Exchange student enjoys stay in U.S.

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• Get the scoop on HHS prom dresses - April 16th, 2010

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April 16, 2010 • Christa Hill and Samantha Riley  
Filed under Features

Have you ever wondered what it would be like as a new student? Well, can you even imagine going to a different country and going to school?

Rafael Pellicci, a junior attending HHS this year, is from Botucatu, Brazil. His childhood in Brazil consisted of playing fun games like gringos (hide-and-seek) on the farm and also, getting to play soccer with his two twin brothers who are 12.

He described his hometown as being “about the size of Topeka.”

He said while he and his family do live in the city, his parents work on a farm where his father’s parents live. They raise 500,000 chickens, 4,000 pigs and roughly 200,000 coffee trees to sell to Europe. Most of the land they have is flat plain, similar to Kansas.

Pellicci is getting used to small town life in the U.S.  In Holton, he spends his time coaching soccer and hanging out with his “house brother,” Bryce Carpenter.

In Brazil Pellicci plays soccer, handball, and volleyball. His favorite color is red because his soccer team’s jersey colors are red, white, and black.

One of his favorite memories involving a sports team he played on occurred on the way to a handball game three hours away from his home town when the bus broke down twice. The team finally got there and ended up winning the game because the other team didn’t have enough players. because a big majority of them had gotten red cards. On the way home the bus broke down again and another bus had to come get the team. He characterized it as a very “crazy” day.

Right now he is busy coaching future soccer players in Holton grades 2 and 3. He is really enjoying it. Their first game is around the middle of April at the soccer fields just south of the square. They will probably be on the east side fields.       While here at Holton, Pellicci has been a part of the football program. He said it was very different, than in Brazil. However, he did enjoy it.

Conversing with others is not a problem for Pellicci. He knows how to speak three different languages: Portuguese, English, Spanish and when he returns to Brazil after this school year, he will be learning Italian.

Excited to participate in his first American prom at the end of this month, Pellicci, said, “My favorite kind of music in America is rock and I like the Beatles. In Brazil I listen to a popular rock group called MBB.” Pellicci said he has made many new friends in Holton as well as memories he won’t soon forget.

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