Imagine you are a 15-year-old girl traveling 7600+ miles from Taipei, Taiwan, to be a foreign exchange student for a school year at Eureka Springs High School. Or a 15-year-old girl traveling 8800+ miles from Bangkok, Thailand, for the same purpose. Metro Taipei population 7+ million and metro Bangkok, 14 million.
For Salisa Thongyam (aka Jean) and Yun-Chien Huang (aka Bonnie), the experience created what will likely be lifelong friendships.
Jean and Bonnie came here through the International Student Exchange. The girls went by American names so they could more easily assimilate into our culture. Jean already goes by the same name, spelled Yean in Thai. Bonnie’s mother chose her American name.
When illness befell a member of their original host family, local massage therapist, actor and dancer Heather Huber, welcomed Jean and Bonnie into her home. There were others who were willing to take one of the girls but not both. At Heather’s, the girls’ independence was encouraged, and they thrived and bonded.
The exchange student program is a random selection, with no choice of locale. After living in hometowns where public transportation would take them anywhere, living here with nothing comparable was a surprise for both girls, one they primarily overcame by walking and by Heather’s frequent excursions to places she thought they should see. You could see the girls walking all over town, taking selfies, and sharing them with friends and family on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Line and Twitter.
Through the program, they traveled to LA for a memorable reunion with friends who also were in the exchange program. Friends from school took Jean and Bonnie to Branson, Silver Dollar City, and the I-49 corridor towns of Northwest Arkansas. With Heather, the girls went to Kansas City, Bentonville/Crystal Bridges, Rogers, Fayetteville, and Ft. Smith/Oklahoma. One of their most fun trips was to the Promised Land Zoo in Eagle Rock, Mo. “Bonnie made a list of things she wanted to see and that was on it,” Heather said. “Emus come right up to the car window. Peacocks strut up close and personal. Bonnie did not stop taking pictures.”
Making new friends was the most difficult part for Jean and Bonnie, but as they became involved in sports, friendships developed. Neither had played soccer before and they both beam when they talk about playing. Bonnie also excelled on the softball team. “At first, I would try to talk and was ignored,” Jean said. “It made me feel bad. After I joined soccer, it got better.”
Classes were the easy part – easier than what they were accustomed to. While Bonnie says English has been difficult, both girls speak smoothly and are easy to understand. They enjoyed the flexibility of choosing subjects rather than having studies determined for them, as is customary in their countries.
Jean had taken required English classes at her all-girl school since kindergarten. She speaks Thai, English, Korean and Chinese. “For college in Thailand, you need a good profile,” she said. “Being an exchange student gives you experience.”
She will return home, receive credit for the year abroad, take the GED, and enter college next year where she will study architecture and interior design. Her favorite class here is Art, especially 3-D. Her takeaway from the Eureka Springs experience is the benefit of positive thinking.
Bonnie knew of the exchange program through her cousin, who told Bonnie and her parents about her experience. Unlike Jean, Bonnie will not receive credit for this school year but said, “It is worth it.” She imagined “being with a large family and was thinking we would go hunting or my family would be doing farm things.”
Bonnie had never played team sports and said, “When you join a school team, you get to talk to a lot of people. That’s the way you make friends.” She speaks Mandarin and English. She began English studies in third grade and will continue through high school as well as pick up a second language. She enjoyed film class and making a broadcast. “Here we need to give our thoughts a lot. It is like a practice. Open questions make you have to think more,” she said.
Asked why she chose to welcome Bonnie and Jean into her daily life, Heather says, “There was a need. I heard about these girls and it sounded interesting. The things I was afraid of didn’t materialize. It turned into not a big deal at all. They are really good kids. I learned to be clear about my expectations of them. They don’t know what I expect when I don’t tell them.”
She embraced the experience and talks about “how happy they are. I have never known two fifteen year-olds who didn’t get sullen. They are so self-directed. They find their own rides. They take responsibility for their own direction. There is no teenage angst.”