Travels and Passages

In the nearly 2 weeks since my last post, we have been BUSY!  Most of the things I predicted we’d be doing have been done.

June 10, I followed through on my thoughts that we’d go out to Luray to visit the caverns.  It was a great plan in that it gave us something cool and different to see and was underground where Penny wouldn’t have to worry about the sun.  It was also nice and COOL down there, unlike above ground which has been sweltering! 

We left in the morning, and got out to Luray in time for lunch.  I decided we’d go and try to have lunch at a local restaurant and found the Artisan Grille, where we enjoyed fancy sandwiches before heading over to the caverns.  Penny was disappointed that there wasn’t any blackberry ice cream, something she had LOVED when she went hiking on Skyline Drive with Melissa back in May, so we didn’t have dessert, but we had a great lunch nonetheless.  It was only about a mile from the entrance to the caves, so the location was great and it had stairs that Leah insisted on running up and down, so Penny and I got our exercise!

There was something in the cavern air, because the minute we got underground, Leah took a look around, declared it “WEIRD!” at the top of her lungs, and proceeded to scream (there’s an awesome echo in caves) and run wild.  Penny and I were wiped out by the end of the tour, but Leah had an absolute ball and slept all the way home!  The caves were beautiful—I had been once in 1995, and had pictures but to see them in person is absolutely incredible.

Penny declared them “awesome” in stark contrast to Leah’s “weird” and we enjoyed the challenge of getting a decent picture of her that didn’t either obliterate her or obliterate the scenery.  This is one miraculous good one in which both are visible.

June 11, we did go up to her AFS liaison’s home for a good-bye party.  It seems early, but April, her liaison, is actually traveling to Sweden to see her exchange student from last year and won’t be back till after Penny leaves.  It was a really nice time, and April gave all 3 girls stuffed animals with jackets that had their names and AFS Virginia and the dates embroidered on them.  Penny’s is packed and ready to go, it was a really sweet gesture and a beautiful keepsake.

Penny did go to lunch with the Thai worker and to the honors lunch in Stafford, but there’s not much to report about either other than that they did give Penny a medal at the luncheon, which she doesn’t really know what it was for.  She was just happy to have something special to wear at her graduation ceremony.  We had a nice surprise Wednesday night in that we had been talking to our neighbors down the street and it turns out they LOVE Thai food and want to go to Thailand, so we all decided to go to a local Thai restaurant for dinner and they wound up taking us out.  We had a lovely time and they practically begged us to let them take Leah on graduation day so that we could just enjoy Penny’s ceremony!

After her first graduation rehearsal, her friends Ben and Amanda took her up to Tyson’s Corner for a day of shopping, which made up for the fact that Penny decided she didn’t want to go all the way to Fair Oaks mall after all, particularly since the Thai lady took her to Potomac Mills for a day.  Maybe she has finally had her fill of malls?!  I doubt it though! 

We also took a trip to the local mall for a bit of a time out for mom—Penny had 90 minutes to herself to wander and shop and Leah got checked into the local drop in day care and I hid out in the bookstore that’s closing and went for broke—spend $30 on over $100 worth of books.  We had lunch outside afterwards and my spirits were revived!  So I decided to teach Penny some no bake baking, as her family does not own an oven at home.  I taught her microwave fudge and no bake cookies, both of which were a hit!  I would like to teach her to bake in a cardboard box, but I’m having a difficult time getting my hands on a paper box.

Saturday was graduation day.  Penny wore her mystery medal with such pride.  We had to be at the school at 6:45, but I swear she was glowing.  I was so proud during the whole thing and just felt super teary eyed and proud mama-ish, I know I will be an absolute BASKET CASE in 16 years when it’s Leah’s turn!

Penny was thrilled that a number of her friends attended her ceremony as well.  Her best friend, Lesley (bel0w), and friend Stephanie were waiting when I went down to the parents’ picture line to snag a picture of  her receiving her diploma and her friends Charlie and Chrissy were also there, although we missed seeing them somewhere.

 

When we got home, my dad had arrived with my niece and nephew and we had a big pizza lunch (when making out a shopping list for the week ahead, Penny said she didn’t want any pizza at all this week!  Too bad, we’re going to NYC and I already told her all we’re eating is pizza!) to celebrate before she headed off to a party at her math teacher’s house.

That evening we had a chocolate cake to celebrate, Mike and I gave Penny an iCarly game for her DSi as a graduation gift, and then we played lots of Yahtzee and cards until all of us collapsed, exhausted from all the emotions of the day and from chasing 3 toddlers around!

The next day we had a BBQ for Father’s Day and gave my dad and Mike each mugs that Penny and Leah had painted together.  It was a fun project to work on and something both dads can have to remember the girls.  My dad finally was able to leave to go back to my sister’s around 5pm, which was really hard on Penny.  See this picture?

