Loving Every Minute of Crazy!

The week has thrown us for a bit of a loop (for details on what happened, read the previous post). ES2 is settled into school, starting (American) football practice this coming Monday, has laughed, cried, and been thrown off kilter by us and yet ES2 keeps smiling. ES1 and ES2 get along great and we have worked out all the morning bathroom kinks without awkward moments. We're on day 6 and in my opinion, it couldn't have gone better! And they are both willing to experiment and do new things.

I realize how much food four people eat! Goodness, it's not so much the preparing (Don and I both love cooking for more) but I have ben to Meijer's for groceries four of the last six days! Obviously I was not prepared for a fourth person!

Don and ES2 get along great just like we thought when we read the application for the Exchange Student Program. Our dinner and/or family conversations have been interesting, to say the least. We've heard all about the beautiful Portuguese beaches, the monopoly 'assets', and having to ask/not ask for 'forks' twice in our home (ES2 has promised to improve his articulation!).

I thought initially, that it would be easer to understand ES2 over ES1 but I am finding that ES1 is easier to understand even though ES1 doesn't know English as well. I guess its because I've heard ES1 talk longer and maybe in a couple weeks ES2 will come along, although, ES2 still pronounces the 'g' and 'j' as Spanish sounds and not as they are in English and so sometimes I just don't know what is being saying. I'm starting to think of that more and am putting it together better.

I am also trying to engage ES1 and ES2's parents in this whole escapade. ES1 has one parent who know's fairly good English and the other does not. Neither one of ES2's parent's know English at all. Hummm..... This could be interesting. The first communication went fairly well. I had written them an English email, headed over to google translate, had it translated into spanish and then sent it into the abyss of cyber space. A couple days later I got a response...also using google translate. I found out, that google translate does work, if you are able to think hard about all the other possible synonyms that could fit into any number of words at any place in the email. Because we are brilliant people, we were able to understand each other and I certainly chuckled over the happenstance. Maybe another day...any takers on one who would translate for me???

Anyway, that is life right now: loving every minute of crazy!

Exchange Student(s?)

So I hope you all enjoyed the last blog about the Exchange Student. Because, let me tell you, it has been double-y fun in our house!

ES has been here three weeks now and it has continued to go well. I love getting to know her, her personality, and seeing her work so hard. She is such a brave girl! We spent this past weekend doing things she liked to do. We started off Saturday, late morning, at an Exchange Student Post-Arrival Orientation which is something the organization does to help each of us work out kinks and check in on how things are going. Then, after that we went downtown where they were setting up for ArtPrize in various locations. It was cool to see the artists hard at work and also to show her downtown. ES comes from a "small" town of 1.5 million people. I know GR doesn't compare at all to that but she seemed to enjoy it nonetheless. We then picked up Don and headed to another part of town, and then on to a third part of town before heading to the mall before Dinner.

Dinner was ah-maz-ing! We went to this Korean-Chinese-Japanese place called Seoul Garden (I had heard it was the BEST Asian food in town). It did not disappoint. Although it did not taste exactly like home, ES said it was close enough. We all had a little Korean and went home full.

The excitement didn't stop there. I had enough time to throw my clean laundry in the dryer and check facebook when I saw that our Exchange Student coordinator was online. I started to chat her up telling her what a great morning we had, and then tell her what a great afternoon we had after that... You know the story...

And well, she abruptly stopped that conversation with: "Do you know anyone who can host a student?" 24 hours, 16 minutes, and one bed move later, ES#2 entered our life. He is 18, from Spain, and a very sweet guy! We now have two perfect children and my house has never been cleaner or fuller! I'm only having problems adjusting to his accent...it's a little thick.

Here we go again!

First Things First!

Well, ES (Exchange Student, for the sake of privacy, that is how I will refer to her) has been here a week and we have introduced her to a lot! The most exciting for her was probably the Seoul Market Korean food store down the street 2 miles. She was beyond excited (you should have seen her eyes light up!). Here are a few of the firsts that will give you a hint of how drastically different life here is versus in Korea:

First time on a dairy farm (first time milking a cow...seeing someone get licked and sucked by a cow) (Milking was the highlight)

First frozen french fries at home (like, I think)

First blueberries (doesn't like them, but mine were tart)

First S'more (liked them!)

First Rodeo (thanks to the Cow Camp up in McBain)

First dinner over a fire (I think...at least first Hobo Pies)

First Gator ride (thanks to a vendor loaning one to my dad)

First Meat pies (like)

First Cold Coffee (that I liked, it was from Korea, one of her favorites)

First Kimchi Ramon noodles (for me, I liked)

First Crawfish fishing (well, Don did the fishing but she was a faithful watcher) and along with that first time holding a crawfish (has yet to eat one but I think it wouldn't be too hard to convince her).

Well, you get the point. There have been lots of firsts, more on her part than mine. I'm sure there will be Korean cooking in the kitchen at some point this week (excited)!

The two of us (Kelly and ES) are learning how to cook Korean. I'm excited for that. Here we go!