So when Wilsonville High French teacher Erin O’Malley suggested Pederson take part in an exchange program run by Andeo, the latter jumped at the opportunity, with her parents’ support.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Pederson said. “My friend hosted a French student, and that sort of encouraged me.”

Meanwhile, over 6,000 miles away in the southeastern French city of Annecy, Thaller and a large contingent of students enrolled in an intensive English-language program prepared to board flights bound for a country previously seen only at the cinema or on television.

Many, like Thaller, bypassed the opportunity to visit the United Kingdom in order to travel across the Atlantic.

“We chose this class in order to go to America,” Thaller said during a recent interview at Wilsonville High School, where she spent three weeks accompanying Pederson from home to school, from class to class and beyond.

“I wanted to visit America because it’s very far from France,” she added. “I could have gone to England, that’s easier.”

Andeo is a Portland-based company dedicated to cross-cultural understanding and friendship. To carry this out, it engages an international network of teachers, families, students and homestay specialists to help place high school students with host families in foreign countries.

Students find themselves fully immersed in a different culture, often in a foreign language. In fact, many students involved with Andeo take part specifically to improve their language skills.

“It was more to speak English,” Thaller said, describing one of her primary motives for embarking on the trip. She said her English language teacher at her Annecy high school is from Quebec and encouraged her to visit North America.

Helpful in the classroom

Conversely, Wilsonville French teacher Erin O’Malley said that having native French speakers like Thaller spend time with her students is always appreciated in a classroom setting.

“I’ve tried to incorporate her as much as I can in class in discussions,” O’Malley said. “Sometimes it’s hard not to get into that novelty thing of her being the only French student. But she’s really great, and she’s really outgoing.”

Unlike some programs, Andeo also allows students to more or less fend for themselves during their stay. Their lives become intertwined with that of the host family. And that’s exactly the intent.

“We didn’t want to do anything too extravagant,” Pederson said. “If we planned big events for every night, it wouldn’t be realistic. So, the other night came the lacrosse, and we’ll go to the clubs on Friday in Portland.”

The Pedersons also took Alex and Louise to Seaside and Cannon Beach for a glimpse of beach life, while the girls spent time in downtown Portland’s shopping district and attended the Wilsonville prom at The Treasury on April 19. Thaller also spent three days exploring Seattle with the roughly 70 other French students visiting Oregon via Andeo.

In the meantime, much of the rest of the two girls’ time was spent at school, where Thaller said she found the environment, classes and social aspects all quite different.

“It’s much stricter,” she said with a laugh, marveling at the sight of casually-dressed American students winding their way through the school halls on errands during class.

There is also no food allowed in French high school classrooms, and the academic courseload is somewhat more difficult overall, she said.

“The lessons are harder, and we have to work from earlier in the day to later in the day,” she said.

Nonetheless, the American educational model appealed to Thaller, who said she wouldn’t mind having in France the wide range of clubs, athletic and other activities offered to Wilsonville students.

“Even if it’s strict, I like my school in France,” she said. “But I would like less homework and to finish earlier in the day.”

With France leading world opposition to America’s invasion and occupation of Iraq, politics also colored Thaller’s visit.

She admitted she wasn’t quite sure beforehand how she would be treated in America, given that background. But after receiving a warm welcome from virtually everyone she met, any apprehension quickly melted away.

“It’s great,” she said. “It’s very different from France here. In some ways it’s better, and in some ways it’s worse. But I’m not at all disappointed with the people. The people I’ve met, the things I’ve done, I’m not disappointed.”