Home away from home for exchange students

Leon Gray-Lockhart | 8th July 2010

AFTER a year in Taranaki, two exchange students being hosted at Stratford High School have headed home.
Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Thuot (18) from French Canada, and Carmen Wild (17) from Austria have enjoyed the rural kiwi life for almost twelve months as part of the AFS Exchange Programme.
“When you applied to be an exchange student, you had to put down the countries you wanted to go to in order of preference,’ says Gabby.
“Both of us had New Zealand at number one.”
Naming their preferred country was only the first step, as each then had to indicate whether they wanted to be in a city or a rural area.
Gabby had grown up in a small town called Temis, but was living in the city of Rouyn before coming to Stratford; going back to a small town was something she actually looked forward to.
On the other hand, city girl Carmen had only known the bright lights of the Austrian capital, Vienna and so was keen for a little bit of country action.
“I really looked forward to coming to a small town,” says Carmen.
“I think we both expected a lot of sheep and not too many cars!”
Gabby actually arrived and spent the first part of her exchange at Hawera High School.

Her first host family lived on a farm and she enjoyed learning about farm life.
She arrived at Stratford High School earlier this year and joined Carmen who had been there since July 2009.
In the ‘Stratford way’
For both girls, the experience of living and studying in Stratford has proven extremely enlightening and entirely interesting, with both being startled by the differences between high schools in their home countries and those in New Zealand.
“Schools here are so different,” says Carmen.
“There are no school uniforms in high schools in Austria. They also do not have school assemblies and it is the teachers that change rooms, not the students; we stay where we are and they come to us.”
“There are no uniforms where I come from either,” says Gabby.
“It changes a lot; you see people differently. At our first mufti day at Stratford, I didn’t recognise some of my new friends because they looked so different. You also couldn’t really tell what fashion people were into until you saw them at mufti day.”
Despite the unusual nature of uniform, both girls are converts to its simple charms.
“You never have to worry about what you’re going to wear.”
Obviously, speaking and understanding English was always going to be a challenge for both girls. However, because of the local kids’ exemplary friendliness, picking up the lingo was that much easier for them.
“Everybody around here is so friendly, we managed to pick things up pretty well,” says Carmen.
“But, New Zealanders do speak quite fast and so we both had to spend a few months telling people to slow down a lot.”
Being able to choose subjects was a new experience for the girls too. In both their respective countries, the girls said that there would be a larger number of subjects on offer at their school. However, a lot of them would be compulsory, meaning only being able to choose one or two things of their own.
“Here, we didn’t have a large number to choose from, but we could choose anything that was on offer.”
Cultural binge
However, an exchange isn’t all about learning subjects, it’s also about being totally immersed in a new culture, and both girls have been heavily involved in sport and cultural pursuits outside the classroom.
“I played touch rugby when I was in Hawera,” says Gabby.
“And at Stratford I have been playing social basketball. I’ve also been involved in school events like Stage Challenge and the school ball.”
“We both really enjoyed Stage Challenge – there’s nothing like that where I come from,” says Carmen.
The girls loved being involved with the school ball as well – another experience that was quite different for them.
Gabby says: “The balls we have at home are on the same day as graduation and usually in a hotel. The ball marks the end of your schooling, rather than something that just happens in the middle of the year. It was a lot of fun to get the hall all decorated this year.”
“In Austria, a school ball is open, so you can invite anybody you like. You don’t usually go with a partner, you usually go with a group of friends and your parents come.
“It usually takes place in a hotel too, but there are different rooms with different kinds of music in them. It actually goes the entire night, finishing at 4am. Then you all go out to breakfast together. I enjoyed being involved in the ball here in Stratford, and had a really good time,” says Carmen.
Growing up
Both girls believe that their exchange has made them grow up, and fast.
“I was actually really shy back home,” says Carmen.
“But when you’re on your own, you have to get out there and make friends. Just asking for help from strangers makes you more confident.”
Gabby says: “Because everybody’s so friendly here, they don’t really mind helping you out when you ask them to slow down. You do start to realise that most people will help you if you ask them, so you get over being shy.”
Without their parents and their usual support networks, both girls believe they have also become much more independent.
“When my parents came over for a holiday recently, they said that I was noticeably more confident and were pleased to see I’d made loads of friends.”
Both have made loads of new friends and both are going to miss their friends terribly, despite looking forward to returning home.
“It’s going to be much harder to leave New Zealand that it was to leave Canada,” says Gabby.
“Leaving last year was exciting. This time it’s much sadder because I’m leaving my friends and my host family, and I might not see them again.”
Carmen’s feeling it too, but she is looking forward to seeing everybody back in Austria, but especially her sister and her boyfriend.
After Gabby returns, she is off to college for three years, and then university for another three after that. She plans to do a business degree, with a bit of law thrown in.
Carmen has one more year of high school in Austria and then she plans to do a degree in mathematics.