OYEHUT -- As the school year winds down, teens begin looking forward to a leisurely summer break. No more anxious evenings fretting about tomorrow's big Algebra exam or waking up while it's still dark outside to catch the bus.

For some students, it means shopping for bigger suitcases. Making sure they have their passports. Trying to remember phrases in native languages they haven't used in months. And shedding tears when saying good-bye to strangers who have become extended members of the family.

North Beach Junior/Senior High School hosted three foreign students as part of the PAX program of academic exchange during the 2009-2010 school year.

About 58,000 students from around the globe apply to be foreign exchange students in the program annually, but only the top 200 are accepted, according to Melodie Youngs, the PAX "cluster director" for Grays Harbor.

Three students from the program spent a year attending North Beach Junior/Senior High School, and two more attended classes at Hoquiam High.

The Daily World spent a day last October with 17-year-old Loay Elassal (LOO-eye El-AH-sal) from Egypt, 17-year-old Yana Zakatova (ZAH-ke toe-VAH) from the Ukraine and 18-year-old Riztianti Setiamurdiawati (RIS-tee-aunt-ee SAY-te-ah-moore-dee-ah-watt-ee) from Indonesia at North Beach Junior/Senior High School.

 Next week, the students will begin returning home. Yana leaves on Tuesday, while Loay and Riztianti both depart on June 29th. The Daily World recently caught up with the students after school to find out how they changed during the academic year and what they and their host families discovered about each other.

One change Yana noticed immediately was her improved fluency of English. Her host family took her to a mall in Olympia to shop for some luggage and she overheard a woman talking on a cell phone in Russian. She understood everything the woman was saying, and was eager to start a conversation, but when she began to speak, she had trouble.

"I was so used to speaking English, I couldn't say a normal sentence in Russian," Yana said with a giggle. "I was speaking in English to her even though we could both speak Russian."

Riztianti and Dianne Barr-Cole, the special services director for the school district, learned about each other's cultures via culinary skills.

Barr-Cole and one of the high school counselors decided to cook a traditional Indonesian-style dinner for the students and their host families. A friend had given Barr-Cole an Indonesian cookbook and she enlisted Riztianti's help in selecting and cooking the recipes. Together, they prepared chicken satay (skewered meat) with peanut sauce, Java beef (a stew with meat, mushrooms and a hint of coffee), coconut milk, sambals (a chilli-based sauce), and gado gado, an Indonesian salad.

Some of the foods were things Riztianti and Barr-Cole had tried before, and some were new recipes to both of them.

"We combined our skills and learned the way you learn any recipe," Barr-Cole said. "Sometimes it turns out worse than you expect and sometimes it's better. This time we were lucky and everything turned out magnificently."

The experience was better than one of the first times Riztianti tried American cooking. She made biscuits in a home economics class in October. But she wrinkled up her nose and gave a loud "Yuck!" after she took the first bite.

She said making the Indonesian-style dinner made it "feel like home."

Barr-Cole said cooking the dinner reminded her of when she spent a year studying in Germany between 1977 to 1978 and having to adjust to a different culture and felt honored to cook the dinner because "it's part of being a good world citizen."

Loay and his host parent, Bob Hoem, used the opportunity to teach the community about world faiths. Hoem is a pastor at the Galilean Lutheran Church. Loay was raised a Muslim. Loay accompanied Hoem in a sermon one day and read form the Koran, while Hoem read from the Bible.

Hoem said they were well-received by the congregation and many people discovered that although religious practices and perspectives can vary across the globe, there are more commonalities -- with principles and historical figures and places -- than there are differences.

"Differences aren't flaws," Hoem said. "They're differences. ... The culture that we're raised in determines our world view. It's not about fixing another culture, it's accepting it."

"Meeting lots of people made me understand things I didn't understand before," Loay added. "I learned about cultures I didn't know before."

When Loay boards a plane for Cairo next month, it won't be good-bye forever. Hoem toured the Middle East about a year and a half ago to visit sites that are referenced in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. He said he plans to visit them again next year and the family has agreed to host him.

"It would be an experience to be hosted by Egyptians," Hoem said. "We would see them with different eyes and hear them with a different ear. ... It's one thing to talk about different theories and ideas, but it's different to meet someone who lives it."

