iE Quotes 2015

10 Sunday May 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Kelly (from Thailand)
“I lived in the dorm for almost one year with Germans, a Brazilian, Spanish, and Vietnamese so I have more friends from other countries than I thought I would ever have. “On the weekend we always go to do fun things for example riding the horses and do community service”
“Our school is a small one. It’s about 25 high school students that is a good thing because the teachers can take care for all of us”.
“We play sports and practice every school day and I like it because I can learn how to play new sports and have a good health”.
“We did go to some school trips and also on a trip to California with my supervisor from iE and we had lots of fun”

Monique (from China)
Hi, I’m Monique, from Burnt River High School. I lived with the Ramer Family.
Because I live on the ranch, I met a lot animal friends. There are friendly dogs that are  eager to be petted.  A cute cat will stay on your legs. You can have a horse ride and feed the cows. We even have baby caves and puppies.
We have hunting season of deer and elk.  We went to a drama show as well. Two different things, the same exciting to experience.
The most interesting class is Advanced Science. We put the book away and learned about crime scene detectives.  We learned about blood tests, finger print identification, and DNA identification and many other things.
The school is small, so it’s easy to get involved in. Every one is important to the school team. Everyone is important to each other.  We might not be the best team, but we are the happiest team.
Here, there are chances for everything.  I joined in the FFA, and we made a lot money from a bazaar, donations, and a bake sale. We went to the state convention, and I won the first place! Just try new stuff as people here will support you.

Oscar (from Germany)
“I lived in a dorm in one of the smallest towns I’ve seen in my life and it was one of the best experiences in my life.”
“If you do sports you’ll get to play for sure because it’s small and they need every player and it’s so much fun to play football, basketball, and at the end track.”
“We have about 25 students in our high school but that’s actually very good, because you get involved in everything and at the end of the year you’ll go on an awesome school trip.”
“One of the coolest things we did was the California trip with iE we went over spring break to San Francisco and went to amusement parks, Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, and a lot of more fun things.”
“In our dorm there are about 8 kids from other countries like Thailand, Spain, Vietnam, Mexico, Brazil, and Germany it is a lot of fun with them because you have something to do every day.”

Daniel (from Germany)
“I like living in the dorm because you always have somebody to do stuff with.”
“I also like that you have more opportunities to know new people.”
“Living in a small town was first a little hard for me but you get used to it and it’s actually a lot of fun.”
“It Is crazy everybody is related to everybody. I think the best so far was the California trip,it was so much fun.”
“Even the days you have nothing to do you have the dorm kids around and can play basketball or do whatever.”

Chloe
“Living in the dorm makes me feel like I have a big family. We eat together, laugh together, hang out with each other and just create great memories.”
“The small town is a lot different than the city but it gives you a great opportunity to explore and experience new things. Everyone in town becomes your friend when they meet you.”
“I’ve had so many great memories while living in the dorm. We have done so many activities together and gotten closer and closer along the way. I couldn’t ask for anything more than the new friendships I have made.”
“This dorm has given me an opportunity to catch up on my school and turn my life around. Since I’ve been here I’ve changed so much in good ways. I’m so thankful to be here!”
“In the dorm, everyone is supportive and welcoming. They drive me to challenge myself and to try new things. In the end I have learned that I am capable of doing a lot of things I would have never thought I could do.”

Miriam (from Switzerland)
“I am an exchange student from Switzerland and live in Mitchell. There is also a dorm, but I am in a host family, and it is really nice, because I can do a lot of fun things with them, as an example, go horseback riding or go to rodeos.”
“Mitchell is a very small town, where everyone knows everyone, but It was definitely a good experience and it helped me personally in this small school.”
“One of the best experiences I made here in Mitchell was to be on the sport teams. It is awesome, to be a part of the team, and to work together with everyone. It was The one thing I really did not know before I came here.”
“I loved to learn new things, like helping my host family with their work on the ranch and all the cows. It is so different compared to where I come from.”
“The best trip I made with the other exchange students was when we went to San Francisco. We didn’t just see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, we also saw the redwoods and other interesting things on the way there.”

