BETHEL – Chodchuang Nanthasen and Sthefania Soave have many things in common: they want to improve their English, they both play soccer, and they are students at Telstar High School for a year.

Nanthasen, a Thailand native, and Soave, from Brazil, are foreign exchange students for 2009-10. This is the first trip for both of them to the United States.

“I want to make new friends and choose a career path,” Nanthasen said. He was pleased to learn that his preconceived ideas about United States teenagers were not true. He had thought they would be mean, he said, based on several American movies he had seen filled with gang violence. But they weren’t.

“My host family and the students are welcoming,” he said.

Soave, a 17-year-old who wants to become a physical therapist, is looking forward to the arrival of snow, something neither she nor Nanthasen have ever seen.

As a resident of Campinas, a city of more than a million people, the temperature rarely drops below 50 degrees. Same for Nanthasen. Both know they must stock up on warm winter coats, mittens, hats and warm socks.

As a Buddhist, Nanthasen does not eat meat at home, but here, he has. The food is different than the rice and vegetables he’s used to. Same with Soave.

“Everyday there’s pizza, burgers and sandwiches,” she said.

At home there’s far more beans, rice, and for meat, there’s beef.

Both have gained weight with the American diet since they arrived in August.

Classes at Telstar are different from those back home.

Both said more work is required. And Nanthasen said far more studying is demanded, resulting in no time to take part in activities. Soave said the same students attend the same classes in her home school, and students in Brazil cannot choose the course work they want.

When she returns to Brazil next year, a successful test will determine which college she will attend.

Both young people said they are enjoying their new experience. When they applied to become foreign exchange students, they had no idea where in the United States they would be sent. Although both come from larger metropolitan areas, they like the natural surroundings of their temporary home.

Principal Dan Hart said students from other countries are very brave to leave their homes for an unknown city or town in a foreign country.

“Students from this area aren’t familiar with people from other countries. School is better with students from other countries. It’s a way to enrich our school,” he said.

While the main focus for both young people is their new homes – Bethel for Nanthasen and Greenwood for Soave – technology has helped Nanthasen find other Thai foreign exchange students attending high school for a year in other parts of the United States.

And during a soccer match, Soave met two Brazilian foreign exchange students who are attending Mountain Valley High School in Rumford. Keeping in touch helps out during the times when both feel a little homesick, they said.

Hart said few Telstar students head overseas for a foreign exchange experience. This year, though, one young man is attending school in Norway. He’ll be back in January.

Nanthasen and Soave are two of 16 foreign students attending not only Telstar, but also Mountain Valley, Dirigo and Buckfield high schools this school year.

[email protected]

Sthefania Soave of Brazil and Chodchuang Nanthasen of Thailand are spending their junior year at Telstar Regional High School in Bethel as part of a student foreign exchange program. Both share a love for soccer and are visiting the United States for the first time.