Facebook, Skype and pizza are nothing new or unique to 16-year-old Mahnoor Nasir.

 

However, the wonder of seeing her breath for the first time during a severe winter cold snap and feeling fresh, crisp snow crunch under her feet are a couple of "firsts" she has experienced during her time in Cañon City as an international exchange student from Pakistan.

 

Mahnoor is participating in the Council on International Educational Exchange program. She arrived in the states in August and will return in June.

 

Mahnoor is a senior at Cañon City High School. She said where she comes from, not all girls go to school.

 

"The girls in the big city go to school, but the ones who live in low-populated areas don't," she said. "There are some extremist people that don't allow them to go. My dad rescues them and brings them back to the city (so they can go to school).

 

She described the differences between her school and CCHS.

 

"It is very different here," she said. "Here, the students change classes -- there, the teachers change the classes. And you don't get an hour-long lunch, you just get a 15 or 20 minute lunch in Pakistan."

 

She enjoys being able to select her classes at CCHS. In Pakistan, students learn English, Urd -- her native language, math, biology, chemistry, physics, Pakistan studies and social studies. Digital graphic design is a class Mahnoor especially enjoys, a class not offered at her school in Pakistan.

 

After one more year in high school when she returns to Pakistan, she will attend college and study English, but she is not sure which field in English she will pursue as a career.

 

Mahnoor is the oldest of three children. Her dad works for the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund and her mother is a stay-at-home mom and wife. She misses her family, but they Skype once or twice a week.

 

She said Cañon City is small compared to the large city Mahnoor and her family live in Pakistan.

 

"It is a very big city," she said. "The population is 3.4 million. It is very crowded."

 

She lives with her host family Mike Moser and Phyllis Swenson in western Fremont County, where it's anything but crowded.

 

"I like it because mountains are all around here and it's peaceful -- not very noisy," she said.

 

Swenson said her family hosted an exchange student from Brazil when she was younger and wanted to do it again. She and her former student still keep in touch, something Mahnoor said she will do with her American family.

 

Swenson and Moser have enjoyed having Mahnoor in their home, they said, and they have taken her to see the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, Carlsbad Caverns and several other places. They also took her to her first ice hockey game, her first camping trip and water tubing. During their time together, Mahnoor shares with them about her life thousands of miles away.

 

"It's been a real learning experience to learn about her culture," Moser said.

 

Mahnoor talked about her Muslim religion.

 

"We have mosques, but ladies don't go to the mosques," she said.

 

A Muslim tutor goes to her home to teach her and her sister about the religion and the Quran.

 

"Muslims pray five times a day, but when I am here, I don't. I don't know the timings here, so whenever I think that it's the time, and if I'm not doing anything, I pray; when I am in Pakistan, my whole family prays together five times a day."

 

She said the Muslim religion teaches peace.

 

"The biggest problem in Pakistan is the Quran is in Arabic, they can read it, but they don't understand; they don't even try to read the translation of it," she said. "The Qurans we have at home have Arabic and Urdo, so we read the first verse in Arabic and then we read it in Urdo, so we know what it is saying. They don't know what it is teaching you, but they call themselves Muslims, and they do whatever they want. They don't realize what is written in the book."

 

She has the Quran downloaded on her iPad.

 

Moser and Swenson said they recommend being a host family because it benefits the family as much as the student.

 

"That's an important part of the exchange program," Swenson said. "It's for these kids to come here and experience America, but it's also for Americans to experience other cultures and to get to meet Muslims and to know they are not terrorists."

 

Moser said CIEE is in need of families to host students, and families can be parents with children, single adults or single parents.

 

"There's no perfect family," he said. "They're here to experience the United States -- not the perfect family. It's a very educational experience and a lot of fun."

 

Mahnoor said other exchange students at CCHS are from Serbia, Norway, Germany, Kuwait, Brazil and Italy.

 

Watch an interview with Mahnoor and her host family click here.