Instant bond

Earl and Cindy McCormick of Perkins are giving their 15-year-old daughter, April, a very special gift this year: A new friend. Thanks to STS, one of the many student exchange programs that bring thousands of students to the United States each year, the McCormicks are playing host to 15-year-old Anita Roth, from Basel, Switzerland, for the 2007-2008 academic year.

Pat Piety - NewsPress

The two girls’ families had been communicating by e-mail and telephone for several weeks before the McCormicks went to pick up Anita at the Oklahoma City airport at the beginning of August, so they knew the girls had a lot in common, including their love of horses. When they finally met, an instant bond sprang up between them. “They’re best friends now,” says Earl. “We’re very happy.” The STS exchange students spent a week at a camp in New York before going to their respective host families, so Anita had already experienced a bit of American life, but she tasted something entirely new shortly after she stepped off the plane in Oklahoma City when the McCormicks took her to Abuelo’s for Mexican food. “I liked it!” she says.

Anita speaks English very well and is fluent in several other languages, which is not uncommon in her part of the world. Although Switzerland is only about one-tenth the size of California, it has four official languages – German, French, Italian and Rumantsch – and an “unofficial” language, English. Although the United States has only one official language, April took four years of Spanish in school and Anita has decided to study Spanish this year in Perkins-Tryon High School, so maybe eventually they’ll be able to communicate in two languages.

The girls have had a lot of fun riding April’s horse, Suede, and last week they went jet-skiing on Lake Carl Blackwell. That was another first for Anita, but the two have decided they’ll definitely do it again. Having Anita here is “so cool,” says April. “I don’t have any brothers or sisters that live at home, so it’s like having a sister. And we wear the same size in everything, so we can wear each other’s clothes.” Anita is finding a few things different here in school. In Switzerland, the students don’t have lockers, she says. They also have an hour and a half for lunch and go home to eat. Although she was originally enrolled in a geometry class, it was too easy for her, so she was moved up to the next math class. Overall, though, she says, “I love Oklahoma!”

With the globe growing smaller every year, getting to know people from different cultures and other parts of the world can be both exciting and rewarding. One of the rewards for the McCormicks is having friends to visit abroad. Anita’s family is planning to come for a visit this summer, and when they go back home, April is thinking of going back with them for awhile. The whole McCormick family has been invited to visit Basel, and they’re eagerly looking forward to it.

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Photo: Anita Roth and April McCormick with the McCormick's horse in Perkins Oklahoma. Stillwater NewsPress.