Staff Writer
When Lydia Kieffer of Caribou; Esperanza Aparicio of Albatera, Spain; Finn Bondeson of New Sweden and Henrik Karlsson from Helsingborg, Sweden return to school this fall, they may not know where to begin when her classmates ask the inevitable question, “how was your summer?”
Finn Bondeson of New Sweden; Esperanza Aparicio of Alberta, Spain; Lydia Kieffer of Caribou and Henrik Karlsson of Helsingborg, Sweden each took part in a ten-week Rotary Youth Exchange Program this summer, spending five weeks in their hometown with an out-of-country guest and five week as a guest in another country.
Each pair of youths — Kieffer and Aparicio, Bondeson and Helsingborg — spent roughly three and a half months together this summer, five weeks on their native soil and five weeks abroad through the Caribou Rotary Youth Exchange Program, which ended for Karlsson and Helsinborg on Aug. 11 and Aug. 18 for Kieffer and Aparicio.
One would imagine that five weeks on ocean-spanning foreign soil would call for a bit of homesickness, but not for Kieffer or Aparicio. They’d both traveled significant distances before — the Netherlands and Italy respectively — but the Spanish-American trip had unique experiences for both young ladies.
For starters, the teens were essentially strangers when Aparicio and her family picked up Kieffer from the airport and if Spain and America aren’t different enough to begin with, Kieffer arrived in Spain during July, when Aparacio’s home town of Albatera hosts a month-long festival. Needless to say, Kieffer wasn’t in too much of a rush to come back to the States.
On any given evening, Kieffer and Aparicio would hang out at a café, watch an in-park movie or dance at a couple of different places (but not discos) frequently until 3 a.m., but still woke up bright and early often to spend time with Aparicio’s close family.
“Her town has roughly the same population as Caribou, but it’s smaller,” Kieffer said. “Her family all live really close to each other and we saw them a lot.”
The food (particularly the piaya), the music, the atmosphere and excitement of Albatera in July were truly a cultural experience for Kieffer that no book could ever teach her, but her favorite part of her five weeks in Spain took place in Madrid, where Kieffer, Aparicio and her family were staying when Spain won the World Cup.
“It was crazy,” Kieffer said as she attempted to describe Madrid vibrant with World Cup fever. “Everywhere you went, the game was on TV and everyone — everyone — was wearing yellow and red,” she said.
Being in Spain’s capital when the country wins the World Cup, is there any better way to learn about culture?
While being in Madrid during the World Cup victory was an experience for Aparicio herself, she was anxious to visit America even though Kieffer could have easily spent five more weeks on Spanish soil.
“I like it here,” Aparicio said while in Caribou, “everything is different.”
But American culture wasn’t the only difference for Aparicio, who wasn’t used to seeing big trees and grass. Instead of grass, yards in Albatera are made of artificial turf. The style of buildings in Aroostook County were also a change for Aparicio, who received her education in a building that’s more than 500 years old.
“All the buildings over there are made of stone,” Kieffer described, which explains why even the most soundly build Aroostook structures looked a bit flimsy to Aparicio. While Aparicio doesn’t have a favorite American dish, she did say that the desserts here are pretty good.
She does have a favorite American activity, however. Kieffer and her family took Aparicio tubing on the Little Madawaska Lake and Aparicio instantly took to the sport.
“She’s really good at it, she can hold on for a really long time,” Kieffer said.
Topography, cartography and ecology aside, there are a million little things that make Spain Spain and America America and after their summer abroad, both ladies experienced many of those little things — in Spain, women wear longer shorts and in America, people drive places more. The farms of Albatera grow nuts, tomatoes and olives while Aroostook County farms, well, we all know what Aroostook County grows.
The five weeks flew by for both teens, but Kieffer was able to find at least one good thing about being back home; in Spain, she and Aparicio had gone to see the new “Twilight “movie “Eclipse,” but it was in Spanish and there weren’t English subtitles so she’s looking forward better understanding the movie in its English version.
The two ladies had an unforgettable summer and plan on keeping in touch. Aparicio will be going to college this fall to study nursing — which is the answer to a question she was asked dozens and dozens of times during her visit to the States.
While everyone in America wanted to know what Aparicio was going to be studying in college, the most common question Kieffer was asked in Spain was “do you have a boyfriend?” which, judging by their giggles, both girls found to be pretty funny.
Neither of the girls are fluent in their respective foreign languages but, as people do, they found ways to get around the language barriers. Since their trip, both teens were pleased to note that their comprehension of their foreign languages increased a great deal and they particularly didn’t seem to have much difficulty taking to each other.
“When I first got over there I was translating all the Spanish into English in order to understand it, but toward the end I was understanding the Spanish on its own,” Kieffer said.
