Rhiannon Walerius, a senior at Washington High School, has seen both sides of cultural exchange- hosting exchange students with her family in the U.S and being an exchange student herself in France.
When asked about what motivated her to take on the journey of going to France for her exchange, she explained that she’s always wanted to go there, and she finally got the chance to go and stay there for two weeks at the end of her freshman year. “Once I got into high school and I was at the level where you were allowed to go on the trip, I was like, oh, this would be an awesome opportunity for me. I’ve always wanted to go.”
She was motivated to learn more about their culture and get to see how they live their day-to-day lives. Walerius says she heard about this opportunity from her French teacher, since the trip wasn’t through a specific program, but through the school.
Walerius says she and the other students on the trip flew to Paris, then to Nice, located in Southern France, where they spent a few days. Then she stayed with her French host family for 3-4 days in a smaller town called Montélimar, and after that, they made their way back up to Paris. She recalls visiting many places, like Monaco, Versailles, and Aix-en-Provence, the city where they got to know more about Van Gogh.
Walerius had a host sister, who was about the same age as her and with whom she’s still in contact sometimes through social media, and a host mom and dad.
Walerius says that this experience helped her gain perspective on both hosting and being an exchange student, since her family hosted a French exchange student, Axel, for a short term before she went to France herself. “Honestly, I want to say it was that first experience with Axel, and then me going to France. It, like, I guess it opened my eyes a little bit, where it was like, oh, I actually did enjoy having Axel for a little bit. I would love to maybe have another student who I get to know on a more long-term period.”
Walerius says she met a YFU (Youth for Understanding) exchange student when she was doing color guard after her freshman year. Walerius and her family then got to know the student’s host mom, who introduced her family to the idea of hosting with the organization.
They decided to host Lou, a French exchange student. When asked about what she learned about France from her, Walerius said she noticed a lot of similarities between French and German culture, since they hosted a German exchange student, Kimi, the year after Lou. She mentioned that both of them dressed up more for school, and they presented themselves better.
Walerius says that hosting Kimi was a brand new and different experience from hosting Lou, since she wasn’t familiar at all with German culture or the language beforehand.
When asked about how these different cultural experiences have affected her, she said it has had a very positive impact on her. “It makes me happy, just hosting exchange students. Like, I get to share America with them, and they get to share their country with me. It feels like it’s an exchange of both sides, I guess. I love learning about other countries and just, like their history and everything overall.”
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Rianne Lindus is an exchange student from Estonia currently enrolled in the Introduction to Media Course.
