Exchange Students

Opponents of a San Diego State student exchange program on Cyprus were disappointed Wednesday when the Cal State system's trustees did not suspend the overseas classes. Greek American organizations and others had sought to stop the summer program about international conflict resolution because it was held last summer in the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus, which they said amounted to immoral support of a puppet regime. The classes' organizers and other faculty stressed that the U.S.

Three Egyptian students who were being sought for failing to turn up for an exchange program at Montana State University were taken into custody more than a week after they arrived in the United States, the FBI said in Minneapolis. One student was arrested in Minnesota, and two others surrendered in New Jersey. They were among 11 Egyptian students being sought by law enforcement. The missing students pose no terrorism threat, the FBI said.

A Belarusian teenager who touched off an international dispute when she refused to return home from a summer program is now back in Belarus. Tanya Kazyra, 16, had stayed with the Zapata family in Petaluma every summer for nine years as part of an exchange program for children from regions affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident. But when it came time to fly back after this year's visit, she refused. She told officials that her father was abusive and her life in Belarus was grim.

To help protect thousands of foreign exchange students, many living away from home for the first time, the State Department proposed rules that would screen host families for sex offenders. Many high school students who come to the United States each year are 17 or 18, but some are as young as 15, officials said. The proposals follow several cases where hosts sexually abused foreign students.

For 42 students from Italy, summer English classes at Cal State Los Angeles were academically challenging. But just as important, they said, were off-campus adventures to learn about American culture: riding buses, touring movie studios, partying at nightclubs and eating at In-N-Out Burger. "I'd like to experience life as real Americans do," said Luca Pedrotti, 23, who was enrolled in the Italian Summer Program at the Eastside campus. "This is what I'm looking for, to live true Los Angeles life."

Mary Vattanasiriporn had a glamorous vision of America in mind when she dreamed of the year she would spend here as a high school exchange student. Instead, the 16-year-old says, she found herself sharing a home with another exchange student and six children in a filthy, crowded house with exposed wiring and insulation bursting from the walls.

With obvious enthusiasm, six students in a special English class at Sutter Middle School took part in a ritual most Americans learn almost from the cradle--doing the Hokey Pokey. They put their right arms in, their right arms out, and sang, haltingly and punctuated with giggles, as they learned the song and went through the motions. For these 11-year-olds visiting the school from St. Petersburg, Russia, the ditty was only one of many things they've learned about school and life, American-style.

Hiroyuki Tazaki doesn't have full command of the English language, but he didn't need an interpreter to translate his coach's body language after getting thrown out stealing in his first American high school baseball game. "[Tazaki] missed a sign and he took off, trying to steal a base with our No. 4 batter up," Montclair Prep Coach Marc Saraceno said. "He ran us right out of the inning. He obviously knew I was not too happy. Let's just say I was in a little state of unhappiness."

Thirteen students from the former Soviet Union will visit McKinna and Brekke elementary schools Monday. The visit will be the first stop in the United States for the students who come from Armenia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Russia and Georgia. The visit is sponsored by Cultural Homestay International, a nonprofit student exchange program. The exchange students will spend one month in the Los Angeles area before departing Aug.

In Egypt, whatever the doctor says, the patient does. That's not always the case here, eight Egyptian physicians have found out as they train with UC Irvine doctors in family medicine. After seeing a patient at UCI's Family Health Center challenge a doctor's advice, one visiting physician asked whether the patient was permitted to say no. "My reply was, 'It's a free country,' " Dr. Thomas Bent, UCI's director of residency in family medicine, said, laughing.