Kholood arrived on my doorstep in August 2017, shortly before the Colorado State University (CSU) semester began. We met through the CSU Home Stay Program, which places incoming foreign students with families for a week if the student arrives before long-term accommodation is available. I was intrigued to host someone from such an unfamiliar part of the world as Bahrain — although, coincidentally, one of my friends in Fort Collins is an American who lived there for years while her husband worked in the oil industry.
Kholood is a delightful young woman! I have greatly enjoyed doing things with her since she arrived. She is adventurous and eager to try just about anything once! I have been impressed with her resourcefulness in tackling campus life and finding her way around town. She is impressively articulate in English with a great sense of humor, both of which helped us to quickly establish our friendship. I see us remaining friends even after she returns to Bahrain. During her spring break in March, Kholood traveled to Washington D.C. and also met my daughter there; I foresee the two of them becoming great friends if they have future chances to get together.
The day after Kholood arrived, we drove to the Rocky Mountain National Park, where she was excited by the scenery, watched chipmunks and marmots, and explored rock formations. A couple of weeks later, she and I took her sister (who had graduated in summer from university in Louisiana and was headed home) back to the park to enjoy Bear Lake and nearby Alberta Falls. Kholood is an avid photographer and kept me busy taking photos of her and her sister! Since then we have enjoyed local restaurants together, attended a movie and a wind symphony concert, celebrated her birthday (she threw a wonderful party in her apartment with an impressive array of international student friends), and shopped together at a Middle Eastern grocery store in Denver. When her semester ends, we plan to go skiing together at one of the two Colorado ski areas operating through May. I was impressed at her enthusiasm for trying skiing for the first time last October and surviving her first lessons.
At my suggestion, in March, Kholood gave a local travel group a multi-faceted overview of Bahrain. This was clearly the audience’s first exposure to such an in-depth view of this little-known country to judge from the active question period at the end of her presentation. I was delighted that she agreed to give the program so that more people in the community could have their horizons broadened.
My daughter participated twice in the People to People Student Ambassadors program, traveling overseas at a more junior stage of schooling than that of Fulbrighters. Her experiences then and my own friendship with Kholood confirm my view that such international exchange initiatives do a great service in linking parts of the world. They offer wonderful opportunities to build and proliferate positive intercultural relationships at the individual level.
Jeannette met Kholood while Kholood was a Fulbrighter studying at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. Kholood is from Bahrain and working towards her Master’s in Computer Information Systems.
