Family matters were at the forefront this week. Our son and his family have had a number of extremely difficult situations happening in the past week or so, including the demise of one of their cars in Manhattan this week. Try to picture this: a couple from Vermont, with one of their 3 teens in tow, plus their Russian Foreign Exchange student – whom they have just picked up for the first time – all stranded in NYC with their car dying on the Hudson Parkway. Now picture this same group, having been towed to an automotive dealership, standing in the service department of said dealership on the 4th floor of a skyscraper, no less – learning their car is a total loss… Fortunately, we live in central Jersey and were a phone call away.
So we got to meet Maria, from Russia, at tad earlier than we had anticipated. She is a bright and lively 15 year old who loves sports – especially basketball. Her English is excellent – which is a good thing since none of us knows any Russian! We’re all learning to speak more slowly so she can understand us. Maria has a delightful presence and I’m sure we all will benefit immensely from knowing one another over the course of the next 9 months. Just imagine being a 15 year old in a new country where you’ll be living with perfect strangers in rural Vermont – and before you even get to their home, you are stranded in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world with this new family, without any transportation to go anywhere! Talk about an immersion experience!
One funny aspect in this saga is that Maria’s father owns an automotive parts store in a large city (the name of which I can neither spell nor pronounce) in Eastern Russia.
SO after a couple of days of frenetic activity, and by full the light of the full moon, I’m finally back to sewing, tranquility and calm. Next week the excitement will all return – the Vermonters are on vacation and will be returning my car, on their way to introducing Maria to Philadelphia and the Jersey shore for some history, sun and fun. All 6 will be here at some point making our little townhouse bustle with activity once again. I’m enjoying the present state of calm and look forward with happy anticipation to all the excitement when they return!
Oh, one more funny tidbit: the very first thing our youngest granddaughter showed Maria after they entered our home was my fabric stash!!! Granted, my studio is the living room of our townhouse, so it is the first room people enter. But my fabric stash??? Maybe Alyssa is on her way to becoming a fiber/fabric artist! She certainly knows what’s important in life!
1 comment:
I hope the foreign exchange process/program/person goes well for all of you. We had a 15 year old boy from Korea in 1996 - 1997. He was way too introverted and too young to do well with the program, but we all gained from it in the end. We have visited Korea, his sister has visited us, and he visited us again this year. Kids sure have opportunities these days.
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