This is Leah and my niece, Dot, staring up at my dad in absolute adoration, which is how everyone stares at my dad, and Penny was no exception.  She doesn’t have a grandfather back in Thailand, and I think it really meant a lot to her to have the experience of having a very involved “PopPop” who was around for many of the big events of her year.  She held tight to him and cried her eyes out before he left, and he told her he was proud of her and she had done a hard thing and could be proud of herself for the rest of her life, which thus made me lose it, and Leah lose it after Penny and I were crying.  Sheesh! 

This morning, we were up and out at 9am to go up to Baltimore, MD.  I had taken Penny through there on our way to Rhode Island but we’d never made it up there to sightsee.  The purpose of our visit was to see Leah’s birthmother and half sister and go to the Baltimore Aquarium, but also to let Penny see another Hard Rock Cafe.   She’s now seen Ottawa, Boston, and Baltimore.  We’re going to get NY and DC under our belts before all is said and done.

We met up with Leah’s BM/sis at 11:30 and went through the aquarium.  Penny is not what you’d call a great fan of animals, so I think she was just going along for the ride, but she did a nice job of taking lots of pictures for us and I snapped a cute one of her in the rain forest area, where may I say, it was HOT!

So that’s where we are with a week to go.  I sat down to make a grocery list tonight and let Penny choose all her favorite meals for the week, so we will be dining on kielbasa and pierogies, homemade boneless chicken wings, and spaghetti with Texas toast, in addition to whatever culinary delights we enjoy in NYC on Thursday and her BBQ/going away party on Saturday.  We sat at the table making the list and Mike said, “I’m going to miss this.  The evenings when Penny did the dishes were my time. I could ask her about school and we could talk.”  And then he started to cry, and Penny started to cry, so I figured I might as well shed a tear or two.  We’re a weepy family these days, but I’m trying to keep in mind the adage:  Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.  And I know we will smile a LOT as we look back on these months together.  I’m so glad we decided to do this.  It’s been an unforgettable experience, so much more than I dared hope for.

See you all with a post on NYC and then a departure post before wrapping up the blog! :0D

Celebrities and Proms

Penny is off at her prom this evening.  We are so happy that she chose to go and work towards one of our goals for her, which is to attend 3 activities at her school.  She is out with her friend, Lesley, who is her “date”. 

The last several weeks, since before we left for Rhode Island, have been spent obsessing about hair.  She asked me to take her to Wal-Mart to buy a straightener so she could curl her hair.  I asked her why she didn’t just want to buy a curling iron, but it turns out that Penny’s mom’s chief complaint is that Penny doesn’t brush her hair, so Penny feels that rather than taking 20 seconds to brush her hair, she could straighten it and her mom would never know the difference.  Anyway, we found a straightener “as seen on TV” that claimed with a flick of the wrist it would also curl, so she bought it.

We wound up having to watch an instructional DVD and we got OK results with it after practicing quite a bit.  Penny came floating home from school one day with a single limp curl in her hair declaring that she had finally worked it out and didn’t her hair look great?!  It was then I decided we were buying a curling iron.  We practiced with it the first night, and her hair was magically curly, much to her delight.  (The right tool works wonders!)  So tonight, we went to town and curled her up for her big night… She was so happy with the results.

She completed it very simply with a headband we had bought for her, and I think she looked like a million dollars!

Another goal Penny had set for herself was to meet a celebrity while in the United States.  I was so excited this week when a friend told me that Paul Burrell was coming to Fredericksburg.  I have long been a very great admirer of the late Princess Diana and while I never got to meet her, meeting the man she called her “rock” was as good as it was going to get.  I have gotten Penny quite interested in the British royal family during her stay here, so I asked her if she wanted to go and meet Paul Burrell and she said she would love to!  Thus her first celebrity meeting was inked.

We went over this morning to the furniture store where the event was being held—it seems Mr. Burrell has had a hand in designing his own line of furniture based on the furniture of the royal family.  He was also signing any books that you had and you could buy books once you got there.  I happened to have two of his books and picked up one more while we were over there…  Penny was quite shy at first and didn’t get a book signed, contenting herself to take pictures of Leah and I.

I did talk her into getting her own picture taken with him, and she was pretty happy about that!

But as we were walking back to the car, I asked her if she didn’t really want to get the last book signed for herself and  she hesitated.  But I could tell she wanted to, so I gave her my last book and told her we’d go back.  She said she didn’t know what to talk about, so I suggested she ask him about the Royal Wedding that we just watched, which is exactly what she did.  He didn’t mind signing her book at all and told her what a grand event the wedding had been and that he thought Kate looked “radiant”.  And when they were done, so did Penny.  She clutched that book to her very tightly, and I know she’ll treasure it for a long time to come.

