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I had been studying Russian since the First grade, so when I found out that I would be going to Ukraine I thought I would have it easy...everything I had learned for the last 10 or 11 years would magically come together and I would instantly be able to speak and understand everything that was said to me. When my classmates and I met in the Washington Dulles airport to begin our flight overseas, I bragged about how long I had been taking Russian and giggled to myself at the funny accents they seemed to have whenever they tried to speak. When we landed in Kiev Ukraine, however, everything I thought I knew came tumbling down on top of me. I had always been good at languages, ever since I could remember, but when I got there I could not understand one single thing...even the English was unfamiliar!! I was soon separated from my 3 classmates and taken to my family's "Dacha" or country house, as we may call it. I was surrounded in nothing but Russian for almost a week!

ek and I was forced to adapt. Within about 3 days, I could just about do it. I didn't see my classmates again until about 2 weeks after our exchange had began. We all became fast friends. We were soon able to go out by ourselves and explore our host country...just the four of us, and we did just about everything together. I had grown so close to my classmates in such a short period of time, that I felt like I was surrounded by family, and of course it didn't hurt that I loved my host family more than just about anything else in the whole world!!! The places I went and the people I became involved with on my exchange truly changed my life. It was on this exchange that I decided what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, and have been working towards it ever since. I want to first get involved in International Law and then someday I hope to be the United States Ambassador to Ukraine!

My 3 classmates and I became so close on our exchange that I thought no amount of time and no distance could ever cause us to lose touch, and for a couple of years, that was the case. When I went to college in New Orleans last year, one of them even came to visit me. I hadn't seen her in almost 3 years, and when I saw her all the wonderful memories we had made together in Ukraine came rushing back to me. The other two, who I love just as much, have lost contact with us, and that is why I am doing this yearbook and trying to get us all together again, so that all 4 of us can experience the amazing feeling I had when my "YFU Friend" came to visit me.

Casandra Deguire
Cubanita973@aol.com