Thursday, September 29, 2011

Quest Hangs with Students and Their Families!

Getting to know our exchange students is what Quest is all about! We want to make sure that we engage with all of our students and ensure they are having a great experience studying in the U.S. This week, we checked in with student Su Hwan Kim and his dad Sung Lee. What a great time!

Sung Li with Quest team members Shayna, Katie and Eric.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Tips for Making Friends in the U.S.

Americans are extremely friendly people. They are outgoing, polite, will say hello when they meet someone new, and will always ask you how you are doing... However, it is sometimes confusing for foreigners to understand that people in the U.S. seem so friendly up front when you are not actually close with them. Often, foreigners may think that Americans can be superficial in their interactions, but this is not the case at all! Initial friendliness or inquiry about your day is just the American way of being polite or saying hello, even if it does not always indicate a deeper connection. In the U.S., people often use the phrase "being acquaintances" to describe this sort of interaction with people you know but not very well. An acquaintance is someone you have literally just "become acquainted with". You probably see them in your daily day and they will always greet you, but they have not yet become a genuine friend of yours. In the school setting, acquaintances often form because of the fact that throughout a day, students in American schools will be in many different classes with entirely different groups of people all day long, so it is important to be friendly with all the people around you, but it is nearly impossible to become friends with everyone. In America, if you would like to make a new friend and really get to know someone, you just have to be assertive about it. Putting in the effort to build a close relationship with them is something you will never regret!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

American Customs

The U.S. is a incredible place made up of people from all over the world and customs different from any other country. As a foreign exchange student, it may at times to be difficult to know how to do something "The American Way". So, here are a few tips to help you fit the part of being a student in America!


Greeting: Americans are less intimate in greeting each other than people from other countries. While many Europeans, for example, greet people they know or even people they have just met with a kiss on each cheek, Americans generally greet each other with just a simple handshake to say hello. Females, close friends, and family members usually hug upon meeting. Males, even that know each other very well, might still just shake hands - or they often have a special combination of a handshake and a shoulder pat hug for just their close male friends.

Being on time: Americans are very timely! It is considered quite rude to be late to meet a friend, go to an appointment, or be in class. The one exception is at a party, where people may start to arrive up to an hour after the time the party started - a concept known as being "fashionably late".

Alcohol and cigarrettes: In the United States, people must be 18 to buy cigarettes, and 21 to buy alcohol. This means that people younger than this would never be seen socializing at a bar or a club like they might be in other parts of the world. To entertain themselves, young people often go to drink coffee together, grab a smoothie, hit up the mall, or go to the movies.

Sports: Lots of young students in the U.S. are on a sports team at their school. For American students, this is a great way to make close friends and have a group of fun people to hang out with. Sports events are very important for schools, too. Students and teachers gather to watch their school's teams play, making an event to bring everyone together.

Holidays: Americans LOVE holidays - they celebrate not just their own, but also holidays of other countries! In the United States, people do everything from celebrating St. Patricks Day (a typical Irish holiday) by dressing all in green and shamrocks, to Cinco de Mayo (Mexican independence day) by eating Mexican food and wearing sombreros.

The most important thing to know, is that Americans are very open people! So, even if you don't learn all of the customs in the U.S., you will be well received by all of the new people around you.

Quest Student Joshken is Making Headlines!

Quest students are studying hard all over the United States this school year! Each one of them brings their unique personalities and international cultures to other students, host families, and communities throughout the country. International students add diversity to a plethora of schools that, because of them, are learning about parts of the world they have never before experienced! Joshken is one of our amazing students from Thailand - he is attending 7th grade at Community Christian School. Quest is so excited for Joshken to be the first of hopefully many international students at Community Christian School! The principal was kind enough to share with us this great newspaper bit about how well Joshken is doing at his new school - check out that grin!