It was a glorious day for me, to be sure; as I told him, it was an honor just to be in the same room, much less shake his hand and have him put an arm around me for a photo.  But it was also special as a mom to see my two girls interact with him (he actually got down on the floor to interact with Leah, who was MADLY in love), and for Penny to be brave and go speak to him.  

In a few hours, I’ll go retrieve her from her big night and our grand Saturday will be but a memory.  But it was a great day indeed!

She Makes Me Proud!

This past week, I took Penny up to Northern New York (another post on that topic will be coming up soon).  Unfortunately, while we were there, we got snowed in like crazy and so I took some time out to email all Penny’s teachers and let them know the situation and let them know we’d be back ASAP.  I received a wonderful collection of responses about what a great student she has been, and I feel so proud I could bust wide open.  A sample from several letters:

• What an exciting opportunity for her to have. She is a very bright girl and will have no problem catching back up…  --Algebra teacher
• I am glad Penny had the opportunity to go up to New York she is a wonderful young lady and a great student, I am proud to have her in class this year. –History teacher
• Penny is awesome!!!  --Drama teacher

  It’s a good feeling to know that her teachers are responding well to having her in class.  When we hear from Penny and her opinion of school, we often are concerned that things aren’t going well.  Now we know otherwise!

Newspaper Articles

Penny’s school newspaper, the Smoke Signal, did two really nice articles, one about exchange students and one about Penny specifically.  I thought it would be nice to post them.

Click here for the article about Penny.  In the on-line article, they spell her last name wrong in the title.

Click here for the article about exchange programs in general.

The Rest of October

The rest of October is gone in an absolute blur.  I remember taking Penny and Leah to the mall for their photo shoot, and I more or less don’t remember a thing afterwards until I looked at the calendar today and saw a big, fat number 1 on it and thought, “Oh man, it’s November already!”

Penny did go to Homecoming with her friend JB and met up with some new friends at the dance itself.  She looked lovely in her dress and she had a very good time going, although I think she would have liked to have danced more than she did.  Her friend is not much of a dancer and she felt badly leaving him alone while she went to dance.  Still, they had a great time having dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings with JB’s cousin beforehand and then going the dance and coming home.  Penny looked beautiful and felt great in her new dress, so  I’d call the night a success!

  Another big event this month was that we went to Florida for my mother’s 60th birthday party.  We had been planning this for a while and we were all very excited about it.  My mom lives about 90 minutes south of Orlando, so a trip to Disney was definitely called for.  I left the little one with her father and grandmother and took Penny to DisneyWorld’s Magic Kingdom for the day.  It was a lot for her to take in and she was absolutely exhausted by 2:00 in the afternoon, but we managed to go on quiet rides then, like the Carousel of Progress, where she could take a little nap and get some rest.  We were laughing and joking with each other about daring ourselves to go on the “scary rides” like Space Mountain and Splash Mountain, but ultimately my host mom instinct kicked in and I decided that Penny was not going back to Thailand regretting the fact that she hadn’t done things.  I always tell her that she will regret the things she didn’t do much more than the things she did do.  So I did the rides too, even though I really didn’t want to.  But it was fun.  Space Mountain is probably better for me than other coasters, since it’s in the dark and you really can’t see what’s about to happen.  There’s no time to get scared.  Penny was screaming the whole time, and she informs me that I laughed.  We did every ride either of us wanted to and a few I’d never done before in all my trips to Disney and left by about 7:30PM.  It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun.

The next day was my mom’s party.  We had a beautiful time celebrating my mom and her special day.  We did a lot of decorating, we made centerpieces, we put together cookie trays, got cake, entertained my mom’s friends, and made a glorious mess.  My mom is a special lady, and has packed a ton of special into 60 years, so even though I gave her a big hug and she and I both burst into tears, it was a good kind of crying.  I hope she felt all the love in that room—I know we all did!

Monday, we took Penny for her first glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean.  It was a beautiful day but the hurricanes were churning up the water pretty good, so the waves were very choppy.  She elected not to get into the water, but at least she got to see it.

All in all, Florida was a great time.  We came home exhausted, and grateful to be in our own beds, but very grateful to have had such a wonderful time and gotten to know so many people.

Then it was one week till Halloween!!!  Penny was very excited about Halloween and it is really her first big American holiday, so we were excited too.  I had great plans for trips to the pumpkin patch, baking cookies, etc. but the wheels came off our family bus for a while and most of our weekend was taken up with meetings with our AFS liaison and a good deal of sulking, screaming, crying, and door slamming.  I am happy to say that things are better now, but it was very stressful and consequently we didn’t get much done!  She did go to her friend Victoria’s party on Saturday night, though, which was great, since she was able to meet some more kids and have a good time.  She even told us not to wait up for her.  I sort of didn’t, I just waited up in my bed instead of waiting in the living room.

