Just a catch up
I know it has been forever and a say since I posted here. I would be shocked to find out anyone still checked to see if I had . . . But I mostly write for me perhaps and so it is ok to write without readers . . .
The kids are loving school and seem to be excelling in their normal patterns. Thomas is too active by half and to charming to get into trouble for it. Sydney Li is sarcastic to a fault but always manages to find the right audience for it. ViVi is smart and well liked and never seems to notice if things aren’t going exactly her way.
Sydney Li lost both her front teeth in two days. At first she was a little disappointed because when ViVi lost hers we all called her Shark Face (thank you Aunt Erica) because she had two rows of teeth simultaneously like sharks. Now she says she hopes they don't grow back anytime soon. She likes being "The Toothless Wonder."
If I haven’t mentioned it before now I have, myself, enrolled in school. Granted I only take one class but at times even that seems overwhelming. For instance I couldn’t go on Thomas’s field trip today because I was in class. Not that it was one I would have enjoyed going on. Having been on the same trip previously I have learned I am too old to think running in fields of grass in late summer afternoon sun in the pursuit of insects is a good way to spend an hour. Nor do I enjoy the wrap up concluding in a grand finale: touching the snake. I do feel a twinge of guilt however, since I did drag myself through it with both daughters twice a year for the last four years, brining Thomas on each trip. It feels kind of rotten to jip him on his first field trip sans sisters. But the teacher said he behaved and he gave me the details so I guess no real harm was done. I will just have to be diligent in attending every trip or class party that doesn’t land on a school day. Even if they do include bugs . . . or snakes. Still I am determined to do school right this time. Not like I am going to buckle down and get all A's or anything. I am old enough (or deluded enough) to realize the grades I get aren't all that important as long as I achieve the goal/diploma set before me. But I am being more carful who I make freinds with. And I may just joina club or two. Thiers one called Future Teachers Organization that looks fun. I could just add FTO responsibilities behind my PTO duties . . .
We had a truly lovely Labor day. We found out our niece, Vy, formerly of Saigon, Vietnam has become an exchange student in Wichita, Kansas. Vang managed to get Saturday off from work so we left when he got home Friday. An eight hour trip starting at 10pm actually is my idea of fun normally but I hadn’t realized how flat and black everything would be. No street lamps to illuminate so much as a tree stump of road kill critter.
Apparently we were a bit of a shock to them also not having been provided with the information we sent the company. They had no clue she had relatives in the US. We were woefully miss informed ourselves. Everything we thought was covered by tuition was actually needed to be paid for immediately. If we hadn’t shown up I am not certain she would have started school yesterday. And her family, never having felt weather below 70 degrees, sent a year worth of shorts and t-shirts. They were so much like my Dad’s side of the family I could hardly contain myself. The dad, Chuck, was a big, tall, bald, tattooed giant, with a sense of humor to match. The wife, Jeannie, didn’t warm up to us until Monday at breakfast but now that the ice is broken I hope the can admit they are glad to have met us.
It certainly laid our minds at rest. I mean on paper we were scared. The live in a trailor park. They had a list of expenses they said we needed to pay ASAP. Vy has asthma and every one from the mom, dad, two teenage daughters still living at home and the other exchange student they were already hosting smoke. Heavily. In the house.
But in person, they were so loving. They kidded and jabbed each other without ever hurting anyone’s feelings or crossing those invisible lines we all put up. They really seemed to care about Vy. What I took for hostility was actually a fierce protectiveness they already felt for her. They wanted to make sure we weren’t going to take advantage of Vy or judge their family in anyway. I like that. It made it safe to leave her.
Vy is a handful on her own. They raised her to focus on school and nothing else. She knows she will be rewarded for her intelligence. Her family is considered wealthy in her country having American family who send a whopping $100 a month covering all their months’ expenses. Not realizing that was so the father could work and save the 10 grand needed to enroll her in this program. Used to a bag of rice costing several thousand Vietnamese dollars she is oblivious to a $500 phone bill wracked up in three short days. Oh well. She’s missing her family right? Needs her mother’s comfort? Nope. Boyfriend. Vang called and yelled at them for not warning us and making us look foolish, but she is 16 and these things should be expected. Now if only Vang’s words would sink in with Vy. He lectured her on the difference between American culture, which she believes she has down pat (she loves Averill Levign and Green Day) and family culture. They hadn’t seen each other in five years and we drove all night to see her and they didn’t hug or touch in any way. You would have thought he just went to the market. Time off from school and homework is time to bond with the host family. Calls home are to be once a week and if you feel lonely the house is full of new “sisters” to play with. She seemed to take it well. But Vang still changed the phone number on the cell phone we left for her. And she called Vang’s sister here in St.Louis and asked for two more phone cards to call Vietnam. Vang’s is so upset she went over his head. I think hey, what the hell. She’s getting to be more American as we speak!
