// JETT CROWSON

Alex Sedláková came to Vista for her freshman year, like all the other incoming students. But unlike the other freshman, Sedláková came to Vista as an exchange student from Slovakia [?] for her first year.

“I decided to come to America because I’m in love with the USA and I saw Grease, Mean Girls, Clueless, and all those USA movies. I was just so into America.” Sedláková said. Of course, Vista was very different from her high school back home.

“In my school, I couldn’t choose subjects that I wanted to study. It was not fun at all because of how much I had to study and in the end of the term I hardly slept,”  Sedláková said. “In Vista, I had to study, but it was so much easier because I only had 5 subjects I had to study, plus there are so many opportunities for sports, art, and everything else.”

Moving to America didn’t come without challenges. Sedláková was very stressed and faced a language barrier to English. “I was always so stressed and I wouldn’t understand if someone told or asked me something, but everyone was so nice and repeated the question if I didn’t understand it.” She said.

Sedláková had to return home after the first semester, but loved her time in the USA. She was amazed at parts of America, and loved our schools. “In the USA, teachers actually care about you and want to know how you are doing and if you are able to understand what they are teaching. In Slovakia teachers don’t care for students.” Sedláková said.