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ORONOGO, Mo. When Sofiya Bezpala beat out thousands of other Ukrainian students to spend a school year in the United States, she faced not one but two culture shocks.

The first, of course, was leaving behind her eastern European roots to live as a stranger in a strange land.

The second was moving from a city of nearly 2 million people to a town with fewer than 2,500.

Sixteen-year-old Bezpala hails from Kharkiv. Her city, established more than 100 years before the United States was born, is home to 80 libraries, seven theaters and a half-dozen museums. Not to mention skyscrapers.

So when she came to spend nine months with her new host family Amy and Kurt Krtek and their children Eva and Adrian and they were driving home from the Joplin Regional Airport, they motored past a field of grazing cattle. Surprisingly, Bezpala wasnt shocked by their appearance.

Though Kharkiv is (a) big city, I live on the very edge, in the country, so Im used to seeing cows and farms, she said.

She was also a bit surprised and relieved to discover that Oronogo wasnt an isolated community.

The Joplin metro area, she realized, was one gigantic city with a daily population of nearly 210,000 people.

It felt more like home, Bezpala said.

Coming to America

Amy Krtek had always been interested in opening her home to a foreign exchange student. One of her good friends, Jill Hartgrave, had hosted students for the past four years.

When Krtek mentioned in passing how neat it would be to do something like that, Hartgrave turned to her and said, Well, how about now?

It was through this simple exchange of words that Bezpala and Krteks paths separated by 5,700 miles would eventually intertwine.

There are two types of foreign exchange students. A majority of them are traditional students their parents pay for them to travel to the U.S. But there are also scholarship students. A U.S.-funded program Future Leaders Exchange pays for these elite foreign students to spend an academic year inside a U.S. high school.

Half the world away, Bezpala was hoping to become a scholarship student. But competition for these spots can be mind-numbingly intense. Only one of 50 vying students are selected, graded in part by their knowledge of spoken and written English. They must also be paired with a host family in America. Without a willing host family, scholarship students stay put.

When Krtek found out through Hartgrave that 30 scholarship students had yet to find host families, she and her family decided to make the leap.

This just spoke to my heart, Krtek said. I saw Sofiyas name and felt she would fit perfectly with our family. (And) if it hadnt been for (Jill Hartgrave) telling me about this, we wouldnt have gotten Sofiya.

Inside the classroom of her small school in Kharkiv, Bezpala couldnt sit still, fidgeting with nervousness. Calls from Flex program officials to winning scholarship students in her hometown had begun the day before, on April 28. It was now the morning of April 29, 2016, and her phone remained silent.

I was shaking, she said, lifting her arms and rattling them around.

When her phone finally buzzed, and she saw the Flex number on the screen, she nearly swooned. I was like, Holy moly!

After the phone conversation, she burst into tears. Her classmates surrounded her, congratulating her.

I still have on my jeans a red dot where the (classroom) floor was just painted, Bezpala said. It was kind of awesome.

When she got home and told her parents the news, her mom also began crying, giving her hugs.

My dad didnt cry, but he was really happy, she said.

By mid-August, Bezpala had learned where she would be spending her year in America Southwest Missouri. She jumped online and absorbed everything she could about the area and her new school, Webb City High School. She looked up her host familys house via Google Maps, read up about her schools rich tradition in football, studied the mining history of Joplin, watched YouTube videos of the Joplin tornados destructive aftermath. She became a Jasper County expert overnight.

The night she found out who her host family would be, she waited anxiously for them to contact her.

I waited; waited for them for hours. I emailed them. I was so nervous. I was thinking, Why are they not responding to me? You have a new host daughter and youre not responding?

Mother Nature was to blame. While Bezpala worried inside her bedroom, the Krteks were sound asleep thousands of miles away. Bezpala had forgotten about the eight-hour time difference between the two countries.

We talked the very first time at 5:30 (that) morning, Krtek said with a laugh. It was very heartwarming. I could hear the excitement in her voice. She thanked me 1,000 times for opening our home to her.

