To Igor Oliveira, the trip from Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Wesson inJanuary was quite a jump.

Sao Paulo is the world’s seventh-largest city, with a populationof over 11 million. Wesson has just under 1,700. To the 18-year-oldsenior, it was a definite case of culture shock when he relocatedin January to serve some time as an exchange student at WessonAttendance Center.

“Here it’s a totally country style, and there it’s crazy,” hesaid. “There, you have to worry about time, but here it doesn’treally matter, because you’re not going to get caught in a bigtraffic jam.”

Senior Antoine Hock, 19, of Belgium, who is an exchange studentat Wesson since September, said the first thing he noticed was thegreenery in the drive from where he lives in Crystal Springs to theschool in Wesson.

“At home everyone is all packed up in a small area,” he said.”Here it’s so spread out, and you have forests and fields formiles. You’re in Crystal Springs, then there are all these trees,then you go through little bitty Hazlehurst, then you go 15 moremiles of trees, and then there’s Wesson.”

And junior Anna-Lena Tevvel came from Tecklenburg, Germany, inJanuary, and she said she likes the feeling of living in a smallcommunity.

“We have a lot of movies, so you have this picture of America inyour mind,” she said. “I like seeing all the houses in rows.”

All three of them said other students have been friendly, butcurious as well.

“Many people here don’t seem to go out much, because they’relike, ‘Look over there, there’s a foreign guy,'” Hock said with alaugh.

Oliveira chimed in, saying that the trio have heard all sorts offunny questions about their homelands.

“They want to know if we have electricity where we come from, orthe Internet,” he said.

Yet the attitude in America is one of hospitality and fun,Tevvel said.

“In Germany, everything is so serious,” she said. “Over here,people try to enjoy everything. It’s a different attitude thatpeople have about their school, their activities, theirfriends.”

Oliveira, Hock and Tevvel will all head back to their homelandsin the next few weeks, but they all said there are parts of Americathat they will never forget.

“I’m thinking about playing football,” Oliveira said, addingthat he got to practice some with Wesson’s team, and that he hadlearned to love the sport.

Tevvel said she’ll try to enjoy life a little more when she getsback.

“I’ll probably change some of my activities in the afternoon,”she said with a smile. “Also my eating habits.”

Hock agreed that he will also get more involved with sports,which aren’t as popular in Europe as they are in America. But healso said there are things here that he will miss.

“A bunch of things, like my family, definitely,” he said. “I’velived nine months with them, and they’re like another part of myown family.”

Exchange Student Placement Specialist Tammy Carraway said thisis the first year in a while that Wesson has hosted exchangestudents, and that it’s something she’d like to see more of in thefuture.

“My principal said I can place five here, but so far I can’tfind families that want to open their homes here,” she said. “Ifanyone’s interested, it could be Brookhaven or Wesson or wherever,as long as the principal is willing to accept them.”

She said the experience of having exchange students in theschool is also a positive one for native students, who get to learnthat there is a bigger world out there.

“It’s been wonderful for the kids at the school, we have kidsthat are interested in learning foreign language now, and they’velearned a lot about the geography of Europe,” she said. “It alsolets the kids here know the world is not a small place.”

Anyone interested in hosting an exchange student is encouragedto contact Carraway at 601-754-0397.