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Publication Date: Friday, July 13, 2001

Teens enjoying sister city program

They may not understand each other's slang, but they've bonded nonetheless.

Matt Macniak of Pleasanton and Rodrigo Marroquin of Tulancingo, Mexico, both 17, have enjoyed being brothers in the sister-city program since Rodrigo arrived two weeks ago. They "hang" together, watching sports on TV, going to movies and the mall, and participate in the program's planned activities. On the 4th of July, they enjoyed the celebrations in San Francisco, and this week they went to the water slides in Concord.

On July 23, they will fly with the other four Mexican and four American teens in the program to spend four weeks together in Tulancingo.

"I've always wanted to go to a Spanish-speaking country," said Matt, a senior at Amador Valley High who has studied Spanish for three years. "This was the least expensive and I'm doing something for the city."

While here, the boys have been mainly speaking English because Rodrigo is fluent. But Matt's mother, Karen Kruze, says the plan is for them to speak Spanish while in Mexico. Matt is already getting an introduction to Spanish slang when Rodrigo shares his e-mail.

"I understand everything his mother says," said Matt. "But I don't understand what his friends are saying - they use a lot of slang."

Rodrigo's father, Joel Marroquin, was one of the founders of the Pleasanton/Tulancingo Sister City Program, and his brother and sister visited Pleasanton before him. Even after hearing their stories, and after vacations in Orlando and Los Angeles, Rodrigo was surprised by Pleasanton. "I expected it to be bigger," he said.

He's enjoyed the active Kruze household, where parents Karen and Steve babysit their three preschool grandchildren every day. "I like kids," said Rodrigo.

The Kruzes have hosted foreign exchange students in their home since Matt was 2, for a grand total of 11, from France, Taiwan, Korea, Brazil and Japan.

"It was my way of bringing the world to my kids," said Karen Kruze. "One thing I've found out for sure - people are people all over the world. Every one had a great heart, a great spirit. They wanted to learn and love and be accepted."

Most of the exchange students stayed for a year, so Kruze feels Rodrigo wasn't here long enough, but they still became close. "He fit in like a glove," she said.