VOORHEESVILLE — In this largely suburban, middle-class school district, students turn toward foreign exchanges for cross-cultural experiences.

About a dozen Clayton A. Bouton High School students went to France this fall for a few weeks on a field trip with their French teacher.

Voorheesville senior Nicole Layden, after sharing her home with an international exchange student from Brazil last school year, is leaving this week to spend 12 months in New Zealand, signing up for an extra semester of high school — a sacrifice she said is worth the adventure since New Zealand’s school calendar runs from January to December.

And Michael Strestik, a student from the Czech Republic who is living with the Sotola family on Indian Field Drive, is now, after 4 months, halfway through the 12th grade at Voorheesville. He said he came to America to play ice hockey although he is also enjoying his studies — one day he wants to play for a professional team.

Sole visitor

Being the only exchange student at Voorheesville is both good and bad, Strestik said. Everyone recognizes him and knows his name, while he might not know who they are, he said. It does not annoy him at all that he is asked questions all the time about the Czech Republic. He enjoys being a delegate, representing his county, he said.

Sometimes he even has to inform people that his county had a revolution in 1989, he said. Strestik was only year old at the time, so he doesn’t have any memories of what it was like before.
"Voorheesville students are really friendly," he said; they wave and go out of their way to say hello to him all the time.
"Teachers here are more friendly to the kids," he said.

In the Czech Republic, the relationship is a more formal one, he said. Also, one thing he has liked about Voorheesville is the teachers are always asking if you need help while at home, he said, you have to ask for the help, which most students don’t do, because they are not comfortable with approaching their teachers, and also because they are too proud.

Strestik is enjoying unusual classes at Voorheesville, including photography and communications—a media production class. Also, he is enrolled in English, United States history, and psychology.

Back home, Strestik said, students have to decide their future career paths early on, after the eighth year of school, students then have to apply to get into specialized high schools.

Hockey first

Hockey is his number-one priority, Strestik said; it consumes him.

He attends a school in Prague that specializes in sports and economics. He arrives at school at 9:30 a.m. and gets out of classes at 1:30 p.m. so that he can spend the rest of the afternoon practicing hockey. His school has only 150 students.
"Bethlehem would probably be too big for me," Strestik said, explaining that the 730 or so students at Voorheesville’s middle-school and high-school building was overwhelming enough for him.

Strestik is a tall, slender teenager who greeted a recent visitor, wearing sport shorts and T-shirt. Later that afternoon, he would be heading off to hockey practice with the Junior River Rats, who practice at Union College. He leaves for practice at 4 p.m. and returns at nine at night.

While Czech is Strestik’s first language, his English is very strong, and he has only has a slight accent. He said that most Czech students his age, while knowing basic English, have not perfected it to the level he has, which was another reason he wanted to come to the United States.

Voorheesville’s 12th-grade class has helped a lot, he said. If he graduates with an expertise in English, he will have an advantage in business in the Czech Republic.
"English is the international language," he said, and businesses that have jobs and offices at international locations are looking for employees who know English.

If a professional hockey career does not work out for him, Strestik said, he’ll probably start his own computer business. That’s the one thing he misses from home — computer tools, he said. He’s not into computer games but instead enjoys tinkering with computers and building them, Strestik said.
What has improved Strestik’s English the most, was when his host brother, Alex Sotola, visited him in the Czech Republic over the summer. He "helped build my vocabulary...gave me a lot of practice," Strestik said.

Strestik had originally met his host family five years ago when his Czech hockey team came to the United States for a series of hockey tournaments. His team played against Alex Sotola’s team in the Capital Region and then Strestik kept in contact with the Sotolas.

Alex’s father, Vaclav Sotola, is originally from Prague himself and, whenever he went to visit family in the Czech Republic he would also visit Strestik’s family. Then, for a series of summers, Alex Sotola went out to visit Strestik, and played hockey with him through summer leagues.
"The people here play hockey more tough," Strestik said of the game in the United States. "There’s more hitting here...It’s more rough of a game...I really like it," he said.

Strestik plans to go back to the Czech Republic to play professionally. Since he doesn’t have American citizenship, it would be difficult for him to play professionally in the United States. Ice hockey is very big in the Czech Republic; it is, in a way, the national sport he said. The New York Rangers have nine players who are Czech, Strestik pointed out.
"Most beautiful city in the world"

Strestik’s family lives in Marotritsy, a little village of about 100 people, just a 20-minute bus ride from the center of Prague.
"It’s the doorstep to Prague," Strestik said.

The biggest difference between Voorheesville and his hometown is the transportation, he said. The Czech Republic has sophisticated bus system and it is easy to get from one city to another even across the country, which is smaller than the state of New York. In Voorheesville, he has to take a car to get anywhere.
"People often say that Prague is the most beautiful city in the world, and I agree," Strestik said. It’s a really nice city, old and historic with beautiful architecture, he said. "It’s the most beautiful city in the world."

Downtown has been maintained and the Czech people take pride in the old buildings. People still live in the old houses and maintain and renovate them, rather than tearing them down and building modern buildings. It’s one of the few countries that has not been destroyed, Strestik said. The Czech government has also dedicated a lot of money for building restoration, he said.

But so far, Strestik said, he hasn’t been homesick at all, and, whenever he craves his favorite Czech dish of balled meat and dumplings, his host dad knows how to make it for him.

Layden’s plans

Nicole Layden said she is looking forward to her year in New Zealand because she loves the outdoors, like hiking and she has plans to join her exchange-school crew team.

She will be living on the North Island in Auckland, and, while she doesn’t know what to expect, she knows the weather all year round is like Hawaii’s, and she’ll only be 20 minutes away from two beaches—one to each side. The west-side beach is a surfing beach, she said, and the east-side beach is a swimming beach.
"I love to swim," Layden said, adding that she wants to learn how to surf.

Layden’s sister spent six months in Brazil last year and didn’t feel like it was enough time, so Nicole has sighed on for the full year. She said she imagines she would just be getting established after sixth months.
Layden is only a few classes away from completing all her requirements to be a New York State high school graduate, she said. So, for most of her academic schedule in New Zealand, she’s signing up to take "all the fun and easy classes," she said—like automechanics, design on computers, and photography. She is going to go to New Zealand for the cultural and geographic experience rather than education, Layden said. The cultural experience will be an education in itself, she said.

Her exchange is through the American Field Service, which is the same program that Strestik used. AFS is looking for more volunteer host families.

Sedan exchange

After a dozen Clayton A. Bouton students went on a field trip to France in the fall, they made a presentation this month to the school board about their travel experience.
Voorheesville’s foreign language department chair, Bob Streifer, said the students’ trip to France was "one of the highlights of my career."

It was an educational experience for the students culturally, linguistically, politically, and, he added with a smile, gastronomically. The students went to Sedan, France from Oct. 12 to 23. They had 12 warm gorgeous days, he said.

The students said they used their dictionaries a lot, but also learned how to communicate through body language. They ate a lot pastry and cheese, and adjusted to cheese being kept in a cupboard instead of a refrigerator. The list of activities they crammed into a few days included: an historical scavenger hunt through a city; a meet and greet at school, where they answered and asked questions of each other in both languages; cathedral visits; shopping; and watching a marionette show.

They also spent time with individual host families, took excursions, and concluded with a visit to Versaillies and a boat ride through Paris.

The exchange is with a private school in Sedan, France whose students will be visiting Voorheesville in October of 2006.