Simon Sorensen, like many others on the Junior Varsity football team, has been playing American football for a short time. For Sorensen, that short time is only about a month.

The same amount of time that Sorensen has been playing American football, is the same amount of time he’s been residing in the United States.

Sorensen, who is originally from Odder, Denmark (just north of Aarhus), is a foreign exchange student through a program called Youth for Understanding, or “YFU”.

Youth for Understanding is a worldwide non-profit organization that is based out of Michigan and gives students a chance to work or study a year, summer, or semester in a foreign country, often with a host family.

The family that Sorensen lives with is the Aksamit family, who has agreed to take him in for an entire year in order for him to experience life as an average American high school student.

“Living with a host family is interesting”, Sorensen said of his experience so far. “It’s not your family, but it’s still your host family, so you have to treat them like family”.

Jordan Aksamit, a junior at Omaha North, and a member of Simon’s host family, is very excited to have her family host a foreign exchange student for the fourth time.

“It’s exciting to know that I’ll get to have another sibling to get close to this year, and that in the future we’ll be able to keep in contact with each other”, Aksamit said.

“We haven’t really had the chance so far to take Simon to many events because he’s only been here a month, but we do plan on taking him to do some fun stuff,” Aksamit said.

Sorensen has been a kicker for the North High Football team since the beginning of the season.

Although Sorensen has played football in his home country, this is first time playing in America.

Sorensen has caught on quite well.

Playing football in Denmark versus playing football in America shares a lot of similarities, but also a lot of differences.

“I don’t know how to explain it, the guys are just bigger,” Sorenson said.

Sorensen had only been to America before on vacation, and now to do a year’s stay, but he says he would like to live here permanently one day.

“I really like it here”, Sorensen said.

Denmark and America share a lot of differences, according to Sorensen.

“America is much more relaxed than Denmark. There are not a lot of people, and so on,” Sorensen said. “But in the U.S. it’s more loud.”

“All the American movies made me want to come here and experience living here,” Simon chuckles.

Sorensen can expect his stay in America to turn out even better than any movie can.