Midwestern culture is experiencing a new flavor of cowboy-rodeo going and Indian stamp dancing Swedes.

Swedish visitors from Folkhogskola in Mullsjo, Sweden are visiting Missouri Southern to further their craft in photography and graphic design. The students began their visit April 20 and will end their visit May 8.

“Up until now we had been communicating and learning from Southern by Blackboard and e-mail,” said Ulla Johansson, photography student at Folkhogskola. “Since we are photography students [at Folkhogskola] we got the chance to be a part of this foreign exchange program.”

The Swedish students paid $1,000 in order to visit the United States. They said their visit has been a “different” experience.

“Americans are very different,” said Anna Hallin, photography student at Folkhogskola. “America is a such a large country with a very varied people.”

“Once we got here, we saw Joplin, and it was a lot bigger than what we first thought,” Johansson said.

The hardest challenge that these students had was tasting American food.

“The food here is very fatty and floaty,” Johansson said.

One of the students even had a dilemma with being in the middle of steer country.

“I’m a vegetarian,” Hallin said. “I’ve just settled for anything that’s not meat.”

Pamela Harris, assistant professor of art, said the Swedish eat more natural foods and tried to accommodate for this fact in suggesting some local natural food shops in which they could visit.

“I took them to Wal-Mart, and I think that’s where they got the idea of what Americans eat,” Harris said.

Other activities the group had planned was going to a rodeo in Springfield, attending an Indian stamp dance and other outings to give the visitors an “authentic” view of Midwestern culture.

The recent temperature fluctuations have also had an effect on the Swedish visitors.

“I wish that the temperature would stay the same,” said Jenny Hultgren, photography student at Folkhogskola. “The weather formations that occur here are so huge, they cover the whole sky and everything.”

Tobias Velander, photography student at Folkhogskola, said being the only guy in the group doesn’t bother him.

“I have nothing wrong with it,” he said. “I actually kind of like it.”

Visiting the different sights the Midwest has to offer has other benefits for these students.

“Since we are photography students, that’s something else we get to do,” Hallin said. “We want to go out and visit all these places to capture American culture.”

“I live on a farm back home,” Johansson said. “I’ve always seen pictures of cowboys, and I’ve always wanted to meet one.”

The group said Americans have turned out to be different from what they first believed them to be.

“People have been more friendly and open than I would have expected,” Johansson said. “Everyone’s come over and asked us if we’d like to go to a barbecue and other stuff like that.”

The group said that their ultimate goal is not in discovering a new photography technique or how to better design a page, but one of a higher calling.

“I hope that in our visit we can get a better feel of what is important in another culture,” said Sara Pettersson, photography student at Folkhogskola.