Exeter-Milligan welcomed foreign exchange students Madeleine
Ensrud from Norway and Jesper Anker from Denmark this year.
Ensrud is hosted by the Alan and Amy Emshoff
family. The junior is from Soerumsond,
Norway and traveled a full day to get to Exeter.
So far the experience for her has been “going great. I love
the family, and I love living here.”
Although she is enjoying being in Nebraska she does miss her
parents and a big brother and younger sister in Norway. Her dad works in the computer and phone
industry and mom is a supervisor at a kindergarten. Currently her older brother is in college
working on a degree to teach English and Norwegian.
For Ensrud two of the biggest differences in coming here
from Norway have been the people and the landscape. “Everyone is so nice here, that’s very
different and everything is so flat.
There are lots of mountains and hills in Norway,” she explained.
Along with the landscape are the temperature differences, “In
the summer about the hottest day was 75 with the coolest day being around
48. Our average is between 50-60 so it
is very cool.”
Agriculture is a big part of the economy of the area where
Ensurd lives, “We grow more wheat and different grains than here and we produce
hydroelectric power on the river that is just 40 meters from my house.”
Even though the village that Ensrud lives in only has about
5,000 she is used to walking or riding the train everywhere she needs to get
to.
So far, the food in America is one of her favorite
parts. “The food is very different
here. We eat a lot of fruit and only
have sweet or fried items on the weekends.
Sports aren’t a part of the curriculum at her school,
usually students play on club teams.
This year Ensrud plans to participate in FCCLA, one act play and choir.
Anker, also a junior, is already loving his experience in
Nebraska. He is being hosted by the Paul
and Karla Sheffield family.
“Nebraska has some of the nicest people I have ever met,”
said Anker.
Anker is from Stevning, Denmark, a small town like Exeter
that enjoys 60 degree weather in the summer and plenty of rain.
Like Ensrud, his school doesn’t have a sports program but he
has played soccer for a number of years on club teams. He decided to try his hand at playing
football on the Exeter-Milligan team and is really enjoying it so far. He plans to play basketball and also go out
for track.
As far as scholastics go, both Ensrud and Anker are working
on some of the junior coursework including government. Anker finds the history fascinating, “It’s fun
hearing the differences between our government and history and yours. It’s an election year so that’s special as
well.”
Anker is definitely missing his two younger sisters along
with his dad who works as an electrician and his mom who is a the firm
psychologist at a local business, but he is really enjoying having a brother
for the first time at the Sheffield household.
Family life is the same here as it is at home but he finds
the food very different. “We bring our
own lunch and have no cafeteria. We
definitely eat a lot more here. Our main
meal is supper around 7:00 p.m.”
“We have fast food like McDonalds and Burger King in the
bigger towns close buy, in our town we have a grocery store like Greg’s and
most of the industry is IT related.”
Both Ensrud and Anker are looking forward to the school year
progressing along with the cooler weather that fall will bring.
