San Luis Obispo High School houses many foreigners, locals, and now, twin sisters and juniors Savana and Makalya Oberg, hailing from Dubai. Unlike most students, they offer a different, yet captivating view of the world illustrating drastic differences between San Luis Obispo and the world.
Expressions set out to learn more about their travels, experiences, and most importantly, how they ended up at SLOHS.
Expressions: What were you doing in Dubai?
Junior Savana Oberg: We moved there for our dad’s job.
Junior Makalya Oberg: We were in Dubai because of our dad’s job, so we started going to school from the time we could start remembering things at five years old.
Expressions: What is the most remarkable cultural difference?
Savana Oberg: In our school, there were 80 different nationalities. We had friends from everywhere and picked up different accents. We also had “International Day”, where we learned about everyone’s countries and types of food. Living in Dubai, we had to learn Arabic, French, and Spanish. A common misconception, but in Dubai, everyone speaks English.
Makalya Oberg: The most remarkable difference I would say is the fact that there are people from all over the world. Ninety percent of the citizens are international and 10 percent are local. In our school alone, there were around 80 nationalities, so I had friends from Scotland, Australia, Serbia, etc.
Expressions: Do you like Dubai or SLO better?
Savana Oberg: As of right now, I prefer Dubai over SLO because of all the opportunities we had there, as well as our friends we have known for a while.
Makalya Oberg: In my opinion, Dubai was an amazing experience, I made friends and memories there that I fell in love with. Dubai has really been all that we have known, so in my opinion, I would choose Dubai, because of friends and the amazing experiences we got by living there.
Expressions: You have traveled to 35 countries, what was the motive behind that?
Savana Oberg: Yes. We traveled to certain places because they were recommended by friends or we wanted to learn the history. It’s important to travel out of the US because there’s so much more in the world.
Makalya Oberg: Yes, we have traveled to 35 countries. I would say the motive behind that is simply, living in Dubai is easily accessible to the world. My dad’s job especially gave us that opportunity, by allowing us to have free flights every year, so it was more affordable because of that. Also, my mom has been to over 80 countries and so she has obviously gained many more experiences and wanted to share that with us.
