Many of the exchange students that Harwood hosts come from slightly warmer climates. They must adjust to Vermont’s cold winters while simultaneously adjusting to the culture and the people. One of Harwood’s six exchange students this year, however, comes from a country that can rival Vermont’s winters: Sweden. Emil Calmervik comes from Linköping, Sweden’s sixth-largest city with a population similar to Worcester, Massachusetts.
Sweden has a “similar climate” to Vermont, according to Calmervik, but it’s slightly colder here. “I flew here during the Swedish summer,” he said, “but it was already fall here.” Calmervik, who applied for his exchange program through Rotary Youth Exchange, flew in later than the other exchange students; this past June, thanks to several executive orders regarding international students, his visa to study in the United States was denied and would not process.
Everything over the summer was “very uncertain” for Calmervik, who had to start to make plans to stay in Sweden for another year. In mid-August, he received a call from Rotary that his visa had been accepted and that plans for his exchange had been set into motion. Calmervik and his family drove “as fast as possible” to the embassy in Stockholm, and he found out that he would be placed in Vermont on August 20, just before Harwood’s school year began. “We were supposed to know everything two months in advance,” he said, “but we found out two weeks ahead.”
Calmervik applied for his exchange because he had never visited the United States before. “I’ve seen all of the high school movies,” he said. “It’s a very special place – we always hear about America in the news –and I wanted to see it for myself.” During his application process, he was hoping to be placed somewhere warm like Texas. Since his arrival, however, Calmervik has come to love Vermont: “I like the people here; they’re very nice and outgoing.”
His biggest struggles thus far have been at school: Harwood implemented its phone-free policy last year, and cellphones are prohibited in the building during the school day. These are the most convenient hours for Calmervik to speak to his family, who are six hours ahead. “We only talk right before school and right after, when they’re about to go to bed,” said Calmervik. The school lunch has also been an adjustment for him: at Harwood, students receive one plate of food and can take one carton of milk. In Sweden, students could take as many plates as they want, and could take several glasses of milk at the milk dispensers.
Calmervik just finished his cross-country season, which he described as “fun and pretty challenging. I didn’t do anything similar in Sweden.” He is hoping to participate in track in the spring and cross-country skiing over the winter. He’s skied before in Sweden, but the closest mountains were six hours away. “The mountains may be different,” he said. He is looking forward to experiencing Thanksgiving and Christmas in the Green Mountains.
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