurriculars here are supported by the school. Back home, sports and other extracurriculars, like plays and such, are completely separate from school. There’s so much more school spirit and support, it made me feel very welcomed here.”

Mende explained the big differences that she had to get used to here in America.

“My schedule here is very different from back home. School days are much shorter here. In Switzerland, school starts at 7:30 and ends at 4:00. It is a Swiss tradition to go back home and have lunch with your family during the day. It’s also harder to get around here, in Europe there’s trains that connect almost all the the cities and small villages. From where I live, I could (and have) taken a train straight to Paris, it only takes four hours, and it’s very cheap. Another big difference for me was learning to speak entirely in English. It was a struggle at first. Back home I’m always speaking Swiss-German, so the change to English all the time was not easy.”

While talking about the different foods she has tried here, Mende began listing the different foods she missed from home.

“Bread and cheese definitely, and chocolate more than anything. We have the best chocolate in the world back home in Switzerland.”

With just over a month left of her exchange, Miriam reflected a little on her time in America.

“I’ve had amazing time here, and I would definitely encourage everyone to stay abroad. I’ve made a ton of friends here, and it’s been awesome being a student in an American high school. Of course I’m excited to go back, but I would be happy staying here for another year. I will definitely be coming back.”