Getting ready

Well, we are hosting again this coming year.  We are hosting a boy J from South Korea.  He seems very nice in the contact that we have had with him.  It has been very limited due to his lack of being on the internet.  His family aren't an internet family.  That isn't necessarily a bad thing either.  It has made getting some information from him hard.  His mother did write us a very nice e-mail about taking her son.  He is on the younger side, so it will be interesting to see what difference that makes.  Let's face it with teens a year can make a big difference.  He does write when he can.  This does remind me of the days when my grandparents hosted.  Many times there was no contact at all before the kids came.  It didn't hurt their relationship at all, and I don't expect it to hurt ours.

End of Stay

Well, G has been gone now for almost three weeks.  It has taken quite a bit of time getting used to the quiet.  We had a busy time at the end of his stay.  He did go to the prom.  He finished second in the balloting for prom king.  He enjoyed prom tremendously.  They have prom in Brazil, but G says it is the after graduation party.  It is only for the graduating seniors right after graduation.  All the parents attend it also.  There isn't as much dancing he says as the US prom.

He also had the finish to the tennis season.  He went to districts in both singles and doubles.  Didn't have the results he was looking to get, but really enjoyed his time on the team.  His coaches were great. They really enjoyed having him as part of the team.  They had wonderful things to say about him at the end of the season banquet.

G also spent quite a bit of time with his friends before he left.  Most weekends he was with somebody doing something.  He also spent the night with a few friends.  I think this was the part that got to him the most at the end of his stay.  He told us when he came over here that he always knew that he would be seeing his Brazilian friends again when he got home.  He never expected to make such good friendships in the year that he was here.  He expected to make friends, but not have the bond that he developed with many of them.  The hard part of going home was that he wasn't going to have that feeling of knowing when he was going to see them again.  Now, some of them are planning and have started saving, to go see him in Brazil.  A few even already have their trips planned.  He may also end up going to college here, and when I say here I mean close to his home here in the States.  With that uncertainty though it did make his good bye all that harder.  Also, unlike last year with the other organization, the trip home isn't set on a specific dates.  The kids and their parents make their own dates in the return.  There is no departure orientation in the US.  They do it that in the kids home countries after they have been home for a couple of weeks.  That way the kids can discuss what they are feeling and have a chance to have the reverse culture shock.  They feel it is one thing to tell the kids about it, but another thing for the kids to live it.  How it is done is that the kids need to be back in their home countries no later than two weeks after the last day of school.  Now, they can get permission to stay a little longer if there is a trip scheduled, but other than that they need to be home.  In G's case, his parents came to our house for graduation.  They left the day after he graduated to go visit NYC.  G's last day of seeing most of his friends was graduation which left him having a very bittersweet day.

G's family arrived the Thursday before graduation.  Now, the visited FL before they came up here.  They flew up and rented a car which was nice.  We didn't have to drive into NYC to pick them up at the airport.  Considering it took them 7 hours to make the much shorter drive to our house, I am glad we didn't have to go get them.  That first night I made dinner since I knew they would have to be hungry.  They hadn't really ate since the morning.  We had skyped with them, so it was like we already knew them.  We had fun that first night hearing about their FL trip.  We took them the following day to watch NASCAR final practice.  G had taken them around town in the morning.  We all went to the track, as it happened that NASCAR was at a nearby track for the weekend.  G's dad loves formula 1 racing, so he was interested in watching stock cars.  Well, we weren't sure if his mother would like it.  Turns out that she didn't want to leave the track when it was over.  We went out to dinner and then came home.  G threw them out of the house back to their hotel when he couldn't get his packing done.  The following morning I had to take him to the school early for all the graduation pre-ceremonies.  We met his parents for graduation.  We enjoyed graduation.  They loved that they got to see it since he missed his graduation at home.  That afternoon, well into the evening, we had the neighbors over and had a BBQ and bonfire for G's last night here.  It was such a great evening.  G went to the only graduation party that he could attend after our party was over.  The following morning his parents picked him up and they came to get his things.  After a few minutes, he left.  The house has been pretty quiet ever since he left.  We do miss him.  What we really didn't expect, but happened was that we didn't blend two countries.  In reality, we blended to families that are now extended family.  It was the greatest experience of our lives.

