On June 20, 1960, 18-year-old Kirsten Mærsk Dyhr left Copenhagen, Denmark by ship with nineteen other young women and leaders of Girl Scout Troop Absalon II, for a summer with the American Girl Scouts of Manchester, Connecticut.

Growing up in post-WWII Scandinavian society, she experienced an entirely new perspective on personal freedom and independence. Within a culture of big cars, banana splits, and buildings that reached for the sky, "Kis" discovered more than the excess of mid-century Americana. It seemed there were no limits to the dreams they could achieve or the amount of ice cream they could consume.

Through carefully translated letters, diary entries, and digitized scrapbook pages, Kirsten’s story of coming to the United States for the first time captures the spark of independence that ultimately led to her discovering her own American spirit.