Photo by
Olivia Alveshere
East Metro AFS students boarded a bus in the St. Philip’s Lutheran Church parking lot in Fridley June 29 to begin the long journey home.
Olivia Alveshere
ABC Newspapers
East Metro AFS foreign exchange students said goodbye to their host families June 29 in the St. Philip’s Lutheran Church parking lot in Fridley.
Thirty students boarded a bus and waved goodbye one last time.
In its 100th year, AFS facilitates study abroad experiences to break down barriers between different countries and cultures.
It did just that for Janeen Rackow and her family who hosted their second foreign exchange student this year, Dilara Ereck, from Turkey.
“You have so much more in common than you have in difference,” Rackow said.
Ereck attended Spring Lake Park High School for the 2014-2015 school year, and as thrilled as she is to return home and see her loved ones, “it’s super hard to leave here,” she said.
There were many tears from both students and their host families.
Anya Larsen, 7, twins Erik and Fritz, 5, and Sonja, 3, had to say goodbye to their big sister, Isariyaporn “Best” Jaisen, of Thailand. They each went in for several hugs before parting. Their parents, Fred and Terja Larsen, brushed away tears before the family walked away from Jaisen towards their vehicle.
Hosting Jaisen “was a lot of fun for our whole family,” Fred Larsen said.
“It was a way to bring the world to our children,” Terja Larsen said.
The family lives in Andover and sent Jaisen to Anoka High School, where she joined the Nordic ski team and had her first encounter with snow.
“It’s very cool,” she said.
Snow was also a first for Catalina Dauelsberg, a Chilean who studied at Forest Lake High School.
She was less of a fan than Jaisen: “It’s cold, and I don’t like it,” she said.
Gerrit Reins, of the Netherlands, studied at Anoka High School with Jaisen.
For him, the biggest adjustment was that “everything is really far apart,” he said. He is used to biking everywhere, but that is not a viable option in the suburbs, he said. “Everything is just bigger.”
Marta Urcelay Cervera, of Austria, studied at White Bear Lake High School this year and found most of her preconceived notions about America to be false, but some held true: Everyone drives everywhere, she said.
Dylan Angelinetta, also a student at White Bear Lake High School, came to the United States to learn English, like many AFS students.
“I wanted to do some crazy experience,” he said.
Cliff jumping in St. Cloud fit the bill for him. He spent a lot of time outside, which is not the norm for him at home in Italy. Here, “I really fell in love with nature.”
Another thing he fell in love with: “what people here call Minnesota nice,” he said.
Students stopped to decompress after an emotional goodbye and boarded another bus for the journey to Chicago where they would part ways to fly around the world.