Wednesday, September 7, 2011

BEGONIAS PART 5: An Incredible Festival

The Capitola Begonia Festival held this weekend was quite the event! 7 teams competed for the prize of best begonia-covered float, but the BOB team that was supporting Quest impressed everyone with their Ballet at the Beach float, taking in the first prize! The win will allow Quest to award a deserving student with a scholarship to study in the US, so we are all very proud and excited about the float-building victory!

A beautiful morning with fields full of begonias.
All colors of the rainbow represented!
Quest President Lisa Laviolette hard at work!
Quest was very grateful for all of the volunteers.
Can you find Viggo?
Lisa shooting us a smile.
Collin risking a swim to put on a few last begonias.
Almost ready!
Quest marketing intern Ty showing his support.
All of our hardworking ballerinas.
The whole team!
A little dance.
Smiling for a proud BOB victory!
The ballerina muse.
We are all so happy for the victory that will allow a foreign student to come to the US!

BEGONIAS PART 4: Checking out the competition!

The BOB team was an impressive contender at the Capitola Begonia Festival this weekend! We must admit, however, that the competition was definitely bringing their A-game as well. Here are the other floats and teams we were up against:

Rock Around the Clock
Jungle Boogie
Hoedown on the River
Spirit of Dance
My Thai on the Beach
Capitola Locomotion

Friday, September 2, 2011

BEGONIAS PART 3: Under Construction...

Building a float is serious business! The BOB team has been busy crafting the perfect begonia-covered float all week. The float must be built and covered in faux flowers, all to be attached and removed in order to replace them with begonias on the day of competition! Here is a little recap of the team's progress:

 STEP 1: SET IT UP!
Crafting table to cut all of the wooden pieces for the inside of the float.
Definitely mean business with this device used to cut wood supports.
Chicken wire for around the feet, color-coded for flowers. 


STEP 2: PIECE EVERYTHING TOGETHER...
Every piece cut and measured to perfection.

Volunteers of all ages getting involved in this project for this good cause!
Lisa Laviolette showing her support!
It's all coming together...


STEP 3: PREPARE FOR THE FLOWERS!
A "B" for Begonia of course.
Lisa hard at work!
Flowers for the sides of the float.
The foot is up!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

BEGONIAS PART 2: Begonia Float Building Begins!

The Capitola Begonia Festival is fast approaching, and this week the Hammer Family team spent many laborious hours planning and executing the construction of an extremely impressive begonia-covered float. The team has cleverly named themselves Begonias on the Beach (BOB), and is titling the float "Ballet at the Beach".

Ballet at the Beach will be an image of two ballerina feet dancing. The float will be manned with three handsome guys clad in tutus and army boots, the perfect way to complete the dainty ballerina image! The ballerina feet were crafted out of a replica of Quest president Lisa Laviolette's actual feet! The BOB team made a mold out of Lisa's feet and then used extensive measurements, calculations, and computer programming to create an exact 6-foot copy for the float.

The initial design for the Ballet on the Beach.

Casting the foot.

Lisa's foot!

First steps to the creation of the 6-foot tall ballerina version of Lisa's foot.

BEGONIAS PART 1: Quest Gets Involved with Capitola Begonia Festival!

Capitola, California is the original birthplace of the Pacific Begonia. This beautiful flower was the catalyst for the development of the historic Capitola Begonia Festival. The festival is a celebration of the begonia flower that has taken place every summer since the 1950's - it is a time for festivities, delicious foods, dance, music, and most importantly, float building!

Every year, ambitious float building teams gather to craft an amazing array of begonia-inspired floats for competition. The floats are judged based on 5 categories: theme development, originality of design, floral coverage, effective use of flowers, and showmanship. The winning float will be awarded a cash prize that may be donated to a charitable foundation or non-profit.

This year, Quest is very excited and appreciative to be the nominated as the non-profit recipient of any prize awarded to the float designed by the Hammer Family float-building team! If the Hammer Family float wins, Quest will create a scholarship to enable an international student to come to the United States to study. We are all very excited for this opportunity, and we're crossing our fingers for float prize domination!

CHECK IT OUT! 
http://www.begoniafestival.com/index.html