Senior Euan Milne is a foreign exchange student from Dundee, Scotland, a beautiful coastal city in the eastern portion of Scotland.

“It’s kind of like a time capsule,” he said. “There’s tons of buildings from the 1800’s and 1700’s. Dundee is right on the water, there’s the smell of sea and you have fish constantly. It’s just a massive difference.”

In addition to the United States, he has traveled to other places around the globe like South Africa, Dubai, and different countries in Europe.

Euan is very passionate about acting. “[I worked in] the local professional theater and tons of amateur theaters constantly [in Scotland],” he said.

He has been doing theater for twelve years and acted in Central’s most recent play, “12 Incompetent Jurors.”

“I really enjoyed it. We don’t have theaters in school so it’s quite nice to have that as an option.”

Euan’s expectations of the United States have been satisfied for the most part. “I expected everything to be a lot bigger, just in every sense of the word and that has definitely been the case down to the buildings, the roads, the food, the drinks, even the people, everything is much bigger,” he said. “I also expected the school to be a big community hub where all the big events happen and where everyone comes together and that has also been fulfilled.”

He also had the opportunity to experience a Nebraska football game in Memorial Stadium. “I went to the Huskers game which was phenomenal, I loved every second of it. We don’t have stadiums quite like that [in Scotland].”

Euan has noticed a big difference in interaction between students’ socialization at Central in comparison to Dundee. “[My favorite thing about Omaha is] the people. Genuinely, the people, how people socialize, how people are just a lot more approachable here and want to get to know you more. Back home, I took four buses a day going to school and didn’t speak to a single person for two years. I come here and everyone is speaking to me and it’s just a completely different attitude towards socialization.”

Euan’s favorite classes at Central are sociology with Casey Denton and AP US History with Scott Wilson. He is planning to go to college in Scotland. “I will be hopefully attending university in Scotland, I’m not sure which yet. I am hoping to either do a sociology and political science [degree] or a history degree at Glasgow University, Edinburgh University, or University of St. Andrews.”

This foreign exchange opportunity has allowed Euan to be confident and optimistic about where his future will take him. “I could be anywhere. I could be in Scotland, I could be in the U.S., I could be in like New Zealand, I have no idea where I will be. Hopefully what I will be doing is something productive. Having this exchange has opened up the prospect of living abroad to me. It would probably feel more intimidating and less of a thing I could achieve, but in coming here and living here [from now] until June, that just shows that I can do it.”

In their week three matchup against the Elkhorn South Storm, the Central football team lost one of their most valuable players of the season to injury. Justus Allerup, a foreign exchange student from Denmark, tore his ACL, MCL, and meniscus early in the first quarter of the game. “I could feel right away that it was a serious injury and new it was my turn to sit out for some time,” says Allerup. In terms of recovery, it will take 9 months after his surgery before he’s able to get back to playing again.

As was a staring wide receiver and outside linebacker for the eagles, he saw a lot of playing time prior to his injury. He had struggled with a hamstring tear in his first week at Central, which did limit him, but he did manage to shine in the games he played. On offense, Allerup had 6 receptions for 77 yards through three games with one touchdown scored in the team’s week one game against Columbus, and 9 tackles on defense. 

It truly is an unfortune turn of events for him, as he said, “one of the main reasons why I came over here was to play football the American way and see if it could bring me somewhere.” Even with his relatively productive season put to an untimely end, the senior still plans on making his exchange year one to remember. “Besides my injury, I have had a really good start on my exchange year and the Central students have welcomed me very well.”