Exchange students prepare to return home

May 19, 2021

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As we end the school year, we are also saying goodbye to our two foreign exchange students, Alejandro “Alex” Barragan and Misola Fukushima.

The pair, who have been living with Bill Schumacher in Rosalie, have been at B-R since August. Alex hails from Juriquilla, Queretaro, Mexico, and Misola is from Yokohama, Japan.

They will both return home next month, but not before visiting Mount Rushmore and The Badlands in South Dakota with Schumacher. This is something they are both looking forward to, but a place Schumacher has visited before with the other foreign exchange students he has hosted in the past. Starting five years ago, he has hosted a total of nine, four from Japan, three from Mexico and two from Spain.

Back in Mexico, Alex has a sister who is still in school and father Alejandro, a chemical engineer, and mother Martha, who is in sales.

When he returns home, he will finish high school and plans to attend a university. He is also looking forward to getting his driver’s license.

Prior to coming to Nebraska, he had never heard of The Good Life state.

“Since the moment I heard I was going to Nebraska, I searched the place in Google maps and also got a really big research into what Nebraska people are proud of having in Nebraska,” Alex said.

While Alex has never been to the U.S. before, Misola visited New York City when he was younger with his father, Yoshio, a calligrapher, and mother Ayako, a translator.

He was expecting both the school and town to be larger, but has been pleasantly surprised with the fact that he has met almost everyone.

“The school is not big, the town is incredibly small but in good meaning,” he said. “Because of the size of the town, even the residents in Rosalie was nice to me. I think I can’t experience the big school in the big city.”

Like Alex, Misola will finish high school and then plans to further his education in college by majoring in business.

Their experiences as foreign exchange students have been positive. They both will miss the friends they have made during their time here, but Misola won’t miss the cold weather, and Alex won’t miss the remoteness to larger cities.

“I loved it,” Misola said. “I had an awesome time!”

Alex followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming an exchange student. He credits his new brother, Misola, and American parent, Schumacher, for helping him during his nine-month stay.

One American food that I’m sure Alex will share with his friends and family back home is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He prefers more peanut butter than jelly, but now can’t imagine living without them.

Alex plans to return to the U.S., with a goal in mind.

“I would like to visit mostly every state in a tour and travel and visit at least one famous place of every famous state,” he said. “An almost impossible task because the USA is very big, but a dream is a dream.”