Being an exchange student is not easy at all. It means leaving everything behind and starting
all over again, making new friends, speaking another language, and going to a different school where education takes place in a different style. When we come here, we don’t think about how much we’ll miss our parents and siblings. We first think that we will miss our friends and all the gossip at school, but being here makes us realize how much we need our family. Other exchange students and our parents always tell us that through this experience, we will see who our real friends are, and that is true. Our family and our real friends are with us no matter what.
My name is Claudia Serna. I was born in Barcelona, Spain, but I live in Madrid. This year, I am a sophomore at Traip Academy in Kittery. Before coming here, I was really scared. I had seen movies about this country before, but I had never been here, so I didn’t know what to expect. I knew that going somewhere new would be difficult, but I realized it all depends on my attitude: if we come here thinking that we won’t like it, we won’t, but if we see it as an opportunity to learn and try new things, we’ll have an unforgettable experience. When I knew I was coming to Kittery, I looked at the weather, photographs and news. When the winter came, I saw it was very cold, and, at first, I was nervous because it was freezing and I wasn’t used to temperatures like that. But after talking with my future family, they told me what it was like to wake up and see everything covered with snow. They said it was the best feeling ever, and now that I’ve seen it, I can say they were definitely right.