Health & Fitness
They're here! New students arrive from Thailand and Germany!
New exchange students with far away names.....arrive in Pittsburgh! A few more still hoping! Some need host families!
August is the busiest time of the year for me.
My new exchange students are arriving after a whirlwind three-day orientation in New York or San Francisco, the host families are getting adjusted to their new family member, school schedules and sports physicals (including extra paperwork from WPIAL to make sure we're not bringing in any ringers) are required, and....we are still trying to find homes for the last few students.
It's hard to know where to focus—try to comfort a homesick kid, or try to find a home for another kid to become homesick in?!!
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I don't get a lot of sleep most of August. And my dog seems to be echoing my anxiety. She's been getting up in the middle of the night and barking for no apparent reason. Maybe that's more of an echo than I'd care to admit!
I'm learning a lot about Thailand this year—I have six Thai students in my group, including several that love to cook, lucky me! One of the first things everyone learns about Thai students is that their names are nearly impossible to pronounce. Rarely one or two syllables, they often stretch to over 15 letters and four or five syllables, and that is true for first and last names. Luckily, all Thais also have a nickname. Sometimes they are words or names we recognize. I saw a student whose nickname was "Fiat," for example. His parent's first car. Four years ago, a girl in my group was named "Care"—a word found on one of her baby care products.
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This year, I have kids with nicknames that are only sounds to me, and I'm thinking of starting a band with the same name. Ping, Pong, Poom—three of the boys, including the one living with me. Si, Waan, Mai, a boy and two girls—I think it's rather catchy! Besides, Poom plays drums, Pong and Si play the piano, Waan plays violin.... see where I'm heading? And I can't forget Jojo of course. He's German and we'll need some outside influence!
Know anyone who'd like to get in on the fun? gladly accepts exchange students and I'd love to place a few more there. But you need to act immediately—we only have until the 28th to place the students.
As you can see by my pictures, our host families come in all shapes and sizes (and my own picture is absent!) In the mean time, I'll try to keep up the stories as they happen—like "Red Cross" being mistaken for "get lost" and other funny things!