Cultural Exchanges

The day's lesson was on economics and culture. The other goal: to foster international understanding, connecting high school students in America with their counterparts in Germany. As events unfolded at Ganesha High School in Pomona on Thursday, that would indeed happen. But connections of a different sort also took place, the kind high school students can relate to on both sides of the Atlantic.

IF Southwest Chamber Music can raise the money, next year it will be the first U.S. group to participate in cultural exchanges with Vietnam since the Vietnam War ended in 1975 and with Cambodia since the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979.

The car transporting Alexander S. Sokolov -- minister of culture and mass communication for the Russian Federation -- slid into the driveway of downtown's New Otani Hotel recently just behind a shiny black Hummer bristling with chrome.

The moment he opened his door and saw the cable installer on his Encino doorstep, Eric Haymes began pondering how he could bring up the subject of the man's face.

This week, Muslim American poet Najeeba Syeed-Miller took the holy month of Ramadan to a new and unfamiliar audience: low-income and mostly Latino children who live in the Maravilla Housing Development in East Los Angeles.

They traveled through deserts and snowstorms, down quiet, winding back roads and along busy thoroughfares. In New York, restaurant owners gave them meals.

Twelve-year-old Dasha Slezko has had one incredible month, living in the dorms at UCLA with a dozen kids from Los Angeles and another dozen from South Africa.

Twelve-year-old Dasha Slezko has had one incredible month, living in the dorms at UCLA alongside a dozen kids from Los Angeles and another dozen from South Africa.