Further August Adventures

Well, it's hard to believe that it's been a week since I last blogged... Things have been going very well, and we've been very busy, so I haven't had time to update much.  In the future I won't be blogging quite as regularly, but it's nice to have the time to do it right now.  We've had the gift of 10 days together before school starts, but tomorrow is Astrid's last day of summer vacation, so it's time for an update!

I don't really know the order that a lot of this stuff happened in, it's honestly all a blur in my head.  The number one thing we've all been complaining about is the weather.  It has been SO HOT.  Astrid isn't used to the heat or the air conditioning.  The first few days she was here, she kept asking me to turn the air conditioning down (or is it up? I am not sure) as she was way too cold.  I changed the temperature a bit, but I wasn't willing to die of heat stroke, so she developed a system of running in and out of the house to either warm up or cool off.  As the week has gone by, however, she's started acclimating to the air conditioning very nicely, and I think she appreciates it, especially when she's been out running!

I really wanted to take her to DC, but as I said in my last blog, it poured rain Monday night, so we weren't able to go.  We went on Tuesday and my friend Emily asked if she could join us, so we picked her up on the way.  Unfortunately, the rain the night before only served to make it even more miserably hot. So we didn't get the full tour in.  Still, we got to see some good stuff.  We started out at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and then walked the tidal basin over to the FDR Memorial, which is my favorite.  Then we drove over to the Lincoln Memorial and parked, walking to the Korean War Veteran's Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam War Memorial ("The Wall").  Astrid's favorite movie is Forrest Gump, and she REALLY wanted to see the reflecting pool where Jenny and Forrest were reunited after he returned from Vietnam, so it was really special to take her there to see that.  Afterwards, we drove up to the Capitol Building, but unfortunately the street where I always park was blocked off so we couldn't stop for pictures.  We will get those another time, as well as pictures of the Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, and the White House, but it was still in the 90's when we were up there at 9pm and we were all exhausted from the heat.

Astrid with Dr. King

Astrid with Eleanor Roosevelt

Our little family at the FDR Memorial Fountains

The Reflecting Pool ("Foooorrrrrrreeeeessssst!!!!")

Our little crew with Abe Lincoln

Astrid checking out the women's memorial at The Wall

Astrid and Mr. Durso looking over her schedule

Wednesday morning we had an appointment with Mr. Durso, the head of the upper school at Fredericksburg Academy, where Astrid will go, to get her registered for school.  She got to meet with a number of her teachers and sign up for her classes.  I'm not sure of everything she is going to take, but the standards of English, US history or government or both, AP biology, theater, and Algebra are in there.  She found out she could start cross country that afternoon, so we re-arranged our schedule for the evening and that allowed her to do that.

We also managed to squeeze in two games of bowling between the meeting at FA and her practice, so it was a very busy day.  I am not usually that good a bowler, but we had fun and I won!  Then we stopped off so Astrid could meet my mom before going home to get ready for her practice.



After bowling and Nana time, we went back to FA.  We were given the wrong start time and location for practice, so I went to drop her off at 4pm, as we had been told, but there was no one to be seen.  As we were driving around looking for people, I spied one guy clutching a water bottle and said, "He looks like he could be a runner.  Let's see!"  Well, this was my first time embarrassing the heck out of this particular teenager, and the more embarrassed she got the more hilarious I found it.  I pulled up to this guy very slowly and stopped as he went to cross the street.  I rolled down the window and smiled at him and he was kind of looking at me funny, so I asked him if he knew where the cross country practice was.  He said it was on the field, and I asked what time, and he said 4:30, not 4:00 as we had been told!  So I said, "Well, I have Astrid here, she is new to the team and I have things to do, so i'm going to leave her with you."  I could hear from the backseat, "No, oh no!"  Haha... So he was kind of looking at me and looking for Astrid who he couldn't see, and I was like, "Hey, what's your name?"  He said it was Chris, so I said, "Oh, hi Chris, nice to meet you.  This is Astrid! She's new here, she's from Denmark" and I heard all kinds of noise from the backseat.  I was like "GET OUT OF THE CAR" and she was like "NO!" and poor Chris was like "What on earth is going on?!" So I finally said, "I have things to do!  GO!"  haha  She got out of the car, put the evil eye on me, and off she and Chris went to practice.  It was HILARIOUS...  I don't think she will ever forgive me for that.

Astrid at cross-country practice

She has enjoyed cross country so far and made a few acquaintances, which is good since school hasn't started.  We got her phone set up so she is able to text friends and she has enjoyed that.  She even said that while she was running, a few kids on the soccer field were yelling "Go Astrid!"  So that's nice that she's in such a supportive environment where everyone knows her name!

