Just like my sister!

Yesterday Sam was playing with one of my favorite DIY toys, the "dig station." I took a disposible aluminum baking pan from the grocery store, the small square kind that you might make brownies in, filled with dried lima beans that are about the size of a dime, and there you go - instant fun for his little cars and trucks. He fills up his little pick-up trucks and makes deliveries, and goes off road with his mini ATVs. Fun and not too messy, but don't try to get all creative as I originally did and buy dried peas to add color because they just end up on the floor and they are too tiny for little hands to pick up! So he is digging around, and then he starts his favorite new activity, writing his name on everything with a dry erase marker, and I hear him start...S...A...S...A...S.A....S.A...Essay...I am going to write an essay! Just like Sara! So cute!

Home exchange on the rebound?

photo: Leila Haj-Hassan

One morning I sent a home exchange inquiry to a posting in a French town with a name I didn't recognize, letting them know (in English) that I was looking for a year-long exchange. A gentleman responded almost immediately that indeed he was interested, but I didn't quite understand the rest of his message, which was in English. We switched into French and he let me know that he would like to exchange for 6 months, and that he and his wife could also offer us 2 weeks of hospitality to show us the sights before they went to our place. I looked up the town and it's a suburb of Paris, about 6 miles from the city center. Wow! I had a million questions: where are the nearby schools, do they have reliable high-speed internet for my husband's work, how does the public transportation system work, are any of the schools English-speaking? He, on the other hand, didn't have a single question. Not a one. He wanted to exchange starting the following month, which was much too short notice for us, so we settled on a 6 month exchange for the 2nd half of the Parisian school year (February to July). Because we wanted to spend the whole school year abroad, he suggested we find another family in Paris and arrange a consecutive exchange with them, starting off the school year with the other family and then moving on to their place. Excited to find something, I told him that I would start looking for the "first" exchange and would keep him posted on my progress. I emailed him again and told him I would be happy to answer any questions about our home or about our area, but he just said he didn't have any questions, he and his wife were just looking for relaxation. I thought it was odd but figured he was older and maybe that's just his way.

So after about a week, I emailed the French exchanger after to let him know that per his advice we were still looking for another exchange, but we hadn't forgotten about him and wanted to know what the next step was. Yay, we were very excited and Sam was starting to ask me about France. He responded back that unfortunately, because he was due to leave for the States within 2 weeks, he would have to decline our offer. What!!?? I read and re-read his message, and then copied it into Google's translator just to make sure I wasn't totally crazy. Nope, I understood it - he was blowing us off. Tempted as I was to send him a nasty message, I didn't want to blow the exchange so I said that I didn't understand, I thought we had agreed on an exchange in February so why was he coming to the States in 2 weeks? Was it for a different exchange? No, he said, we did have an agreement for February but he didn't want to wait any longer for us to make a decision, and so he would give us one week to decide if we still wanted to exchange. Huh?? I referred him back to me original message, and again said that yes, we are on board, ready to go, and would like to take the next step toward fixing exact dates with him. I apologized for my poor French, and hoped he understood. I didn't hear from him for 4 days. 4 days! I wasn't sure what to think, when he finally replied back to me:

Je ne peux plus vous attendre. Malheureusement, je dois décliner votre offre pour septembre. Cordialement.

I can't wait for you any longer. Unfortunately, I have to decline your offer for September. Regards. September? This guy wasn't making sense in his own language, no translator was going to help me with this problem. But this was Paris. Paris!! So, of course, I started writing back to him. We are prepared to purchase plane tickets for your offer of a home exchange from February to July. Are you still interested in making this exchange? But before I sent the email I started to think about it. If this man didn't seem trustworthy, or even coherent, over email, did I really want to set my kids up for disappointment and set myself up for non-refundable plane tickets? Would I want this man staying in my home even if the exchange did work out? I knew the answer was no, but like a bad relationship, I just didn't want to let go. I didn't know at the time that a great opportunity was just around the corner.

Not just archery and bug juice anymore

This summer my daughter Sara spent what she calls the best 2 weeks of her life at Swedish language immersion camp in Bemidji, Minnesota. The camp is at Concordia Language Villages, a total language immersion camp designed for kids aged 7-18 run by Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. Sara decided that she was interested in learning about Sweden after watching a television show on Scandinavian music, and soon developed an interest in learning the language. Unfortunately, there aren't many opportunities to study Swedish in the States, so she started out by using the Rosetta Stone language software. Remember learning about the Rosetta Stone in 8th grade? OK, neither did I, but thanks to the internet I was ready when she asked me exactly what is a Rosetta Stone, anyway? (I know you're looking it up now...it's OK). So this year was her first time at overnight camp, and we wanted to find something very cool for her to do. When we found Concordia Language Villages, we were super excited to see that they had a Swedish program and that it looked excellent. We quickly signed Sara up for the 2-week session and figured we would have months to prepare her for the potential frustration of an immersion program. Amazingly, Sara embraced the study of all things Swedish with full vigor, to the point that she drove us a little crazy with it, and by the time camp started she was already singing their national anthem and having short conversations with herself. Even Sam knew a few key phrases, just by listening to Sara. My Mom and I flew halfway across the country to attend the parents' day at camp and see what Sara had gotten herself into, and I was just blown away by the positive energy and enthusiasm of the staff and of the campers. They were on cloud 9, even though they were hot, sweaty, and not smelling too terrific. I was moved to tears watching the kids sing in Swedish while Sara had a huge grin plastered across her face, something I hadn't seen in a long time. As soon as we got home, I set to work immediately on finding us a home exchange with a Swedish family. Tack så mycket, Concordia! Vi kommer alltid att minnas dig!