By Clara Moffitt
8,527 miles. 252 days. 1,000,000 new experiences. These were numbers that Namo Hasunaha, Tempe Prep’s first exchange student from Thailand, was well acquainted with on her full school-year exchange. At just 16, Namo travelled 8,527 miles from her home in Bangkok, Thailand to Tempe, Arizona.
She says, “The moment that I landed at the phoenix airport, I realized that there are so many cacti in Arizona. We do not have a lot of cacti.” This was the first of many differences Namo realized in her transition into American life away from her family.
As one can imagine, living and attending school far from home has its challenges: “I think the main challenges are just speaking English all the time, and making friends, and living in a different country with different culture.” But despite the challenges, Namo is proud of how far her English has come and all of the nuances of the language she was able to pick up speaking in English 100 percnt of the time.
Namo was able to gain so many new experiences during her exchange that she would not have otherwise been able to get. Wildly different from Thailand, Namo says she “rode a horse with a spectacular sunset around the cacti. I got to see snow, build a snowman named Daisy, ski, and ice-skate for the first time.” She liked hiking surrounded by Arizona scenery and absolutely loved getting the “American Teen Experience” at our high school dances. Namo also enjoyed American holidays including Halloween, Thanksgiving, and her favorite, Christmas. “Christmas was fantastic,” she says. “It is my favorite holiday because we got to get a real Christmas tree and decorated it, and it was enjoyable and memorable to exchange gifts with my host family too.”
With regard to her Tempe Prep experience, Namo really enjoyed learning about American History in her 11th grade Humane Letters, an experience she likely would not have been able to have back in Thailand. Namo was all in and participated in three school sports! With regard to sports at TPA, Namo says, “everyone is really passionate about it and wants to improve his or her skills.”
Due to Covid-19, Namo’s exchange had to be cut short. After 2 weeks of isolation in Thailand, Namo is now home safely with her family and wanted to share a message with her peers: “I want to say thank you to everyone that became part of my journey in America when I had no one from my home beside me for 8 months. It was a wonderful experience that I will never forget, and it will remain to be a lifelong memory that I will cherish forever. It was so fun meeting all of you. I wish that I could stay a little longer to complete my exchange time if not for the global pandemic that affected every one of us. I wish it will be over soon, that we all will be safe, and our lives will go back to normal.”