www.roanoke.com

Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Students from Spain and North Cross School pose for a group picture.

European culture met Roanoke hospitality recently when North Cross School hosted a two-week exchange program.

Malcolm Douglas, a Spanish instructor at North Cross, said the school works with an agency in Spain that coordinates an exchange program between schools.

Thirteen students from the Colegio Santisima Trinidad in Cordoba, Spain, arrived in Roanoke on Sept. 27. The purpose of the program was to give the students from Spain an opportunity to experience life in the United States while practicing their English, and allowing North Cross students who study Spanish an opportunity to improve. The North Cross students will make a trip to Spain in March.

"They're getting a much more realistic picture of what our culture is like," Douglas said.

He said visiting a city and living with a family gives a more realistic representation of the culture than staying in a hotel and visiting only tourist attractions.

The Santisima Trinidad students attended class with their host student, and went on a number of day trips to local attractions. They also had full access to the school's facilities for afternoon sports.

Rana Goodrich, the mother of North Cross student Devon Goodrich, said her family housed two students, one 15 and one 17, as part of the program. "I didn't realize how much I was going to enjoy it," Rana Goodrich said.

She said she e-mailed the mother of one of the students twice a day and felt a sense of responsibility to take care of him and show him a good time.

"Mothers can tell; she was very much worried about her son," Goodrich said.

Emma Caveness, a 17-year-old North Cross student, said she enjoyed the experience and can't wait to visit Spain in March. Caveness said she was "kind of iffy" about the experience initially, but was put at ease when she realized the 16-year-old girl staying with her was friendly and that they had a lot in common.

The two quickly learned that the "Twilight" novel series, Hannah Montana and Taylor Swift transcend any cultural barriers. Caveness said the student she was hosting spoke a good deal of English, so they were able to help build upon each other's second languages whenever they came across something they didn't know the word for.

Caveness said she noticed the differences in their culture when students from Spain smoked in various public places and even on campus.

Douglas said the school hopes to host an exchange program every year.

"It definitely was a lovely experience," Goodrich said.