Photo Courtesy of Opinion editor Eden Lerner.

Foreign exchange students have now been at San Luis Obispo Highschool student for a full trimester.

So what are their first impressions?

What are the negative impressions?

Senior foreign exchange students Romane Farge, Guilia Balbo, Ludo Sauerwein have been living their California dream here in SLO. They have been missing out on one of the most popular Californian stereotypes, seeing celebrities everywhere. Besides that disappointment, California has been treating our foreign exchange students pretty well. 

“I expected California to be warm all year, so far that has been relatively true. I expected most people to be friendly, and that has been somewhat true. Once I was walking to the parking lot and I heard someone talking about my English, ‘Oh look, it’s the girl who has a horrible American accent.’ Yeah, that sucked. The good outweighs the bad, however. My friends in SLO are so funny, they always watch the sunset as if it will never happen again,” said senior French exchange student Romane Farge. 

Overall, Romane has been able to adjust and enjoy her first trimester at SLOHS. 

“ When I chose California I was hoping to live next to a famous person but that hope fled fast. I expected lots of people to dress differently and maybe even strange, which so far has been true. The styles here are not too different from Italy, here everyone thrift shops for clothes, whereas in Italy I am not sure I’ve ever seen a thrift shop. Overall SLOHS has been pretty cool, I really love the friends I have made here,” said senior Italian exchange student Guilia Balbo.

Guilia has been a hardworking and committed student while at SLOHS, her perseverance is inspiring to many other students, we love Guilia. 

“ I expected hot days all year long, but the reality has been very cold foggy mornings, then super hot afternoons. Makes outfit planning extremely difficult. One thing that seriously bothers me about SLOHS students is that many will act fake nice towards me. They will walk up and compliment me or ask how I am doing, then not care what my answer is. The people who care ask me how I am doing and truly listen to what I have to say. That is why I have the friends that I have, they care, and I have really been loving the group I am in,” said senior Italian exchange student Ludo Sauerwein.

To sum up, SLOHS has had a positive impact on our exchange students, we hope they continue to enjoy their time here in Cali!