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

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Although they were not taking classes for credit the foreign exchange students were expected to attend classes regularly. Piedad Del Carmen keeps up with her studies at the library. Volker Kusserow finds Mrs. Elizabeth Ransom’s aeronautics class very informative, Volker plans to be a commercial airplane pilot.T J Upon her arrival, Lu Lu DeLourdes Cisneros immediately jumped into Tazmanian swimming Her speciality was butterfly. Foreign Exchange Students 25

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rM ; sstS i 1 ! • 1 JV - W A long way from home , but dam well worth it By JAN I NE EADDY Chinese woks, pizza and pasta, clogs, beer, CARE advertisements, coffee — all reflections of another country’s effect on our American culture. We were constantly bombarded with Barbara Walters interviewing the Shah of Iran, Prince Charles or some other noted official every time you turned on the television or radio. Newspapers and magazines were filled with news from other countries. Beauty contests and the Olympic games threw the natives of many different countries into the public ' s eye. All this media exposure shaped our awareness of people from another hemisphere, but we tended to tuck all this information into the backs of our minds, thinking that we would never have to deal with cultures so different from ours. But did you ever stop to wonder how our culture appears to someone from another country? When asked his first impression of Clearwater High students, Volker Kusserow a native of West Germany, replied, “I think that Clearwater must be the capital for beautiful girls — they are everywhere.” ‘‘In Columbia all boys from the United States are considered handsome,” said Piedad Del Carmen Noguera. Piedad and Volker came to Clearwater under the International Fellowship. Magdalene Harne from B. Meyers Sweden, Herman Ackerman from Munich and Lu Lu DeLourdes Cisneros from Mexico, also traveled under the fellowship. Each student paid $2,250 to this corporation to be able to spend nine months living in Clearwater with an adopted” family and attending Clearwater High. For Volker, Lu Lu, Herman and Piedad the experience of living in the United States was a new one, but Magdalene has lived in New Jersey and Rhode Island. Why were these five students so anxious to leave their home for nine months to live in a totally new .and strange environment? I heard about the opportunity to come here from a teacher, and I immediately wanted to come,” said Volker. When I first arrived I was in shock, I did not speak hardly any English, recalls Piedad. All of the students found the people of CHS friendly. When I first arrived people ignored me until they found out that I was from Germany. Then they all talked to me and asked me questions,” said Herman. In Sweden we concentrated on close friendship — Americans seem to want to have many friends at one time,” said Magdalene. Foreign students looked forward to dating and driving as much as American students did. Dating as we know it, however, is almost unheard of in Sweden, Mexico, and Columbia. Those people date at parties and movies in groups of people. “Drinking is accepted in most of our countries,” said Volker. Levi’s, an all-American favorite, which sold for forty dollars in many countries and records were among the things the exchange students bought during their stay here. Fashion also seemed different. The quality blouses we buy for $30.00 you can find in the stores here for $1 5.00, so we have fewer clothes than the girls here,” said Magdalene. Girls do not dress as feminine in Germany. People go to school dressed in punk rock fashion with writing on their frayed jeans,” said Volker. Not only do they listen to the same music and wear the same jeans, students in other countries also watch American television shows such as Starsky and Hutch,” and Charlie’s Angels.” These TV shows and movies had the native languages dubbed in. Movies only cost $1 .00 or $1 .50 in Mexico — we go to see them all the time,” said Lu Lu. On the surface the differences seemed to be many and the barriers inconceivable, but all the five foreign students had to do was take the initial step. They brought us a little bit of their own culture and personality, and they in turn took a little bit of us home with them. In doing so, this big world will become a little bit smaller. 24 Foreign Exchange Students

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By JANINEEADDY What do you dislike about school the most? The very question sent the mind running wild. But instead of thinking them up, we surveyed a large cross- section of students as to what ticks them off. The list began with the alarm clock. What a way to start a day. Waiting for the bus wasn’t much fun either. If you drove to school, other hazards had to be faced, such as finding a parking place. But getting to school was only the beginning Upon arrival, the student who was still half asleep, had to face six trying hours. The 7 o ' clock bell caught the student hurrying to first period class, dreading the morning announcements. Fifty-four minutes later, it was time to change classes. Six minutes to go to the restroom, your locker, and be in your second period class, by the time the bell rang. Only super students made it. Just getting in and out of the restrooms was a Pet peeves the ins and outs of school major feat, due to the crush of early morning addicts who were getting their nicotine fix. Then on to the locker, inevitably three halls away. Campus travel varied with the weather conditions. Rainy days were a disaster. Leaky roofs narrowed hall traffic into thin, shuffling lines that slalomed around drops and puddles. Another danger zone was the portables, affectionately called the slums. They seemed strategically placed between the gym and the small engine and shop rooms to catch all noise possible, ranging from stanzas of What I did for Love” from the band room, to triumphantly fixed lawnmowers. By mid-morning, students were ready to go home to sleep. Instead they were released for lunch beginning at 1 0. Lunch at 1 0 a.m.? Some, who were weird enough to be hungry at that early hour, braved cafeteria food, while others simply cruised to McDonald’s for an Egg McMuffin. Those who chose to fast, hung i out in the halls, in front of the Media Center, and in the parking lot. The beginning of school and semester changes were a genuine pain. Trying to see your counselor was not always fun, but they usually managed to satisfy requests. Literacy tests also proved difficult, probably due to the test conditions — fiendishly uncomfortable seats and splintered lapboards. Peeling walls, gum stuck to the bottom of graffiti-covered desks, and money- munching coke machines. Sometime or another they all managed to get the best of us. But it was these pet peeves that allowed us to joke through the year. 26 Pet Peeves AMany weekends brought vadalism from broken windows to graffiti. Mike Miller and Quinn Virgillis check out someone’s tribute to Pink Floyd’s The Wall. With single sessions, the halls were once again deserted in the late afternoon. ►