By Shelby Stewart
Staff Writer
The fact that Michigan has 3,288 miles of shoreline just does not impress a Brandon High School foreign exchange student.

“I live like 30 seconds from the beach,” said senior Maren Andersen, 17, a Norway resident. “So just being in the middle of a continent is kind of freaky to me, because there’s no ocean here. And I don’t care what Michigan says about lakes, it’s not the same as an ocean.”
Over Christmas break, Andersen and her host family went to Florida, where she was able to see and swim in an ocean for the first time since traveling to America, and she was overjoyed.
“I was so terrified of living this far away from an ocean, because in my life I have never been this far away from an ocean ever,” said Andersen. “They [her host parents] took us to a beach resort, I almost started cry when I saw the ocean. I went running out, freezing cold, giant waves and I was just laying there in this freezing cold water almost crying because I missed the ocean so much.”
Andersen lives about an hour and a half outside of Oslo, which is the capital of Norway, and grew up on the coast. During the summer she spends time at the beach, as well as on boat rides to and from the nearby islands.
Something else that Andersen enjoys in Norway is dancing, and spends most of her free time outside of school and schoolwork at her dance studio. She joined the poms team at Brandon since it is the closest to dancing she can get through the school.
“School takes up a lot more time,” said Andersen about her school in Norway. She describes her high school experience there as more like college, so she has a lot more independent studying and work outside of school hours.

Luckily, Andersen doesn’t have much more schooling to go through since she will be graduating this year.
“I have to finish my school back home, and then I’ll probably go into the military,” said Andersen. “It’s only for a year, so it’s not as big of a commitment.”
Andersen is unsure what she wants to go to college for, which is why she wants to join the military for a short amount of time so she has time to decide.
“People at Brandon are very welcoming,” said Andersen, “Poms practice is 15 hours a week, and I hang out with my teammates before practice, after practice, after school.”
Andersen is enjoying her time in America, but does miss her home, friends, family and the food.
“My family is very active, we used to go hiking in the mountains and I miss that,” said Andersen. “And I miss Norwegian air. There’s just something about it.”
One big difference that Andersen sees is in the food, especially since her family is more health conscious.
“I miss the food back home but I kind of like the food here,” said Andersen. “You do junk food the right way. I’ve lived my whole life with a mom who was like very healthy, only nutritious food and is very strict about eating candy and stuff. Now I’m on my own for the first time so I can eat a lot of junk food without her necessarily yelling at me about it. Grilled cheese is my new favorite thing in the world.”