Mother, daughter prepare for living abroad

JET SET-Westlake Village residents Lucinda Silver, left, and daughter Samantha, a Westlake High School junior, are on their way to Europe. Samantha will attend school while living with a family in Madrid, Spain for the next 10 months. Lucinda will be teaching school in Denmark.

A Westlake Village mother and daughter left home last week, each bound for her own adventure in a different part of Europe.

Samantha Silver, 16, is in Spain for a nearly yearlong exchange student program. Her mom, Lucinda Silver, 52, is in Denmark teaching English at an agricultural trade school.

Samantha won’t return until July. Lucinda will come back in January.

The Silvers spoke with the Acorn shortly before embarking on their journeys.

“The world is so big,” said Samantha, a junior at Westlake High School. “I want to expand my horizons and see what’s out there.”

While she packed shorts and flip-flops for warm Spanish weather, her mother filled a suitcase with sweaters and boots for Denmark’s cool climate. Their outlooks were equally different. Lucinda couldn’t wait to go. Samantha, although excited, was a little more tentative.

“It’s hard to be away from my family,” Samantha said. “Hopefully I will be able to survive emotionally.”

When Samantha decided to go on the exchange program, Lucinda saw an opportunity. With two sons away in college and Samantha graduating from high school in less than two years, she said she was “facing empty nest syndrome.”

“This is a chance for me to have a mid-life crisis without destroying everything,” she said.

Her husband, Craig, is fine with her being away, she adds. He travels often on business and while Lucinda is away he plans to spend weekends going on golf trips with their sons.

“He was so sweet. He just said, ‘if it’ll make you happy . . .,’” Lucinda said.

This is not the first time Lucinda has been to Denmark. When she was 16, she spent a year as an exchange student there and loved the experience. She retained both the language and the relationships she formed with host families and friends, returning to Denmark to visit and hosting her Danish friends in Westlake Village.

“I wish more people would try this. There are so many wonderful experiences,” she said.

While in Denmark, she will live at the school and teach three classes a day. She will continue working as a radio consultant for the Randy Lane Co. in Westlake Village. Lucinda advises deejays on how to improve their on-air shows. She can access their programs online and do evaluations via e-mail.

Lucinda enjoys Denmark for its close-knit population, natural beauty and food. With a population of only 5 million, Danes are like one big family, she adds.

“I feel like I can be part of that family,” Lucinda said. “It’s a very civilized, well-educated place.”

Samantha says her mom inspired her to make the trip to Spain.

“It was so awesome that she had done this and learned so much,” Samantha said. “It was always something that I looked up to her for.”

To participate, Samantha underwent a rigorous application and interview process through American Field Service, the international exchange program sponsoring the trip.

She is living in Madrid with a single mom, her 12-year-old daughter and the girl’s grandmother. She will attend a local public high school, taking classes taught in Spanish. Samantha hopes the two years of Spanish she studied will be enough preparation. Westlake High School will give her credit for courses she takes in Spain.

Before Samantha left, friends and family told her she would be asked many questions about America, California and politics.

“I hope I know enough about my culture to educate them,” she said.