22 August 2005
Grant Cushman Audio Diaries - Part ThreeLast week, we heard Grant as he was having a hard time adjusting to his host family and to being out of the U-S for the first time. But after that initial period of boredom and loneliness, Grant met up with some friends his own age, and was able to spend more time out of the house, exploring Italy. And now, as he gets ready to head home, and maybe because he's heading home, he's in a more reflective mood.
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15 August 2005
Grant Cushman Audio Diaries - Part TwoWe check in on Grant Cushman's summer trip to Italy. The 17-year-old kept an audio diary for us when he went to Phoenix's Sister City Catania, as a Phoenix Youth Ambassador. It was Grant's first trip out of the country, and his longest stay away from his family. In this segment, the culture shock's hit Grant. You'll hear he's having a hard time adjusting. He's spending most of his days at his host family's house... and at night, he crawls into a closet and records his journal.
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08 August 2005
Grant Cushman Audio Diaries - Part OneWith classes back in session in some parts of the Valley, High School students are returning to the daily grind of homework, cafeteria food and swapping summer stories with friends. But few have a tale as interesting as 17-year old Grant Cushman's. Rather than spend the summer flipping burgers or working in the mall, Cushman went to Italy for three weeks as a foreign exchange student. He was a Youth Ambassador to Phoenix's sister city, Catania in Sicily... he took a recorder with him to keep an audio diary of his experience. Over the next three weeks, we'll hear about Grant's trip... leaving his family for the first time and his adjustment to a a culture half a world away. We catch up with him in the middle of the night here in the Phoenix, in the last few quiet hours before he'd board a plane bound for Italy.
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