Gam (from Thailand)
” I live in the Mitchell dorm with many people who are from Mexico, Spain, Germany, Poland, Hong Kong,Thailand, and America. It was really good for me to know people from another part of the world, know their country, and also their culture. In the dorm we have 20 people even with so many people but it still makes me feel like I have a big family with the best host mom ever”
“Mitchell is a small town but it was really good because people know each other and help each other.  On the weekend we always do the fun thing like play basketball together, go to shopping together, watching movie in the night together, and also go to downtown to find something to drink or eat and talk together”.
“Mitchell high school is a small school where have 30 students. In each class have 6-10 students.  I think the small classes are better than big classes because the teacher can take care of you more and always help you when you don’t understand the lesson. My favorite class is food class because it was fun to cook and learn how to make it, moreover you can taste the new food that you cook.”
“After school we have sports like volleyball , basketball and etc.  It was really fun and hard at the same time but it is good for your health and to learn how to play sports”.
“The best thing ever for an exchange student is to travel in Salem, Portland, and around Oregon. The best trip for me was when we went to San Francisco, California. It was really, really good.  We went to Alcatraz island, Golden Gate Bridge, six flags and etc.”

Yu (fromThailand)
“Mitchell is the smallest city I have ever seen in my life. Mitchell is surrounded with nature and animals”.
“I live in the dormitory with both boys and girls. We always do activities together and live as family”.
“We have 21 people in the dorm included host mom (10 boys and 10 girls). We are very close to each other”.
“Mom always helps us when we need help. She likes to cook and bake. It was so delicious!”
“We have LC in IE exchange program (Mr. Carroll). He likes to take us to go some where else such as ski, ice skating, Oregon Coast, San Francisco, and etc. I’m glad that I have such a nice LC even I from different organization.”

Pedro (Spain)

“I like to live in the dorm because is a really easy way to meet a lot of people from all over the world, live with them, and have really good time with them. Roommates are forever. The host mom is the best, she will always make the time go by really fast, she will make jokes with you and make this 9 or 10 months here the best time of your life. I highly recommend Mitchell and the dorm.”
“One good thing about Mitchell is that the teachers will help you a lot the first months, making the classes easier for you until you get the level to understand and follow the class without problems, they will always now that you are an Exchange Student and that sometimes you may not understand everything.”
“Obviously one important thing is the food, and I think in the dorm that is not a problem, we always have so much variety of breakfast, lunches, dinners… There is always enough food for us, and it is always really good. And if you don’t like the dinner that day, there are always some alternatives for you”.
“Another thing that you can’t lose in Mitchell is to play sports, this is one of the best things in Mitchell. It gives you friends, you get to travel around Oregon to go to the games, have fun with your teammates… You will make friends from other towns and you will have so much fun playing the sports.”
“And the trips, everyone like travels around Oregon and get to know more places. I think going with all the people from the dorm on the trips make them more fun. We visited beautiful places such as Crater Lake, San Francisco, the coast of Oregon… They are really fun and to go with the dorm guys and girls make this trips better.”
If someone want to talk with me about how is the life here with more details I will have no problem to talk with anybody about it ( Pedro Veleiro Aparicio ). Have fun here everybody.

Emily (Germany)
I am Emily from Germany, Hamburg. I am definitely a city and a family person. So I wanted something different than I have never had before, so the chance to go to Mitchell was great for me. I would live the small country life in a very very small town and would have a family with 20 other kids and a host mom.
Here in the Mitchell dorm I get to know so many other people and all the different cultures. That was amazing to have the chance to live so close with people from Mexico, Spain, Thailand, Poland, Hong Kong and America. With all the people you will get closer and closer and you are like brothers and sisters. You can win a new big family for your whole life.
You will always have people that stand behind you and support you. This may be your teachers, here it is a very friendly relationship with them, your friends, or your host mom, you are never alone.
I learned so much in this year! Not only the language, and this will be so fast that you can communicate without problems, you learn a lot about yourself! You learn stuff that you didn’t even know about yourself before and here the environment where everything is so close together helps you to reflect about yourself.  The conflicts or also dramas make you more mature and more relaxed with stressful situations. There will be always a solution for every problem.
Our host mom is the strongest woman that I have ever met! She is wonderful. It sounds a lot that we have so many people living in the dorm and maybe you would think she can’t focus on the individuals but she is multitasking!  She will always listen you and when you need help she is the first one who is there.
It is so much fun just to spend nights in the living room and talk all night long about everything and nothing. You learn to be happy about the littlest things!
Not just the feeling of the big family is awesome, also the great team spirit. It is worth to play every sport to be more social and do something active with everyone.
You will definitely miss your hometown and your own family but this year will not make you lose one family you will just win a new one for your life! It is also maybe not the best year of your life but defiantly THE year of your life!
Mitchell Dorm is a great chance for all of you who want something totally different!
Have fun! Emily.