After her Wednesday practice, unbeknownst to me, my friends were throwing me a surprise birthday party, so we went with my friend Amber to Red Lobster, only to find a bunch of my friends there waiting for us!  It was such a nice surprise and happily we were able to have a nice meal and Astrid could meet a few of the important people in my life!

She was freezing due to the air conditioning, so she asked the manager for a blanket, but he didn't have one.  Andy got her a coat.  When her meal arrived, Astrid said, "I've never seen this much food before in my life!"  Welcome to America, kid.  Haha  We had a lovely dinner and then came home, where Astrid went to bed and Andy and I watched the finale of Great British Bake Off...  A perfect evening!

I took no pictures on Thursday, so I honestly have no idea what we did.  We probably stayed home most of the day as we were quite tired from all of Wednesday's activities.

Friday, we had a game night to go to in the evening.  Leah was out of the house in the afternoon, and I had offered to make my friend Tommy a birthday cake, so after Leah left to go swimming with her friend Carlie, I decided to teach Astrid the fine art of cake decorating.  She said it looks much easier on TV, but she did a very good job piping a little border around the cake.  Since Tommy is in charge of the game group I go to, we decided to make a board game themed cake, and what better board game is there for a birthday cake than CandyLand?  Leah and I had gone out in the morning to buy lots of candies, and then Astrid and I did the decorating.

Now it turns out I am really not good at making a path shape through the frosting.  I tried to sketch one out with a knife, but it was the saddest little path you ever did see.  Astrid took one look at it and burst out laughing, so I told her to make the path, and of course it was perfect on her first try.  She told me that from now on whenever she feels sad, she will think of my path and it will make her laugh.  Thanks.  For nothing. :)

Anyway, the cake went together really nicely and then I took her to track practice and finished decorating it without her. But really I couldn't have made the perfect path without her direct intervention.

And I really love how the cake looked and that all 3 of us played a different part in its creation.  Game night was fun, we only stayed for one game because both girls were tired from their busy days.  We played a game that was kind of like a group Battleship game, I think it was called Captain Sonar.  We won the first game, lost the second game, and it was great.  Tommy absolutely loved his cake and was totally blown away by it.  Astrid made sure that everyone knew she made the path.  She also tried to get her revenge for the Chris episode by leaving me alone with one of Tom and Amy's friends, but people are pretty fluidly in and out of game night, so she wasn't terribly successful.  But we had a great evening.

Saturday, I was kind of tired, as I am still pretty sick from this summer cold or whatever I've been battling.  So I gave the girls some options of things we could do, as I had planned to take them to a Bob Sima concert.  If you were following our adventures last year, right after Urara arrived, I turned 40 and had Bob Sima come to the house to do a house concert as my birthday party.  He has been a guest at the UU we attend several times and I love his music and his spirit.  But Saturday I was kind of thinking maybe we should just relax.  I told the girls, we could go to the concert or just have a family movie night, but Astrid surprised me and said she'd like to go to the concert!  So we had family movie afternoon and made a pizza and started watching Forrest Gump, which I wasn't sure how Leah would like it, but she actually liked it a lot!  (It was Astrid's turn to choose the movie--I'm up next.)  Leah said she shed one sad little tear when Bubba died. LOL  Anyway, we only got about halfway through it, and then stopped it because Astrid wanted to go for a run, so we drove over to Pratt Park and she did an hour of running.  Then we went home, she grabbed a superfast shower while I put together spinach dip and veggies for the potluck, and off we went to my friends Bill and Lynda's house for the concert.  Bill and Lynda own a lovely property on the western edge of Stafford County, and they hold concerts there every summer.  Last year, we got  to see Gaye Adegbalola, formerly of Saffire the Uppity Blues Women, who was totally amazing.

The Bob Sima show was very lightly attended, there were only about 15 of us there, but there was a lovely potluck (I told Astrid before we went that I guaranteed there'd be quinoa served, and sure enough there was! ha!), and because it was such a small venue, Bob decided to play unplugged in a smaller section of the yard.  He was fabulous as ever, and even sent some positive vibrations down to the people at the Donald Trump rally, which was happening in town that night--yes, The Donald was in The Burg.  He played for about an hour and a half, and then took a break, during which we all went inside to escape the mosquitos.  He decided to play indoors for the second half of the set, and it was just as nice inside as it was outside.  Afterwards, I went up to say hello and he remembered me from my party and gave me a big hug and I introduced him to Astrid and Leah, and he was so nice and spent quite a while talking with us.  I was so glad we wound up going, plus Astrid got to meet a few ladies from the UU which was pretty awesome!