So we crammed it in yesterday.  When Penny got up, there was apple cider and donuts waiting for her.  We carved pumpkins together—something she’d never done before.  It was fun to hear her when I got the top off the first pumpkin and pulled up and the strings and seeds came with it.  She really cleaned out her pumpkin with gusto, though, and took to the spirit of the thing right away.

She carved her own design into her pumpkin and she was happy with it, even if one of the eyes fell apart on her!  I made Leah a little happy pumpkin and in the other pumpkins we had gotten, we used some Mr. Potato Head type pieces that they sold at Target a few years ago to make a pirate pumpkin and a diva pumpkin.  The were all nicely displayed on the front steps.

Costumes were cool too.  I let Penny have the ultimate say in what Leah would be this year, and she chose a pumpkin outfit we found on line.  Leah looked super-cute, I must say, even though I wanted to go with a pirate princess costume.  I’m happy with the pumpkin!  (My sister-in-law pointed out that Leah is going to start forming opinions about what she wants to be soon enough and I may not have another chance to dress her as a pumpkin, so I should strike while the iron is hot!)  Penny chose to wear her traditional Thai dress, something she had brought with her from home and has decided she will also wear to the prom.  She looked beautiful in it, it was a cream colored lace top and a gorgeously patterned golden skirt.  Michael and I wore our traditional Frankenstein and Witch hats that we got the first year we were married.  We cut a beautiful picture as a family.

I took the girls out trick-or-treating starting at about 6:30PM.  Penny kept asking what time it was and could we go yet and so we left as soon as we saw other kids coming out.  We went to all the neighbors up and down the street, but it was COLD!!!! and Penny was freezing in her outfit.  She had on a sweatshirt over it and at each house she would take it off before ringing the bell. 

Halloween is dying, at least in Fredericksburg.  It makes me sad—Halloween was such a special night when I was a kid, but I guess now people are scared about taking candy from strangers, so they take candy from strangers in church parking lots now.  Our neighbors had invited us out to their church for the “trunk and treat” where you go around to parked cars and accept candy from people’s trunks, so after we finished our block, I put the girls in the car and we drove over to Falmouth Baptist and picked up loot and hot dogs to boot!

On the way back, we stopped off at JB’s house, where the dog got loose and Penny ran in circles screaming with the dog barking and chasing her—it was some Halloween excitement!!!  Then we went to Mike’s radio buddy Jack’s, and then I told Penny I needed to get Leah home.  She said she wanted to keep going, so I gave her my cell phone and came home.  She was home about 15 minutes later, having gone to only 3 other houses before the cold got to her and she called it a night.

We all sat together at the table while she counted her loot.  She and Leah bagged 150 pieces of candy total, the top 3 of which were M&M’s, Butterfingers, and KitKats.  She was very excited by the gum she got—the kind in the red, yellow, and blue wrapper that turns rock hard in your mouth after about 5 minutes.  She apparently loves the stuff!  I’m going to go find her some today on sale.

Shortly afterwards, we perused our pictures and then it was bedtime.

So now it’s November and time to look ahead to the crazy season, which is getting underway. I can hardly believe it.  Penny has off tomorrow for election day, so we are going to DC for the day.  For Veteran’s Day, which I think she also has off and which Mike has off, we’re going to Richmond for the day.  Our best friends and my father are all coming for Thanksgiving, then we’re hoping to make a trip to NYC, and then it’ll be Christmas time!!!  Time for cookies and shopping and presents and trees and excitement.  Penny is simultaneously praying for and dreading snow.  We’ll see what happens!

Another Week Has Gone By

Can it really be that a week ago already we were celebrating Penny’s birthday?  I can’t even believe it!  This past week has been full of new experiences for our girl and interesting discussions and just general life.

Penny joined the choir at school as one of her elective classes.  She is very much enjoying it, although she says she cannot sing.  This is not deterring her, however, from at least auditioning for the special select choir, and I’m  proud of her for trying.  I’ll be doubly proud if she makes it!  However, the choir is a bit intense.  Not only does she have to sing, but she has entered the great American enterprise known as fundraising.  They sent her home last week with an order form for pies and flower bulbs.  I put a status on Facebook and called several family members, who agreed to buy pies, but we did feel Penny needed to sell some pies.  She all but begged us not to make her ask our neighbor, but when he came over to get some chairs, I called him into the house and told him Penny had a question for him.  She was ready to kill us, but just as sweet as she could be, she said to him, “I am looking for customers to buy my pies.”

I just about died.  I thought that was the most adorable way to put it.  And apparently so did he, because he bought a pie.  She has since sold several more pies, although she finds the whole thing quite strange and she hates doing it.  Still, I like the idea that in addition to all the other boundaries she’s pushed on her exchange, she also has to push this one, and it involves communication and persuasion of total strangers.  She tried that old “But I don’t know these people” routine with me, but I pointed out that she’s living in an entire country of people she doesn’t know, and what a great way to get to know them!

