Two weeks!?

It is just about impossible to believe that Ine has been here for two weeks on Tuesday.  It has been a whirlwind, including the fact I was gone for 5 days, but as time marches on, I think she is adjusting quite well.  A lot was thrust at her at one time, so she has had a very steep learning curve, but I'm pleased with how she is doing!

Tuesday, September 9 was "Gotcha Day", and we drove up to Lorton to pick up Ine at the Thompsons' house.  The Thompsons have been volunteers as long as I have been involved, and far longer, I'm sure!  They have a lot of knowledge and advice for nervous host parents.  Also there was Jerene Thomas, who has been a volunteer for absolutely forever, and Alexandra Klaff, our new area team coordinator (or some such title, I can't quite remember!).  There were 5 families there to pick up their students, including 2 of the families I had the opportunity to interview this summer.  I was so excited to be able to see them unite with their students, it was a great evening.  As we sat through orientation, the students' volunteer kept coming upstairs "Are you done yet, the students are anxious to meet their families?"  Finally they gave in and let the students come upstairs, and we got to meet our students. They had a small ceremony where the students showed their flags and thanked their families for hosting them, and then Jerene said, "Students, find your families!" and we were able to meet Ine officially, give her a big hug, and get out of there!  Woo hoo!

Gotcha!

We got home and I fixed a pizza, my traditional "welcome home" dinner for our students.  It's quick, easy, and most kids like it.  It was almost 9:00 before I got Leah to bed but Ine said she wasn't too tired, so we watched a bit of TV before I sent her upstairs to sleep.  I was so wound up, I was exhausted anyway!

The admissions director at Fredericksburg Academy, where Ine is going to school this year, had sent me an email a couple of days prior to her arrival and asked if I would bring her by on Wednesday, so I made a 1:00 appointment to take her over there.  Prior to that, I took her on a tour around town to show her what the city was like, and took her over to meet my mom.  Once we got to the Academy, I was told I could leave and come back at 3:00, which I did, and Ine was told she would start school the next day.  We were like "OH MY GOSH!"  I had told her she could get started when she was a little more with it, less jet lagged, and on firm footing, either Friday or Monday, but I guess FA had other plans!  So she met some student ambassadors, took a tour of the school, and when I came back, we met with the guidance counselor to get her registered for classes.  I believe she is taking English, Spanish, French, chemistry, acting/drama, and US government.  There may be other things, but I really can't remember.  We also got the word about her computer and needed to make some upgrades, so I asked my friend Andy to come over and help us out with that.  He came by and worked on it for a bit, but then the battery died and Ine's converter for US plugs didn't fit her computer cord, so we had to stop that project.

Thursday, I was leaving for a long-planned trip to London, so I was happy I got to take Ine to school, but sad I wouldn't hear about how her first day went.  I dug out a lunch bag for her to use, and she got up with her alarm and ready to go.  I don't know if it is her regularly quiet nature or if, like me, she is just not a morning person, but she is quite quiet in the mornings--you would not know that she was there!  In contrast, Leah and I were doing battle every morning about eating, getting dressed, etc.  On that first morning, Ine sat at the table, drinking her milk, her eyes getting bigger and bigger as Leah and I waged war over whether or not she would eat, what shoes she would wear, etc.  And I came to the conclusion that I was just not engaging in this any more.  So ultimately it has been one change I've made to ask Leah once about breakfast and her clothing, and then I make an executive decision that she can either go hungry or she will wear the shoes I choose.  It has made for far more peaceful mornings and Ine doesn't have to hear us going crazy like on that first day!  It's amazing what having a new audience does for changing your own life!  I also stopped by Radio Shack before I left and got a new converter for her laptop cord, so she was able to charge it back up and use it again.

I left for London that afternoon and my mom took over caring for Ine and Leah for 5 days.  I didn't receive any reports good or bad, but I did receive some pictures from my sister of them teaching Ine to play cards and eat Dominos pizza.  There were lots of smiles, and I find that Ine is always smiling, so that was a good sign!  I also got an email from the school guidance counselor while I was away that he saw Ine always with other students and always smiling or laughing, so she is off to a great start.

I got home Monday night at supper time, and got right back into the swing of things despite my own jet lag.  The 8 hour trip across the ocean gave me a new appreciation for Ine's journey to the US and how she had to fit into a new culture, whereas I was just settling back into my family routine.

