I didn’t really have a choice. My exchange year was about to start. I waited for four months to know my destination. To be honest when they told me that I was going to Wisconsin, I was upset. I thought it would be freezing ALL the time. I don’t like the cold. Actually I HATE being cold. 

The first thing I did was look at the weather, and I already thought I was going to hate it.

When I decided to do an exchange year, I thought I would go to California, Florida, New York… but instead, I was sent to Wisconsin. The state known for the cheese and lakes—nothing exciting for a teenager.

So my first thought when they told me was…nice (ironically).

After nine months of leaving here, my mind changed. As I said before, I always thought that the cold was very boring. My country (Spain) is quite tropical, and when it's cold, we don't usually do anything at all. But in WIsconsin it's different. 

One of the places where I have spent the most time this winter has been in Little Switzerland. I used to ski before coming here, but little Switzerland is something else. I used to ski with my family and snowboard with friends. Each day was better than the previous one. One of the things that has marked my experience as an exchange student in Wisconsin has been Little Switz. I've only been here nine  months and three of them I've spent snowboarding and skiing and for sure they've been the best three months of the year and it's going to be something I will always remember.

I’m leaving in a month , and in Spain I don't usually Snowboard or ski unless I go on vacation so I'm going to miss the snow and Little Switz a lot. And I hope that in some years I’ll come back to Wisconsin and visit Little Switzerland to go snowboarding with all of my friends, like I did this year.