LAGUNA NIGUEL : 7th-Graders Are World ‘Travelers’

David Smith, a seventh-grader at Niguel Hills Middle School, struggled to balance the giant sombrero that threatened to cover his entire face. Dressed in traditional Mexican garb, the freckle-faced 12-year-old said he would love someday to visit the country south of the border.

“They play a lot of soccer there and I’m a soccer player, so I really want to go to Mexico,” David said. “I like their clothes too. The sombrero gets kind of heavy, but the poncho I get to wear is really kinda cool.”

David was one of 240 seventh-graders at the school who on Friday morning participated in the second annual “Walk Around the World” event, a celebration that included costumes, foods and informational displays representing 35 countries.

The event was the culmination of a prolonged social-studies lesson. Students were placed on committees and spent several weeks studying the customs and history of a particular country.

They studied areas such as food, sports, education, history, climate, wildlife, agriculture and population.

“The main objective is to expose them to different cultures,” said teacher Susan Peterson. “These are the countries that they will be studying this year. This gives them an opportunity to practice research, forces them to try international foods, and they get to see what kinds of clothes people wear in different countries.”

Student Nicole Zywieci looked displeased to be dressed in a Saudi Arabian costume, which included a scarf to cover her face.

“I don’t like it,” said Nicole, 13. “I think women should be able to show their faces and have more rights in that country. It’s not somewhere I would want to live. Never.”

“I would freak out if I had to spend a week there,” said Kevin Murray, who also studied Saudi Arabia. “It’s definitely different from America.”

Mellissa Tafoya, 12, was much more enthusiastic about Spain, the country which she researched.

Attired in a festive Spanish dress, Mellissa cheerfully asked fellow students to sample some naranjas alkirsh, a Spanish dessert that she made with oranges, black cherries, strawberries and almonds.

“I want to go to Spain some day and dance the flamenco to folk music,” Mellissa said. “Someday, when I travel the world, I just know that I will go there.”

Sarah Kelly, 12, studied Kenya and said the African country was more complex than she had once imagined.

“At first, I just pictured a bunch of mountains with giraffes walking around,” Sarah said. “But we learned that they have normal cities just like we do here.”

Twelve-year-old Ian Shifrin, who studied Peru, did not want to dye his sandy blond hair black for the class project.

So in order to look more like a native Peruvian, the seventh-grader simply placed a pile of stringy black yarn on the top of his head and called it hair.

Ian said he enjoyed learning about the history of Peru, adding that he wouldn’t mind spending his next vacation there.

“I’ve already been to Hawaii, so I think going to Peru would really be kind of neat,” he said. “It would be great to see with my own eyes all of the things that I’ve learned about.”