Foreign exchange student Paula Rodriguez is spending her junior year in Iowa as part of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICES), a foreign exchange program.

Enriching her cultural experience, Rodriguez  plans to stay in Iowa with the John and Judy Rogers family in Manchester.

Rodriguez explained that school in America isn’t much different from Spain other than class variety and block scheduling. She enjoys the variety in class options because she can choose to enroll in art class.  

“I love art and it’s my favorite class because every culture has a different perspective,” Rodriguez said.   

On the other hand American food is different. In Spain they have American specific shops to buy foods that aren’t usually available at supermarkets such as Cherry Coke, flavored Oreos and peanut butter.  

“I kind of like the taste (of peanut butter), but at the same time I don’t. It’s just not something we typically eat in Spain,” Rodriguez said.

The people in Iowa, however, surprised her. “The one thing that shocked me was that I thought people would be more cold, but everyone is really friendly,” Rodriguez said.  

Rodriguez’ favorite part about West Delaware so far has been Homecoming Week. She enjoyed dressing up and decorating the school.

“It’s something that we would never have in Spain. We don’t have dances or school dress up days,” Rodriguez said.

Her journey to West Delaware began on a family vacation in New York City at the age of ten, where she was inspired to learn English and travel the world.

Six years later, Rodriguez saw a commercial featuring foreign exchange students. She then spent three weeks during her summer in Ireland, and the next year she spent one month in Canadian school.

“I mostly took English classes while in Canada,” Rodriguez said. “But there were other Spanish speaking teenagers there as well, so when we weren’t in class we could still speak (our native language).”

Overall, Rodriguez enjoys her travels and in the future wants to continue with the foreign exchange program.

“This is a really great experience, and more people should try it,” Rodriguez  said.