Sunday morning, we got up and went over to the UU for church.  The topic was on the US healthcare system, so I suppose now Astrid knows quite a bit about that.  But everywhere she went, people said, "Oh!  You must be Astrid!" and introduced themselves to her.  She's been very open and good about introducing herself and talking to everyone who has said hello to her, and I told her that's good because otherwise people will quickly lose interest, but if she keeps talking and is open and friendly, it will develop into something deeper on down the line.  I hope she enjoyed the service, I had been willing to skip it, but she said she would like to go and I'm glad we did.  I felt like I had walked in with a celebrity the way people were excited to meet her! :)

Afterwards, we went home for lunch and then went down to the river.  I told Astrid we'd be going to play in a waterfall, which it technically is, but a very small one.  We had fun building a dam with Leah and climbing the rocks, there was a snake swimming around that freaked us out a bit, and eventually we went home for a while before driving out to Locust Grove for a quick visit with Dipthi, our former welcome student.  I had gotten some mail for her and wanted to drop it off.  On the way, we stopped at Sonic for fancy drinks, and Astrid asked why we Americans have so many choices in milkshakes!  She finally settled on Strawberry Cheesecake.  We had a nice ride out to "the country" and I showed her some of the Civil War battlefields in the area.  It was so nice to see Dipthi again and she is very happy with her delightful host family so that was good!  We all got big hugs and Dipthi's big smile to greet us, which made me so happy.  When we got home, we made tacos for dinner and finished Forrest Gump.  I haven't seen it in at least 5 years, and I was crying so hard by the end...  Leah said, "What's so bad?  I only felt sad about poor Bubba."  Astrid made her give me a hug. LOL

Today Leah demanded a lazy day.  She said she was tired and wanted to relax, so she spent most of the day in bed on my iPad, which is very unusual for her.  Usually she wants to go, go, go!  At church on Sunday, I had volunteered to bake some brownies for the community supper our church helps put on once a month, so we baked brownies, and my neighbor had offered us his fresh basil he had growing in abundance, so I went over to his yard to pick some and made some fresh pesto sauce.  After lunch, I asked Astrid if she'd like to play some cards, and she said she would, so I taught her the fine game of SkipBo, one of my favorites and one Penny and I played ad nauseum, and we ate brownies, as Leah demanded I make a third pan of brownies for us!

Astrid picked up on SkipBo very quickly, perhaps too quickly, she beat me 2 games to 1.  She said it was a lot of fun and she enjoyed it.  Given that Penny loved it so much as well, I'm envisioning a day down the line when I'm 80 years old and all my former students come back to see me and we have international Skip Bo tournaments.  Peace Through Cards is what I'll call it. :)

Afterwards we all cleaned the house, and then Astrid and Leah were hanging out upstairs for a while, but then Leah came down upset and said that Astrid had kicked her out of her room, and then Astrid came down upset and said Leah said some stuff that made her unhappy.  As it was close to dinner time, I dished up dinner, and we had a little family meeting.  I was very proud that both girls expressed their opinions clearly, we were able to talk about hurt feelings and misunderstandings, and come to some agreements about how we were going to move forward.  I was thinking the whole time, "Look at me, I'm parenting!"  Haha I was feeling very proud of myself, and Astrid said afterwards that she was very comfortable with the way that I handled the situation.  We have been together for 10 days, so it was bound to happen that we were going to start squabbling.  Normal sibling fighting, I'm very hands off, but this situation went a little deeper, and I'm glad I was able to intervene to both girls' satisfaction.  Afterwards, Astrid taught me the Danish card game Stress.  AUGH!  SO HARD!  I can't wait till we play it for real--we didn't really have time so we just played a quick game, but I have a feeling I'm going to get very good at it.

After dinner, Astrid wanted to go for a run, and she asked Leah to go with her, so Leah agreed to do one lap with her.  Astrid asked Leah to be her water girl and bring her a drink every time she went around the block and Leah drew Astrid a motivational drawing her with sidewalk chalk!

And yes, that is my 7 year old's handwriting.  I can't get over how good it is.

After the running, Leah threw a little party in her bedroom and Astrid read to us from a book of Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales she gave Leah as a present.  She read us "Big Claus and Little Claus" and I don't recommend it.  Ha!  HCA did not write happy endings.  I wouldn't exactly call this one a cautionary tale, but it was really quite a story, I must say!  Leah was enthralled and wanted another story, but it was late so Astrid promised her another one tomorrow night.  If you're going to listen to Danish fairy tales, the best way is to listen to them with a Danish accent.

Some of the things Astrid has tried and enjoyed this week include grape Kool Aid (I explained to her the expression of "She drank the Kool Aid" and we had a debate over whether or not the people at Jonestown wanted to actually drink the Kool Aid or knew what was happening), beef jerky, Knorr spinach dip,  brownies, spaghetti squash, Sonic, and Red Lobster.  She also learned Leah's Treasure Pony board game and we've started an extensive list of movies that she has to watch (tops are Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Princess Bride, and Napoleon Dynamite).  The cats are even starting to come around.  Dodo stuck her tail in Astrid's face today as a sign of affection.  I think.  We've even survived our first family disagreements and come out on top.