Ania (Poland)

The best thing about living in the dorm is that you will make friends from the first day and with time they will become your family. Our host mom, Doreen, is awesome and she feels like my real family to me. She cooks great and she jokes with us a lot. Living in the host family, in the dorm you never get bored. In our Mitchell dorm you have always 20 other people around with who you can always talk, laugh and who will support you. Our group this year is really fun and I am sure that when you come it will be also a lot of fun for you. The privilege of small school is the possibility to play all sports – volleyball/football, basketball and track and field. The other positive are that the teachers really can focus on you and help you improve your English. We have a lot of young teachers who are really friendly and they are always there to talk to you if you need to. Living in the small community is great experience because it is like family but it also has minuses but with friends you can easily overcome them. It’s good to make friends with people outside the dorm so you will have opportunity to see how ranch life looks like. With our coordinator, Mr. Carroll , you will probably have few trips which for us were really cool. We went to college football game, ocean side and for spring break trip in California which was so much fun. Decision to come to Mitchell for my exchange year was definitely the good one which gave me great experience and I know that it will be a great year for you too.

Torben (Germany)

At the beginning I wasn’t really sure if I should live in the dorm in Mitchell or to a host family, but now I know for sure that it was the best thing I could do!  Mitchell is a really small town, but you just have to make something out it. You have only advantages to live in a dorm in a small town like Mitchell. You make friends from the first second you step into the dorm.  I have especially good friendships with all the other exchange students, because we all came to the same situation. That makes friendships. In the dorm we live like a family together.  Everyone helps everyone and when you have worries or a problems there is always someone you can talk to.  I really appreciate the help from the American students in the dorm, they really help you with your life and language.  The best person in the Mitchell Dorm is Doreen the dorm mum.
She has such a hard job and she already did it for 10 years. The dorm mum helps every one it doesn’t matter if she has time or not, she will find time. She cooks every day for 20 people! That’s impossible for me, that just amazing how she loves her job as dorm mum.  She became like my second mum during these 10 months.  I hope to see her after this year again. She is the best second mum you can have.  I promise!  Roommates are really important and stay forever.  That the school is so small gives you just advantages! It’s easier to learn in smaller classes.  You get easier help in a smaller school from the teachers.  You have big opportunities to get all subjects you want to have.  All the school staff is helping you, and then there is the topic of sports.  It was really important for me to do sports. You have the amazing opportunity to try out new sports and mostly play a lot in every sport season. It doesn’t matter if it’s football, basketball or volleyball. That’s not possible in big cities with big schools. For me it was so important to play and do sport because I really love sports and competition. You will make a lot of fun trips with the school, dorm or with the best coordinator I could imagine. We have been to a NBA game (professional basketball), college football game, and visited places like Portland, the coast of Oregon, California and San Francisco. Your iE coordinator is really helpfully and makes all the trips so fun.  I discovered a lot of things during these trips, it was just awesome. You may be homesick or miss your family, but in the dorm and school you will have a second family. It was for me one of my best years ever! I would really suggest the Mitchell Dorm, it’s something really different but also really fun and super good experience.  When you should have questions, go ahead and contact me on Facebook, I will try to answer as fast as possible!

Nik (Germany)

The 4 point Dorm Survival Guide
First things first. Coming to America Is a once In a lifetime opportunity. It for sure will be different and bring a lot of opportunities but how much you really enjoy it falls back at what you do out of it in the end. So always try to make the best out of everything and you will have a amazing time! But to make your time even better, there are four tips that definitely will be helpful.
-1 — FFA: Mitchell is a small town and thinking of that might scare you a little bit. That’s totally understandable but you get out to bigger towns a lot more often than you think. Next to the normal trips, there is another way to get out and have fun even more often, that way is called FFA. FFA stands for Future Farmers of America and basically is an organization you join by taking agricultural classes. That might not sound too exciting so far but I’m getting there because the point of joining the FFA is the large amount of trips members take during the year. On those trips you meet with a bunch of other FFA schools for competitions. Those competitions, and I promise you that, are really fun every single time and provide a really nice way of getting out with your friends for a fun time.

