Traveling to new places can be scary, to live in a strange place for a year can be even more so.

Lasse Sievertsen, a foreign exchange student from Germany, has taken on the challenge. Sievertsen has traveled to a new world to be the ‘new kid’ in an American high school.

Texas wasn’t quite what Sievertsen expected.

“If I’m honest, I expected that in Texas everybody [would have] a farm,” Sievertsen said

Sieversen has made a lot of new friends since arriving.

Students are “very welcoming, treating me not as an exchange student, everybody is friendly and ready to help,” Sievertsen said.  

Academics around the world are different; in Germany, school hours are shorter but with more of a rigorous workload.

“We are not allowed to choose our subjects. The leaders change the rooms not the students,” said Sievertsen

Changing schools can be hard, changing countries is even harder. New people and new places – what an experience.