The start of a new school year at Poland Seminary High School brings many changes. This year PSHS has taken the courtesy of welcoming two foreign exchange students to the junior class!

Salwa Jeyor hails from the most southern part of Thailand and was interested in coming to the U.S. for many reasons. She says that there are many things students must do in preparation if they wish to travel to another country. 

“We start at school; we must have testing for something about exchange students, and if we pass then we will go to an orientation camp at Bangkok and do many activities to prepare to be an exchange student before coming,” Jeyor states.

Jeyor elaborates and states that her whole process to become an exchange student, took about a year and involved preparing many documents and taking a lot of tests. 

So far, Salwa has noticed some pretty significant differences between her old school and PSHS.

“This school is like my old school in Thailand, but we separated the class like sophomores study with all of the sophomores. But this school is not separated, so I study with seniors, juniors and we can get a lot of friends,”  she says. 

Although the transition from time zones can be pretty tough, Salwa is very positive about her experiences to come. 

“Of course, I like to travel! So there are many places I hope to go with my host family, that’s just the thing that they like,”  says Jeyor

Jeyor mentions many times that her main reason for participating in the foreign exchange program is to share the cultures. Jeyor is always willing to learn and is excited to see more of America!

“I think America is very freestead, and the people are so frilly, and things are beautiful and there’s many attractions, and of course the important reason, is that I want to exchange cultures and learn many cultures from America,” she states. 

Culture is a very important  aspect that the students at PSHS can learn from Jeyor this year. She offers many insights as to how Thailand differs from her American experience thus far. 

“Thai food is sour and spicy; the popular food in Thailand is spicy shrimp soup, but almost most of America is cheese and sugar. I learned this from my host family because they surely cook a lot of cheese, and food that has cheese, for me. Our food is good, but it’s a different kind. American food is very good too. I like it because one of the reasons I wanted to be an exchange student was that I want to share the cultures, all the food, history, art, like how American people do their daily routine and school,” Jeyor explains. 

Jeyor says that her family was very supportive of her decision to travel overseas for school, and they sent her off with many well wishes. 

Parents of foreign exchange students are probably pretty worried most of the time, but Jeyor makes sure to keep in touch. 

“I text my parents once a week to make sure that I’m fine to live here and to make them not nervous about me,” she says. 

The first time Jeyor arrived in the U.S. was August 8, and so far, she’s been adjusting to the change pretty well. 

“I had to adapt myself about the language, of course; I want to learn the language directly like native speakers. It’s one of the important things that I wanted to be an exchange student for. I want to learn US English directly, and I think it’s just different in my country, but I just adapt myself with it,” Jeyor says. 

Overall, Jeyor says that she has been enjoying her time here and is having fun learning new aspects of the U.S. and sharing her culture. 

PSHS is so glad to have Salwa Jeyor within its walls, so if you see her in the hallway, be sure to say hi and maybe learn a few things from a foreign exchange student!