Latvian student enjoying Cheney 'variety'

CHENEY – A Latvian girl spending the year as an exchange student here says she likes the variety Cheney High School has to offer

Paula Upeniece, an 18-year-old senior from Keipene, Latvia, is being hosted by Thomas and Carol Jean Thosath of Cheney.

Upeniece said Cheney High School has choices.

"Here, I can take financial algebra or regular algebra, or geometry," she said. "I really like that."

Her hometown of Keipene is a small town of 400 people between Lithuania and Estonia. And her small school only offers basic classes.

While an exchange student, Upeniece is attending online classes in her home country and classes at the high school here.

She is taking a digital photography class which she really enjoys, but her favorite class so far has been Career Choices, she said.

In her digital photography class, "We are just exploring the camera and taking some practice pictures on how we want the modes on the camera....," she said, noting she is looking forward to bigger projects.

In Latvia, teachers move to students, but here, she rotates classrooms. At home, she also has many more classes.

"We have nine periods that are 40 minutes long and we start school a little bit earlier," she said, adding she only has four, 90-minutes classes here.

But school lunches are better at home, she said.

"They make food from scratch and not just prepackaged meals," she said. "So, I really miss that from back home."

In Latvia, school meals often consist of "fresh potatoes, stews, and salad and in the mornings. We could eat pancakes if we wanted to," she said.

Upeniece is also in the Music and Motion class and plans to play tennis next quarter.

In her free time, she said, "I really like spending time with my friends, we just go for drives or go to eat."

Last week, she went ice skating with her friends.

"On the weekends, I usually spend some time with my host parents and it's a Sunday thing where me and my friends have a dinner together at one of my friend's houses," she said.

Noting cultural differences in America and Latvia, she said:

"Latvians are more introverted people."

Latvians try to avoid social interactions as much as possible, she said, adding being here was initially awkward.

"It was pretty weird for me when I got here when people on the street randomly started talking to me," she said. "I was not used to it."

She said she feels like that people are a lot friendlier in America than back home.

The United States is also different when it comes to shopping.

"I didn't really go shopping a lot back home," she said. "It was, like, maybe once a month or maybe once a week. But now, I do it much more regularly, and I am loving it."

Having a sales tax is also different for her.

"The taxes are written in the price that we pay (in Latvia), and so it's a little bit harder for me to calculate tax on what I have to buy," she said.

Upeniece said she will spend her Christmas break with her host family and friends and noted the differences in celebrating here and at home.

"In Latvia, we open Christmas presents on Christmas Eve, not the next morning," she said. "And when we open these presents, there is usually a present-giver and we have to say a poem or a rhyme to whoever is the present-giver and if the rhyme is good, then we get the present."

She said she has been told that American Christmas food in is really sweet, another difference.

"In Latvia, we go the opposite way," she said. "It's just salty foods, like chickpeas with meat... Also, we make, these perogies."

She said she is thinking of making traditional Latvian food for her host family this year.

During her upcoming break, she said she plans to stay in Cheney and celebrate Christmas and New Years with friends and her host family.

She said she will also use that time to do her Latvian school work.

After finishing school, she is considering taking a year off from school before attending a university in Ireland or Latvia.

She has friends and family in Ireland and feels like Ireland offers more career choices than Latvia, although she isn't completely sure of what she wants to do after graduation.

"I am thinking market analysis, but I don't know, yet," she said.

She is also interested in becoming a choreographer, because "back in Latvia, I am in a traditional Latvian dance troupe and we perform in traditional costumes dancing to traditional music."