5/4/2009 - AFS students at Talawanda learn about life in U.S.

By Emily Atwood for The Oxford Press

“Do you have enough room down there?” asked Robert Hoover. Quentin Sohy, his foreign exchange student, just stared at him. Hoover had to reword his sentence. At first Quentin took everything literally.

Quentin shares a room with two of the Hoovers’ boys, Drew and Jonah. His host dad just wanted to make it wasn’t too cramped. But Quentin is used to cramped – he has two sisters and two brothers of his own back home in Belgium.

Along with two other students – Paulina Piaszczyk, of Germany and Joseph LeBlanc-Dion, of Canada – Quentin comes to Oxford through the American Field Service program. For 45 years Oxford’s AFS chapter has hosted 103 students and sent 78 Oxford students abroad.

The students stay an entire school year. All are seniors at Talawanda High School, but that does not mean this is their last year of high school necessarily.

For Paulina, she still has two more years to complete once back in her hometown of Pforzheim, near Heidelberg and Stuttgart.

Her hope is to someday attend college in her favorite city, Heidelberg. But for now she is relishing the new and different style of schooling. Teachers are more engaged, classes more relaxed and sports are offered.

The students were most surprised at athletics provided through schools.

“We don’t have a school spirit at all,” said Paulina of her school in Germany.

Quentin runs track, Joseph is the manager of several teams, and Paulina is involved in productions like Seussical.

“I like the fact that in the U.S. sports are important, like March Madness,” said Joseph, “There is always something on TV.”

Watching the Super Bowl with his host family has been one of his favorite moments.

Coming from Quebec, Joseph has been able to travel to America a few times. At a potluck dinner hosted by Oxford Presbyterian Church for the international students a discussion of how America differed from their home countries popped up.

“Not a whole lot let me tell you,” said Joseph.

For Quentin there are a few things. He spoke at length about how much more free time he has here. He goes to school, runs track, but also has time to hang out with his host family and relax.

“Here there is no stress,” said Quentin.

Paulina had a similar opinion. For her, school here is much simpler and she wishes would have been placed in honors or AP classes.

But she enjoys her new style of learning. Here they are giving presentations one day and working on computers the next. Back home it is much more focused on studying their books.

“We learn the same things just in a different way,” said Quentin.

Stepping away from school and into culture Paulina couldn’t help but notice Americans’ tendency to lose no time. She was amazed at how coffee is rarely served in anything but a to go cup.

Quentin was instantly introduced to the American phenomenon of food on the go when he had McDonald’s for breakfast, Wendy’s for lunch, and pizza for dinner all on his first day here.

“He loves all the food,” said Stacy Hoover, “He can’t get enough.”

He’ll say his favorite food is everything, but if forced to narrow things down a bit chili comes in first. For Joseph it’s cheese coney dogs and cookies for Paulina.

Not only has Paulina found cookies, but also she’s discovered more of herself through this experience. She applied to go anywhere outside of Europe and landed here.

Quentin will be sad to leave, but says he will surely visit “I love a lot of people here,” he said.