BANGOR – Students from John Bapst Memorial High School were enjoying coffee and pastries at a local restaurant one recent afternoon as they practiced one of their favorite Swedish customs.

Just back from their 10-day visit to Sweden, the teenagers vowed to get together each Monday to have a “fika” and to socialize, relax and eat.

“It’s a really Swedish thing to do,” said senior Ray Solinger of Eddington, one of 15 Bapst students who lived in Umea, Sweden, last month as part of an exchange program.

A week after returning home, the students said they missed the multicultural, cosmopolitan city of about 110,000 in northern Sweden, and their host families with whom they quickly bonded.

“Nobody wanted to leave. There were lots and lots of tears,” said teacher Mark Tasker, chairman of the social studies department, who accompanied the students along with science teacher Theresa Thornton.

Bapst teens attended classes at Umea’s 2,000-student high school, went skiing – some of them for the first time – and had a blast sliding down steep hills on plastic, foam-covered mats called skrana that “really fly.” They toured the Swedish countryside and visited a reindeer pasture. And they picnicked by a lake, sitting on reindeer skins in the sun as they devoured grilled hot dogs.

The youngsters paid their own way, less than $900 apiece for the adventure.

Swedish students stay physically active, the Bapst teens said. Since schools in Sweden don’t have sports teams, young people join clubs in town where they engage in skiing, hockey, badminton and handball. They work out at gyms, or training centers as they are called.

There are no school buses, so they either take public transportation or walk or bike to school on a system of trails that is kept snow-free for year-round use. Dragoon School, the high school in Umea, has no parking lot, but is surrounded by a plethora of bike racks.

Tasker called Dragoon School a “great model for training people to go to college.” There’s no detention for coming into class late or even for skipping school entirely.

“The onus is on the kids,” said Tasker. “If they’re not there, they don’t get credit. You’re telling 17- and 18- year-olds, ‘Whether you show up or don’t, it’s your responsibility to know the work.'”

Swedish students “follow rules because they want to, not because they’re afraid of being punished,” said Dylan Connole, a senior from Dixmont.

Students in Sweden get paid a minimal stipend to go to high school as an incentive for not dropping out, according to the teens. “It’s a way to get them to think of school as a business model,” Tasker said. “You show up for work every day and you show up for school every day.”

The Swedish students all spoke English and the international classes attended by the student hosts were conducted in English. Still, by the end of their visit, Maine teens said they had been able to pick up a number of Swedish terms.

The school atmosphere was much more relaxed, said Kelly Willard, a senior from Glenburn. Teachers are called by their first names and they “wear jeans and look just like the students.”

Swedish students are considered adults at age 18 when many of them take apartments in the city even if they’re still in high school. “The biggest difference is that’s the age they can learn to drive,” said Tasker. A driver’s education course is “incredibly expensive,” so it’s not unusual to meet a 19- or 20-year-old who just got their license, he added.

The food in Sweden is delicious, students agreed. Knackebrod, a crisp bread, is served with everything. So is caviar out of a tube, which Swedes love on eggs and in sandwiches.

Bapst teens liked the Swedish custom of serving tiny pancakes and yellow pea soup on Thursday nights. “I had five bowls. It was very good,” said Abigail Bergeron, a sophomore from Veazie.

The visit also enabled both American and Swedish students to set aside some preconceived notions.

Swedish teens thought the Americans would be fat and would only want to eat at McDonald’s, or that they’d all be rich like those on “The O.C.,” a Fox television show that is wildly popular in Sweden, the Bangor students said, laughing.

For their part, Bapst students figured all Swedes would be tall and blond with blue eyes. In fact, Sweden is an immigrant nation and there are many different races including Asian, Indians and blacks.

As part of a school assignment, the Swedish and Maine students interviewed workers at Swedish social service agencies to get an idea of the vast array of programs for young people.

“It showed our kids a variety of ways to approach common problems related to adolescents and society,” said Tasker.

The exchange program with Umea will continue this fall when Swedish teens spend two weeks in Bangor, attending school with the Bapst students and working with social service organizations in town.