Meet Paravisa Pathumarak, our new foreign exchange student from Thailand! Pavarisa is a kind and humble seventeen year old who came to America looking to see new cultures and have more experiences outside of her home country. At Blackfoot High School, she enjoys her math classes, specifically the graphing aspect of it, which shows her dedication to her education. Tourist spots in Thailand that Pavarisa recommended for us to visit included going to Vancouver Beach. She describes the area as not only having good weather, but the scenery from the pillar-like mountains is breathtaking. In Vancouver, the city, she described the food as another one of her favorite things.

A pet peeve for Paravisa is when people continuously ask, “how do you pronounce your name?” Because Paravisa has been asked this so many times, she asks that people refer to her as Pling. Many foreign exchange students also face this same problem, so they’ll have their native name and then a more- easier to pronounce- foreign exchange name.

Back in her home country, Pathumarak likes to play handball and the clarinet. She started at a young age, and has carried a passion with her to always be improving at both. This young exchange student also expresses a lot of her interests in art and music; in fact she would be happy to go into a career involving one of the two. One of the things that Pling doesn’t understand about American culture- or at least finds strange- is that when someone sneezes, another person is always quick to respond with a “bless you.” One of the stereotypes about Americans Paravisa was expecting is that we’re all about our freedom, which is true isn’t it?

Back in Thailand, Pling’s favorite thing about her country is the unique tastes and food. In fact, her favorite food of all time is noodles, a classic dish and hard to go wrong. Another difference that Pling pointed out is that the school system in America is also very different from back in Thailand; their students are required at least nine years of education, but the country also provides an additional three years of lower secondary school. Each classroom is made up of at most 50 children, and is very similar to how United States elementary schools work.

Pling’s advice to other foreign exchange students is to try doing new things and participate in school activities. If you see her in the hallways, say hi to Blackfoot High School’s awesome Paravisa!