THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 23, 1994 TAG: 9410210282
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Susie Stoughton
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
To Rachel Williams, Isle of Wight is an annual vacation spot, Southampton is a seaport and Suffolk is home - Suffolk County, that is.
And no, she's not confused. She's from England.
Rachel, 16, hails from the town of Bury St. Edmunds in the Virginia Suffolk's sister city that is really a county. But, of course, much of Suffolk, Va., was Nansemond County before the localities merged 20 years ago.
The Suffolk Sister Cities Commission pairs the two Suffolks for the best of both worlds. The first two weeks of October, Rachel and two other British students came to the New World on a two-week student exchange.
Every other year, English students come to Suffolk, the city, and on the alternating years, Virginia students go to Suffolk, the county.
The young British ambassadors were surprised at America's passion for everything, particularly the way we get hyped up for holidays.
``Americans are more enthusiastic about things,'' Rachel said.
Jamie Rinder, who lives in Ipswich, the county seat of Suffolk, has never been trick-or-treating. Halloween is just another day for him.
``People here are already thinking about Thanksgiving - which we don't have, of course - and Christmas,'' he said.
Their countrymen are more reserved than Americans, said Jamie, who hopes to teach French and German after finishing school.
Obviously, these bubbly youngsters don't fit the mold of the typical, laid-back English. They were picked, in part, for their perkiness since bashful Britons would have a hard time handling Americans' friendliness, they said.
``They wanted an extrovert,'' said Jamie, who stayed with Bruce and Kitty Kirk and their children, Josh, 17, Eleanor, 6, and Caroline, 3. ``That was the word they used. Now, I can see why.''
Emma Whelan, a vivacious teen from the village of Earsham, had no problem fitting into the frenetic pace at the Irby home. Her hosts, Skip and Chris Irby, have five children - Jennifer, 20; Matthew, 18; Josh, 16; Catherine, 14; and Andrew, 12 - and a multitude of cats and dogs.
``The phone rings here every 10 minutes,'' said Emma, an aspiring journalist who writes for two local newspapers when she has time.
Someone must have carefully paired up the students with their hosts, said Rachel, who stayed with Paul and Anne Craig and their daughter, Melissa, 17.
``I'm a loner,'' said Rachel, whose interest is music. ``I just live with my mother.''
The British teens were appalled at the widespread violence involving guns in this country. Oh, for sure, the British are prone to fight, they said, but they settle their disputes with baseball bats instead of sawed-off shotguns.
The English do a lot of bullying, Emma said, but there's much less chance of killing someone from a distance with a baseball bat.
``We don't even play baseball,'' Rachel said. ``But we have baseball bats. We have them for hitting people with.''
They were surprised to see a policeman in one of the local high schools.
``He was just carrying a gun through the school,'' Jamie said. ``It was quite a shock.''
British officers - coppers, they call them - don't carry guns, they said.
The teenage trio also visited a peanut farm, Planters Peanuts and QVC. And they were taken to points of interest in Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Jamestown, Williamsburg and Busch Gardens. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Jamie Rinder, left, Rachel Williams and Emma Whelan are visiting
Suffolk, sister city to their home in Suffolk County, England.
by CNB