News

Teen chose her own adventure

The Lecanto High senior spent the summer studying in Argentina through a Rotary program.

By PAULETTE LASH RITCHIE
Published September 19, 2005

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LECANTO - Ashley Rhodes wanted to travel and she didn't want to wait. But how does a 17-year-old get going?

She knows some Spanish, having studied it for years. Then she learned from a teacher about a Rotary Exchange program that could send her to Argentina for the summer.

So that's what she did. The Lecanto High School senior went in June and stayed until early August with a local family that included three children. Laura and Gerardo Rodriguez and their children - 19-year-old Gerardo and 16-year-old Santiago - welcomed her into their home. The Rodriguezes' 21-year-old, Paula, was just moving out.

Ashley attended school with Santiago. "School was a lot different," she said. It was a private Catholic school and the students wore uniforms and attended religion class.

She found a big difference between studying about a country in school and actually going to a country where they speak a different language. She was surprised by the different words, dialects and accents she heard in Spanish.

"They all teased me and said I spoke like a Mexican," Ashley said.

Her classmates wanted to know "if my life was like a movie." Did she have a car? Yes. Did she have a locker? Yes. Did she go to a prom? Yes.

But they seemed to know more about her life than she knew about theirs. "You realize in other parts of the world, they really are thinking about America. They think about the United States as a presence in their country. They are surprised, and somewhat offended, that Americans don't know as much about them."

She learned that Argentines like America, but not the government. "I learned a lot of different perspectives on things," she said.

Ashley's favorite thing to do while she was in Buenos Aires was to learn the subway system and explore the city on her own. "But I had to be home before dark," she said.

She loved walking around and discovering places, things she didn't expect, like a quiet park with an old church. "Things like that made me really think I went to a different country," she said.

Ashley is the daughter of Kathleen and Doug Rhodes and has three siblings: Spencer, 21, Chelsea, 20, and Evelyn, 14. She plans to attend college and continue traveling.

"I want to live in other places or have a job that takes me to other places," she said.

[Last modified September 19, 2005, 01:08:18]

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