by Mia Burns

Steinunn Bjorg Hauksdottir is an exchange student from Reykjavik, Iceland attending PCM high school this year as a junior. Having the opportunity to choose between Argentina, Italy, Ecuador, Hauksdottir always had the dream of spending a year attending high school in the United States.

“I heard about it when I was about 13 that you could move for a few months to another country to go to school, and I was like yes, that is something that I want to do,” Hauksdottir said.

Although being here in the states is very different, she has already had several great experiences at the high school.

“Homecoming was fun I’d say. Like the t-ping and Spirit Night was really fun,” she said.

In Iceland, she participated in handball, but here she is currently a part of the fall play, “Mystery at Shady Acres.” She is also looking forward to trying a lot of new activities that they don’t have in Iceland and embracing her time that she has in the states.

“I’m going to do basketball, and I want to do speech. I might do golf and softball, too. I kind of just want to do it all basically,” Hauksdottir said.

While living with her host family, Harry and Lisa Brannen, she has noticed many similarities and differences to her family in Iceland.

“I am the oldest here, but back home I am the youngest. My mom and dad from back home are divorced, so I live in two different places. I have more siblings here too. Also my host family works a lot more than my actual family which I think is really weird. Back home I live in the capital, so it’s bigger and here it’s smaller, so it is more personal, and you can know everybody better. You guys here are nicer, honestly. Back home, people are arrogant and rude basically, but you guys are a lot nicer and will just walk up to me and be like ‘Hey, who are you?,” Hauksdottir said.

When asked, Hauksdottir said that she wants to make sure she really tries as many new things as she can and not live here like someone on vacation but an actual resident.