So that's where things stand as of Monday, August 22.  Tomorrow we will go down to the FA (again) to get Astrid's computer set up for the school year, and then head to Kings Dominion for the day.  Then on Wednesday, Astrid starts school!  YIKES!  It's a new system for me this year--I've signed her up to take the bus in the mornings which will save me about 30 minutes of driving every day.  I hope it goes well.  If not, there's a girl around the corner from us who goes to FA and is a senior, I've suggested to Astrid that she gets friendly with her and try to sweet talk her into giving her a ride.  I'm so glad we've had these ten days to get to be together and get to know each other before school started, but at the same time it didn't last so long that we all hate each other.  Haha :)  I am loving our little family life and how we are jelling together. 

The First 48...72...Whatever!

Oh.  My.  God.  I am exhausted.  What a rush this past 3 1/2 days has been since meeting Astrid and bringing her home.  Astrid is our 5th student and every single one prior to this has been very shy and kept to themselves a lot for the first weeks of their exchange.  I've watched with awe and admiration other families and students who instantly bonded and everything went great from the get-go, and I've enjoyed watching our relationships with our students bloom more slowly and watched those kids come out of their shells and really blossom.  But this year was the year that we got the kid who showed up, made herself at home, and was ready for action.  And it is a crazy different experience!

So Friday rolled around, and it was arrivals day and pretty much everything went wrong.  I had been helping coordinate the arrivals and arranged for the arrivals to happen at our church here in Fredericksburg.  Leah and I both woke up sick as dogs.  We had sniffles, coughs, Leah had a low grade fever, we just felt all out of whack.  I went over to the church at 8am to unlock the classrooms and set up the tables and whatnot that we needed, and then decided we'd go get some medicine. I started driving into town and discovered my wallet was not in my car.  I turned around and went home, and couldn't find it anywhere.  I was ripping through the house, freaking out, thinking "This is what happens when I clean!" but I had things to do at the same time!  So I go over to Sugar Shack and pick up the donuts that they donated to the AFS'ers, get a text from Alex at AFS that the kids are heading for the church, run back to the church and open up, and Leah and I hide out in the kitchen because I had the impression we weren't supposed to see Astrid, plus I was now stressed, hair flying, not in nice clothes, it was a scene.  We see a caravan of vehicles drive up, and Alex comes in, we sneak out to greet her, the kids start filing in with their bags, and Alex points to Astrid's back and tells Leah, "That's her!"  So Leah just stands there, and as Astrid comes back around the corner from dropping off her bag, she spies Leah, comes running over, sits on the floor, grabs Leah into a hug, and the two of them sit there.  Leah is totally and completely star struck, Alex and I were weepy, and then Dipthi, our welcome student comes forward and we get to hug her and say hello to her too, while the other students are standing around asking Astrid, "Is this your host sister?" It was so sweet!

Eventually the grown ups prevail and send the students back for orientation, and I make sure everything is in order and go back home to find my wallet, with the assurance I will be back at 11 to pick up another volunteer and run to Wegmans to get lunch.  I go home and my wallet is still nowhere to be found, and I get a call from Alex that a woman has come to the church and freaked out because I am not there and they don't know who the contact person is and who's using the building and what is going on.  So I drive back over and attempt to diffuse the situation and am told in no uncertain terms that I am NOT to leave the building with all these people here.  So I give Alex back her credit card and the Wegmans gift card that they've generously given us and she goes off to get lunch while I figure out how I'm going to find my wallet, take a shower, get Astrid and Dipthi's welcome gifts, buy groceries, and finish cleaning the house.  Determination:  I am not.

Alex returns with lunch, and Leah and Astrid immediately become inseparable, so she has lunch with the teens while I have lunch with the other volunteers.  Wegmans Catering was awesome and we had a ton of food leftover so everyone got to bring some home.  As we were eating, two members of the religious education committee came in to do some work.  The RE committee was the sponsoring committee that allowed AFS to use the building at the UU for free.  So consequently, I asked them if they would mind keeping an eye on things while I ran home for a while?  They happily said yes, it was no problem, so at 1:30, I left the building, drove home, vacuumed, took a quick shower, put clean sheets on Dipthi's bed, finished decorating Astrid's room, did another sweep for my wallet (still didn't find it), grabbed the welcome animals, and arrived back at the UU at 2:00.

An hour later, two friends each showed up with some cash, as I hadn't managed to do the grocery shopping as my bank card was long gone with my wallet, and I was so grateful and stressed out and happy and exhausted I nearly burst into tears.  Around 4:30, the 'ceremony' to welcome the students to Virginia began--they each have to draw their own country's flag and then they stand in front of the church and two of the students are chosen to say a few words on behalf of all the students.  Astrid was one of those two, along with a girl from Argentina!