OYEHUT -- As the school year winds down, teens begin looking forward to a leisurely summer break. No more anxious evenings fretting about tomorrow's big Algebra exam or waking up while it's still dark outside to catch the bus.

For some students, it means shopping for bigger suitcases. Making sure they have their passports. Trying to remember phrases in native languages they haven't used in months. And shedding tears when saying good-bye to strangers who have become extended members of the family.

North Beach Junior/Senior High School hosted three foreign students as part of the PAX program of academic exchange during the 2009-2010 school year.

About 58,000 students from around the globe apply to be foreign exchange students in the program annually, but only the top 200 are accepted, according to Melodie Youngs, the PAX "cluster director" for Grays Harbor.

Three students from the program spent a year attending North Beach Junior/Senior High School, and two more attended classes at Hoquiam High.

The Daily World spent a day last October with 17-year-old Loay Elassal (LOO-eye El-AH-sal) from Egypt, 17-year-old Yana Zakatova (ZAH-ke toe-VAH) from the Ukraine and 18-year-old Riztianti Setiamurdiawati (RIS-tee-aunt-ee SAY-te-ah-moore-dee-ah-watt-ee) from Indonesia at North Beach Junior/Senior High School.

 Next week, the students will begin returning home. Yana leaves on Tuesday, while Loay and Riztianti both depart on June 29th. The Daily World recently caught up with the students after school to find out how they changed during the academic year and what they and their host families discovered about each other.

One change Yana noticed immediately was her improved fluency of English. Her host family took her to a mall in Olympia to shop for some luggage and she overheard a woman talking on a cell phone in Russian. She understood everything the woman was saying, and was eager to start a conversation, but when she began to speak, she had trouble.

"I was so used to speaking English, I couldn't say a normal sentence in Russian," Yana said with a giggle. "I was speaking in English to her even though we could both speak Russian."

Riztianti and Dianne Barr-Cole, the special services director for the school district, learned about each other's cultures via culinary skills.

Barr-Cole and one of the high school counselors decided to cook a traditional Indonesian-style dinner for the students and their host families. A friend had given Barr-Cole an Indonesian cookbook and she enlisted Riztianti's help in selecting and cooking the recipes. Together, they prepared chicken satay (skewered meat) with peanut sauce, Java beef (a stew with meat, mushrooms and a hint of coffee), coconut milk, sambals (a chilli-based sauce), and gado gado, an Indonesian salad.

Some of the foods were things Riztianti and Barr-Cole had tried before, and some were new recipes to both of them.

"We combined our skills and learned the way you learn any recipe," Barr-Cole said. "Sometimes it turns out worse than you expect and sometimes it's better. This time we were lucky and everything turned out magnificently."

The experience was better than one of the first times Riztianti tried American cooking. She made biscuits in a home economics class in October. But she wrinkled up her nose and gave a loud "Yuck!" after she took the first bite.

She said making the Indonesian-style dinner made it "feel like home."

Barr-Cole said cooking the dinner reminded her of when she spent a year studying in Germany between 1977 to 1978 and having to adjust to a different culture and felt honored to cook the dinner because "it's part of being a good world citizen."

Loay and his host parent, Bob Hoem, used the opportunity to teach the community about world faiths. Hoem is a pastor at the Galilean Lutheran Church. Loay was raised a Muslim. Loay accompanied Hoem in a sermon one day and read form the Koran, while Hoem read from the Bible.

Hoem said they were well-received by the congregation and many people discovered that although religious practices and perspectives can vary across the globe, there are more commonalities -- with principles and historical figures and places -- than there are differences.

"Differences aren't flaws," Hoem said. "They're differences. ... The culture that we're raised in determines our world view. It's not about fixing another culture, it's accepting it."

"Meeting lots of people made me understand things I didn't understand before," Loay added. "I learned about cultures I didn't know before."

When Loay boards a plane for Cairo next month, it won't be good-bye forever. Hoem toured the Middle East about a year and a half ago to visit sites that are referenced in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. He said he plans to visit them again next year and the family has agreed to host him.

"It would be an experience to be hosted by Egyptians," Hoem said. "We would see them with different eyes and hear them with a different ear. ... It's one thing to talk about different theories and ideas, but it's different to meet someone who lives it."