Foreign exchange students bring a world of diversity and new perspectives to the school. Charlotte Ars and Lisa Vizzari are experiencing their senior years of high school in the United States. Ars is from Belgium and Vizzari is from Italy.
“I’ve been wanting to live in the United States since I was in middle school,” Vizzari said.
They both have been wanting to visit the United States for a while.
“I have been interested since I was young and I started looking for this exchange two years ago,” Ars said.
The biggest jump these two had to make was moving and learning to be in a completely new environment with new school, friends, and family.
“I would say that my school is more strict. We cannot have our phones at all, not even between classes or in the commons. If an educator sees us with a phone, he takes it and we have to stay 30 minutes after school,” Ars said. “Only seniors can leave school for lunch. Other people cannot. If they see lower classes out of the school, they have to stay after school. We cannot eat during classes. We have a recreation area outside where we have to stay when we finish eating. We cannot stay inside. We aren’t close with our teachers.”
Since both Ars and Vizzari came from two different countries even their experiences and day to day lives are different from each other’s in many ways.
“Everything is way different. We go to school from Monday to Saturday until 13pm (1pm). We cannot choose our subjects and we are in the same class with the same 20ish people for every subject, through all high school. We have five years of high school,” Vizzari said. “School is not about fun and class is composed just of notes, we don’t have any class time for homework. We don’t have sports in schools or clubs. They don’t organize events like dances. School is just learning those five hours a day.”
While both seniors say they like being in the United States and experiencing all the new things, it does have some of its own challenges.
“Behavior of students is one of the hardest things that I’ve had to deal with while living in America. They are mean sometimes,” Ars said. “I also thought that people would have been more interested in another culture or being friends with new people. Everyone here grew up with each other so it’s just hard.”
Not only did Ars and Vizzari have to adjust to how different the school and people are, they also had to adjust with the surroundings being different.
“It’s big. Roads are large and houses are super big. In my city, houses are next to each other. Like in the city there is no space between houses for a garden. In the countryside there is a villa,” Ars said.
Ars said that she lives more in the countryside so being in Berlin is not that much of a change. However, in the city area of Belgium the houses are super close, while in Berlin each person has their own yard and space.
“Here there is no public transport. I can’t move by myself because I don’t have a car and there are no trains or buses. The portions of food are huge,” Vizzari said. “People smile and say ‘hi,’ while they usually don’t if you don’t say it first.”
Not only is there a major difference between public transportation and environmental life but the weather in Wisconsin compared to these other countries is extreme.
“I have walked on a frozen lake. It’s amazing because it is not cold enough where I live. We also visited Chicago and that was awesome. Friends here have a car so it’s easier to hang out and go around. In Italy you get your license at 18 so it is really nice to be able to be as independent and free,” Vizzari said.
During Vizzari and Ars’ time being here they said that one teacher that they both are very fond of is science teacher Nick Kvam.
“Mr. Kvam is very helpful to his students and cares a lot. At my school we don’t have that,” Vizzari said.
Kvam had Vizzari in Honors Chemistry. Then they both had second hour resources last semester with Kvam.
“Lisa and Charlotte are both wonderful students. They bring a new perspective and enhance the discussions we have in class. I enjoyed getting to know them and talking with them about their home countries and their experiences at BHS as exchange students,” Kvam said.
