By PAT NEWMAN
Staff Writer

Joshua Rakestraw learned to appreciate good food during his 23-day overseas study trip this summer.

From baguettes to barbecue, Rakestraw loved it all, even if he didn't know what he was eating. “I loved the food, it tasted delicious, but they wouldn't tell you what it was until after you had eaten it,” he said. Often, his hosts would inform him of the food's source by making animal sounds, Rakestraw added laughing.

The 13-year-old Rakestraw is a freshman at Fayette County High School and participated this summer in the People to People student ambassador program initiated in 1956 by President Dwight Eisenhower. The international exchange gives students the opportunity to explore the customs and culture of other countries first hand, he explained.

During his stay abroad, Rakestraw lived with a family in Heyres, France where the daily routine started with an early breakfast and a trip to the open air market where food was selected for the day. A special meal was shared with his home stay family in the middle of a grape vineyard, under a small lean to.

Despite the tantalizing food, Rakestraw said the best thing about the trip was “getting to know all the people. I even got to use my French; it came back to me,” he noted, recalling language classes he had taken at Fayette Middle School. He also toured parts of Spain and Italy.

While Rakestraw traveled on the continent, Glenn Gresham found himself down under with the Aborigines of Australia.

A junior at Starr's Mill High School, Gresham participated in the Experiment in International Living. His five-week study trip led him to Sydney and the Opera House, Brisbane and a stay with host Filipino-born grandparents and a snorkeling adventure on the Great Barrier Reef, where he sustained scars from a run-in with stag coral.

Gresham said about half of all Australians have mixed feelings about Americans. “They love things that are American, like the mall, but will say they hate going to the mall. They're very patriotic but blase about it at the same time,” Gresham noted. “Their government is not well-liked,” he added.

The most impressive leg of Gresham's trip was his study of Aboriginal culture, which he compared in some ways to that of Native Americans. He explained that both groups had their native land stolen from them, and continue today to reclaim their language, stories and dances. “The Aborigines are trying to patent their ideas,” Gresham said.

Summer in the States means winter in Australia and Gresham admits being caught off guard in 20-degree weather south of Sydney, the capital, which remains relatively temperate.

Highlights of his summer included learning to play a dijiordo, an Aboriginal wind instrument, and snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. Gresham said he also made some great friends among his travel buddies.

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