As the summer season winds to a close, the Bethany parking meters have been taken down, Ernesto is a distant memory and vacationers have freed up Ocean Highway and returned to their home states.
Coastal Point • Laura Ford:
Warren’s Station’s international student workers, from left, Yovelina Langureva, of Ploudiv, Bulgaria; Iwona Adamska, of Poland; Bernadetta Kutyta, of Poland and Magdalena Adamczyk, of Poland.
But for seasonal residents Valentina Subbota, Yovelina Langureva and Ekaterina Gorbunova, “home” is much farther then a car ride away. They are among some of the many international students working abroad in Delaware’s coastal region this summer.
McCabe’s
In South Bethany, there was a mixture of tears and smiles as Valentina Subbota, 21, hugged her fellow McCabe’s co-workers and promised to keep in touch. Subbota from Kamensk-Uralsky, Russia described her time spent in Delaware as, “so interesting. I feel something that I have never felt before.”
Subbota said she was very impressed with how kind and polite people were by the shore. She connected the attitude with the climate. “In Russia it is very cold and so the people are more cold,” she said. “Here it is warm and the beach, so everybody is kind and smiling.”
Subbota is among many international students who have gone through the program at the Council on International Educational Exchange, CIEE, which recruits students to live and work abroad. Students from Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Poland and other countries connect with this program, obtain a student visa and come to the United States to work June through September.
Getting around was “a great physical training system” according to Subbota. She used a bike as her main mode of transport. Students also made use of the DART bus and trips set up by CIEE to see places like Baltimore, Washington and Niagara Falls while they were in the country.
McCabe’s owner, Rebecca Mais, was also emotional as Subbota said her goodbyes. “It is like a family here,” Subbota said.
Of the international staff Mais said, “They are a huge help. They have great attitudes, speak English so well and are here to help out when all the (American) kids head back to college.”
Subbota and boyfriend Dima Pshenitsyn took a Greyhound bus back to New York to catch their flight home on Saturday.
Warren’s Station Family Restaurant
Yovelina Langureva, 21, came to Fenwick Island from Ploudiv, Bulgaria. She said things are very different in Delaware than in her country. “The lifestyle is very different. In my country there are a lot of poor people and corruption — things I do not like. I like it here very much.”
Langureva is studying hotel management in Bulgaria and said she has learned things in the U.S. that she will take home with her. Her experience has helped her develop a world view of society, she said. Langureva also said she is paid well for what she is doing, something that is not guaranteed in her country.
Along with the life lessons Langureva obtained, she also witnessed her first hurricane when Ernesto stormed through the end of August. She described the storm as both exciting and scary. “It was fun to watch,” she said, “I never knew the weather could be so powerful.”
Manager Elise Mumford said Warren’s Station goes to CIEE, the Boston-based company, for workers instead of waiting for students to come to them. “We tell them what positions we have available and they recruit workers,” she said.
Mumford said she hoped the contact between her employees would not only be a great experience for the students working abroad, but also broaden the cultural awareness of the local workers as they develop relationships with the international students.
Blue Crab restaurant
Ekaterina “Kate” Gorbunova, 21, came to Bethany from Russia through CIEE’s Work and Travel USA. However, she obtained her summer position at the Blue Crab by what she called “good luck.” It was not minutes after she arrived off the Greyhound from New York that she ran into Blue Crab restaurant owner Tim Haley. “Tim found me and offered me a job and I said, ‘OK,’” she recalled.
Gorbunova said work was a little difficult at first. She recalled an incident in her first three days on duty when she was asked to “broom” the kitchen. “I just stood there and smiled,” she said. “Then the other girls asked me if I knew what this was and I told them I had no idea.”
Students come to the U.S. with a good grasp on the English language, but Haley said there is jargon used in the restaurant that would never be taught in an English textbook. “Their English is very good,” said Haley. “I am always surprised how quickly they pick things up.”
Gorbunova said she had never seen the ocean before her experience in Delaware. “The ocean is so big.” she said, wide-eyed. “I try to go to the boardwalk whenever I can, to catch every minute.”
Along with the beach, she said she had never seen so many chips, sodas, fried chicken and hamburgers. “This new food has not been a good influence on my figure,” she admitted.
Gorbunova then laughed and said, “But this is part of the experience and I have to try it, right?”
Gorbunova said the trip has definitely taught her a lot about living on her own and about the things she wants in her life. She said she will definitely miss the ocean and the sun… and Bethany… and her work… and her friends. “It’s for me, this place,” she said with a sigh.