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It’s about 7,010 km or, 4,356 miles from Vijle, Denmark to Des Moines.

Across the Pond and to the North, 27 Danish students all 17+ embarked on a journey for a two-week stay here at Grand View University.

I was lucky enough to get a chance to sit down and interview four of them on how life back home compares to their experiences here in Midwestern American. I was also naive enough to think they would be in a culture shock, I found out that wasn’t the case. “We have all the same things you do basically”, said 17 year old Nicholas Hansen.

“Although, we don’t eat fries and pizza for every meal like you guys do”, he added as we all laughed over the thought of how American’s eating habits are often fattening and deep fried.

Food, depending on culture and region, always has some differences. That may be a given but with the wide spread of franchised fast food restaurants, I was unable to stump any of my new Danish friends on common foods here in America. This is where my untraveled, uncultured, conceited American way of thinking began to show.

I riddled off ten or so pop culture celebrities and nothing puzzled these Danish students. I quickly reminded myself, Denmark isn’t a third world country after all.

They have the Internet, they get TMZ, and we all follow the same Instagram meme accounts. Why was I surprised that nearly every response to every question I asked started with the phrase, “It’s just like here, we…”? I’m not sure, maybe that is my American way of thinking.

American movies, Television, fashion, and media isn’t just confined to the states. The four Danish students and I, although different in our own right, where much more the same than I could have imagined.