Kristi Einspahr, back left, poses with her host family in Bolivia during her year as an exchange student.
Kristi Einspahr of Seward was understandably nervous for her first day of school her junior year.
After all, she was a long way from home in a place where English was not the primary language.
Einspahr was an exchange student in Bolivia during the 2013-14 school year through the Rotary student exchange program.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “But it turned out fine.”
Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, she said. She spent 11 months in Sucre with her host family, the Martinezes. They lived near the main square in town. Einspahr said the closer to the edge of town you were, the poorer the residents were.
Sucre is one of the country’s two capitals and is home to about 300,000 people, she said. Her host family included a younger brother, which was fun for Einspahr, who is the youngest in her family. They did not speak English, she said.
Although her host family did not attend church, Einspahr went with her host grandparents.
Einspahr said she enjoyed going to the market in Sucre to shop. When she first went, she was willing to pay whatever was asked for an item, but as she grew more comfortable with Spanish, the language of Bolivia, she learned how to bargain.
“My host grandma was really good at it,” she said with a grin.
Adjusting to a new culture took some time, Einspahr said. People in Bolivia greet each other with kisses, which took some getting used to, she said.
“By the end it was natural,” she added.
Time is viewed differently in Bolivia, she said. For example, if you were told dinner was at 8 p.m. and you arrived at 8 p.m., you’d probably be the only one there for awhile.
In September, Einspahr attended one of the country’s many celebratory dances, and her host mother, who owns a salon, helped with her hair, make up and nails. Being in the salon regularly also helped Einspahr improve her Spanish skills.
She said it took about six weeks to understand the language well and about two and a half months before she was speaking it fluently. She even dreamed in Spanish.
“Every once in a while I think in Spanish,” she said.
From August to November, Einspahr attended a high school in Sucre. She took biology, art, music and gym for her classes. November through February was summer break, since seasons in Bolivia are America’s opposite.
She said Christmas in Bolivia is more festive than in America. Families serve traditional foods, and Einspahr tried all of them. For New Year’s, the tradition is eating grapes and making wishes, she said.
When school started again, Einspahr attended the university and took language classes. One was Quechua, one of the native dialects of Bolivia.
She also took the opportunity to tour Bolivia and volunteered at a children’s hospital.
On her tour, she visited the silver mines in Potosi, stayed in a salt hotel in the salt flats in Uyuni, saw the Concordia Christ at Cochabamba and went through the vineyards at Tarija.
She went to carnival in Oruro, and she and her friends participated in the foam wars there. People throw foam at each other as part of the festivities.
“Umbrellas were our weapons of defense,” Einspahr said with a smile.
Einspahr wasn’t unfamiliar with exchange students. Her family hosted an exchange student when she was in eighth grade, and they still keep in touch, she said. When she applied, she said, she was longing to travel and the program was a chance to do so.
She had taken two years of basic Spanish at Seward High, so she wanted to go to a Spanish-speaking country. Bolivia was available, so she went.
“It was hard to come home,” she said.
Being an exchange student helped Einspahr learn about herself. She said she’s more open-minded now and sees how closed-minded other people can be.
She said it took longer to adjust to being back in Nebraska than it did to adjust to Bolivia. Many exchange students are high school seniors, so they go straight from their international experience to college. Einspahr went back to high school to finish her senior year.
She said it was tough to go back because “my friends had changed. I had changed.”
Einspahr will be a freshman at Concordia University and plans to double major in English as a second language and world and intercultural studies. Her double minor will be Mandarin and Spanish.
She hopes to do three study-abroad sessions during her college career and would like to go to India for an interterm trip.
