Trader Colin meets the world

By Ana Rodriguez Soto - Florida Catholic newspaper

Krakow, Poland | So far, this is Colin Apruzzese’s take from World Youth Day: a bracelet from the Holy Land; a handmade bracelet from Mexico; a handmade rosary bracelet from Iraq; a wristband that says JUGND2000 from a German group; a button that says “Jesus loves me” in French; and one large Portuguese flag.

That last one, which he tends to wear like a cape on his back, has caused him a bit of trouble.

“A bunch of French people started looking at me because Portugal beat France for the European cup,” said the 17-year-old, an incoming senior at St. Thomas Aquinas High School. “It was funny when I figured it out.”

Of the 23 St. Thomas students traveling with the Archdiocese of Miami for World Youth Day, Colin is the one most likely to shout out to passing groups to ask where they’re from, give them a high-five or wish them a hearty “Vive la France!”

“Being able to see this many people from around the world is just incredible for me. So I’m loving every minute,” he said.

Being crammed into a streetcar along with dozens of other WYD pilgrims put him in conversational heaven — with some Swedish girls.

“I had a long conversation with them. They were pretty nice, too,” he said.

So were the Iraqis. “I really love this rosary bracelet that one of them gave me.”

Then there was the Malaysian girl he met while waiting for dinner one night. He gave her a St. Thomas Aquinas High pendant and got a button in return.

“She came back five minutes later with five or six things. ‘Here, for your friends,’ ” Colin recalled.

He also got a little Greek flag from a Slovakian. “I don’t really know how that happened,” he said, breaking into laughter.

When trading, Colin uses the school pendants that theology teacher Dee Layman brought along. All the students also received buttons that say “Fort Lauderdale 2016.”

Of course, they can use their own WYD acquisitions in future trades.

The typical transaction goes down like this: Two teens make eye contact along some street and one of them (usually Colin) shouts, “Hi, where you from?” (It seems most of them can speak a few words of English, enough to be understood.)

They briefly face each other and say, “Wanna trade?” or simultaneously hold up their wrists — it’s usually bracelets — and take one off.

The conversations are necessarily brief because each party is headed in the opposite direction and under pressure from a chaperone to keep up with the group.

Unless, of course, they’re all stuck in a streetcar.

Colin got the Portuguese flag in exchange for a St. Thomas pendant. After handing it over, he asked, “Do you have a flag or something?” expecting a tiny pin or the hand-size version. His counterpart instead pulled the big one off his back and gave it to him.

But Colin says it’s really not about acquiring things. He often gets without giving, and vice versa.

“It really is like being united with your family again,” he said. “It’s just incredible that everyone is so friendly and so outgoing. You just talk to them. You make them smile.”

Colin has only bought one item as a souvenir: a Polish flag, the same size as the Portuguese one, which he also began wearing on his back. It, too, leads to a little confusion when he has to explain to passing groups that he’s not Polish but American.

His mother’s grandparents, though, came from Poland through Ellis Island, and Colin said he really wishes his maternal grandfather could have come along on the pilgrimage. “So I figured I need to represent Poland.”