Ecuadorian exchange student comes to CVHS

Meet Raul “Nano” Galarza, a senior at CVHS. He’s different from other seniors though: Galarza is one of those fortunate enough to take part of a foreign exchange student program.

Galarza’s home in Ecuador was only 15 minutes away from the ocean. He says that California has many more people than his home country. His decision to journey over to California was inspired by his counselor who currently lives in the state. Though it wasn’t very easy to leave his family in Ecuador, he seems to be pleased with his stay here in Castro Valley. Two separate families are now housing him for a few months each.

In his free time, Galarza enjoys playing soccer outside of school. He has soccer practice three days a week and has built friendships with those who also attend CVHS. Besides soccer, he has been picking up on other American sports such as baseball and football. Galarza has also been able to learn to surf, one of the many highlights of California.

Besides the differences between his home country and our state, Galarza spotted a few other dissimilarities between his school in Ecuador and our high school. We as students have to move around classrooms each day with different peers and classrooms each day. However, in Galarza’s old school, the teachers switched rooms while the students were able to stay with the same classmates and seats.

“It’s another culture here,” said Galarza. “Now I’m learning English and I’m getting better.”

It is always exciting to meet others from other cultures.