A year in America

COLUMBIA BASIN — One of the questions classmates asked Olesya Koval, Ania Gvozdareva and Vicky Nagahiro was whether they used spoons back home.

Back home means something different for each 16-year-old.

For Koval, it's Moscow, Russia.

Gvozdareva hails from St. Petersburg, Russia.

Nagahiro is from Dusseldorf, Germany.

And for the record, yes, they do use spoons.

"I kind of got the impression Americans are in their own small world — they don't know about other countries," Nagahiro said. "We learn about everything, so we don't even expect American people to be uncivilized or something. We learn not only American history, but also from all other countries, German history, world history. They have it too, here, but they don't know."

To be fair, when each girl first began efforts to come stay in America, they say they only had movies like "Mean Girls" to give them an idea of what to expect.

And many of their fellow classmates proved helpful, friendly and curious about their countries' histories or how school compares back home.

Through various exchange programs, Koval, Gvozdareva and Nagahiro are spending the school year in Grant County. Koval attends Soap Lake High School, Gvozdareva and Nagahiro attend Ephrata High School.

Koval and Nagahiro share the same program, while Nagahiro and Govzdareva share the same host family, who arranged for the girls to spend time with Koval.

They don't have a lot of time to spend together because of their busy schedules, with extracurricular activities including cheerleading, music lessons, softball and tennis.

"Softball is kind of American," Nagahiro said. "We don't have it in Germany."

The rules can sometimes be confusing to the girls.

"The coaches keep telling me after I did something, 'Oh, we forgot to tell you,'" Nagahiro said with a laugh.

None of the girls had heard of the area before they arrived, being given only the option to choose to spend a year in America.

There's not a lot of information about the American lifestyle available, Gvozdareva said.

"We used to watch all these movies, so I had this kind of opinion about America like everyone is partying all the time, high school students are always somewhere out of school and it's lots of fun, lots of buddies," she said. "A country of wealth and freedom, but actually when I came over it wasn't so. But I cannot say it was disappointing, it just was kind of different from what I expected."

Koval said she took everything from the movies because the last time she was in the United States was when she was 6. She was expecting something a little different from the movies, though, as the programs usually don't send students to larger cities.

"You kind of understand America is not only New York and big cities," she said. "It has small towns too."

Large cities in Russia are similar to large cities in America, whereas American smaller towns and communities share the same characteristics as Russian smaller towns and communities, she added.

But American schools have more opportunity for sports and clubs, whereas the emphasis is on studies back home, with no competition between schools.

"With sports, not only do you get healthier, but you have a team spirit," Koval said. "You're all together, you can communicate with other people."

Koval said it helped to join cheerleading so she could get to know her classmates.

The students say they are going to take something away from their experiences in the Columbia Basin as they pursue their futures.

Koval plans to finish school, and hopes for an opportunity to study in America, although it would be expensive. She hopes to become a doctor, but learning in the U.S. would allow her the opportunity to balance the career path with her passion for art, she said.

Nagahiro doesn't have any idea of what she wants to do, although she might consider college in California, where she has relatives. There's a lot of competition in Germany for scholarships, she noted.

She learned how valuable her home is, and her family. Even though there don't appear to be many differences between Germany and America, Nagahiro said she's seen them, in the way people think differently about things, although it's difficult for her to explain to someone who's never experienced it.

"They kind of say when you first come to America, the first couple weeks you're going to have a culture shock," Nagahiro said. "And when you come back home, it's total different, like you have a culture shock when you come back home, because you lived like an American for 10 months."

Gvozdareva might pursue international communications, working with other countries and helping other people through the Red Cross.

"I didn't expect it, but since I've been here I've totally changed my opinion, mostly about my own country," she said.

Gvozdareva said she adjusted to the American lifestyle, complete with personal freedoms and personal opinions.

"I have no idea how I'm going to live back in Russia, because I'm going to be so different from all of the other people," she said with a laugh.