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Published on 11/20/1995 All articles from this issue

Meeting people comes naturally for this MVHS exchange student

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By Chris McCrellis-Mitchell / Town Crier Staff Writer

Daniela Balseca is just like any other all-American girl. Her room has a poster of bare-chested men. She loves to watch "90210" and "E/R." She loves listening to music, and going to movies and concerts. And she loves to go shopping. She also loves talking on the phone with friends.

But Balseca is no ordinary all-American girl. In fact, she's not American at all. If it weren't for her Spanish accent, it'd be impossible to tell the bubbly Mountain View High School student hadn't grown up here.

Balseca is a native of Quito, Ecuador. She is going to school here for a year as part of a foreign exchange student program, through Youth for Understanding, (YFU).

Although she only has a year in America, Balseca is loving every minute of it. But it hasn't always been easy. The first days she was here, her host family parents, Myra and Carl Scofield, were out at work, and she was home alone. Instead of sitting around and moping in loneliness, she went out and met the neighbors. The Scofields said this is what makes "Danny" special.

"She is absolutely open to anything. She is the most cooperative and easy person to live with. She is interested in just everything," said Carl, a district manager for the California Water Service, and representaive for YFU. "She's just so totally natural here. You forget she's from somewhere totally different in the world."

Myra, an office manager for a church in Sunnyvale agreed. "She doesn't feel shy or inhibited about meeting anyone," she said. "She's met the neighbors. She's met people 40 to 50 years her senior who call her because she's made friends with them."

In school, Balseca has joined the school's choir, "Reflections" and the Latinos Unidos club. She's enrolled in Latin American Studies, U.S. History, Economics, Yearbook, Choir, and Vocal-Oral, an English-as-a-second-language course she shares with one of her two new best friends, Helena Lima.

"She is nice. She is kind," said Lima, 15, here for a year with her family from Brazil. "She has feeling for everybody no matter how they are. She likes to help people."

Lima, Balseca and another foreign-exchange student, Kayoko Sato, 18, from Japan have gone to concerts and movies together. But the biggest treat so far was having each other over to experience their country's traditional food. This week is Balseca's turn to steer off her country's flavor.

"I'm not only here to learn a language," Balseca said. "It's to share your culture, share your experiences. And share mine also."

Daniela is the twelfth foreign exchange student the Scofields have hosted. The others have been from Norway, Sweden, Slovakia, Germany, Argentina, and Brazil. All 12 have been girls because they wanted a companion for their young daughter Cindy. Each girl has created special memories.

The Scofields say the best part is when the student first arrives in August, because they have 11 months of time together to look forward to. But in January, they inevitably start thinking about the July departure. Myra said the sense of loss that comes hasn't gotten easier to deal with over the years.

"You don't know if you'll ever see them again. You know it won't be for at least two or three years," she said.

Since Balseca is the last student they plan on hosting, and even though they have more than eight months left together, they know that this one is going to be as painful as ever a goodbye. In July, there will be no dry eyes at the airport.

"I've coined a term, 'The more it hurts, the better it was,'" said Carl. "If they walked away and you didn't care, then there hasn't been a connection. This one will hurt a lot."