She was the first in her family to travel abroad to pursue the higher education she desired, Leticia Tourn said.
"I am coming from a small country that has only 3 million people," Tourn said. "Not a lot of people go out; rather a lot of people come in as tourists."
After flying from Uruguay for 11 hours in August 2007, Tourn landed in New York to attend an orientation and English program. Her final destination was Ball State University where she would pursue a master's degree in bilingual education.
Tourn said her experience in the United States was great.
"I made some good friends," she said. "They are like my family here. We eat together, spend weekends together and play together."
Tourn said the hardest part of her stay in the United States was when she had to change her eating habits.
"It was really hard to adapt to three meals a day schedule," Tourn said. "We are used to eating four meals a day in Uruguay. I was used to that."
There are cultural differences, too, she said. People are much closer to each other in Uruguay and usually eat together.
"I cook for myself here," Tourn said. "I rarely eat out. I don't say I don't like pizza or McDonald, but I eat them once in a while."
Senior psychology major Fay Gammon said she knew Tourn for almost a year.
"We met at the Student Center and became good friends over time," Gammon said. "Leticia is very friendly, and I found her very inviting."
Gammon said Tourn was good in cooking traditional foods and cooked for her when she was over at her place.
Tourn said she learned a lot during her stay in the United States, and she appreciated the cultural differences more.
"We appreciate our own culture and values when we know and learn about other cultures," Tourn said. "There is a great deal of differences between the two cultures."
Tourn said she knew she would be a different person when she returned to Uruguay. Her friends would be different, too, she said.
"Some of my friends have got married," Tourn said. "Some of them even have babies."
Tourn graduated from a teachers training college in Uruguay in 2001. She was one of the first teachers to work as an elementary teacher until 2007 in a program the United States supported to improve bilingual education in Uruguay.
Tourn said bilingual education was not common in her country, and she was glad to take part in this initiative.
"My country is so small, and a lot of people speak the same language and understand each other," Tourn said. "They sometimes don't feel the need to learn a second language."
Tourn said she and two other teachers from Uruguay, who were in the United States as Fulbright scholars, would work to improve bilingual education in her country.
Tourn said while in the United States, she mostly missed her family and the kids she taught.
"I miss teaching," she said. "I miss it when they called me 'teacher, teacher ...'"
Nidia Lacayo, another Ball State graduate student and a friend of Tourn, said Tourn was an interesting person.
"You just want to be around someone like her," Lacayo said. "She has a big heart."
Lacayo said Tourn was the kind of teacher who really cared about her students.
"She calls them 'my kids,'" Lacayo said. "Everytime she calls home, she asks about her kids."
Although some people who left their country settled in other countries, Tourn said she wanted to go back to Uruguay and work to realize her ambitions.
"I want to live in my country with my people," she said. "I want to be part of the bilingual education initiative."
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