By Nidhi Rathod, Hosted in USA
“Hello, I am Nidhi from India. I am really enjoying my exchange year in United States. I am in Washburn, Wisconsin. Everyone enjoys their exchange year but I am living the life in my one exchange year. It’s really amazing and strange to live with one family who don’t know you very well like your real family then also they open their house for you. It’s really adorable thing about exchange year. Talking about my first day in USA, I met many exchange students from different countries orientation. The best thing about exchange year you can learn a lot of new culture by meeting different exchange students from different countries. First day’s feeling was weird because of being in an unknown country, in between unknown people. But here AFS USA’s staff is so friendly like back in India. First day in my host house with my host family was a wonderful day in my life because we shared a lot of things about culture and we tried to know each other more. I got know that they really like travelling and now while I am writing this I can tell that in just 1 month here, I have travelled to many places. That experience I can’t describe in word. Each place has its own value and culture, so while travelling I got to know more about USA history, nature and people. So far it has been really exciting. School is going on right now but then also we manage to travel on weekends. I have travelled on boat too. I made Indian food for them.
Talking about my experience in my host school, it is a really beautiful school but different from India. Many fun subjects, fun activities, sports and all. I play volleyball here. It is really a fun sport to play but practice is hard but then also I like it. Students are different but they are really open for exchange students, they are friendly too. Teachers are also very nice. I am having fun time in school here.
I am doing community service here at public library. It is a very beautiful library. Washburn is small town but people are really friendly. They really like to know about different countries and their culture. I got to know this while I doing my work at library because every people there want to know about India when they get to know that I am Indian. Here I am really experiencing and learning different cultures because in my school there are exchange students from Germany, Albania, Switzerland, and Thailand. I am learning Spanish here so their culture too. This is only because of AFS that I got this chance. I am really having my life’s best time here and this time is going to change me as a person for sure. Thank you, AFS!
Thanks to my host family too who are giving me a lot of good memories.”