On Tuesday, July 13, I had the pleasure of meeting with two exchange students.  A new exchange program offers high-achieving high school graduates from the city of Vilassar de Mar (located near Barcelona, Spain) a month-long immersion experience in the United States.  This pilot program selected two students to travel to the Whitewater area for one month of language, culture, socialization and fun.  Troy Moldenhauer (Admissions) and his wife, Lori, hosted Eloi Cañamero Giró. Lassity Sullivan and her family hosted Irene Marcelo Martín. Both students have been accepted to medical school beginning in August. They presented me with the Catalan flag to represent their country, which will be hung in the University Center. Currently, there are two additional students from Vilassar de Mar studying at UW-Whitewater.

(Please click on each photo to view in full.)

In the first photo below, left to right:

Lassity Sullivan, Garrett Sullivan, Lexi Sullivan, Joey Jonsson (program coordinator from Vilissar de Mar), Irene Marcelo Martín, Chancellor Telfer, Troy Moldenhauer, Eloi Cañamero Giró

I heard from the news a few weeks back the Charice, an international pop star, will join the cast of Glee next season. Her character is an exchange student that will be pitted against Lea Michele’s role (Rachel Berry). That got me thinking, if I will be an exchange student, I would probably choose one of the prestigious schools in Spain. First, I love Spain a lot that I often wish I can live there. Secondly, the subway system in Spain is said to be on time and well maintained. In fact, you can go to other European places via this subway. And I heard that if you have a student card, you’ll only pay half the price of the ticket. So yes, if I’m going to be an exchange student, Spain will definitely be my choice. I think I just need to polish my Spanish vocabulary using spanish to english sentence translation and I’m good to go… even just in my dreams.