Freshmen Ashton Friend has been surfing and snorkeling in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Panama. He has seen amazing feats of architecture in South America. He has been to 10 different countries, and has been to many parts of the United States. Most  people only get a few opportunities in their lifetime to travel around the world, but Friend has already been more places than most people could hope to go.

Friend was born in Los Angeles, Calif. With his parents being busy with work, he spent a lot of his time with his nanny, who spoke Spanish.

“My first words were in Spanish,” Friend said.

Friend moved to St. Paul around age 5, and later moved to Albert Lea. He proceeded to attend a two-week Spanish camp at Concordia Languages Villages, where he picked up even more Spanish. When he started high school in Albert Lea, he skipped the Spanish 1 class nearly every other freshmen takes. He went into Spanish 2, and is glad he did.

“I don’t feel like I missed any Spanish,” Friend said. “If you actually spend time learning it it’s fine.”

On top of spending two weeks at Concordia and skipping Spanish 1, he is planning a month-long camp at Concordia this summer. There he will speak mostly Spanish and continue to pick up on the language. Because he is attending this month long camp, he will most likely skip Spanish 3 and go straight into Spanish 4 as a sophomore.

“We’ve never had anyone skip levels of Spanish because of a camp before,” said Spanish teacher Mrs. Brownlow.

Friend is doing in this in hopes of being a foreign exchange student to Spain during his junior year. Albert Lea has always had multiple foreign exchange students come here, but rarely does an “Albert Lean” become the foreign exchange student.

Friend has already visited Spain, as well as many other places. Throughout his life, he has been to Spain, Peru, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Cambodia, Thailand, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. He has also been to many places in the United States. He recently returned from a ski trip in New Mexico with his family.

Other than becoming a foreign exchange student during his junior year, Friend would like to visit Greece, India and Italy sometime during his life.

“It’s just awesome,” said Friend about traveling.

While Friend has been many places and had tons of experiences, one of his most memorable experiences was visiting Machu Pichu in Peru.

He said, “I could have just sat there all day, it was so amazing.”

Friend has also had some rather funny experiences. When he was in Japan, a drunken man walked up to Friend and his sister, Jordan, and made Jordan hold his fake teeth. The man then took Friend’s sunglasses and started dancing. Friend did get his shades back from the man.

Friend has been to many Spanish-speaking countries and is well on his way to becoming fluent in the language. He doesn’t want to major in Spanish though, but he is thinking about taking it as a double major. Being fluent in the language will help Friend with both his traveling and whatever career path he may choose to take in life.

While Friend has seen many beautiful places in his lifetime, the sights aren’t the only reason he likes to travel. He loves the culture in other places, and learning about the differences between America and other countries.

Friend will continue to travel throughout his life, and using the Spanish skills he learns in high school and later on, he will be able to communicate with the people he might meet in Spanish speaking countries.

“I don’t like [Albert Lea],” Friend said. “There is so much culture everywhere else.”