Then Nancy said, "Students, find your families!" and Astrid and Dipthi came forward.  Several families were late due to our infamous VA traffic, so by the time the families and kids were matched, we broke down the furniture and cleaned up the church to what I thought would be the satisfaction of all involved, divvied up all the leftovers, and got everyone out, it was nearly 6pm.  Then there was the matter of how to get four people, four suitcases, two backpacks, and a ton of food into the car for the ride home.  Dipthi drew the short straw and wound up sitting practically on Leah's lap, surrounded by suitcases, but as I only live 5 minutes from the church, we survived the journey with little fanfare.

When we got in, we had to unload then entire car before Dipthi could get out and then we decided to show the girls their rooms before dragging their suitcases upstairs.  Dipthi camped out overnight in the Pink Palace (aka Leah's room) and Astrid was in her own room.  She said when she walked in, "I'm not the kind of person who cries from joy, but if I was, I'd be crying right now!"  Leah had made her the letters to spell out her name, I'd made her the little welcome banner, we had put a few things in a little welcome basket, and the place felt nice and homey and bright and cheery.  The green paint has now served us well--I painted it green when it was Leah's nursery, then it turned out Ine's favorite color was green, so I left it alone, and now it turns out Astrid's favorite color is green, so I have yet to be forced to repaint it.  (Note to AFS: Can we add this question to the student application, so I can only choose students who love green from here on out?)  It was very sweet that Astrid was so happy in her new space, and so I felt very teary and excused myself.  We hauled the kids' bags upstairs and then the fun began as they both were feeling quite energetic (Dipthi had been in the US most of the week for orientations) and they wanted to go with me when I said I needed to go to Walmart and finally get some medicine for me and Leah.

What a riot!  Astrid loves doing DIY cosmetics and immediately went searching for the Vaseline to make lip balm.  She found a giant tub of it for $2 and sat down on the floor, cradling it in her arms and saying, "Why aren't you people excited?  Get excited! I feel like a freak!"  Haha  Apparently in Denmark, a travel sized Vaseline is quite expensive, like $6, so the fact she could get a giant one for half that size was impressive.  Dipthi said that many people she knows also use Vaseline, so it's quite an impressive product.  They loved wandering the Walmart aisles, and then we came to the school supplies section, where Astrid lost her cool for the second time when she spotted the Elmer's Glue.  In her DIY searchings on youTube, she has come across videos on how to make slime using Elmer's Glue and Borax, and she has been DYING to try it, but there's no white glue in Denmark.  Next thing I know, we are buying Elmer's Glue and she and Leah are plotting exactly what kinds of glitter slime they are going to make.  Leah's adoration was only growing by the moment, incidentally.

So we buy all of our things and return home, both girls help chop up some of the veggies from AFS and I heat up the food from Olive Garden that they had given us, and we all sit down and eat our first meal together.  Ordinarily, I order pizza on the students' first nights, but we had all this bounty and I was thrilled to have a real meal together.  It was getting quite late at that point, so I put Leah to bed, and told both girls they should just relax and enjoy themselves.  They got the WiFi password and Dipthi was asleep in probably less than an hour.  I went and sat downstairs with my iPad--my feet were KILLING me--and I thought "Isn't this nice?" when Astrid came downstairs and proceeded to talk with me for another couple of hours.  I thought she'd have been exhausted, but she was so happy and excited to be here, and I was so happy and excited she was here that we passed a really lovely evening chatting.  She said she couldn't believe that she was here and she'd be living in our house and everything and that she thought she'd eventually like to call me "Mom" but she didn't feel quite comfortable yet, but was that ok?  I said sure, I would like that.  She held out 2 days before calling me Mom for herself, and now does about 90% of the time, which not a single one of the previous 4 students has ever called me (although Penny does now once in a while).  It's a very nice feeling  <3

The next morning, Leah was ready for action, apparently.  We were both still feeling unwell and we woke up around 4:30 to take medicine and try to get ourselves back to sleep.  I eventually did fall back to sleep, but when I woke up at 7AM and looked over, there were Leah, Astrid, and Dipthi hanging out on my bedroom floor with blankets, a lantern, and the iPad watching movies and having a dandy time!  I got up and made them some cinnamon rolls for breakfast (in Denmark, they are called 'cinnamon snails' which I love!) and Leah brought up a couple of board games for us to all play.  Dipthi's host family was arriving between 9 and 10, so we got her stuff brought back downstairs and they arrived promptly.  Dipthi gave us some really delicious South African treats and she gave Leah a pair of sunglasses that are too cool for school.  We hugged her goodbye and since she will be going to school in town and is the AFS student closest to us, we know we will see her again.  She is an absolute sweetheart, I'm glad we even got one night with her, although I was looking forward to a couple of days! :)

Once Dipthi left, Astrid asked what we would be doing next.  So I put her and Leah in the car and we drive around town so Astrid could see all the sights.  We took her to our pool, Leah's school, her school, my mom's house, the university, Old Town, just a quick driving tour, but it was nice.  She taught us the Danish road game "Yellow Car", being every time you see a yellow car you have to hit everyone else in the car as quickly as possible.  She noted that there are quite a few more yellow cars in the US than there are in Denmark and we were all a bit sore as Leah played with great enthusiasm.

