On October 23rd, St. Charles West students welcomed foreign exchange students from Carndonagh, Ireland.  The exchange students will stay with a host student throughout the next week, and depart towards Ireland on November 2nd.  During their time at St. Charles West, students got to get a glimpse of student life in the United States, go on various field trips in the St. Louis region, and both parties were able to learn about the different cultures and customs within each country.

Host students welcomed the Irish students into their home, brought them to school, and showed them around the St. Charles region.  This allowed the students to bond and connect with each other, and get to know each other’s cultures, country, and their overall character better.

We talked to four exchange students about their American experience and the main differences between Ireland and the United States. They all came up with the same answers for most of our questions. 

The main difference that they noticed was the size of everything, the schools, stores, and even food portions are larger in America than in Ireland. They said they enjoyed getting to go to stores like Target, Walmart, and the best of all was the outlet mall’s Tommy Hilfiger. 

The main difference between food here and in Ireland is the butter, milk and potatoes. Since all their produce is locally sourced, they have fresh dairy and other products.

The exchange students also said that our school is bigger than theirs, yet their school has more students. They also said that some of their American stereotypes were debunked, like the cringiness of Americans. They thought we were all polite and had a good respect for one another.

Their media use is about the same, except for Hulu. They typically use Disney+ or Netflix, if at all. Most of their time is spent working on school or playing sports su

ch as Gaelic football (a mix of rugby and soccer), rather than watching a TV show. 

The students also said that they really loved participating in an American Halloween. Many got to participate in fun fall activities like pumpkin carving and apple picking. 

SCW students are excited to go to Ireland in March, and continue the second part of the exchange.