The pie sales also sparked a personal interest in pie in Penny, who has never eaten a pie.  While we were shopping yesterday, she asked if we could make pie, so I agreed and headed for the produce department to pick up apples.  But she didn’t want apple pie, she wanted pecan pie. Mmmmm-kay.  Firstly, I have never made a pecan pie.  Secondly, neither the Chief nor I likes pecan pie.  But, if that’s what she wanted, that’s what she’d get (and I got apples anyway!).  We went to the baking aisle and I had to ponder what goes into a pecan pie.  For some reason, Karo syrup popped into my head, and thankfully, there was a recipe for pecan pie on the back of the Karo syrup container, so we were able to get everything we needed.  I did, however, tell Penny that we were using a frozen pie crust.  Love her though I do, I was not up for making a homemade crust!

Penny plunged in with both feet and took the lead in pie making.  I more or less read directions and held the bowl so she could scoop in the filling.  I agreed to try a bite of her pie and so did The Chief.  And she had good reason to be proud of it—it came out beautifully, even for a pecan pie!

Penny said she really liked it, although it was very different from anything she’d ever eaten before.  I’m happy to hear it, because she has a lot of pie to eat!  The Chief and I ate our obligatory pieces of pie and we are done :-) 

Penny also decided to help out making dinner yesterday.  She informed me that she hates me because I always make such good food and she wants to eat all of it, the entire pan.  Yesterday was no exception.  We made stuffed shells from a recipe a neighbor gave me.  Penny wanted to stuff the shells, as she had never seen jumbo shell pasta before and thought it was a lot of fun.  Again, she does not want to use more of anything than she absolutely has to, so I had to tell her to put the entire jar of tomato sauce over the shells, but other than that, she did just fine.  (what I was going to do with a quarter jar of tomato sauce, I don’t know!)

I told her that if nothing else, her training to be a housewife will be complete by the time she heads back to Thailand.  She says she doesn’t mind learning to be a housewife, so either she really hates school or else I am just a shining example of what a glamorous profession it can be. Either way, I expect she will follow her dream of becoming a psychologist, but she will be an excellent caretaker of her future family either way.

Saturday, Penny had AFS orientation all day.  She really enjoyed her time there.  There was one other Thai student in attendance, and she was excited for the chance to meet her and also to see all the other students.  Apparently, they are all in something of the same boat when it comes to their year so far—they all love their host families but are having a hard time making friends.  They got the same advice from their AFS chapter leaders as they do from their host parents: give it time.  But it’s hard to be patient.  Penny said to me the other day, “I love to talk to my parents, but I want to talk to people my own age.”

To that end, we have encouraged her to list her real name on her Facebook page and to start posting in English, both of which she has done now.  I explained that Facebook is an excellent tool for connecting with her peers but that they cannot connect with her if she is only writing in Thai.  She said she gives people her name at school to add to their Facebook, but no one ever does.  I told her that she should instead ask, “Would you write your name down for me, so I can look you up on Facebook and add you as my friend?”  This lets her take an active role in pursuing friendships and finding people to add as friends, rather than sitting back and waiting for things to happen.  She was invited in passing to the first home football game for her high school on Friday night this week, so I hope she pursues the invitation and tries to make a go of it.  I think she will.

School continues to be an on-and-off struggle.  She is in advanced placement English and they are reading Beowulf.  Consequently, I am now reading Beowulf and badgering my father with questions about it when Penny and I both get stumped.  I enjoy her history and government homework the most.  The other day, she came home with an extra credit question to ask her parents who was president when they were a senior in high school and what they remembered about him.  I’m sure I was in the minority when I answered the first George Bush, I would guess most of her classmates’ parents would have answered Reagan.  And what I remembered was that he hated broccoli and he barfed on the prime minister of Japan (I also remember Dana Carvey’s parody of him saying “No new taxes” and whatnot, but there was limited space!).  I hope I get to see her teacher’s comments on her worksheet about those responses after she gets her paper back!

The Chief and I got to spend a small amount of quality time with just Penny this weekend.  Saturday, I sent Leah off to my friend Melissa’s for the day and night, which somewhat outraged Penny who didn’t really understand how we could need a break from the “little angel”.  I explained that I am exhausted most of the time and that a little time away from us is good for Leah gaining some independence.  She was not happy that her “best friend” was gone for the night, but it was fun for me and The Chief to be able to spend time with Penny Saturday evening and not worry about being interrupted or having to keep quiet while we were playing Yahtzee.  (The fact that the Chief beat Penny twice in a row by only 3 points did not go down well with her!)  It’s strange, but we really do have to divide our time between the two girls, so it’s nice to have time with each one of them individually.  Friday, The Chief had taken off work for an appointment that fell through, so we took Leah down to the Children’s Museum of Richmond for the day and it was nice for the three of us to spend some quality time together as well, especially in safe place where Leah could go crazy and run around and make messes. 

