Prompt: Reflect on the differences between where you grew up or where you live now and where your exchange partners live. Some factors to consider here are the universal and the particular, environment and culture

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I am grown up and lived in Mount Holly Springs for my entire life and I am a currently a senior at Boiling Springs High School. The exchange partners I talked to came from Colombia and the United Arab Emirates. I noted how Nour from the UAE had a similar experience in growing up in a small town as me and we could relate to many of the same experiences with the familiarity that everyone has with each other in a small community and the closer relations that individuals have with each other. Camilo had a different experience with his time in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, and of course a much larger city and community than where I have grown up in. In addition, Camilo and Nour have had very different cultural experiences in their respective home countries compared to my hometown. Nour talked about how her schools in the UAE were often very competitive between students and stricter norms were enforced in some schools while others were more casual and similar to the United States.

I think that it has been incredibly interesting to see the different experiences and cultures that people come from around the world and talking with a large variety of people from different areas of the world and with wildly different experiences can greatly expand your knowledge of the world as a whole which relates very well to International Relations. I am glad that this class allows for conservations and interaction with exchange partners and engaging with individuals from around the world because it can help you to better understand and contextualize issues that may appear in discussion of international relations. I enjoyed talking with the exchange partners on their experiences in their home countries and I hope to have more time in the future to talk and work with them.