Getting ready for Prom

Well, prom season is among us.  J was not in our house last year for prom.  This was a new experience for us.  I asked G to find out where everyone was getting their tuxes.  He did, so, since, tennis practice was cancelled on Thursday we went get him fitted.  He picked out a nice tux, and we did a good job matching his dates dress color.  Her actually dress color is eggplant.  The tux didn't have that color immediately available in tie and vest, so we went with the closest color that was available.  To me this color looks exactly like eggplant just with a different name, so it works.  G went with a gray tux instead of black.  He doesn't really care for black tuxes.

Yesterday, marked the seven weeks until G goes home.  He is actually leaving to go visit NYC with his parents.  He will be leaving the day after graduation.  It seems like we are running out of time together.  His friends are also feeling the same way, and they are all trying to jam all that can with him while he is still here.  Even though there is the chance he will be coming to the US and close to us for college, we don't know if that will happen.  That is leading to everyone wanting to do things with him before he goes back.  This has led to him being very busy the past few weeks.  I think that it is interesting, and finally hitting him that he is going home.  On the way back from tennis, he said to me that when he left Brazil he knew that he would be seeing his friends again in June.  He now realizes that, with the exception of the friend who already has plans to come visit him, he has no idea when he will see his friends from here again.  That is a startling realization for him that he admits he wasn't prepared.  I don't think he ever expected to make so many great friends here.  He has other friends of his that came over here for exchanges and didn't have the friend experience that he has had.  You can tell as time winds down that this is weighing on him.  Plus, he is going to miss all but one of the graduation parties of his friends.  Even that has his a little down, because it is the same night as his last night with us.  I told him not to worry about it, and to go and have a good time.  We will still be in touch with him, so there is nothing to worry about cutting into our last time.  Besides, we have to prepare T for G going home, and not being here all the time.

In other news, we have heard from J, our new exchange student that will be arriving in August.  He is from South Korea.  G will be talking with him before he leaves.  J is actually the same age as all the neighbor kids and his favorite sport is basketball.  The neighbor plays all the time, so I am sure they will get along well.

Surprise! I'm back!

Well, I figured I would do an update. Well, many updates since it has been quite a bit since I last did a post. First, I would like to say that is has been a wonderful experience. Let me get you caught up on our busy life the past few months. G continued playing football for the first weeks of school. When he decided one practice that the best way not to get hit was to throw the ball, his football friends talked him into joining the soccer team. We were then back to being soccer parents. I wasn't sure how that was going to work to be honest. We were going to be crossing into the path of J's friends that were still here. In the end, it worked out great. G has many friends that were friends of J. These kids have been around us and to our house. They have found many lies the J told. J is not happy about some of it. He is getting a lesson in why you shouldn't lie which is something that he truly needed.

The soccer season went fine. T made numerous friends with the other parents and siblings of players. He was known as little buddy for the season. It really brought him out of his shell. For those who want to know, T and G are great buddies. T can't wait for G to get home from school. G is also very patient with T. Let's face it. It isn't easy dealing with a three year old at times and G does it without complaint. The soccer team made the playoffs. Still can't figure that one out with their record, but they did. G was sorry to see it all come to an end.

Before the weather got bad, we took G out on the boat. He got very good at water skiing and kneeboarding. He is looking forward to the weather getting a little warmer, so that he can go again. We also took him to Hersheypark. He loved that. G loves rollercoasters. Hershey has many of them. We went with my family which added tot he fun of the day. T also rode rides for the first time. G also got to go in the fall to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He has become quite the baseball fan. He enjoyed seeing some things, but did say, since he is knew to the sport, some things didn't mean much to him.

The holidays came and went. For Thanksgiving, we went to L's families house in NY. L's parents just moved up to the area that his mother was raised. Her family all lives there. G made many new friends with the family. There were 40 people in town for the holiday. G did well telling people about his life in Brazil. He also got to go to see a science center and learn about the Rochester area. This was interesting to him because he was actually studying the Erie Canal when we went. He got to see it firsthand. For Christmas, we went to see my family. We live less than two hours away from them. To say my family goes big is an understatement. G about passed out when he saw the amount of gifts lined up on the wall. Granted it was for a whole family, but everyone get quite a bit. I keep waiting for the year my mom actually buys less as she claims after each Christmas. G was treated like a regular family member. He spent much of his break playing my brother and brother-in-law on the Wii. It is amazing how far technology has come considering all of the were in different states when they were playing. G also learned how to ski. He was fortunate that his friends here are also local ski instructors. They gave him free lessons. He was a natural. January and February were filled with school and skiing which suited G fine.

