Exchange students enjoying their year at Housatonic

FALLS VILLAGE — This year’s American Field Service (AFS) exchange students at Housatonic Valley Regional High School are Zheny Klianchemko, Pariwat Limtrakul and Javier Castellanos.

All three young men identified pre-calculus as their favorite subject, but they split on the subject of fast food.

Javier thinks State Line in North Canaan provides the best pizza but likes most fast food. Pariwat is enthusiastic about hamburgers in general, but hedged his bet by saying the burgers made by his hosts, Kent and Gale Allyn of Falls Village, are tops.

And Zheny won’t eat American fast food, period.

Zheny, from Stavropol in southwestern Russia, is 16 and a senior at Housatonic. “I have to work harder at school� at home, he said. He is staying with Philip and Mary O’Reilly in Sharon.

Pariwat, 16 and a junior, said he has to work harder at Housatonic, but appreciates what he calls “the easy life� and is impressed by the Northwest Corner landscape, particularly the mountains. The scenery is very different from what he sees in his native Mukdahan, in the northeast of Thailand along the border with Laos.

And Javier, from Cucaita, a small town in central Colombia, says the work load is “not too different� from home. The 16-year-old senior said he is enjoying a “better lifestyle� with the family of Tim and Andrea Downs in Falls Village.

The AFS was originally a civilian organization of ambulance drivers and medics during World War I.

Between the world wars, AFS began offering fellowships to French universities for American students, and in the post-World War II era created international scholarships for high-school-age students, beginning with the defeated countries of Germany and Japan.

According to the AFS Web site, some 350,000 students and host families from more than 50 countries have participated in the program.