International youth flock to US Spelling Bee

Of the record 288 competitors in this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee, no one traveled farther than the 13-year-old boy from Hamilton, New Zealand.

"We're still feeling the effects a little," said his mother, Katherine Foulkes, who accompanied Thomas for the 22-hour trip.

Thomas wasn't alone. Jiwon Seo, 11, flew in from South Korea with her parents and sister. Maria Isabel Kubabom, 13, arrived from Ghana with her mother, having spent an unscheduled night in New York along the way because luggage problems caused them to miss their connecting flight.

"The luggage was soooooo slow. It was a welcome to your country," Maria Isabel's mother, Marian Tadefa-Kubabom, said with a laugh.

International competitors have been part of the bee for three decades, and two winners have come from outside the 50 states: Hugh Tosteson of Puerto Rico in 1975 and Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica in 1998. Canada's Nate Gartke was last year's runner-up.

One of the lasting memories from last year's bee was the thick Kiwi accent of New Zealand's Kate Weir, who baffled judges several times with her pronunciations of certain letters. Even after listening to a replay, the judges couldn't decide whether she was saying "g" or "j."