Find best friends abroad: check.
What started out as friendly talk on the football field and an orientation dinner before the start of the school year has turned into a group of four best friends, all foreign exchange students.
Now, sophomore Jaime de Sandoval de la Cruz, juniors Jacob Ejstrup and Felix Moissl and senior Viola Paglia find time throughout the day to meet up. Whether it's for a quick walk through the halls during a study period or plans for a vacation in Paglia's hometown in Sardinia, Italy, next year, once they return to their different home countries in May.
“In Europe, you just have a small group of friends, but they’re all super close, and in America, you know a lot of people, but you’re not super close,” Moissl said. “So I think the hardest part [is] to make close friends.”
Coming from different countries and speaking a variety of languages, like French, Spanish and German, the four friends have not only had to rely on each other to communicate with teachers and peers, but have also connected through new sports and shared classes.
De la Cruz, Moissl and Ejstrup all played on the JV football and swim team together and plan to participate in the upcoming track season.
As for Paglia, she joins the group for lunch or after-school hangouts while playing pool in the basement of de la Cruz’s host family's home.
Even if it’s just having a ride to visit stores and restaurants that the exchange students have only seen on social media, they find a way to enjoy their time together wherever they are, according to junior Burt Sheets, who was a teammate during the football season.
“We went to Walmart, and we had a blast,” Sheets said. “We literally played with the shopping carts, it's just a lot of fun seeing them be happy.”
With requests from friends back home for Crumbl Cookies and late-night phone calls with family living on the other side of a seven-hour time difference, the four students have been able to build friendships based on shared experiences.
“[The] thing is, we connected really well,” Ejstrup said. “Even though we’re from different countries, it feels real, it’s kind of like home.”
With departure dates back home all set for late May, not seeing each other every day will be difficult.
“Whenever we get the opportunity to do something [together] in school, we do it,” Moissl said. “I could cry just thinking about [leaving].”
Leave a Reply