Hello West County, we have great news this year. Analy has two new exchange students. From the cold and happy place of the southwest of Finland we have Eden Heino and from the beautiful center of Italy near Rome we have Guilia Catalini. Eden enjoys the weather and how honest Finnish people are, as well as the free education and healthcare her home offers. Her favorite food is salmon soup which along with other fish is very commonly used in food in Finland. Eden decided to become an exchange student because for a long time she’s been wanting to experience a new culture, meet new people and learn a new language. She’s most looking forward to food, especially fast food and candy, in America. Her worries when coming here were the people and having to speak in another language. Going over to our next student Guila, and her favorite part of Italy is how relaxed her community is. Her favorite food is lasagna and other staples of Italian food are carbonara, tomato arepienta, pasta, rice and everyone’s favorite pizza. She has dreamed of being an exchange student since she was 9 years old and decided to come to the US since herself and others considered it a place of the future and as it is very different from Europe she wanted to come see this kind of life. In terms of the American experience she hopes to go to a drive-in theater and to HOCO and Prom. She worried about the stereotypes surrounding Americans like the “mean girls” from movies, and people misunderstanding her. Both of them hope to be able to have fun and be able to speak English fluently in their time here. As well as learning some American slang. Something they want to teach us is more about their food and how to cook which I believe would be an incredible experience. It’s our pleasure to host them here at Analy and I hope they have a wonderful time and enjoy the year.