Three days after we returned home, we went to Richmond to pick up a 13 yr. old Japanese exchange student who stayed with us for 4 weeks. The moment Tom picked him out of the Japanese group, he knew it was going to be a very long 4 weeks. I was a little more optimistic. Unfortunately, I was wrong. It was a very, VERY long 4 weeks.
Masashi could barely speak English. Every time we said something - even the most basic phrase - to him, he would cock his head and say, "Huh?" Oh. My. Goodness. This was very difficult for me. Even after interpreting the same phrases day after day (THANK GOD FOR GOOGLE TRANSLATE!!) he continued to do the head-cocking thing and say, "Huh?" It was like he wasn't even trying to understand us! Daniel basically gave up trying to talk to him after Day 2. He told me he didn't like Masashi. Oh dear.
In addition to the communication barrier, Masashi was not the most outgoing child. He never asked questions about anything. He was completely fine doing absolutely nothing. This is completely opposite of Daniel.
I decided to just throw Masashi into our busy life and not explain too much. I had him go to swim practice with Daniel (he is an excellent swimmer, but very thin and wasn't able to handle the cold water well.) We wanted him to experience a swim meet and he seemed to want to participate as well, until the day before the meet and he said "No." We were completely fine with his decision. He came to the meet and
We did a lot with him - went to D.C., kayaked on the Shenandoah with our youth group (he's part of a canoeing club in Japan), went to Hershey Park, went horseback riding at another host's house in Middletown, hung out at the pool, helped at band camp, visited Shenandoah Caverns, canoed on the Shenandoah again, walked around downtown Winchester, went to the fair, and went to King's Dominion.
Funny thing about the amusement parks: two days before heading to Hershey, we sat down with Masashi to talk about the trip. We asked if he liked roller coasters. "No." Oh boy. Well, Tom was determined to get him on all the coasters at Hershey. He was sure he would like them in the end. Masashi was a trooper during both the Hershey and King's Dominion trips. He did most of the rides and rarely complained (he and I both got a little nauseous at one point at Hershey, so we sat out a while.) He smiled and laughed and seemed to be having a good time. Well... We took him back to Richmond at the end of his stay to meet up with the rest of the Japanese kids at a hotel by the airport. During lunch, the coordinator for the program in VA came around to each family and had each host student say something about the visit and then each exchange student say something. Most of the Japanese kids said one or two nice things about their visit, such as, "I like to be in America." or "I like the 'so-and-so' family." Anyway, Daniel did such a nice job talking about Masashi and his visit, then handed the microphone to Masashi who proceeded to say, "I do not like roller coasters." Okay. "Is that it?" asked the coordinator. "Yes," nodded Masashi. Shock. What else am I supposed to feel. We really made a great impression on him, didn't we?? LOL! It's a bit unfortunate, but we were quite relieved after saying our good-byes.
During those 4 weeks, Clare and Daniel kept very busy. Clare had volleyball camp at Liberty with the Sherando team the week after we returned from vacation. Then she helped with Follow the Leader Camp the next week. The next week she had volleyball tryouts - she made the varsity team again! Woo hoo! :) Volleyball was in full swing from then on - practices every evening from 5-8 p.m. Thank goodness she can drive now!! She also had a TON of summer work for three of her upcoming classes. (What is up with summer work?? I never had it and did just fine!)
Daniel was able to hang out at the house neighborhood pool a lot for the 2 weeks after we got back. He also spent much of his time at swim practice, both at Stonebrook and VSTG. The SVSL Championships went very well - he won all of his individual events - 50 fly, 50 breast, and 100 IM. We are sooo proud of him! Then... band camp started the first full week of August. He had 4 days (7:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.) the first week, 5 days the second week, then 3 days the week before school started. I really don't know how the band director can make these kids do this! Apparently, they almost doubled the time at band camp this year from 1 1/2 weeks to 2 1/2 weeks. Ugh! Thank goodness we had 5 other kids in the neighborhood carpool, so I was only driving 2-3 times a week. He also had summer work for his 9th grade English class. He was finishing up the night before school started, of course.
School started back on Monday and both kids are doubly busy now. Clare is a junior now and is taking 3 AP classes and 1 honors class. Daniel is a freshman and is taking a full load of honors classes. I'm interested in how things go for him as he starts high school. Both kids are trying to keep working towards college goals. Clare is undecided about where she is going, but thinks her focus will be speech and language pathology. Daniel loves math and science and wants to go to VT, of course ("The food is great!") Clare needs to manage her time better with volleyball season in full swing. There really isn't much time for sitting around and watching TV. I'm very happy to say she's taking the responsibility seriously. She doesn't need me to say, "Do your homework." Daniel, on the other hand... Like I said, it's going to be an interesting year.
I'm trying to stay focused at home and with my business. It's hard at the moment because all I want to do - at least for a few days - is watch old "Say Yes to the Dress" shows and sit out in my swing chair on the porch (see below.) Haha! Really, though, it's hard to get motivated. I definitely want to get the house in order. I'm going to be doing the 14 week organization challenge I found on Pinterest: http://www.abowlfulloflemons.net/category/home-organization-101. I think I may blog about this - it might keep me motivated. Then I can be held accountable, right?? :)
