Each year, Wadsworth High welcomes new foreign exchange students from around the world. This gives these students an opportunity to experience the American culture.

Francesco Tordiglione is an Italian foreign exchange student and a senior at Wadsworth.

He came to America as an exchange student to become more fluent in English. The thing he enjoys the most about Wadsworth is the people. He explained that everywhere he goes, everyone is nice: in the gym, at school, and at his host home.

He has tried quite a few restaurants in America, “I’ve been to Chipotle, I really like it, it’s my favorite one, and Chick-fil-A. And another where you are in the car and they serve you in the car,” Tordiglione said, referring to Swensons.

He said he is planning on playing on the tennis team and maybe playing winter sports. He enjoys going to the gym with Giovanni after school.

His favorite classes at the high school are AP Chemistry because he said it challenges him, and his second favorite is marketing.

Senior Romain Graindorge is a foreign exchange student here at Wadsworth High School. He came from Belgium.

His favorite American food so far includes bar food like Applebee’s and Culver’s.

When asked what type of music he likes, he got excited to share his opinion.

“I think American is my first type of music. American rap, hip-hop, which is like the songs of the 80s. You know, some Michael Jackson.”

Graindorge explained that his biggest cultural shock was the size of everything in America. He said that the roads, cars, and food were bigger than they were in Belgium.

Giovanni Bravin, a senior at Wadsworth High School, is a foreign exchange student from Italy. He came to the United States because he wanted to experience new things and make something fun out of studying abroad at a new school.

“I was excited to be able to participate in sports events, because in Italy, you cannot practice any sports in school. You can do it, but outside. So it was something new that I wanted to be able to experience,” Bravin said. The sports that he wanted to join and was interested in were swimming and baseball.

His biggest shock when arriving in America was that he could not speak his own language, in school and in his host home.

Last summer, he came to America with his family to visit New York, Boston, and Cape Cod. He said that he would like to revisit New York and would like to see Washington state.

Lise Dazy, a Senior at Wadsworth High, is a foreign exchange student who traveled from France. Dazy wanted to come to the U.S. because she has a strong interest in American culture.

Her favorite class of her school day is Pop Music as Literature. “I really like the pop music,” Dazy said, “and dislike the country music.”

Dazy hopes to travel beyond Wadsworth. She plans to go to the state of New York and California.

So far Raising Canes has been her favorite restaurant in the U.S.

What has surprised her is the size of everything in America compared to France. After school, she plans on studying journalism. Dazy will return back to France during the second semester of this year.

Addaia Moreno Vidal, a sophomore at Wadsworth High School, is a foreign exchange student from Spain. She came to the U.S. because she has a strong interest in the English language.

She finds there are some differences between America and Spain.

“Here in the high school, things are so different from Spain; here, the time you eat [lunch]. Also, you could say, like academic lab and study hall stuff, we don’t really have that in Spain,” Moreno said.

Moreno looks forward to the opportunities America has when it comes to sports the most. She enjoys the competition of sports in the U.S. Moreno participates in volleyball after school.