Clearwater High School - Aqua Clara Yearbook (Clearwater, FL)

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After taking only one year of English, Chihiro Oka, from Tokyo, lapan, was able to make friends and go to school in a country where virtually no one spoke her native lan- guage. During lunch, Chihiro converses with a few friends. As exchange students, Randi Moller and Bente Sol- berg-Johansen both had to cope with different school systems. When describing their school at home, they said, “There we have differ- ent schedules each day and it is much less tedious. w e d e n ? Isn’t that the place where they make watches and eat gourmet cheese? Or no, wait, maybe that’s Swit- zerland ...” For many students, places such as the Neth- erlands, Norway, Den- mark, Tunisia, Japan and Sweden were merely countries they could find on the globe. But for the five exchange stu- dents attending CHS, these countries were places to be called home. Sponsored by pro- grams such as Youth For Understanding (Y.F.U.) and American Inter-Cul- tural Student Exchange (A.I.S.E.), these students arrived in the United States shortly before the new school year started and stayed with volun- teer host families within the community. Although each came to America after having taken between 1 and 6 years of English, all the exchange students agreed that the language difference caused them L. Eaddy by Lynette Eaddy some trouble in the be- ginning. “At first I hated school because of the language difference. Gradually, though, it grew easier and easier to understand my teachers and by about the third month I wasn’t having much of a problem at all,” said Hauda Magh- raoui, a student from Tu- nisia who had taken four years of English. Apart from the new language, the students also stumbled upon oth- er major differences be- tween life at home and life in America. “At home, no one drives a car to school. You must be 18 to get a license, so everyone rides a bike in- stead. Having a car is just not as important in the Netherlands,” said Gido Kuijpers. Randi Moller also voiced this opinion by saying, “It is much harder to get around here than at home.” School itself also ran quite differently than some of the exchange students were used to. “In Japan, we have to go to school on Saturdays in addition to Monday thru Friday. We also have less homework than they give here and there aren’t as many big tests,” said Chihiro Oka from Tokyo, Japan. The weather, too, sur- prised some exchange students. “When I first got here I didn’t believe Johansen from Norway replied with, “Peanut butter jelly sand- wiches and plastic Christmas trees!” In an- swer to the same ques- tion Maghraoui replied, “1 thought it was very strange how many girls oreign Affairs cchange students view All American life that I’d be walking around in shorts in the middle of December!” said Niklas Thoren from Sweden. Some of the oddities that the students came across, however, were things natives merely took for granted. When asked what the strangest thing that they had en- countered was, both Randi Moller from Den- mark and Bente Solberg- consistently skip lunch and breakfast here; you just don’t see that as much at home! Though hundreds of miles away from their home and their families, all the exchange stu- dents agreed that their experiences here were exciting ones and that they would be some- what reluctant to go back home. In fact, a few had already decided that they would be back. L. Eaddy Exchange Students 23

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22 Exchange Students Originally stay ing with a host family in Virginia, Nik- las Thorn, from Sweden, movod to a host family in Clearwater toward the end of the first semester. While pre- paring to order at the Old World Cheese Shop, Niklas and Him ( Habbitt take in the novel-sized” menu which the restaurant is known for. In relation to restaurants, Niklas said, There are many more ' fast food’ restaurants in America. At home we only have McDonalds.” Though unable to swim on the Clearwater High swimming team, exchange student Gido Kuijpers from the Netherlands did practice with the team and Coach David Paul almost daily. Gido was declared ineligible to swim with the team during meets because he had already graduated from his home school in Holland. 4 I chose to come to America because 1 didn’t know much about it and I wanted to learn the culture, said Hauda Maghraoui, exchange stu- dent from Tunisia. During breaks between exams, Hauda and Wendy Norman exchange a few words. L. Gaddy

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Boys wore haircuts any- where from short to shoul- der-length bi-levels. Senior Boe Rushing chooses his own innovative style including a long strand of hair in back known as a tail. A supporter of Not For Prof- it, a controversial under- ground punk rock newspa- per, Kiri Plank sports her unique hairstyle. “My hair is a statement in itself, said Plank. Mousses and gels have be- come increasingly popular on the hair care market. len- nie Christodol and Maria Ma- zelli use the products to add fullness and create different hairstyles. Common among soccer players, many sport a bi-level cut with the hair left long in back and cut short at the sides. During his fourth year on the soccer team, Todd Goldman plays mid-field. 24 Hair Styles