The kids are loving school and seem to be excelling in their normal patterns. Thomas is too active by half and to charming to get into trouble for it. Sydney Li is sarcastic to a fault but always manages to find the right audience for it. ViVi is smart and well liked and never seems to notice if things aren’t going exactly her way.
Sydney Li lost both her front teeth in two days. At first she was a little disappointed because when ViVi lost hers we all called her Shark Face (thank you Aunt Erica) because she had two rows of teeth simultaneously like sharks. Now she says she hopes they don't grow back anytime soon. She likes being "The Toothless Wonder."
If I haven’t mentioned it before now I have, myself, enrolled in school. Granted I only take one class but at times even that seems overwhelming. For instance I couldn’t go on Thomas’s field trip today because I was in class. Not that it was one I would have enjoyed going on. Having been on the same trip previously I have learned I am too old to think running in fields of grass in late summer afternoon sun in the pursuit of insects is a good way to spend an hour. Nor do I enjoy the wrap up concluding in a grand finale: touching the snake. I do feel a twinge of guilt however, since I did drag myself through it with both daughters twice a year for the last four years, brining Thomas on each trip. It feels kind of rotten to jip him on his first field trip sans sisters. But the teacher said he behaved and he gave me the details so I guess no real harm was done. I will just have to be diligent in attending every trip or class party that doesn’t land on a school day. Even if they do include bugs . . . or snakes. Still I am determined to do school right this time. Not like I am going to buckle down and get all A's or anything. I am old enough (or deluded enough) to realize the grades I get aren't all that important as long as I achieve the goal/diploma set before me. But I am being more carful who I make freinds with. And I may just joina club or two. Thiers one called Future Teachers Organization that looks fun. I could just add FTO responsibilities behind my PTO duties . . .
We had a truly lovely Labor day. We found out our niece, Vy, formerly of Saigon, Vietnam has become an exchange student in Wichita, Kansas. Vang managed to get Saturday off from work so we left when he got home Friday. An eight hour trip starting at 10pm actually is my idea of fun normally but I hadn’t realized how flat and black everything would be. No street lamps to illuminate so much as a tree stump of road kill critter.
Apparently we were a bit of a shock to them also not having been provided with the information we sent the company. They had no clue she had relatives in the US. We were woefully miss informed ourselves. Everything we thought was covered by tuition was actually needed to be paid for immediately. If we hadn’t shown up I am not certain she would have started school yesterday. And her family, never having felt weather below 70 degrees, sent a year worth of shorts and t-shirts. They were so much like my Dad’s side of the family I could hardly contain myself. The dad, Chuck, was a big, tall, bald, tattooed giant, with a sense of humor to match. The wife, Jeannie, didn’t warm up to us until Monday at breakfast but now that the ice is broken I hope the can admit they are glad to have met us.
It certainly laid our minds at rest. I mean on paper we were scared. The live in a trailor park. They had a list of expenses they said we needed to pay ASAP. Vy has asthma and every one from the mom, dad, two teenage daughters still living at home and the other exchange student they were already hosting smoke. Heavily. In the house.
But in person, they were so loving. They kidded and jabbed each other without ever hurting anyone’s feelings or crossing those invisible lines we all put up. They really seemed to care about Vy. What I took for hostility was actually a fierce protectiveness they already felt for her. They wanted to make sure we weren’t going to take advantage of Vy or judge their family in anyway. I like that. It made it safe to leave her.
Vy is a handful on her own. They raised her to focus on school and nothing else. She knows she will be rewarded for her intelligence. Her family is considered wealthy in her country having American family who send a whopping $100 a month covering all their months’ expenses. Not realizing that was so the father could work and save the 10 grand needed to enroll her in this program. Used to a bag of rice costing several thousand Vietnamese dollars she is oblivious to a $500 phone bill wracked up in three short days. Oh well. She’s missing her family right? Needs her mother’s comfort? Nope. Boyfriend. Vang called and yelled at them for not warning us and making us look foolish, but she is 16 and these things should be expected. Now if only Vang’s words would sink in with Vy. He lectured her on the difference between American culture, which she believes she has down pat (she loves Averill Levign and Green Day) and family culture. They hadn’t seen each other in five years and we drove all night to see her and they didn’t hug or touch in any way. You would have thought he just went to the market. Time off from school and homework is time to bond with the host family. Calls home are to be once a week and if you feel lonely the house is full of new “sisters” to play with. She seemed to take it well. But Vang still changed the phone number on the cell phone we left for her. And she called Vang’s sister here in St.Louis and asked for two more phone cards to call Vietnam. Vang’s is so upset she went over his head. I think hey, what the hell. She’s getting to be more American as we speak!