So here we are another week into our exchange.  I hope to take Penny to the Virginia State Fair this week, but the weather is lousy, so I’m not sure we’ll be able to go.  Fingers crossed, though!  At the end of the week I will buy our plane tickets to Florida so that we are ready to roll to Disney World and my mom’s 60th birthday party at the end of October.  It’s hard to imagine that it’s only 3 weeks from now that we’ll be heading down there!!!  It’s hard to imagine that my mom is turning 60, that I’m 35, and that Leah is almost 18 months old.  Sheesh!  TIME FLIES!

Oh, and do you want to be a pie or flower customer?  Drop me an email, private message on Facebook, or leave a comment here! :-D  SHS Choir and Penny thank you!

Another Week Down

It has been a bit of a crazy week and a half.  Can it really have been that long since Penny started school?  UGH!  The days are going by even quicker now that she is in her regular routine and Leah and I are back to our daily routine.  Seriously, Leah now naps for hours, she gets so exhausted from our daily ventures to Toddlin’ Time and the library and the park.  It’s pretty awesome.

Penny is doing fine.  School is everything she was afraid it would be and also everything she hoped it would be all at once.  She is having trouble with her creative writing class, and was going in today to see if she could drop it and add a different class instead.  Since this year is not going to count for her, I really didn’t care what she did. 

She is experiencing some challenges understanding spoken English.  She does just fine expressing herself verbally and in writing, but reading takes her forever as she attempts to translate each word and then form some sort of sense of it, and oral communication is tough.  She doesn’t always understand her teachers, and she is afraid to ask questions in class because she does not want the other kids to think she is stupid. 

Penny has met a few new friends.  I thought for a while that she was only talking to other exchange students at school, but in fact, when we sat down last night to make a list of who is coming to her birthday party on Sunday, she said, “Did you remember Brianna?”  I said, “Who the heck is Brianna?”  and she said, “The girl from my marketing class.”  I said, “Is she coming?” and got “OH YES!” and a big grin in return.  I was so excited, I thought I’d fall off my chair.  Then she said, “Did you remember the Korean girl?”  I said, “The Korean girl is coming too!?”  “OH YES!” and an even bigger grin.  I”m so happy some teens are going to be here.  I invited all our regular adult friends, but it’s good for Penny to have friends her own age.

This week has been busy.  Monday was my book club meeting, which was the first time I went out and left Penny, The Chief, and Leah alone together without my influence.  I only received 3 text messages, so that wasn’t too bad. Of course, I cooked them dinner before I left, so all they really had to do was get Leah to bed, Penny to do her homework, and The Chief to work on a job application.  Unfortunately, Penny wasn’t feeling well, so she took yesterday off.  I dragged her to the doctor, despite protestations—if you’re sick enough to stay home, you’re sick enough to go to the doctor!  Regardless, I was worried that she had had a headache for 2 days, plus the school requires a doctor’s note attached to all absences.  So she was diagnosed with migraines and given a prescription.  She says these happen to her frequently in Thailand.  I think she just let herself get way to stressed out about school and it caused the migraine to come on very suddenly.  Having a day off to think about everything hopefully gave her some perspective.  She spent almost the entire day up in her room in bed studying and sleeping, and we got to navigate the AFS health plan, which was fun. 

Yesterday I babysat for my neighbor while she went to the doctor, so I kept Leah and Daniel out of the house while Penny rested.  Last night she asked to go to the King’s Buffet here in town, which I think is her favorite restaurant.  :-)  She ate well and went back to school this morning.  Leah and I went and picked up supplies for Penny’s big birthday bash and then went to storytime and lunch at the mall with Leah’s little peeps.  She is now resting and I’ve gotten the house decluttered, so I’m taking a break.  Tomorrow will be heavy duty cleaning—vacuuming (ugh!), mopping (double ugh!), dusting, laundry (triple ugh!), etc.  Friday we will probably kick it into high gear with party preparations after Leah submits to what I can only imagine will be a heck of a nap after a 2 hour playschool session (her Tuesday session was cancelled, so she gets to make it up on Friday, plus go to her bonus class).  Saturday, we have Daniel’s 2nd birthday party and Sunday is Penny’s party, plus my dad is coming for the occasion.  Penny is literally beside herself that my dad is coming to her birthday party.  She cannot wait to meet him.  I’m kind of excited he’ll be here as well :-D  Of course, I will post lots of pictures of the party and fun after it’s over and I’ve recovered!  We are presently expecting about 25 people.

So that’s all for now.  Hope everyone else is doing great with their kids and month #2!!!

