Around the World: Switzerland Edition

Jan Sägesser’s exchange in Nebraska

Anam Vaziri, Editor-in-Chief|October 12, 2017|9 Views

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Anam Vaziri

“‘I chose band because my friends are in it, and I think it was a really good decision,” said Sägesser as he plays the bass drum in band.

Junior Jan Sägesser didn’t expect to end up in the city of North Platte when he entered an application to the Education First foreign exchange program. However, once he found out that a host family in North Platte chose his application, he was very enthusiastic. “I was very happy when I found out I was coming to Nebraska. I had a friend who exchanged here last year, and she was telling me how great Nebraska is, and how much fun I would have,” said Sägesser. Junior Jan Sägesser didn’t expect to end up in the city of North Platte when he entered an application to the Education First foreign exchange program. However, once he found out that a host family in North Platte chose his application, he was very enthusiastic. “I was very happy when I found out I was coming to Nebraska. I had a friend who exchanged here last year, and she was telling me how great Nebraska is, and how much fun I would have,” said Sägesser.

A couple of weeks before Sägesser left Switzerland, he started to have cold feet. “I just thought about how I’m going to be in the middle of nowhere and how boring it’s going to be.” However, a few days prior to leaving, his excitement returned. “I became really happy and excited, and I’m still really happy,” Sägesser said.

Sägesser is participating in football and band while attending NPHS. “I decided to play football because in Switzerland, we always thought that football was the big thing in America,” said Sägesser. He played hockey in Switzerland, but is glad he has gotten the experience of playing football in high school.

Through the program that Sägesser exchanged with, he visited New York and Pennsylvania with other foreign exchange students that were coming to America before he arrived in Nebraska. “We stayed there for 10 days, and those were probably the best 10 days of my life so far.” They all stayed at a college in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and took classes about American culture. “After that experience, I now have friends from all over the world. I have friends from Taiwan, China, Spain. It was such an interesting experience,” he said.

Fun Facts about Switzerland
  • Switzerland has 4 official languages: Swiss German which is spoken by over two thirds of the population, French, Italian, and Romansh.
  • The population is 8.4 million people.
  • Switzerland is very famous for its chocolate, cheese, banking system, watches and alpine mountain areas.
  • Swiss people consume the most chocolate per capita in the world. The country is famous for producing some of the world’s highest quality chocolate (Lindt and Sprüngli) after inventing modern techniques such as conching and tempering
  • Some of the most popular sports in Switzerland are skiing, snowboarding and mountaineering.
  • Switzerland makes half of the world’s production of luxury watches. The nation has a long history of watch making with a number of leading brands founded in the country including Longines, Patek Philippe, Rolex, TAG Heuer and Tissot.

Sägesser thought the hardest part about leaving Switzerland was to say goodbye to his family. “When I left, they were all really sad, and it is really hard to see your family upset.” he said. He thinks the hardest part about leaving here will be saying goodbye to his new friends. “If you think about it, exchange is really stupid, because you leave your family behind to go make new friends, just so you can leave them too,” said Sägesser. He’s happy right now and, even though he misses his family, his life here is good. “I have a new family here now, and I’m so glad I came here.”