I decided to come to America last year as a foreign exchange student because I wanted to learn a new culture, and it was a great decision.
I was incentivized by my older brother, since he went to New Zealand in 2024 and could not stop talking about how nice it was.
Traveling to the United States was harsh – 3 different flights and 11 hours of flying. My flights were from Curitiba, Brazil to Sao Paulo, Brazil to Washington, DC to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
When I stepped into Minneapolis airport, I experienced a cultural shock about the rules, the food, the clothes, the costs, the way of acting, etc. When I saw my host family, it was even more shocking. They told me about their routines here and about their traditions. It made me excited, because I saw that they are always busy with sports or homework. .
The food caused the greatest culture shock. In Brazil I always ate fresh food from my mom: rice, beans, salad, a vegetable and a type of meat (fish, beef or chicken). My first American meal ended up at Culver’s, where I ordered a Butterburger with cheese curds. It was absolutely delicious. Different, but awesome. I went there on the day I arrived in the United States. The soccer team and I celebrated after the first soccer win of the season. It was such a nice time since they won the match. Everyone was happy. It was a great day.
This high school is very unusual to me as well. It is massive, with tons of different classrooms and different subjects. It is very different for me. In Brazil we had one classroom and the different teachers rotated to the class, instead of me going to their classrooms like it is in America.
Another distinct thing about the school is my schedule in America. At MHS our classes start at 7:40 and end at 3:15 with 8 classes in the day. After that I go to soccer practice until 5:30. In Brazil the classes go from 7:15 to 12:30 with only 6 academic classes in a day. Then I go to lunch and afterwards go to the gym, sleep, or study. All sports and arts are not related to school. Schools have only academic purposes, being just for study.
The soccer team was also a new experience, because I got to know them on my very first day in America. I was already planning on playing soccer here, but I did not think it would come that fast. Even though they played together for over 10 years, the boys treated me super well, introducing me to the ‘soccer family’ and even giving me a nickname, ‘Tota’, inspired by a famous Brazilian youtuber.
The cities are pretty different too. I used to live in Curitiba, the capital of the state of Parana with over 2 million inhabitants. I lived in my own social bubble, where I saw the same people every day and weekend. On my weekends I hung out on Friday and Saturday with my friends, and on Sunday I spent time with my family. It was the same events with the same people all the time, while here every weekday and weekend I do different things with different people, being very entertaining. I watch football Menomonie games, go to the turf, play soccer or hang out in the big cities.
At the end of my school year, I will go back to Brazil to finish my senior year and hopefully come back to America for college. I hope to learn a lot of new things here, becoming a more knowledgeable person and more independent. Also, I want to train my English to become fluent, since this will help me for life. Outside of school, I want to make friends in which I can rely on anytime and anywhere, making friendships for life.
