Alaina Bousum 27’ was a part of one of the lucky 30,000 families that got the chance to host a foreign exchange student. Bousum and her family decided to host Lucas Delgado, 27′ from Madrid, Spain for the summer.
Bousum and her family made the decision to host Delgado and have him experience an American summer. They went on a road trip, had a Fourth of July party, and Delgado got to hangout with Alaina’s friends as well as her little brothers, Kellan Bousum 29’ and Kemper Bousum 31’.
“We went on a roadtrip to Tennennese last summer and it was honestly really fun. It was a long time in the car with 4 boys though.” Bousum said.
The Bousum family did everything they could to make sure Delgado had a good summer. That included attending their neighbors Fourth of July party.
“Obviously they don’t celebrate the Fourth of July in Spain so Lucas was really excited. We had a big party with my neighbors and lots of fireworks.” Bousum said.
To make Delgados summer even better, Bousum was able to incorporate Delgado into her own friend groups. She had her birthday party in July and Delgado was able to join.
“Yeah my birthday was super fun. I had all my friends over and we swam in my neighbor’s pool. It also started thunderstorming and we ran around in the rain.” Bousum said.
Many of Bousum’s friends got to enjoy Delgados company for the three short months he spent in Iowa. He got to create meaningful friendships and even now follows a lot of them on Instagram.
“Yeah I got to meet Lucas once. He was really sweet and it was interesting to talk with him about his experiences in America. There are so many things that I’ve never thought were cool and Lucas thought they were amazing.” Kajsa Skram 27’ said.
Both Bousum and Delgado were about to learn from each other. Delgado spent a lot of time talking about Spain, and Bousum got to show Delgado a lot about Iowa.
“Lucas is a really good swimmer so it was interesting to have him tell me about swimming in Spain. I run Cross Country here so I also got to explain how we do that in Iowa.” Bousum said.
Bousum’s friends all enjoyed the experience of getting to know Delgado during the months he was here. For them, making new friends is easy and even with Delgado being from Spain, that was no barrier for them.
“I was excited for Alaina’s family to host Lucas. Honestly it’s really cool and I feel like I’d like to host a foreign exchange student now too.” Skram said.
Everyone around Bousum got to bond really well with Delgado. They even managed to create comfortable relationships, acting almost like they’d known each other for years.
“I fought with Lucas like I fight with my little brothers. He was basically just a third brother I was slightly nicer to.” Bousum said.
Bousum and her family were lucky to have Delgado last summer just as much as he was lucky to have them. Delgado was surrounded by people who made sure to include him in all their summer activities. Now, Bousum will always have a friend in Spain while Delgado will have a friend in Iowa.
“It was a good summer hosting Lucas. I hope he enjoyed it too.” Bousum said.
