"I ran into the stereotype in Europe a lot that Americans never took the time to learn anything else (besides English). And I think it's nice to be able to sort of break through that stereotype," said Amy Laburda, 17.

Last summer, Amy spent seven weeks abroad with the Indiana University Honors Program in Foreign Languages. Since 1962, the program has sent about 120 students every summer to foreign countries to learn a new language and experience a new culture. Each participant lives with a host family and is not allowed to speak English.

Recently, Y-Press spoke with six students who participated in the program this year. Amy went to St. Brieuc, France; Sean McGoff, 18, went to Brest, France; Andrew Scales, 17, and Annie King, 15, went to Krefeld, Germany; Donald Burlock, 17, went to San Luis Potosi, Mexico; and Samantha Ellis, 18, went to Ciudad Real, Spain.

Host country

Annie: I thought it would be a lot more like the U.S., and it wasn't. The light switches, their food, everything is just a little bit different, and that was kind of hard to get used to. But I liked it.

Andrew: Europe has an incredible history. One can walk down the street and see a cathedral that's stood for 800 years. . . . In America we have about 300 years of history that we can really remember or identify with.

Sean: In France, if you even smile or just do a light nod or a polite hello to someone you do not know, they'll think there is something wrong with either them or you.

Amy: In the first three weeks, I really had to get over my fear of going up and talking to strangers. Everyone was always really nice. For Americans who spoke even some French, there was a lot more respect.

Sammy: People in Spain work to live, and people in America live to work. And I thought that was really significant. I just really like their mode of living a lot better.

Donald: In St. Luis, people were very educated, and they had colleges and everything. It was almost like here, but everything was in Spanish.

(Being African-American) was really just an experience of feeling solo at first. But then after a while, I started feeling like a celebrity because everybody thought I played basketball.

Host family

Donald: Family is important in America, but in Mexico, family came before anything else. On Sundays at 3 o'clock, it would be a gigantic dinner, and like cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, everyone would show up.

Sean: I think the most memorable part of the trip in France was being involved with a new family, and just experiencing everything that you experience with your own family here in the United States, but doing it over there and doing it completely differently.

Sammy: I think the most memorable part of my trip revolved around my family, as well. We had a goodbye party, and it was just kind of a time to reflect on everything and just kind of sad. When we left that next morning, everyone was crying.

Andrew: I had a host sister and a host brother, and I was immediately one of the siblings. I got to hang out with them all the time, and the parents were very nice.

Speaking the language

Amy: I don't think I was actually nervous enough before I got there because I was overconfident in my ability to speak French. And then I arrived and realized that I was having problems communicating.

Donald: I came back a lot better at my Spanish. Sometimes school was difficult, or adjusting was difficult, and you would feel kind of lonely. But my goal was to be able to bound back from that, and I did.

Annie: On the plane on the way back, there was this lady from Finland, I think, and she couldn't really speak English, but she could speak German. So we spoke German on the plane on the way home, and that was really cool.

Sean: It's definitely easier to learn the language in that country because we had no American influences and were without the English for seven weeks.

Andrew: I really wanted to become fluent in German, particularly because my mother is German. I'm pretty sure I obtained it. The greatest thing is to be able to dream in German.

Memorable event

Sammy: I lived out in the country sort of, and one day I ran home. It took about a half-hour, and I remember watching the sunset and how you could see so far because there's not so many trees there, and I just remember thinking that I'd never have that experience again.

Amy: For me, one of the most moving experiences was when our group visited Normandy. We went to visit the American cemetery and Omaha Beach.

Annie: I liked the city called Cologne because there weren't many tourists there, and it was like in movies where you see the small streets that wind up to a castle at the top. I took 20 rolls of film while I was there.

Donald: We went to a place where they had large swimming pools. When we were coming to load the bus, I walked a little bit by myself. A family (was) having a barbecue, and they called me over, and they just started talking with me. They offered me food right off the grill, and I sat down and I ate with them for like a good 20 minutes. That was really memorable to me because of the hospitality of everyone I met.

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What's in a name?

"Hi. What's your name?"

That's what Y-Press wants to know.

The children's news bureau wants to interview kids who have had trouble with their names -- teasing, mispronunciation or even a legal change.

If you are 10 to 18 years old, fit this description and are willing to talk to Y-Press, please call us at 1-317-334-4125 or e-mail us at

ypress@in.net before Dec. 31.

For more information about our news organization, visit www. ypress.org.

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REPORTERS: Peter Cowden, 14; Kristin Drouin, 12; Amanda Finch, 13.