By Alaina Risse-

Mount Vernon High School has been fortunate and honored to have foreign exchange students from around the world. This year we have five girls from Tanzania, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belgium, and Thailand. I have gotten to know one of them pretty well, and her name is Poon.

Punyisa (Poon) Jangtrakul is sixteen years old. She is from Mukdahan, Thailand. Poon has seven people in her family: Mom, Dad, two brothers, a cousin, a grandma and a grandpa. She is the middle child. She even has a pet cat named Baba.

While attending school here as a senior, she will be staying with the Hampton family for ten whole months. Poon has been participating in school activities such as volleyball and tennis. She has also dressed up during the homecoming week.

Mount Vernon is not that different from her school back home. Her school is also coeducational, has school dances, and also a dress code. In Mount Vernon High School we can wear what we want if it’s appropriate. In her school, the students have to wear a uniform: black shoes, white socks, long skirt.

There are also differences between the two schools. The students at Poon’s school have twenty-two subjects in one semester, compared to Mount Vernon’s seven subjects. Some of them are the same, such as: English, math, physics, biology, PE, art, and sports. English is taught as a foreign language like Spanish and German, here. They also learn Chinese and programming. Poon said, “My school starts at eight o’clock and then ends at five twenty in the afternoon.”

Iowa’s climate is much colder in the winter than Thailand’s. The climate’s average temperature is 86F. Their clothing style is just like ours here, comfortable.

Poon had the pleasure of trying new foods. She said, “My favorite American dish is pizza because it’s yummy.” Her favorite dish from home is Som Tam. Poon said, “Som Tam is like a salad with chili, and it’s spicy. It’s my favorite because it’s really hot.”

Poon has to adjust to a lot of things while she is here. She said, “The biggest difference is the weather and food.” While she is here she also likes what we have that back home doesn’t. She said, “I like not having to wear a uniform, the school activities and events.”

Aside from the difference of the weather, foods, and clothes style, there are animals that are not common to Thailand, like squirrels. Poon said, “I don’t see a lot of squirrels in Thailand. They have a lot more geckos.”