The beginning of the school year is always some what hard for some students, but for others it is really difficult. For example, North’s new exchange student came from Switzerland. His name is Lucas Angelillo. He was a little nervous, but soon he started to enjoy it and get more involved in school.
“The whole exchange year is a challenge. Spending a year in another continent away from all of my family and friends as a teenager is the biggest adventure and challenge of my life. Saying goodbye to everyone before leaving was hard, but as soon as I arrived here, I felt like I was at home again. On my second day here, I already went to soccer tryouts. There were so many people, and nearly everybody looked strangely at me. I felt weird, but then we started playing soccer, and the others started talking to me. I always thought that the first school day would be very weird, but it was easier than I thought. As I already said earlier, the people are so open and try to help me as good as they can that I know that I can make mistakes and nobody is going to be mad at me. That made it much easier for me here,” said junior Lucas Angelillo.
There are many types of different cultures, religions, accents, clothing, food, etc. People learn something new about their neighbor everyday.
“In Switzerland, we have many immigrants from other regions of Europe. That’s why our culture is very mixed up. You only experience the real original Swiss culture high up in the mountains. I experience many different cultures. Some people, of the older generation, think that that is a bad thing, but I like it. But in general you can say that people in Switzerland are punctual and things are more organized. Most people are very friendly and funny once they ‘accept’ you. Some are just shy to foreign people, and that’s why some people from other countries think that Swiss are not fun. But they are. The Swiss eating culture is different from here. The people like more to eat something good and healthy. There are some fast-food-restaurants like Burger King and McDonald’s, but that’s about it,” Angelillo said.
It feels good when there’s positive people who support what others love and are just there in general, giving a friendly hand, especially if it’s the family who hosts the student.
“We share a love for sports. I don’t like soccer, but I can enjoy sitting down and watching a soccer game,” said junior Joseph Clearwater.