Two Days Down

We arrived at 2pm on Friday for our host family orientation.  It was a crazy morning—me trying to get a lot done, then picking Leah up at my friend’s house, picking up Mike at the train before finally getting to the church.  The orientation was fine—us and one other family—and was over by 3pm.  Since we and that family had a long way to go back home, they offered us our kids early, so we accepted and they brought Kristin out to meet us.  We had Leah stand with the other family’s kids and hold the teddy bear we’d made, and she seemed charmed enough when she saw Leah standing there.  We took a quick picture and hit the road.

Something was in the air this weekend in DC, because traffic was absolutely awful Friday and Saturday.  It took us 2 hours to get home, which sucked.  It was shades of last year all over again.  I really wish something could be done about the traffic in the area.  We ordered our traditional “welcome to the family” pizza from Domino’s and then put Leah to bed afterwards.  We chatted with Kristin (as she has decided to be called, pronounced “Christine” but much easier on Americans than whatever her first name is—having heard her pronounce it 4 or 5 times, I still can’t say it!”) for a while, everything went very well, but she was clearly tired and decided to go to bed.

The next morning, I had plans to go to lunch with friends, and had invited Kristin to come with me, but she overslept.  When I came home after sitting in traffic ANOTHER 2 HOURS, it was to a total disaster zone—an upstairs toilet had overflowed, and neither Mike nor Kristin could figure out how to shut off.  The water leaked down into the finished basement of the house, and they managed to call the neighbor who helped shut it off and start the clean up, but I still called 911 and had the firemen come in to check the area.  Our ceiling was punched in and partially pulled down, and there was water everywhere.  Welcome to America!

We decided to go out thereafter and show Kristin the town.  While I was out, she had asked Mike could she go for a walk, thinking she could just walk wherever she needs to go.  Kristin is from a very small island off the coast of Iceland, population about 500 people.  They walk everywhere.  She is also able to drive.  So I think she is going to be mourning a lot of her independence in a big city without good transportation and nothing really close enough to get to.

So I drove her over to see the high school and the football stadium, then we took her to old town, Central Park, Wegman’s, the mall, all of that fun stuff.  We got home and I called our neighbors to see if I could throw in a load of towels at their house.  I took Kristin down to meet them and she was very happy, as they have dogs and she LOVES dogs. 

My sister came down afterwards and we had a welcome bbq of sorts—it was raining and gross out, so we cooked out and ate inside.  We tried out some kind of a fish thing that Kristin brought with her from Iceland.  It is a dried fish and you put it in butter and then eat it.  It’s kind of like fish jerky.  It wasn’t so bad, really, but Leah want crazy for it.  She ate 3 or 4 pieces!  I couldn’t get over it.

Afterwards, we taught Kristin Skip Bo and then it was pretty much that we were all tired.  My mom called and I cried, we let Kristin go on Skype for a bit with her family, and then we all went to bed.

Today she spent most of the day in her room.  We got her out of there this afternoon to have a chat with the host family questionnaire and that seemed to go very well, except she really doesn’t want to call us anything except “Susan and Mike” which is not acceptable.  I gave her a brief lesson on American coins and she showed us some money from Iceland. 

After we did that, I showed her the stereo and the TV, and then she went back upstairs till we got her out with a trip to the mall.  We gave her almost 2 hours there and she enjoyed doing some shopping, and said everything is quite cheap.

Afterwards, we went over to Panera and got dinner and then went to Hurkamp Park, where there was supposed to be a “Name that DIsney Tune” concert by a local orchestra, but they never showed up!  So I loaded us into the car and we drove the battlefield and I showed her some more historic monuments in town before coming home and everyone turning in for the night.

The first days kinda suck, especially if your student is an introvert, which both of ours have been.  I find it helps to keep them busy and on the go, forgetting about sitting around.  Tomorrow I will call the school so we can plan for that, and I do have to wait for the electrician, cleaning crew, and insurance adjustor to make contact, but if they all plan to come tomorrow then tomorrow night we will go to DC to see the monuments.  That will be a lot of fun for her, I know, as she has loved taking pictures of the ones in the ‘Burg.  I hope to have something fun to do every day.  I recently found out that she likes go karting and laser tag, so I’ll put that into the schedule. I just want her to be happy for the short time we’re together and I hope she’ll come out of her room and meet us halfway!