Senior Kim Mpeck wanders the cafeteria. Cheese pizza, canned pineapple, ketchup packets and chocolate milk puddles litter the lunch tables. Cougar pride posters are everywhere. The loud chatter mixed with long lines and fluorescent lighting is beginning to overstimulate Mpeck until realization hits.

Who would she sit with?

It’s her first day at a new school, with new classes, in a new country, but no new friends…at least not yet. 

So Mpeck starts going up to students at random, and introducing herself.

Hi, I’m new here from Switzerland, my name is Kim!

“I felt really vulnerable,” Mpeck said. “And alone.”

A group of band kids said yes to sitting with them and so they talked up until the bell. 

Then Mpeck was alone once again trying to navigate the Northwest hallways.

Mpeck is a foreign exchange student from Fribourg, Switzerland. She had already made the visit to Kansas City in Oct, 2023, and met her host family, so in some ways already knew what to expect.  

Fribourg is a small Swiss village with sweeping gothic architecture, medieval churches and impressive mountainscapes. Where Mpeck lived, high school is optional, homework isn’t graded and one to three hour lunch breaks are normalized.

“I personally go home and take naps,” Mpeck said. 

But she loves speaking English, traveling (just check her Instagram) and High School Musical, so choosing America was a no brainer.

“How important sports are here and the clubs they provide are amazing,” Mpeck said emphatically. “This is so cool, we don’t have it in my school. Right now I am in cross country, basketball, track and field, young democrats and republicans club][ and asian student union. I am also in ultimate frisbee club.”

She was surprised at how easy it is talking with and getting to know people, and how friendly teachers are, but her trip was still filled with disappointments.