When you sign up with AFS, they let
you check these little boxes for your preferences of countries. I had no idea that in checking off a little
box next to Latvia,
a place I’d barely heard of, I’d be transforming my life.
When I returned
to the U.S.
after my year abroad, I realized that my relationship with the country just
begun . When people asked why I’d gone to Latvia, I told them it was cultural
enrichment, experiencing a part of the world I might not otherwise experience. But
then I started to notice Latvia
creeping into my school papers, no matter the topic. It was as if it had a hold
on me. I ended up writing my senior
thesis on „Youth Identity in Post-Soviet Latvia”, and consequently
worked privately on translations of Latvian fiction in order to maintain my
language. I didn’t want that year of my life to slip away so easily. I wanted
to become an ambassador for this little country that had given me so much. Now
I am working in the publishing industry in New York City, writing and ending
foreign-language textbooks.
In the end, Latvia became a greater part of me
than I ever thought it might as a result of my year with AFS.
Suzanne McQuade
Exchange student to Latvia in 1993
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Is this not true? In Latvia, I have found myself digging into the inner depths of my brain, personality, and overall self. It happens when you are surrounded by new people, a new culture, and a new lifestyle. I must adjust to the ways of living of this country. Why, because I am an exchange student who chose to change his life in no other way possible. I chose to make myself better. This comes to pass as you see that this world isn’t as large as you originally thought. When you see that people share commonalities with you, and the culture shares commonalities with yours. That’s when you see it.
The experiences I am having here are experiences I may
not ever experience. One being ice skating on a pond near your house. I, being
a Southern Californian (GO CHARGERS!), do not have cold winters like Latvia. The
coldest it gets is +10 or so degrees C. So I don’t have the opportunity to ice
skate on a frozen pond that just a few months ago, saw that it was liquid. And
also mushroom picking. That I will NEVER do in San Diego County.
All of our mushrooms are rumored to be lethally poisonous. Here, my host-family
has taken me numerous times to do this amazingly fun activity. One time, we got
lost while picking mushrooms for about an hour or two. Thank goodness for the
long days in summer here in Latvia.
Or else we would have been lost in the vast, yet beautiful, forests in Latvia. We got
back home, and laughed about the entire experience. When we were lost, some
people started to complain and get scared. We laughed so hard. The experiences
here that I have had are once in a lifetime offers with many wondrous outcomes,
so, why turn the offer down?
Jordan Hawkes, Poway, California, USA
Exchange student to Latvia in 2010