-2 — Bottom Bunk: This is just a real short advice for when you arrive in Mitchell. Since the dorm has 2-level beds, you have to choose between a top or a bottom bunk. If you think, a top bunk is probably really cool and fun, think again. After one year of living in the Dorm, you will HATE climbing that bed every single time you need to go down or up. So at the beginning of the year, take a first step to make your dorm time about 75% better and choose a bottom bunk.

-3 — English everywhere: Part of the reason for you to come to the U.S. Is probably that you want to improve your English. Sure, being surrounded by Americans, that will be part of your daily life anyways. But next to that, do yourself a favor and try to “go English” everywhere you can. By that I mean: switch your phone, laptop, iPod or whatever to English, watch movies, videos or play games in English and just try to avoid your home language totally. Things like that don’t only teach you a bunch of new words, they also improve your speaking by listening to perfect fluent English, in a good movie for example.

-4 — Last but not least: enjoy your time! U won’t be In Mitchell twice and I promise you, in the last two months you will start to miss it already. So whatever happens and however it’s going right then, just make everything the best possible and have a nice year with your new friends in Mitchell. I hope those tips make your time in Mitchell a little better and maybe you even figure out a bunch of tips for yourself. If you have any questions feel free to message me and I’ll be pleased to answer them. — Nik.

Jon (from USA)

I’m of one the American guys, and I plan on coming back to the dorm next year. I get along with all the foreign exchange students, sometimes we bicker, but I’m the end we are all brothers. The dorm is a great experience for all people! Doreen (mom) makes amazing food and she is the single most amazing individual I have ever met.  She has  no problem talking to you about your problems.  You can come to her with anything and she will help with all of her ability. Coming from a larger city, Mitchell is hard to adjust to, but once you are at the dorm for a while it seems as if some people in the dorm are brothers and sisters to you. The school is very small, but that isn’t a bad thing, schooling is much more individualized so you can learn a lot faster.

Armando (Spain)

I’m from Spain and I live in the dorm in Burnt River (Unity). One of the best things about living in the dorm is that you live with more people from around the world and you can learn their culture… Another cool thing of living in the dorm is that you are always doing something, you don’t have time for missing your family. And we had luck with our iE supervisor (Mike) because we went to San Francisco and we did  really cool activities. The school is really small and that’s cool because if you have problems with something you always gonna have a teacher to help you, so it’s not too hard and we had a class called metal shop in which you learn how to weld and that’s one of my favorite class, besides that you are always doing sport, in the beginning we played football and after that we played basketball and than track, so you are always doing something.

Julia (from Germany)

I’m Julia from Germany, Elmshorn. I have lived during my exchange year in a host family in a small town.  I was not a big city person so it was probably easier that way for me to fit in. It is an experience I can’t even describe because there are so many moments nobody besides me has experienced. In such a small community and school  like Unity /Burnt River you getting to know new people so fast! Everybody knew who you were before you even got to know them. That made the beginning really easy and nobody really had the chance to be shy. The same with the teachers you can’t be a “bad” student, because you get from each teacher the support you need! Really fun things are basketball and volleyball. Its great to be with a team and hang out and practice with them everyday after school , at the end we were like a little family . It was a lot of fun and I am already missing it .The biggest fear I had before I came over was that I don’t like my host family and that I’m not getting along with them at all.  At the end my host family is like my second real family.  I call them “mum”&”dad” and we just had an amazing time together.  We did a lot of fun activities at the weekends with the family. I just felt like a real part of the family after the first second I met them at the airport!
Coming to the US and staying in a host family I haven’t met before  and leaving your home, family and friends is a really big decision.  This decision also took me a long time but at the end all I can say is, that this was the best thing I could have ever done with my year! This year was a big adventure which I will never forget! of course you have good and bad times but if I would have the decision again I would definitely do the same over and over again!

Alejandro (Mexico)

I’m exchange student from Mexico living on Mitchell, I’m living in the dorm.
Mitchell is a small town but that doesn’t mean is not fun! I’m glad that my exchange year is in Mitchell because  it is a place where you can practice a lot of sports and actually get to play in competition. The thing that is really hard to do on big school, also you get to know a lot of people from all the world and create a really good friendship between all until the point that they become your family.

Advertisement