By Kira Stussy, Tumwater High School Intern to ThurstonTalk
“I was super excited,” Thais Colinot reflected, “And tired.” This is how she answered when asked about her feelings as she first stepped off her plane and onto American soil. Thais is from Paris, France, a large and bustling city compared to our humble Thurston County.
When asked about what she misses most about Paris, she responded, “Public transportation.” Bianca Macri, from Naples, Italy, laughed and nodded.
Bianca and Thais have the rare opportunity to stay with the same host family. “We have a good relationship,” says Bianca and Thais smiles. Both girls attend Tumwater High School as foreign exchange students. They agree that the most interesting thing about attending American school is the spirit. They find it strange and enjoyable to dress up in the school colors and cheer for the team as they face off against league rivals. They both also have come to love the people at school, establishing firm relationships here in America.
Fatima Mills, one of the host parents of Thais and Bianca, claimed that hosting an exchange student was “like starting to raise a new child. It is fun to know what other people do in other countries and get to know about that country through your host child.”
But being an exchange student certainly is not all just lighthearted fun. “I miss my life and friends,” Thais admits. She says that although she is not homesick, she still sometimes wishes she could be back in France with her friends and family. Bianca yearns to be back in Italy. Even though she has made an abundance of amazing friends, she cannot help but want to be back home.
Thais made the point that even though all exchange students are relatively in the same situation, they all handle it differently, depending on their personality. “You cannot know how you will react before you go,” Thais explains when asked if she had expected to be homesick or not. She stated that some people who exchanged with AFS (the program that both Thais and Bianca exchanged through) did not predict that they were going to miss their home. They had been caught up in excitement of everything but after a few months of living in America, they realized just how homesick they truly were.
Both girls dream of returning to their old friends, food, and life in general. It is extremely strange for them to come from such booming and never sleeping cities like Naples and Paris, to small, homey Tumwater. They find it frustrating beyond all belief that they cannot drive anywhere (teens must be 18 years old in order to attain a driver’s license in Europe) and a city bus does not service close enough to where they live.
Thais and Bianca agree that the most difficult part of the exchange is leaving behind all of your close family and friends and entering a brand new country for an entire year. But they are not the only ones who find the exchange challenging. Several exchange students from different countries and schools were asked what the most difficult part of the exchange is, and they responded with a variety of answers. Food, transportation, the people at school, the host families, and the language were some of the responses. But there was one answer that seemed to turn up the most frequently: friends and family, the same as with Thais and Bianca.
Another challenge with switching countries for a year is of course the family you will live with. Imagine coming to a brand new country and having to live in a home with a family that is complete alien to you. Many exchange students actually end up considering their host family to be like their second family. But, as with anything, there are always difficulties. Culture, language barrier, and lifestyle are all factors that can make living with a new family rather hard. Or sometimes the hardest part of the host family, if the student and family develop a strong bond, is the day the foreign student has board the plane to go home.
“It’s so cold here!” Bianca exclaims in dismay, shivering in the nippy Washington air, but this is coming from a girl who would keep a blanket with her at all time back in Italy, even when it was over 90 degrees. Although there are many hardships that these brave students must endure during their year here in America, they claim that there are many things they have come to love since being in Thurston County.
Multiple exchange students from countries varying from Spain to Japan declare that the people they have met and the school spirit are two of the most enjoyable aspect to the area. Any foreign exchange student could tell you of all the difficulties and hard time while they are here in America, but they could also probably tell you that the positives about being here in the Land of the Free far outweigh the negatives.