G loves school. He is an excellent student. The teachers and guidance department love having them at the school. Every time I run into one of his teachers, they tell me how much they will miss him. He changed his schedule for the second half of the year. The school felt he needed to be more challenged and they placed him in advanced biology and Honors history. He is doing well with those, but I did have to talk to the history teacher. I had to remind her that he hasn't has US history prior to this, and that if she was going to mark him for every little thing than he would to go back into regular history. This was his psychology teacher who wanted him in her class for history. I expected him to get caught up and be able to do things the way she liked, but she couldn't expect him to come into an honors class not knowing anything and be marked the way he was. It wasn't fair to him. Plus, the organization that he came here has a minimum grade requirement in classes, or they would let him do extra curricular activities. His teacher was fine with that once she found out about his requirements, and that this year does count for him back at home. We also had the where I am going to college debate. He wanted to go to college here for a period of time. It doesn't mean that isn't going to happen, but it was decided that he would go home and take the national college test. Depending on how he does on that, he may becoming here for college. If he does, he is applying to colleges near us and L's family. He wants to be near family if he is studying here.

G went to Disney on the senior class trip. He had a fun time there. It has led to many offers for prom which he is still deciding who he is going to take. I was interesting listening to him describe Disney. We had been there plenty of times. I worked there when I was in college. G felt the same as we did that Disney would be so much better if you take some of the corporate out of it. You don't really need a gift shop at the end of every ride. He did all the main Disney parks. he also got to go to Universal and Busch Gardens. It was a great trip for him.

G has now started tennis. He played at home. His father sent his tennis raquet to him. He started playing this week. He did well in the first match. If the kid he was playing didn't cheat, he would have won. Why on earth the kids call their own games is beside me. They should have some umpires or something. His second match didn't go as well, but the kid was great that he played. He even gave Gabe some points. He could have let the ball go out, or call them out. He chose to continue playing the point.

G now has to choose his prom date, and get ready for the rest of his stay. He is trying to do as much as possible with his friends. He said to me, in the car, that when he left to come here he knew when he would see his Brazilian friends again. He has now realized that he has no idea when he will get to see his American friends. G's parents are coming for graduation, and G leaves the day after graduation to go home. I think it is hitting him that his time here is getting shorter and shorter.

In the meantime, we have picked out our next student. We are hosting again next year. We at first were going to take the year off, but with G potentially coming back for college and needing a place to sleep during breaks, we decided to host again. We love the organization, so we decided to do it again. We will be hosting J from South Korea next year. I will keep you posted on the last few months of G being here. It is going to seem so strange to not have him here.

Football

Well, G is now an official member of the football team. He started practicing in full pads on Tuesday afternoon. He is enjoying it very much. He is trying out different positions and loving it. So far he has tried wide receiver, strong safety, free safety, and linebacker. He must be showing promise because they haven't had him just go to kicking yet. He is a soccer player in Brazil. At some point, they will see how he kicks. For now, he is showing some promise at playing other positions. We will see how he does. He doesn't care if he ever plays in a real game. He just wants to be a part of the football team.

When I pick G up in the afternoon, he is very tired. He wasn't used to this kind of training. He loves it, but it does tire him quite a bit. He plays soccer at home like I said, but that is more in a pick up league. He isn't used to having practice every day and for this amount of time. Of course, once school starts, he will have less practice time. He fell asleep on the couch last night. Then he went to his room to look at some new guitar music he bought. The next time we saw him, he had come out to tell us he fell asleep in his room, and he was going to bed for the night. He didn't want us to think he was being anti-social. We already figured that he was asleep, but it was nice that he came out to tell us. Things here are going good so far. It is also nice that G will have many friends by the time school starts. That really does help with the transition.

First Few Days

This will probably get long since I have been to busy the past few days to blog. I guess the best place to start is the pickup. I had to drive to Newark to go pick G up. His local coordinator also went, but we took separate cars because her daughter and friends wanted to meet G. If I ever needed a reminder on why I don't miss NJ, it was this trip. Everything was going as planned until I hit construction 15 minutes from where G was located. That 15 minutes to over an hour to complete. K, his LC, was behind me and it took her even longer to get to the hotel. We opted to pick him up at the hotel. His organization offered to send him to one of the airports that were a little closer to us, but the flight plan was crazy. I couldn't see sending him half way around the country just to save us 40 minutes of driving. I got to the hotel and found G in the lobby playing his guitar for some of the kids that were waiting for their turn to be taken over to the airport, so that they can take flights to their host cities and towns. One poor girl was so nervous she couldn't speak. We waited until K got there. T was with me. He saw the indoor pool and wanted to go swimming. We spent a long time listening to him saying pool. Finally K made it and we off to get something to eat. We ate at the Olive Garden for lunch and then went the rest of the way home.

