By MOLLIE BROWN / Community Columnist

If you think learning can’t be fun, you’re probably not educated about international student exchange. American Councils for International Studies works to advance education, research and mutual understanding across the U.S., southeastern Europe, Eurasia and south Asia through scholarships offered to 15- to 17-year-old students.

Jenia Parker, a 2010 CHS graduate, was a recipient of a National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLIY) scholarship, which offers students the opportunity to learn languages not readily taught in schools. She chose Russian and flew to Moscow in August 2010.

“People asked if I would miss my family and I would say, ‘Of course,’” Parker said. “But when I landed in Moscow I thought, ‘What have I done?’”

Parker’s interest stemmed from her family’s involvement in hosting exchange students and a curiosity of foreign languages.

“I’ve always wanted to speak another language,” she said. “I think it’s really cool that our brain thinks in English, and it’s hard to think of someone else thinking in anything but English.”

It wasn’t until the last few months of the trip she began thinking in Russian.

“When I flew back to D.C. in June (2011), someone said something to me in English, and I immediately wanted to respond in Russian.”

Parker’s host family was Pavel and Oksana Oleynikova and their two daughters, Natalia and Alina, of Uglich, Russia. She initially struggled in class because Russian is a difficult language to learn, unlike other languages with words similar to ours.

“The first couple of months I just sat in class and thought ‘I have no idea what you’re saying,’ but through my Russian language classes I began to understand,” Parker said.

She didn’t develop a taste for food comprised of mayonnaise and fish, but liked borsh (beet soup) and blini (thin pancakes). She found their customs and traditions interesting.

“One morning we sat at the door for 10 minutes because someone was traveling far away,” Parker said. “And they hang horseshoes over the door for good luck.”

Her first experience in a public restroom is memorable.

“I paid two rubles and was handed toilet paper. I walked into a stall and saw a porcelain bowl in the ground — it’s called a squat toilet.”

Parker is not fluent in Russian, but can carry a conversation. Her parents, Neal and Leigh Ann Parker, are very proud of their daughter because unlike exchange students who come to the U.S. to improve their English, she went to Russia to learn their language.