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Valentine story:
From student exchange to vow exchange --

John Sonderegger
Of the Post-Dispatch
Monday, Feb. 14 2005

So you think foreign-exchange student programs are all about learning other cultures and going to museums and enjoying dinner with the host family and their friends. Well, sure, that's the idea.

Then there's the story of Anna Kramer and Cameron Bahram-ahi. They met in 1999 when Cameron was a junior at St. Charles West High School. He went to Ludwigsburg, Germany, as part of the Sister Cities student exchange program. He didn't stay with Anna's family, but Cameron's older sister, Shauna, was part of the program, and she stayed with Anna's relatives. Anyway, Cameron and Anna met and they hit it off right away.

That summer, Anna came to St. Charles on her own and stayed with Cameron's family."We really fell for each other right away," Cameron said, "but we weren't sure we'd ever see each other again when she left. We stayed in touch with e-mails
and phone calls." Anna said, "We were young and both still in high school. I was just 17 and I still had two more years of high school." Cameron didn't speak much German, and Anna was just learning English. But they knew they wanted to be together and didn't want their love to fade. To keep it alive, they made several more trans-Atlantic trips.

Anna finally came to the United States for keeps in September. Cameron was entering his senior year at the University of Missouri-Rolla. She now is taking classes on the Rolla campus. They were married on Dec. 22 and live in Rolla. Cameron is finishing his degree in mechanical engineering and still trying to learn German.

Anna has been here long enough and often enough that she already has developed a distinct American flavor to her English."A lot of people say I sound just like him," Anna said, "and I guess I do. He's the person I talk to the most. I guess our words are the same, but with different voices." Anna said some people are intrigued about the way they met and "nowadays people meet in all kinds of ways. This was pretty crazy, but it's not like we were just two random people out there."

True enough. They met the old-fashioned way, by being properly introduced, on a Sister Cities foreign-exchange student program. The rest was up to them. Joe Daues of the Sister Cities Club of St. Charles is fascinated with the story of Cameron and Anna. "It's a Valentine's Day story," he said.

Yes, it is Joe.

Happy Valentine's Day to all today, especially those looking for love. You never know where you're going to find it.