Soon To Be Bon Ami

Watchung Hills Regional High School teacher Brad Commerford said seeing a group of foreign exchange students arriving never fails to bring a smile.

Commerford, the school's World Languages Department supervisor, greets the groups of students and helps make sure they find their host families. Wednesday, he welcomed 17 students from the LaVoisier School, located near the Sarbonne in Paris.

The school specializes in sciences and humanities, and the visiting students are enrolled in photography and film studies, according to chaperone Marie Cordié-Levy, who has been coordinating similar student exchanges with Watchung Hills for nearly 27 years.

During the students' 11-day visit, they will spend time with their local host families, and do a bit of sight-seeing, which they must document and report on with photo-essays, short-films and other projects. The group will visit Ellis Island, New York's Guggenheim, Whitney and MOMA museums, and if one of the students gets her way, the "Upper East Side."

After the 7-hour flight, the students were treated to a look at the school's Performing Arts Center, standing on the vast stage filled with props from last week's production of "Cinderella." They took in the view from the mezzanine, and listened closely as Commerford described some of the activities and classes the school offered (several gasped when he mentioned cooking and jewelry classes).

From there, the students waited near the front doors for their host families and students. Some, such as Nabie Souai, joined in the daily activities of his host, Travis Chichescer, tagging along for Chichescer's baseball practice.

Others stood and watched as the thousands of WHRHS students flooded the hallways at the end of classes, and prepared to leave on the school buses.

Which Commerford noted, is one of the visiting students' biggest thrills.

"They are so excited to get on a school bus. They couldn't believe they were picked up at the airport by a school bus," he said. But the best sight for many of the visiting students are ... fire hydrants.

The urban school the students attend does not have sports facilities or many of the other accoutrements a typical American public school does (such as kitchens for cooking classes), so the French students were looking forward to shadowing their host students to the various classrooms.

And while the students have certainly seen images of many New York landmarks, New Jersey offers something the students are often surprised to see: wildlife.

"They love the deer," Commerford said. "They've never seen deer, or raccoons ... maybe even squirrels, so they're often amazed to see them even in someone's back yard, eating the flowers."

Paul Hampton, of Warren, came to the school to meet Pauline Vezant, who his family will host during the visit, after teasing her about the students bringing snwo with them, the two discussed the schedules for the next week and other activities Pauline may be able to enjoy.

"We got to do this years before, when we were in college, so we know how great these programs are," he said. He said his family has hosted the children of friends from overseas before, but this was the first time for them to host a visiting student.

If they enjoy the experience, they'll certainly have more opportunities: the school hosts delegations from Italy and Spain before the end of the school year. Students from Austria and Italy visited earlier, and next year, Watchung Hills students will have the opportunity to experience traveling, when they will visit the schools in Europe.