One happy family

Sept. 8, 2016, was the day Bezpala arrived in Joplin following a 16-hour flight from Kiev.

That was the day, Krtek said, that our lives forever changed for the better.

There was no fear on Bezpalas part about her journey to Joplin.

I an 16 years old, she said. What would I be afraid of?

It didnt take long for Bezpala to adjust to life in Americas heartland, though some of the sights here took her by surprise. Her jaw dropped open the first time she stepped inside Joplins Target store. She discovered that the U.S. has a dizzying amount of great-tasting candy, almost too much to fully comprehend. She wanted pictures taken of her inside Mercy Hospital Joplin because nothing quite like it exists back home. She melted when she dined inside Joplins Del Rio Bordertown Cafe, falling in love with the cheesy spinach enchilada; Ukrainian food, she said, can be a bit bland by comparison. She also learned to love cold drinks; America loves iced teas and cola and coffees, something thats not common in Eurasian countries.

She immediately took to her new school in Webb City, she said.

Oh my gosh, I read all about it (before coming here) 12 championships, the Cardinals. Webb City is the best. I do love football. I still dont understand it I just know to cheer when I hear the word touchdown.

Her school back home is small, roughly 400 students, and it houses students kindergarten through 11th grade (there is no 12th grade in Ukraine). At WCHS, she was thrilled to find herself surrounded by students all her age.

There are no little kids walking around, she said.

During her first day of school, she was a bit worried about how she would be accepted. After all, shed seen the American movie Mean Girls. But none of the Webb City girls were mean to her. By her second day, she was surrounded by nearly a dozen girls at the lunch table. Friends for life is how she described them.

Bezpala finished her American school year with a 3.8 grade-point average; she had also volunteered 100 hours of service to her adopted community, including helping out the survivors of the Goodman tornado in McDonald County. She also gave eight presentations about her native land throughout the school year, including a demonstration on how to prepare her countrys native dish: borscht.

She was surprised by the lack of public transportation (Here in America, everybody has a car), and the only thing she truly feared during her time here was the weather tornados.

Everybody here says they are used to tornadoes. How can you be used to tornadoes? Im not really worried about thunderstorms, the thunder and lightning, but on TV, when the (tornado) warning, the sounds, the sirens ... Bezpala stopped and shivered.

Unlike most students, Bezpala does not intend to move and live in the States. She loves her land, and she wants to stay close to her parents she is an only child. She will likely go to college in neighboring Poland and wants to become a journalist. But she plans to visit America every chance she gets. Shes visited 11 states during her nine months (I still have 39 more to go!). She has already promised to attend the graduations of her new brother and sister, the siblings shes never had before Eva and Adrian.

Heading Home

Bezpala is headed back to her parents home in Kharkiv on Thursday.

She will never forget the opportunity given to her by the United States, she said:Your country gives money so we can come here, with (Americans) opening up their houses to us. What other country in the world does this but (the U.S.)? I really appreciate everything here. People are nice here. We are welcomed here.

A going-away celebration was held on May 28 by members of Krteks church, The Sanctuary of Joplin. There was a map of the world, and linking the USA to Ukraine was a chain of red hearts and the message: Together forever. Never apart. Maybe in distance but never at heart.

Since weve become connected, she definitely has become a part of our family, Krtek said. In fact, on her Facebook page, the dominant photo is a family picture that includes a smiling Bezpala. I think she hasnt just impacted us as a family, shes impacted all of our church members. Even though she is going home, there will always be a connection between us.

When asked by her Ukrainian friends if the experience was worth it, she throws up her hands.

Are you even asking me this? I got to spend an entire year in the U.S., and youre asking me if it was worth it? Bezpala said. Weird question. If you ask any person in the Ukraine, they would say yes!

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From Ukraine, with love: Eurasian teen spends a year studying at Webb City High School - Joplin Globe