Lisa Evju is a 17-year-old foreign exchange student from Sigdal, Norway. Evju came to the U.S. in August and will be staying until May of 2018. Lisa’s parents had paid about 15,000 dollars for her to live and attend an American High School. Even though her parents paid so much for her to be here, her host parents don’t get any of the money. All of the money goes to the agency. Arizona was Lisa’s 2nd choose, California being the 1st, and Florida the 3rd. She wanted to go to a place that was sunny and always warm because in Norway it’s super cold and cloudy. When I asked Lisa why she wanted to be a foreign exchange student she replied,  “Because of my sister, she did it and it seemed fun. I also did it to get out of my comfort zone and try something new.” Lisa has been enjoying Tucson, but she said it’s too hot. Lisa also said it gets a bit boring because her host parents are always working. When she gets home all of her Norwegian friends are asleep so she has no one to talk to.

Lisa had also told me about some huge differences between Norway and America. The first being that we are more polite. In Norway they rarely say please, thank you, or ask permission. Evju also stated that us Americans can go up to random people in grocery stores and start conversations while in Norway they keep to themselves. Our schooling is also a major difference between the two countries. In Norway they don’t have classes like culinary, badminton, art, or photography. They only have the basic classes like math, Norwegian, English, science, etc. They also don’t have sport associations with the school. If they wanted to play a sport, it has to be outside of the school. Lisa reported that overall the schooling here is pretty easy and is at a lower level than where she’s from. Norwegian teens are allowed to stay out as long as they like. They are allowed to drink alcohol when they are 16, but cannot buy any until they are 18. Teens are also not able to drive until they are 18; therefore, most teens use motor scooters to get where they want to go.