G was amazed by the size of our property. He lives in a condo in Brazil, so the idea of having land and a large yard was foreign to him. Mind you we have a nice sized property, but it isn't huge by some American standards. He loved being able to run around after T outside. We waited for L to get home from work. He couldn't take the day off to go pick up G. I made grilled chicken and zucchini for dinner, and we just took the time to get to know one another.

Friday, we went to see my parents. My brother was in town, and since he doesn't get up this way often we went to see him. My family likes to play cards. G taught us Truco. It is a trick playing game. We had a lot of fun playing that. Friday night we just relaxed around the house and enjoyed each other's company. G also played his guitar for us. I can already tell that is something that I am going to miss when he heads home. He is very good and it is nice listening to him play.

Saturday we went to the county fair. We had a nice time showing it to G. He didn't expect it to be as big as it was. We also watched the lawnmower races that they had in the afternoon there. That was interesting for him to watch. He then went with his LC to ride the fair rides. She brought him home after they were done. T was getting tired so we left early so he wasn't cranky later on that night.

Sunday was a big washout. It rained all day. G played his guitar in his room for a bit and then we played pool for a couple of hours and had a great time. We have also spent a lot of time discussing differences between the countries. G is amazed with our commercials here. In Brazil, it is against the law to use your competitors name in commercials. He was surprised to see Pepsi commercials making fun of Coke. He also has enjoyed being able to watch all the preseason football games. He watches American football in Brazil. He is a Patriots fan which is something we have to break him of since this household is made up of Steeler fans. It is nice that he watches all the same sports we do. He knew the basics of baseball, so we are teaching him the finer points and aspects of it.

I forgot to mention that we had the discussion of rules on Friday. Turns out he has the same exact rules at home that we do in our household. We gave him his list of chores and he added one that he does at home that we didn't give him. He also didn't bring a computer with him. We have two in the house, so he is using ours. He asked to use it, but, by his own admission, he really isn't a computer kid. He goes on occasionally, but he doesn't live on FB or those type of sites. That is the complete opposite of our last exchange student. I don't think that we will run into the problems that the internet can cause, especially since he doesn't have a computer in his room.

Yesterday was G's appointment to pick classes. That went great. He has certain classes that he has to take here in the states so he can graduate once he goes home. He will be in the junior class here. It didn't matter to his home school what grade he was in as long as he took their required courses. Because of that, it freed him to take more fun electives since he didn't have to try and jam in all the PA state requirements to graduate. I think he will enjoy everything he has picked to take.

He also has joined the football team. We did have to get his father to run to his doctor's office to pick up a letter stating that he was just in for an exam and is in good health. That way, he doesn't need to get a physical here to play sports. His father e-mailed me the letter and he can start practicing in this afternoon's practice. This morning he is just watching the team run plays. It will be interesting to see what he thinks of football practice once he gets home. This also gets us into a routine before school starts. Practice is the same hours school is, so he will get used to that. He also is making some friends already from the team. That will be helpful to him once he starts school. I think we are well on our way to a great exchange year.

He's in the US!

Well, late last night Brazil time, G left to start his journey to the US. He flew from Sao Paulo to Miami. From Miami, he flew to the NY area to have his orientation. We did get word from him that he made it safe and sound. The only wrinkle is that their tour of NYC got cancelled today because of rain. They started their actually orientation part early and will go tomorrow on the tour instead of having the orientation that they are doing tonight instead.

His e-mail was enthusiastic. He is very laid back. Up until a few days ago, you couldn't rally sense any excitement from him. We didn't skype with him. All of our conversation has been on FB. It is hard to gauge someone's tone of voice through IMs. You could tell today that he was excited in everything that he wrote.

I am picking up his Local Coordinator Thursday morning and we are going to pick him up at the hotel he is staying. I am very excited to actually meet him in person, and make him a true member of the family. It will nice to finally have him in the home. I am glad that he gets the chance to go sight seeing during his orientation, especially since he will be seeing all the main sights of New York. He should have much fun doing that, and I know he has already made some friends. It is hard to believe that in less than 48 hours he will actually be in the house.