Alisher Abdulloev is one of the four foreign exchange students this year. His hometown is Isfara, Tajikistan. It is located in Sughd Province in northern Tajikistan, situated on the border with Kyrgyzstan. Isfara has a population of 40,600, and has 86 schools. His hometown is number one in the world for producing apricots. There are lots of fresh fruits and trees everywhere.

Abdulloev said that despite the fact that China is right near Tajikistan, they do not eat Chinese food. He did say that wives spend a lot of time in the kitchen though and, “my mother spends two hours cooking lunch and dinner each.” Over Christmas break, he took his host family to a Tajik resturant. He said they liked it so much, and it’s only 80% like his home cooking, but it was still so good.

In his home country, he says that boys typically dress the same as they do here, but girls dress differently than in the United States. They wear long dresses and hijabs. At school, boys wear suits and ties.

The classes are so different, not necessarily the classes but the way they are organized is different. The teachers move classrooms, while the students remain in the same seats all day. He said because of having the same classmates for eleven years, “we became like a huge family, we love each other, we stand for each other, and became a real family.”

Abdulloev is involved mostly in soccer back home. He hangs out with his friends every day. He never slept at home; he usually slept at his friends’ houses. He did lots of crazy things with his friends, playing sports like soccer, volleyball, ping pong and swimming. He spends most of his time with his friends. They also cooked food.

Abdulloev has his mom, dad, grandmother, grandmother, a younger sister and a younger brother. His dad is a businessman, and his mom is a housewife, and takes care of his family. He said his family respects each other and that’s popular throughout the whole country, which he noticed is different in the United States.

Social media is not used as much in Tajikistan as it is here. They use Facebook andInstagramm, but don’t really use Snapchat.

He misses his family, but is enjoying the time he has here in the United States, and even wants to come back after his program is up.