GRAVETTE -- Trine Meisland, 17, thought three "normal" years of high school would be boring.
Meisland is an exchange student from Norway, where she lives in a southwestern town called Sandnes.
She arrived in America in August 2013, and has been living at the home of Alisha Hampton in the Highlands. Meisland will stay here until she finishes her 12th grade year at Gravette High School.
She will then return home, where she will go one more year -- Norway's 13th grade. She will have two graduations.
She started her American journey in New York City. Her first time in this country began with monumental sites such as the Empire State Building, Central Park and the Statue of Liberty.
"I thought it would be boring to have three normal years," she said, in eloquent English with her Norwegian accent.
At home, her native language is Norwegian, though she has studied English in school since the second grade. Since she has been here, her English has sharpened, after she began thinking in English, she said.
It's the American family she was placed with that is helping make this an experience of a lifetime.
Hampton said the pastor of her church, Calvary Tabernacle in Bentonville, announced a student wished to be placed with a Pentecostal family. She volunteered, and after many background checks and home inspections over the course of about two months, she was accepted and introduced to Meisland via Skype.
"I was at O'Reilly (Auto Parts), I was buying some parts for my car," Hampton said of the first time they Skyped. "She got to meet the people inside O'Reilly."
Meisland likes it here, she said. She gets to meet new people and learn new things. School sports are different, she said. In Norway, sports are run through organizations outside of the school. She's trying to get on the Gravette track team.
The people are more open than they are in Norway, she added. She was only a little scared on the first day of school.
She has classes with students both younger and older than her, which doesn't happen in her home country. In Norway, the grading system is one through six, with six being the best grade and very difficult to achieve. In Gravette, she has all A's, and said it's very easy here to get an A.
Not every student thinks that, Hampton reminded her, and laughed. It's different having a teenager in the house, she added. Nine-year-old Manuel Rivera, who lives in the home, was used to being an only child, but said he has gotten used to having someone else around.
Meisland said the food is different here -- more fried food and bigger portions. She goes to church, gets her nails done with her new American friends, watches movies. Only here, people drive more than they walk to places. According to her country's laws, Meisland is not yet old enough to hold a driver's license.
"I have to ask Alisha all the time, poor lady," she said.
It's colder in Norway, too. Her friends from home teased her as they had to walk to school in a snow storm and Meisland's American school was canceled because of weather.
"It gets warmer here in the summer; I really like that. Here everything stops up (when it snows), but not in Norway," she said.
Meisland sees things different now, she said, after learning so much about American culture.
She sees this country from a new perspective, and really wants to come back. She said she wants to do something in real estate or maybe biology; she isn't sure.
"I'm going to find out this year; I have that as a goal. I want to do something with people," she said.
Her other goal before the end of the school year: go to prom.
Community on 01/29/2014