We stopped in at Wegman's and did some more serious grocery shopping to get us through a few days.  Then we headed home for lunch, and making slime, plus and a trip to the pool for the rest of the afternoon.  I have to admit that making slime was a whole lot of fun.  Astrid and Leah made a serious study of all the glitter we had in the craft studio and finally selected purple and blue as their slime colors of choice.  We mixed up the Borax and glue and voila!  Slime!  The girls divided it in half between themselves and Astrid continued adding Borax till she was able to make the slime into a bouncy ball type thing.  Leah enjoyed dripping it off the table, blowing bubbles into it, mashing it into her hands, and more!  They really had a good time.

At the pool, we all had fun playing in the water and splashing around, and Astrid tried to teach Leah how to do the crawl, but was unsuccessful as Leah prefers 'doing' to actual learning.Astrid also gave us some gifts--a beautiful book of Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tales for Leah and a vase for me, which although her family could not have known, perfectly matches my good china!  I immediately put it away so that neither cats nor small children could get their hands on it and destroy it.

After dinner of make your own pizzas accompanied by family movie night (we watched the new version of Annie), I got Leah put to bed, and Astrid and I sat down with the host family questionnaire.  I was fully prepared to assign her my standard exchange student chores--do your own laundry, change your sheets, make your own school lunch, and help with the dishes--when Astrid said she and her mom had been talking about what she could do to be helpful around the house and please wouldn't I assign her another chore?  I was totally dumbfounded and couldn't really think straight--all the students we've had have been quite helpful but this was a whole new ballgame.  I could tell her to do anything, but I couldn't think of a single thing.  She finally asked me if she could vacuum the whole house once a week, which seems a fair chore to me, so that's what we agreed upon.  The questionnaire is 6 pages long and took us over 2 hours to complete, so we went to bed afterwards.

Yesterday, we were so tired, I slept in till nearly 8am.  Astrid slept till almost 10.  We decided as a family to skip church, and spent a comfortably lazy day.  Leah turned into some kind of fitness guru and she and Astrid started an intense morning workout routine which ended with them doing something Leah calls "Wall Standing."

This was after several thousand laps running around the living room, crunches, push ups, jumping jacks, and more.
Astrid has 3 foodstuffs that define the USA for her: KoolAid, Jello, and beef jerky.  We had gotten some Jello, so we made that in the morning so she could try it.

Ultimately she was not terribly impressed with it.  After lunch, she decided she should finally unpack, and asked Leah if she'd like to help.  Of course Leah was practically in her suitcase!  Then Leah started running up and down the stairs carrying items and messages back and forth between us, even though Astrid and I couldn't think of much to say to one another.  Leah had a blast though. 

At 4pm, my little pal John Adams arrived as I was due to babysit him for the evening while his parents went to the movies.  He was not too impressed with the newbie, he still much prefers his Leelah.  We had dinner--I made shepherd's pie--and Bup (as he is known) refused to eat anything but raw carrots.  Astrid decided it was her mission in life to convince this kid to take one bite of shepherd's pie and to her credit she did convince him to do it after about 20 minutes.  He immediately spit it out.  But he was later allowed to go for ice cream, happily.

We had fun in the evening playing CandyLand, having a water balloon fight, and building Lego robots (did you know Legos are from Denmark?  I didn't!!  But I do now!) before going to Carl's Ice Cream at the last minute for a frozen treat before Bup went home.  Leah and Astrid went to brush their teeth, and apparently they hatched a scheme wherein Astrid removed Leah's loose tooth!!!  Leah was so darned proud.  I had to drive down to the convenience store to get a tooth fairy surprise.  When I got home, I went upstairs to discover that Astrid had snuck into Leah's room and was reading her to sleep.  So sweet!

