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ADAIR COUNTY, MO. -- Most teenagers graduate from high school and head to college. But Heather Kuntz aspired to do other things, like travel the world. The 19 year-old native of Adair County and Kirksville High School graduate recently returned from living in San Cristobal, Venezuela as a Rotary Exchange student. She said the experience was amazing.  

"I loved it so much. It was a great experience, " said Heather Kuntz. 

Her family is happy to have her back home. 

"It was hard in the beginning but the more we got to see her and talk to her on the computer, Facebook, it made it a little easier," said Lisa Kuntz, Heather Kuntz's mother.  " I can't imagine what it'd been like if we wouldn't had any contact for 10 months. It would've been impossible. "

While living in San Cristobal, Kuntz lived with three host families and attended a private high school where she had to wear a uniform. She said the schools over there lack order.

"It was a lot crazier. No one sits down and listens. Everyone has their phones out. All the time, there's like people yelling and screaming. The education wasn't as high as it is here. But it was fun."

One of the daily routines in school consisted of singing the Venezuela national anthem. 

"They have to sing the national anthem everyday at 12 'o' clock and that seemed weird."

Something else that she experienced that she'd never have to go through in the United States - being the only person with blond hair and blue eyes for miles.  

"It's kind of weird, being a minority. Because here I'm just a normal person but everywhere I went, people were staring at me. That took awhile to get used to."

Kuntz said it took three months to pass by before she could communicate effectively in Spanish.

"I was not prepared. They speak a lot faster than I was used to practicing in school and they have a lot of different slang that I didn't understand. After about three months, I was pretty… I would understand everything."

Now back in the Heartland, Kuntz said she cherishes the memories of the places she visited and the people she met, including Venezuelans and several other foreigners as well. Kuntz plans to attend Truman State University in the fall of 2012 and study Spanish and Political Science. 

Here is a link to her interview about Venezuela.