11/24/2007 - Exchange students take to Sonoma

by Sandi Hansen
STAFF WRITER
INDEX TRIBUNE

Three foreign exchange students from three very different countries are learning about the United States by immersing themselves in education, culture and lifestyles of their Sonoma host families and their classmates at Sonoma Valley High School.

Sirush Khalatyan, 16, from Armenia (a part of the former Soviet Union), Benjamin “Ben,” Brett, 17, from Germany and Khairrijal “Rijal,” Adhar, 17, from Indonesia have been here for a little over two months and each has found their preconceptions of Americans to be a bit different now than before they came.

“Americans are so friendly, they wave and say ‘Hi’ to you. I wasn’t expecting that at all,” Rijal told the SVHS Dragon’s Tale newspaper. Rijal is with the Youth Exchange Study (YES) program which is offered through the State Department and is predominately for students from Muslim countries. He is staying with host family Saied and Lori Molavi. One day he hopes to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ben is from Germany and is being hosted by Kristen Armstrong and her son. He is here through the international youth exchange program, American Field Service (AFS). Ben had no idea what California was like and is having fun finding out. “My first impression of America was San Francisco – it’s the prettiest city I’ve every seen,” Ben told the Dragon’s Tale. One thing he said that is hard for him right now is to speak English all the time. “I think, with time, I’ll get used to it,” he told the school paper. Another difference is “in Germany, school ends at twelve, not so late like here … but school here is nice because they have sports,” he said. There are no sports offered in German schools.

Sirush is here on a full scholarship through the State Department on the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program. Her host family is Reanne Dukes and Richard Hodges. She said she likes not having school on Saturday, like in Armenia, and also likes being able to select her classes. She is learning to speak professionally in front of the public. “I like my forensics class a lot. It’s a good opportunity for me to learn about courts, government and different issues,” she said. “I want to become a lawyer or a diplomat.” Sirush is also learning to make American dishes and has found some favorites since coming here. There is, however, a common type of American specialty she does not like. “One thing I don’t like at all is sandwiches, those aren’t very good,” she said.

Sirush came here because she wanted to learn about American traditions, culture, customs and lifestyles and to experience new things.

All three exchange students will spend a year in the Valley before returning home.

It is not at all easy to become an international exchange student. In fact, it’s quite complicated. For Rijal, there were only l00 students who qualified from Indonesia out of 5,000 students who competed for the privilege. And it took nearly two years and passing six tests with high marks to do it.

After all that hard work, Rijal said that riding into Sonoma on Broadway he didn’t know how he felt. But soon he began to enjoy it here. “I felt happy because I know that I’ll live in this peaceful town, but I felt bad because I didn’t see anything interesting here. But I was wrong about that. There is a lot of interesting things in this city, especially my host family, host school, host neighborhood and everything.”

Some staff members at The Sonoma Index-Tribune got to meet the students when they toured the facility last week, along with Jean McQuady, the Sponsored Program Coordinator, AFS/USA. Anyone interested in learning more about the exchange programs or hosting an exchange student, can contact McQuady at 292-1128.

Also, more information is available online at www.afs.org/usa or by calling (800) AFS-INFO.