This morning, I woke up and took Leah down to the DMV so I could get a replacement driver's license as my wallet still has not turned up.  When we got back, Astrid was up, and we all loaded up and went over to Stafford Junction, a local after-school program where I volunteer.  Astrid was a HUGE help with the library project--we got literally hundreds of books sorted and shelved in less than two hours.  She said she really enjoyed doing some volunteer work, and I said it helped me remember that when times seem tough, there is always something I can do to be helpful.  She agreed.  It was awesome to work together like that.  Afterwards, I rewarded her hard work with a trip to Target.  She and Leah dove into the cosmetics section while I sat in Starbucks and read People magazine.  They emerged for frappucinos just as I was learning about the continuing quest for justice for JonBenet, and they were armed with mascara and Elmer's Glue...  They sweet talked me into frappucinos for themselves, Astrid taught Leah how to put on mascara, and then we went home to do something about Leah's hair.

I'd taken Leah to get her hair looked at on Thursday, and the ladies who did look at it gave me some suggestions, but the summer has not been kind to her hair and so we decided ultimately that we were going to cut it.  After dinner (BBQ chicken which Astrid LOVED the sauce and corn on the cob), we did the deed and Leah was NOT happy about it.  She hated the noise of the clippers and she was screaming and crying till I finally told her if she'd knock it off and let me do it, I'd take her to Chuck E. Cheese's and to Walmart to get some fancy headbands.  She wound up loving her new short hair, and her new hair bling, and Astrid asked if we could go to Dollar Tree while we were there, so we did.  Leah got lip gloss and press on nails, and Astrid said she didn't think we Americans knew how lucky we were to have so much stuff at our disposal!  Probably not, but we also probably have way too much of it!  On the way through checkout, I spied PopRocks, and so we grabbed a pack of those and ate them in the car, to lots of giggling.

We got to Chuck E Cheese's at 8;30, only to discover they close at 9:00, so we didn't have a lot of time, but Leah was exhausted anyway, so it was for the best.  The girls played a few games and we came home and put Leah to bed.  Astrid said she was tired and going to bed as well, but a huge clap of thunder freaked her out a bit.  It's all quiet upstairs, and I'm about ready to turn in myself, but I didn't want another busy day to go by without getting this blog udpated.

So that's what we've been doing.  It's been a great start to our exchange.  Astrid is very social and talkative and outgoing, and that has been a major change in our family.  Leah is used to being the talker and I'm used to being the listener, so while nothing has changed for me, Leah now has to fight for airtime.  There have been a few little sisterly squabbles and tears (on Leah's part) as she navigates the frustration of having a big sister again, but I'd say for the most part, everything has been going very well.  I'm so glad I decided to host this year and that we stumbled upon Astrid's application.  I think it's going to be an awesome year!

Denmark vs. The US and Virginia

Well, as I like to do every time we have an AFS'er coming to visit, I do a little research into their homeland and how it differs from our homeland.  AFS USA helpfully gives host families access to an online resource called Culturegrams each year, and it is a wealth of information about every country on Earth.  Yet another benefit of hosting!

When I logged on and chose Denmark, C'grams immediately gave me a bulleted list of important facts, which include:

• Denmark has one of the highest per capita expenditures on education in the world
• Denmark provides 52 weeks (that's one year) of paid time off for new parents
• 80 percent of Danish paper is recycled, as Denmark is a world leader in environmentalism

So cool!!

Ok, so here are the basics... This is Denmark's flag:

Since the Olympics are on right now, here's what the Danes wore in the Opening Ceremonies:

Here is what Denmark looks like:

See how close Denmark and Sweden are to each other?  You can actually drive from one to the other using the Oresund Bridge and Drogden Tunnel.  BUCKET LIST ITEM!

Denmark is 16,639 square miles.  In contrast, the state of Virginia is 42,774 square miles, almost 3 times larger.  The population of Denmark is nearly 5.6 million people.  The population of Virginia is 8.3 million.  So in Virginia, we have one and a half times the population in nearly triple the space.

Looking at the US, it is nearly 3.8 million square miles and has a population of over 321 million.  So maybe a bit larger than Denmark :-)  Denmark consists of over 400 islands and borders both the North and Baltic Seas.  It is known for its mild and temperate climate, and its winters are milder than the rest of Scandinavia.

The capital city of Denmark is Copenhagen. The population of the city itself is approximately 591,000 but throw in the surrounding areas, and the population blooms up to 1.2 million.  That means approximately 21 percent of the population lives in the area surrounding Copenhagen.  The capital of the US is Washington DC.  It has a city population of approximately 672,000 people, and apparently Wikipedia didn't feel like figuring out how many people live in the DC suburbs, although one website puts it at over 6 million, or roughly one percent of the US population.

The official language of Denmark is Danish.  Eighty percent of Danes belong to the Church of Denmark, which is an Evangelical Lutheran Church (and no, I have no idea what that means, but I once had a friend in college who was a Lutheran and told me it was "Catholic without the guilt", so I'm speculating that's what it is).  According to Culturegrams, weekly church attendance is rare, but Danes participate in weddings, baptisms, and funerals, except that apparently Easter is a big deal over there.

