We proceeded to the high school wing to find out what cleaning we would be doing. We ended up painting the boy's locker room, and cleaning and organizing the weight room. When we entered the locker room, we all encountered a family who was leaving who was irritated at the fact that we were coming in to paint behind their "cleaning." Their version of cleaning consisted of leaving huge cobwebs in almost every corner. Flo, Reed, McKenna and I worked with another family and one of McKenna's friends. We finished painting the locker room, cleaning the leftover cobwebs and all, in just over an hour and a half. We then went on to clean & organize the locker room, which supposedly had been "cleaned" before we got there. It was interesting to have the conversation about what different versions of clean we all seemed to have. The conversation only reinforced how lucky our family was to have Florenz as a part of it; he shared our similar values. Downside to the day? Florenz got paint on his shoes... I could only look at him and say, "Welcome to Sant Bani," with a meek smile. Hopefully some mineral spirits will get the paint out of his shoes. He was good-natured and kept a smile.
It occurred to me as I was continually introducing Florenz that I was labeling him. He was constantly being introduced as our 'exchange student'. Did this bother him to be labeled as such? Truth is, that is exactly what he is; however, as with all labels, it diminishes the human behind the label. Rob and I are Florenz's host parents, so I finally said to someone as I put my arm around Flo, "Florenz is our son for the next 10 months." He smiled and put his arm around me. No need for explanation. People understood immediately. But it occurred to me later on as I introduced him to Rob's mom and said, "This is your 4th grandson," did calling him our son bother him? This is a shot in the dark for me as to how to introduce him so he feels most comfortable.
Around noon, we left and came home to have lunch, shower, and head off to various family events around NH & VT. We decided to have leftover pizza from the night before. The whole food thing has been fun. When Florenz arrived, one of the questions we asked him was what his favorite food was. The kids were surprised when he said pizza. I'm not sure what they expected him to say - perhaps some German specialty, but it made me giggle, reinforcing the notion that we're all not that different. When asked what toppings, there was definitely a difference. We're a family who puts pepperoni, mushroom, onions, bacon, perhaps veggies on our pizza. Flo explained his favorite was topping was noodles. Noodles?! He explained it was like having spaghetti on your pizza. Hmmm... we said we'd have to make it at home one night to try. He agreed on Friday night that he would try the toppings we liked; we ordered pepperoni & bacon and pepperoni & mushroom. After 3 bites of the pepperoni & bacon, I asked him if he liked the pizza. His eyes lit up and a huge smile came to his face, "This is sooo good! I think I might like this better than our German pizza!" At least he enjoys of some America's finest culinary delights!! LOL!
After lunch and showers, since we were all covered in paint, we headed to Thetford, VT to a cousin's birthday party. Here, Flo met Rob's cousin Heather & her husband Seth and their children, and his cousin Jenny and he children. It was difficult to try to explain the relationship between Rob's cousins' kids and our kids - we always just leave it at they're cousins!
After the birthday party, we headed to Lebanon to get Rob's mom, Mary, and then got back in the car to head to her cottage on Sunapee Lake. At the cottage, Flo was able to meet Mary's boyfriend - our kids call him Grandpa Steve - and meet 'Aunt' Kate & 'Uncle' Bruce. Kate & Bruce own the cottage with Mary & Steve, and are very close friends with the whole family. They have known our kids ever since they were babies, so they call them aunt & uncle, even though their is no immediate relation. We joked that we would quiz Flo on all the people he'd met at the end of the day, but we assured him he would see these people often during his stay, so it would get easier each time.
I felt badly we were spending so much time in the car. I'm not sure why I felt that way, but I did. It's a fact of living in this area - you have to travel a good distance to get much of anywhere. As we talked at the party about extended family, Flo explained both sides of his extended family lived at least an hour or more away from where he lived, and he had to travel to see them. It made me feel better that he understood traveling to see family members. I keep having to tell myself I don't need to entertain him because he is here as a part of our family for the next 10 months, but it will take me a bit to let that idea to truly sink in. I still have that feeling that I need to entertain. I know it will subside sooner than later. As we were traveling the back roads to VT, Flo told me one of his friends was placed in Williston, VT. I said perhaps some day this fall, we could try to meet his host family half way so Flo and his friend could get together. It wouldn't be any time soon, but perhaps it would be good for Flo to meet up with a friend from home. Then again, would this make him homesick? I can tell sooner than later, Flo might hit a homesick wall. It's only natural. We'll cross this bridge when it comes.
While we were at Mary's house, the kids were playing ball outside, and Reed started running after the ball at one point, and Flo called out to Reed, "Run, Forrest, run!" I almost fell over laughing. Genuinely, this reference proved to me there are less cultural differences than my kids think. Flo's life is so similar to theirs, just in a different part of the world. I think my kids thought he was coming from some distant remote land where he was deprived of many of the luxuries they know. In truth, he's so much like them in so many ways, and with each passing hour, I think my kids are realizing this.
We ate and ate while at the cottage. When we arrived, we got out chips & salsa. Then my father came in with a dozen doughnuts. Then we ate a huge dinner of roasted chicken, ribs, watermelon, cole slaw, grilled summer squash, and raw cucumbers. Of course, we ate some of everything that was put in front of us. Florenz is so willing to try anything new, and it's helping Reed, especially, to realize he needs to open himself to try new things and foods. He tends to be narrow in what he's willing to eat and do, and sometimes he misses out. Flo has been such a wonderful influence on Reed so far in this manner. Flo said at one point, "I feel like I'm getting fat." We all started to chuckle, but I did have to explain to him that we do eat tons of food, especially when we are together as a family.
Before we ate and the early rain from Tropical Storm Irene came, we took the boat out of the water in case things got bad. We drove the boat to Sunapee Harbor, and McKenna got out to wakeboard. She bobbled a few times, but got up. She didn't stay up long, but it's peaked Flo's interest. He said he'd never waterskied before, and was interested in the wakeboarding. He willingly put on a life jacket as the skies continued to grey from the impending storm. He even said, "I'm so excited to try this!" Rob explained what would happen as the boat pulled him up; after 4 tries, he said he was done - the skies were continuing to darken, and it's rough trying to get up on a wakeboard. It's can sometimes feel like your arms are being yanked out of their sockets when you fall. He came really close to getting up on his last try, but he was so willing to just jump in and try! Look at the determination on his face as he's trying to get up!
1 comment:
Such a cool experience. I enjoy reading your posts... it is a bit like talking with you- sort of. :) Miss you!
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