Schools

Penny started school yesterday at Stafford High School.  We took some pictures before she left to start the day, my favorite of which was of her and her favorite host father, The Chief:

She was really nervous, but she admitted she was very excited too.  After I walked her up the hill to the bus stop, I came back to the house and got Michael and Leah in the car to go to the train station so Michael could get to work.  As we went down the hill, we saw Penny’s bus just going up and around, so we decided to follow it and take a picture of her getting on the bus.  I was slightly overwhelmed at the bravery she displayed in getting on the bus and going off to a new school in a new country surrounded by new people and trying to learn in a new language.  So yeah, I cried.  She is an extraordinary young woman. 

I spent the day keeping us busy so I wouldn’t have time to sit around and fret about how she was doing.  Leah and I walk with our neighbor every morning and afterwards, I took Leah over to a local place called Toddlin’ Time for her first “class”, which I guess she enjoyed.  She was more interested in tearing the place apart than in playing games and singing songs with the other 17 month olds there.  (Yes, my baby is 17 months old today!!! YIKES!!!)  Afterwards, we went to the park for lunch with Cindy and Wendy, and on the way home, Leah passed out and I used the time partly to relax and partly to clean up some of the house.  Leah got up around 2:30 and we only had 45 minutes to wait until Penny got home, so I decided to let Leah play outside with her buckets of water.

I heard the bus arrive up at the top of the street and figured that Penny would be home in a couple minutes, but I turned around to see her flying down the hill, cutting across the neighbors’ lawn, heading straight for us.  She hurled herself into the lawn chair next to me and heaved such a sigh!!!  I thought, “Uh oh!  This can’t be good!”  But in fact, she said it wasn’t awful.  :-D

She met several people in her classes.  She has no idea of their names.  We talked a bit later about how to continue a conversation with someone and hopefully today she will put that into action.  Penny’s 18th birthday is coming up soon and so we’ve decided to use that as an “excuse” to meet new people.  We started making a list of people she could invite already and none of them have names.  They are people like “The boy across the corner” and “The Ukrainian girl who sits behind me” and “The girl who liked my drawing”. 

I had decided to pull out an old trick of my mom’s and I tucked a greeting card into Penny’s lunch bag so she would have a sweet surprise waiting for her at lunch time.  She said when she got it, she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so she did both.  The front of the card read “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”.  She felt it was a message she needed to hear and it helped her through her afternoon. So, thanks, Mom!  Penny was happy to read our message and know we were thinking of her.

Last night, I helped her with her government homework.  We learned about constitutional law and the geography of the US.  She is a good student and prefers to work things out for herself rather than be told answers (she had to fill in the states’ names on a map of the US and decided to read an atlas instead of having me tell her the names of the states). 

Afterwards, she, Mike, and I had a lengthy chat about everything while sitting around the kitchen table.  It was one of the best chats we’ve had since she got here and just made me realize all over again how fortunate we are to have Penny spending her year with us.  It is great fun to hear all her hopes and dreams and plans, and what she thinks of school here and how it already differs from school in Thailand.  My friend, Donna, asked me to find out about the differences in the schools and post them to the blog, so I asked Penny a lot of questions last night.  Here’s what I learned:

In Thailand, Penny is at school from 8:00-4:30.  She wears a uniform identical to the other kids (girls wear skirts, boys wear pants).  She sits in one classroom all day and the teachers come to her to teach each subject.  There are no lockers, everything fits in her desk.  She takes 8 classes per day.  She gets a 30 minute break after her first 2 classes.  After 2 more classes, she gets 1 hour for lunch.  Then she has 2 more classes and another 30 minute break before her final 2 classes.  The students are not allowed to have food or drink in the classroom.  They must sit in the same seats every day.  Everyone takes the same classes, they cannot choose which classes they want to take.

The Thai school year starts in May and runs until September.  Then the students have the month of October and half of November free.  Mid-November, they start back up and go to school until March 1, 2, or 3, depending on the calendar.  Then they have off again until May.

At her school here, Penny has 8 classes, but only attends 4 classes per day.  The schedule runs on an X, Y schedule, so on X days she has one set of 4 classes, each lasting 90 minutes, on Y days, she has the other 4.  She has no breaks other than 5 minutes between each class to get to her next class.  She has a locker.  She may wear whatever she wants.  She has observed other students eating and drinking in class.  She may sit wherever she wants from one day to the next unless the teacher assigns seating.  She has only a 20 minute lunch break.  She had the freedom to select different electives for her class.  She sees a sea of different faces at each class, potentially making it harder to get to know people as she may connect with someone who shares only 1 class with her, and will not see them again for 2 days.  She noted that each ethnic group in the high school tends to stick together—all the Asian students in one spot, all the black students in another, all the Hispanic students over here, all the white students over there.  She was surprised by this, but she also admitted to actively seeking out other kids who were Asian to start with.  I don’t think there is a whole lot of ethnic diversity in Thailand, but when you hear of America as the great “melting pot”, you probably expect to see more intermingling.  It makes me pause and consider what Leah’s future holds.