The US does not have an official language, although most people speak English.  The US does not have an official state church, although the majority of Americans are Christians of some stripe.  About 39 percent of Americans attend church regularly.

Danish families typically have only one or two children (Astrid's family are rule breakers--they have 3!), and gay marriage is recognized, with gay and lesbian couples being allowed to adopt as long as they have registered their partnership.  According to Culturegrams, nearly half of the children born in Denmark are born out of wedlock!

In the US, families often have more than 2 children, and as we Americans know, marriage equality is a fairly new phenomenon.  The number of non-traditional families is on the rise, so there are far more same-sex couples, single parent families, and other types of families than there were even 50 years ago.  More than a third of American children are born out of wedlock.

Culturegrams insists Danes say "Dav" (pronounced Dow) as a greeting when they meet up with someone and "Hej" (pronounced "Hi") when you part company.  In the US, we don't really have a formal greeting, everything and anything goes, from "Hey" to "How's it going?" to "Hi."  I think I most often use "Hey!" but I'll have to pay closer attention.  Goodbyes come in the forms of "See ya" or "bye" or "later" or any of a bunch of other options.  Past students who have stayed with us have expressed frustration at the surface politeness of "How are you?" when it's clear the person doesn't actually care how you are and is just saying it as a form of greeting. 

C'grams also suggests that dinner is the most important family meal of the day for Danes, a time they gather together to talk about their day and what's been happening.  There is a move to bring back family dinner in the US, as many families are very busy with commuting, children's activities, meetings, and the like, and people often eat on the run.  In our family, we try to have family dinner, technology-free, but I don't think we are the norm in that regard.

Denmark is a monarchy, and at over 1,000 years, is one of the oldest in the world.  Presently, Queen Margrethe is the reigning monarch, and her son, Prince Frederik will succeed her.

 The Queen is 76 years old.  She is married to Prince Henrik.  They have two children, Frederik and Joachim (pictured with their spouses Mary [who is Australian] and Marie [who is French but was raised in Switzerland]).

The US is a democratic federal republic, governed by a president who is elected every 4 years and who can serve no more than 2 terms.  Our current president is Barack Obama, who is the first African-American president in our history.  He is married to Michelle and has two daughters, Sasha and Malia.

We will elect a new president in November, as President Obama is finishing his second term.


So there is a little primer on some of the interesting factoids about both our countries.This is just the surface 'stuff' you can read in books, I am looking forward to learning some of the real cultural differences and similarities in the next few months!

Less than Two Weeks!

The final countdown is on!  In less than two weeks, we will welcome Astrid into our home.  It's so hard to imagine--we only got the idea at the end of May, but today turned the calendar over into August. It seems to have happened fast!  We have been in contact with Astrid almost every day since we were officially matched in early July.  I'm afraid we write too often or two much, but she always responds within a couple of hours and with great enthusiasm and excitement to hear from me or Leah.  They swapped love letters last week--Leah asked me to email Astrid "Dear Astrid, I love you.  Love, Leah" and Astrid replied in kind.  Leah was so tickled, she said, "Mom, we should invite Astrid to be our host student."  I wonder why she thought we were in touch before that!

Now we are hammering out the final nuts and bolts.  I've been changing the dead light bulbs around the house, decluttering and cleaning, shopping, and this week I've been in touch with Astrid's new school to get things ready academically.  It turns out she will start school on August 24, which is surprisingly early to me!  I like to go to the beach for my birthday, which is August 23, so we'll have to go a day or two early so that she is well rested in time for school. 

Astrid emailed me today that she was starting to prepare her schoolwork, assignments for which she had found on the school website.  I was so impressed by her initiative to start doing her reading and whatnot.  I emailed the head of school to confirm that she was in the classes that required summer reading, and she is, but the teachers said she didn't have to do it.  Still, she wants to do it, so I think that's great.  She'll be well prepared to start.  We also got the morning bus squared away--the school is about 20 minutes away from our house, and although I am willing to drive my kids there every morning, it does make it difficult to get my morning routine complete.  The school has very helpfully offered that we can use their morning bus service, and so I'll only have to drive down to the school once a day, which is awesome.

In other news, I successfully trained nine host families for AFS Virginia last weekend.  It was a pretty awesome crowd and they said they learned a lot.  I was excited for all the kids coming, as I think they are all going to some pretty neat families.  We have 27 kids coming to VA from 15 different countries, I do believe, including one other girl from Denmark.  Her host mom was at my training so it was nice to connect.

So that's where things stand with only 11 days to go!  I am learning about Denmark and that will be the subject of my next post in a day or two.  Until then, consider hosting!  We still need host families!!  Visit AFSUSA.org for more information.  You'll never regret it.