Experience as an Exchange Student
My experience in the United States as an Exchange Student
To be a young adult living in Malaysia, the United States is appeared to be a way off place, both in a social context and geographically. I was sponsored by the American Field Service (AFS) in 2008. Throughout my months as a Malaysian exchange student in Boston, I have been smiling and crying, yearning to go home and hoping I could continue staying longer. Being an exchange student, we’re appealing at the start, striking, comical with our strange accents, and regular speech errors, but after one month, the exchange student is no longer that new and popular anymore. You will have to make yourself appealing, never wait for other people to invite you; you will have to begin it. I thought it was effortless, but it’s once you’re in that place, you will realize.
As an exchange student, it is all about fighting to make your dream come true. I always wanted to be an exchange student ever since I was eleven. I faced many difficulties prior to leaving, such as I did not want to be separated from my family and friends. In my mind I was thinking of how to deal with a new house to live in, a new family, an unfamiliar language, a laptop screen amid me and my family back at home, when all you want is just to hug and touch them. Not only that, I faced difficulties when I got back to Malaysia after the program. I found out that many of my friends had a great time even if I was not there; I recognized that I have matured and people around me are not. Each one of these conditions requires strength and that is what being an exchange student is all about.
I packed up and left the country one warm January day early of 2008. Twenty five hours later I was in Boston, one of the oldest cities in the United States which was to be my home for the next six months. My host dad and sister waited for me at the crowded airport with open arms. I spotted them right away as they were holding up a huge, bright yellow sign saying “Welcome
To be a young adult living in Malaysia, the United States is appeared to be a way off place, both in a social context and geographically. I was sponsored by the American Field Service (AFS) in 2008. Throughout my months as a Malaysian exchange student in Boston, I have been smiling and crying, yearning to go home and hoping I could continue staying longer. Being an exchange student, we’re appealing at the start, striking, comical with our strange accents, and regular speech errors, but after one month, the exchange student is no longer that new and popular anymore. You will have to make yourself appealing, never wait for other people to invite you; you will have to begin it. I thought it was effortless, but it’s once you’re in that place, you will realize.
As an exchange student, it is all about fighting to make your dream come true. I always wanted to be an exchange student ever since I was eleven. I faced many difficulties prior to leaving, such as I did not want to be separated from my family and friends. In my mind I was thinking of how to deal with a new house to live in, a new family, an unfamiliar language, a laptop screen amid me and my family back at home, when all you want is just to hug and touch them. Not only that, I faced difficulties when I got back to Malaysia after the program. I found out that many of my friends had a great time even if I was not there; I recognized that I have matured and people around me are not. Each one of these conditions requires strength and that is what being an exchange student is all about.
I packed up and left the country one warm January day early of 2008. Twenty five hours later I was in Boston, one of the oldest cities in the United States which was to be my home for the next six months. My host dad and sister waited for me at the crowded airport with open arms. I spotted them right away as they were holding up a huge, bright yellow sign saying “Welcome