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News for the Carlsbad High School Community

The Lancer Link

News for the Carlsbad High School Community

The Lancer Link

News for the Carlsbad High School Community

The Lancer Link

New Swedish exchange student living the Californian life

Out of 10 biographies sent to them by the program Face the World, parents John and Stacey Quartarone chose the student who would come and live with them for this year.

“We chose Daniel, because he was funny. He wanted to experience the coast of California. He said he wanted to experience, you know, the culture, and he just sounded like a good fit for us,” host mom Stacey Quartarone said

The previous year, the Quartarones took in their first foreign exchange student, hoping for a new experience for themselves and their daughter Haley, a CHS graduate. The student they chose last year, from Berlin, Germany, was senior Christopher Bohmer.

“We’ve become now lifelong friends, a lifelong family,” host parent John Quartarone said. A hope they have for their new exchange student.

The family photos on the mantle and the golden retriever Lani sleeping on the rug shows the typical American home. A new image to Daniel Blomberg, a senior this year at CHS, coming from Sweden, here for a year from his hometown of Molndal, an old fishing village with a population of 60,000, half the size of Carlsbad. Molndal is also about 300 miles from Stockholm, Sweden’s capital and home of the monarch King Carl XVI Gustaf.

“I’ve been here for like three weeks now, and it’s been so much new stuff, so much,” Blomberg  said. “Good-bad, I can’t tell. But, it’s different, it is. Everything is bigger first. And it’s a lot cheaper…the food is very spicy…and the people is outgoing here, in Sweden we are much more reserved. We’re not talking about the same things you have the courage to talk about here.”

Having taken English in school since the third grade, the transition from Swedish to English didn’t take very long, which surprisingly, disappointed Blomberg.

“I have realized I was thinking in English like the second day or something. I didn’t like it. I would’ve liked more like two weeks because Swedish is more important to me,” Blomberg said.

Language aside, transitioning into a new country, with a new home, a new family, into a new school, and trying to make new friends, one would think might be challenging.

“I’m surprised how easy it was to get into everything: get along with the family, get along at school. It was just easy all the way, really.”

Worries mainly concerned cultural problems. What would be right back in Sweden, but wrong here in the U.S.

“The only thing is when somebody ask me if I like something and I say like ‘yeah!’ They’re like, ‘oh you didn’t like it?’ because I didn’t say ‘yeah, it was super good’ or ‘oh my God it was so nice’,” Blomberg said.

A few years back though Blomberg had no interest in learning about a new culture. Focusing instead on swim team, friends and life in Molndal, Sweden.

“My mom kept saying, for quite a few years, that she always regret that she didn’t do it…but still I was like no…I feel good in Sweden. But like about a year ago, I just felt I want to do something different. And to experience something else,” Blomberg said.

5, 5oo miles from Sweden, Blomberg is getting the new experience he wanted. This experience was one his parents fully supported, but his friends didn’t agree with.

“My parent’s reaction was, my mom and dad like ‘oh nice, at last!’ My friends, some were really jealous that I had the courage to do this. And some of them was, ‘why are you doing it? What do you get out of it?’ And I’m like it’s an adventure of a lifetime. You get to know so many new people,” Blomberg said.

Then there’s his 12-year-old sister.

“She turned last weekend, so I sent her a gift from California. She liked that,” Blomberg laughed.

Though Blomberg has adjusted to life in the U.S. he did experience some last minute, sort of ‘oops I wore my pajamas to school on the day of my test’, worries on his way from Sweden here.

“That 12 hour trip was a lot of thinking, a lot of thinking. Everything went through my mind. Like the host family didn’t show up, they picked up somebody else or that I would have a terrible year,” Blomberg said.

Blomberg’s fears have since been put to rest, and he looks forward to his year in the U.S. Where he plans on living like a true Californian: in surf P.E., water polo and aquatics class.

“I want to have a nice time, meet new friends and improve my English…and have just a really great year,” Blomberg said.

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About the Contributor
Madison Dearie, staff writer and photographer, foregin correspondent
Madison Dearie, apart from writing and photography, loves movies (old and new, good and bad),  music (eclectic) , travel (anywhere) and spending time with friends.  This year, Madison will be serving as a foreign correspondent during her time studying abroad in Madrid, Spain.

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    Alex LancialOct 18, 2011 at 8:22 pm

    So glad you guys are doing multimedia storytelling for your website now. This is where journalism is headed! The web is all about visuals, if you don’t have that to get your audience hooked nobody will read the content. Keep up the good work!

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New Swedish exchange student living the Californian life