Seward High School sophomore Alma Fredriksson, 17, came to Nebraska as a foreign exchange student from Gothenburg, Sweden. She is hosted by Brady and Jill Johnson and has four host siblings.
She arrived in August through the Education First Foreign Exchange program. While she said she is not involved in extracurriculars in school, she plays on an indoor soccer team in Seward.
Fredriksson said she thinks school in America is more fun, because students have the option to choose some of their classes.
“You get to take classes like ceramics and sculpture or ethnic cooking, that’s what I’m doing now,” she said. “You would never be able to pick your own schedule back home and have those fun, different classes.”
Going from a big city to a small town was a big change for Fredriksson, but she said she thinks the size of the town and school are perfect. She said being in America has been a fun and weird experience.
“It’s so weird because you keep experiencing and doing things that are so different from back home, and you see the country from a whole different perspective,” Fredriksson said.
She said one of the biggest differences she has noticed between Nebraska and Sweden is transportation. In Sweden, there is more public transportation, while in Nebraska people are more reliant on their cars.
Fredriksson said she had always wanted to do an exchange year in America, and now Nebraska feels like a home away from home.
“Everyone is very nice here. People just come up and talk to you,” she said. “If you’re in the grocery store, people will stop to talk to you and you don’t even have to know them. That’s something that would never happen in Sweden.”
