Swiss Student Is Studying At NHS This Year
Swiss Student Is Studying At NHS This Year
By Laurie Borst
Newtown High School once again plays host to a foreign exchange student. This year, Timo Rey, an 18-year-old from Wettingen, Switzerland, will experience life in the United States.
Timo arrived at JFK Airport on August 9. He stayed at a New York college overnight for orientation, and was picked up the next day by Jennifer Sposta, his host mom for the upcoming year. Ms Sposta has a 13-year-old son.
Back in Switzerland, Timo lives with his mother and 15-year-old brother, Luca. The town of Wettingen, with a population around 20,000, is 20 minutes outside of Zurich. He described his hometown as laid out with houses close together and large tracts of forest surrounding them.
The biggest challenge Timo has found, echoing last yearâs AFS students, has been adjusting to a loss of freedom. In Switzerland, and many other European cities, public transportation is readily available with trains and buses connecting towns and cities. Here, a car is needed to get anywhere.
But Timo wanted a change, to take a year off from his routine before going to university where he hopes to study drawing. He always wanted to come to the States, following in his fatherâs footsteps, who was an exchange student in America when he was in high school.
Timo had hoped to be selected to come to the states or New Zealand or the United Kingdom so he could practice his English.
At Newtown High School, he is taking American government, drawing, graphic design, UConn French, modernism and mythology, and pre-calculus. Besides all those subjects, Timo finds time to play split end on the high school football team.
During high school in Wettingen, Timo was on the schoolâs rowing team. He also enjoys skiing and snowboarding and would like to join the ski club at NHS.
Since his arrival, Timo has attended a fishing camp, visited Rhode Island beaches for a weekend, and has enjoyed many barbecues. A trip to Florida during spring break is planned. He would like to visit New York City and Boston, also.