It has been a bit of a shock to her system, I think, but overall, she has handled it incredibly well.  I’m excited to see what her “second first day” is, as today is the Y day in her schedule and she has both math and science on her Y days.  We have told her that we want her to participate in at least one club or activity this year, so she is pondering that one over.  I think it will give her a good opportunity to meet people in a fixed environment, so I hope she chooses well and gets things going.  She is interested in the drama club.  We’ll see!!!  We collectively decided that we would not participate in the Parent, Student, Teacher Association, so that one is out :0)  We’re leaving it up to her!

So that’s the latest from Penny’s participation in the educational system.  Tonight I’ll make up invitations to her birthday party for her to hand out when she meets interesting people.  Otherwise, she’ll just keep trucking.  We know she will meet people in time, and getting used to all the changes in the school day is a big challenge.  She’s doing great.  We are proud!

Introduction to School

Today was Stafford High’s New Upperclassmen Orientation and then its school-wide open house.  I decided to take Penny to both, as I felt it would be great if she could meet other kids entering upper grades who were in the same boat she was.

On the way over, I told Penny that her goal for the time at school was to talk to 5 new people.  She thought I was crazy.  I knew she would meet at least 3, as I had contacted an acquaintance in town whose daughter is in 12th grade and whose son is starting at the high school this year in 9th grade.  The other 2 AFS students in town were also going to be there, one of whom she had met and one of whom she had not met.  I met both of them and was impressed by both girls.  One is from Norway and the other Finland, but they seemed pleased to see Penny.  Penny is going to be in 12th grade and the other two will be in 11th grade, so they will not share many (or any) classes, but my friend’s daughter may share a couple of classes with Penny, so I’m glad we were able to connect and she can look for a friendly face.

The orientation was sponsored by the school’s Link Club, and had many student ambassadors who were on hand to greet new students.  They played a bunch of silly games that forced them to interact with each other, doing things like “Tell the other person what you did today from the time you woke up till now in 30 seconds”.  I’m sure that got lost in translation and all the fast talking went right over Penny’s head, but she did a good job of singing and playing the silly games.  I lost track of what they were doing after that, as a couple of the teachers took us parents on a tour of the building.  The high school is huge.  Seriously, my entire school that I attended from K-12 would fit in one wing of that place.  When we got back from the tour, I felt as if I had no idea where we had been or where we were going.  I almost sat down and cried!

Shortly afterwards, Penny arrived back from her tour and she was given a phone number from one of the student ambassadors.  Now she has someone she can call any time she needs help.  They served the kids pizza and then the open house began.  We looked at Penny’s schedule and decided to divide it by floor and by wing.  I explained to her that all the classrooms starting with a 1 were on the first floor and all the rooms starting with a 2 were on the second floor, and then we started with the first floor rooms.  We met her government teacher first, a very nice man.  I had letters from AFS that I gave to each teacher, which they were happy to receive.  Mr. Miller told Penny about the text books and the supply list that he wanted her to have.  We progressed very similarly from classroom to classroom, and the teachers along the way helped us when we got lost.  Every single one of her teachers had a connection to Thailand somehow.  Her English teacher had a sister who was an exchange student to Bangkok.  The creative writing teacher had a previous student from Thailand.  The history teacher had worked with a bunch of Thais, and knew a bunch of curse words.  He said one of them and Penny blushed and burst out laughing.  It was hilarious.

Eventually we got done and went back to the cafeteria to buy Penny a school t-shirt.  We got information on the athletics pass so she can decide if she wants to buy one for cheaper than it would cost her to go to the games and pay for them individually. 

On the way home, we were both just exhausted.  I hate crowds, and the school was CROWDED like crazy.  Penny was overwhelmed by the language and fast talking and trying to find her way around and all the interaction and information.  She handled it like an absolute champion, and I am extremely proud of her.  All the teachers were great and told her to let them know if she doesn’t understand, they will be happy to chat with her after class or whatever she needs.  One offered to give her extra notes so she doesn’t have to look up and down at the white board while he is talking…

As we were driving home, Penny said she wanted to get home to her best friend Leah :)  She asked if she could stay home with us now and not go to school, and I told her that I was pretty sure she’d be bored and all she was going to learn from me was that she does not want to be a housewife.  She replied, “I want to be a housewife!  You go to school and I will be a housewife!”  I was actually a bit envious, listening to some of her teachers today, about all the great things she’s going to learn.  I promised to help her with her reading at least ;-D  Since she hates reading and I love it… 

I think she is going to have a great year.  I hope she will put herself out there and really make friends and have a blast.  She took the first step, which is the hardest.  I told her that this is her destiny, and as scared as she may be, she should embrace it with two arms, since it won’t come her way again.  Here’s hoping!