Written by David Svien
Iris Ryckaert is taking full advantage of her time in America, playing volleyball in addition to cheering. Iris (RT in the photo) is not from around here, yet she fits right in.
The bubbly Coupeville (WA) High School senior, who is balancing dual roles as a Wolf cheerleader and a volleyball player, hails from Belgium. Now the foreign exchange student has swapped all-day school and close access to the mall in a 20,000 person city for a town where there’s still a blinking light at one of the two main intersections, and where she can live out her slice of the American Dream.
Having no clue of where she would be placed — she lives with a host couple in Oak Harbor and their three little children — Ryckaert came to Coupeville with no expectations. What she has found has delighted her, however. “I like Coupeville because it’s small, so everybody knows everybody and people are very nice!,” Ryckaert said. “The advantage of this small school is that I could participate in the high school sports and that it’s easier to make friends. “I’m really happy to be in this lovely small town called Coupeville,” she added. “Chance has it right! Because all goes well.”
At home, Ryckaert attended school from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM each day, with another two hours of homework on top of that. Facing an American curriculum has not been especially daunting for her, but she has enjoyed the small differences. “School is very, very different in Belgium. Here it’s very easy,” Ryckaert said. “But what I really like in the school here, is that the teachers and the students are close together. Because in Belgium there is a big distance between teachers and student. They are stricter. But here we have a lot of fun with teachers.”
The addition of sports to her life — in Europe they opt for club sports over high school teams and Ryckaert played a bit of tennis — has been a great cause of joy for this world traveler. “I was so excited and I really wanted to be part of a high school sports team. It was one of the things that I really wanted to experience here,” Ryckaert said. “I’ve never played volleyball before, but I really love it! I will probably continue volleyball next year in Belgium,” she added. “I really like to practice sport every day and to stay in good shape. The games are very exciting for me, even when we lose!”
Never one to back down from a challenge, Ryckaert also dove head-first into that most American of pastimes, waving her pom poms for the most peppy coach in all the land, cheer guru Sylvia Arnold. “Cheerleading, cheerleading … we don’t have that in Europe either,” Ryckaert said. “It’s typically American, so I really wanted to experience cheerleading, too! And I love it! It’s very funny and it’s like in the American movies, or it’s part of what you can call the American dream,” she added. “I love cheerleading, and all the girls inside the team are lovely!”
Ryckaert, who has an older sister who lives in the South of France, plans to return to the highly-charged academic life after her year abroad. She will attend the university in her city and study economics. When she does go home, she will take back valuable lessons with her. “I always wanted to leave one year after my high school years,” Ryckaert said. “The main reason is, of course, to perfect my English, because it is, for me, essential for my professional future. But it’s also a human and cultural experience because I meet a different culture, so different people.
“And thanks to this year, I will be mentally stronger, because it’s not always easy to be far from my country and my family,” she added. “It’s not easy to live something totally different. So, I’ll be more mature to confront my future life.”
