Finding one’s place, adjusting to the weather, and discovering a sense of community are all normal problems that an exchange student may have to overcome. Will the students swim and adapt to the changes, or will they sink and be left to the sharks?  Karol Puc who is an exchange student from Poland experiences a unique problem: too many opportunities, too little time.

This year is Puc’s first time participating in an exchange program, he said that it has been going quite well for him. While some things have been expected, getting used to the new environment and the community; many things have been unexpected — some good, some bad. 

His exchange program has been great in almost all regards. He shared that the people are quite friendly and easy to talk to. Even the climate has been easy to adjust to. According to word data, an online database for climate and temperature records, Poland experiences quite similar weather conditions to Wisconsin.

Puc did say, however, that the rapid weather change was quite a shock. In the span of a few days, the temperature dropped from shorts weather to conditions more likely found in Antarctica.

Not everything for Puc has been snow and shocks, and this is due to the ridiculous amount of opportunities that are available through the school and community alike.

“So many clubs and extracurriculars for every single small thing.”

Karol also said that his school did not provide many opportunities for clubs and community participation.

American schools as a whole have a large amount of scholarly opportunities for their students; a change that Karol was more than happy to learn about. 

Given almost endless possibilities, Puc made it clear that he would be taking advantage of the opportunities he had been given.

Although dropped into a new culture, the culture is so similar but so different to his own. Like many exchange students, he was expected to either sink or swim, and Puc has proven himself a more than adequate swimmer in Wisconsin culture.

Puc hopes to explore the many opportunities that are available to him and take advantage of something that so many people take for granted.