Tuesday night, we sat down and discussed the host family questionnaire, I gave Ine her rules and chores to help with, and we discussed our family calendar and plans for the year.  I do take it quite seriously to show my students as much of US culture and as much of Virginia as I possibly can, so I try to plan day trips on the weekends and other trips during their vacation times.  So we talked about some possibilities in terms of places we can go for bigger trips and weekend plans, and she seemed very happy to hear about Luray Caverns, the Virginia State Fair, New York City, and other fun stuff.

So that first week was an absolute whirlwind!!!  We are now on week two.  During the week, we have settled into a pretty placid schedule of school drop offs and pick ups, some activities--I took Ine up to the Woodlands Pool and got her a pool pass so that she can now go swimming a couple of times a week, which was a major deal for her--and of course homework.

Friday rolled around, and it was beautiful outside, so I decided after I got Leah off the bus, we would go have some fun.  First, I took the girls down to Old Mill Park in Fredericksburg.   I love Old Mill because not only do they have a great playground, but you can also go down to the river, wade around, and have fun.  We only stayed for about an hour, but it was great.  Leah got to enjoy a lot of outdoor time, we got to walk along the river and get our feet wet, and then Leah was able to go up on the playground and I showed Ine some pictures of where the river had flooded over in May and the entire area where we were sitting was underwater.

We had a 7pm meeting with our liaison from AFS, but we still had time for one more stop:  Chuck E. Cheese's.  This is Leah's absolute favorite spot of all time, and there is enough there for us older 'kids' to enjoy as well, so I decided to take the girls there for dinner.  They were having a school spirit night, so I was able to get some coupons, and we ordered more pizza, wings, and lots of tokens.  We only had an hour, but I challenged Ine to some games, which she handily won.  My personal favorite is skeeball, which took her about 30 seconds to master.

She beat me 20K-14K in our last game.  HUMILIATING.

We also played a race car driving game, but Leah decided to get involved in that one, so Ine managed to handily beat our hot little race car with her huge VW bus.  We shot hoops, played a water shooting game with ducks, and won lots of tickets.  There was tons of giggling from both girls, and I had a good time, so that was a definite success.  Because we didn't have much time, we had lots of tokens left over for a future trip.

Yesterday was a big day for us.  Leah had swimming lessons in the morning and Ine gamely tagged along so that afterwards we could run by Wegmans and pick up some stuff we needed for a party I was hosting in the evening.  I asked Ine to make chocolate mousse for the party, and she agreed to do it, which was great!  She said she had never made it by herself before and wasn't totally sure she could do it, but we got her everything she needed and she did a great job!

Cooking is one of those things where you start to learn little cultural differences.  Ine asked for eggs, which I got out for her, and she started laughing.  I asked her what was wrong, and she said in Belgium eggs aren't white, she had never seen white eggs before, only brown ones!  She thought white eggs were hilarious.  I found it hilarious how hilarious she found white eggs.  Then she said she had to separate the eggs, so I gave her two bowls and an egg separator, but she had never used an egg separator before and decided to do it by hand.  That was fine, although she did eventually choose to try the separator, but I don't think she really did it more than once.  She finally assented to let me whip up the egg whites, and when I asked her how done she wanted them, she said I had to turn the bowl upside down over my head and if they didn't fall out they were done.  I suspect she might have been putting me on a bit with this one, but I did flip the bowl (over the sink) and the whites stayed in the bowl, so all was good.

Picture done by student at Fredericksburg Academy

The mousse was really beautiful, we used Scharffen Berger chocolate, as I was informed we needed "the right chocolate" to make the mousse correctly.  And then we put it in the refrigerator and got on with our day.  Yesterday was Via Colori here in Fredericksburg, a street festival that allows artists to come to town armed only with chalk and their imaginations and draw beautiful pictures on the streets.  It's been here 2 or 3 years, although I have never managed to get to go, so I was very happy to take both Leah and Ine.  The street art was absolutely incredible, you really couldn't believe it was just chalk on the pavement. There were classic pieces of art, there were pieces of whimsy, imagination, animals, animation, you name it, it was there.  We walked all over, ran into the director of admissions at FA, and a friend of mine from church, and then we went over to "Via Bambini", where they have chalk out so kids can make their own designs.  There was a Kona Ice truck there, so I got everyone a snow cone, and Ine and Leah had fun devising their own flavor combinations and then sitting in the warm air, eating their creations.

Leah drew a picture of Olaf the snowman on the sidewalk, and by then it was time to head back to the house to get ready for the party.  Ine helped get things set up, dragging firewood and chairs to the fire pit with me, and then my friends began to arrive around 7pm.  We had a big buffet, everyone brought so much food.

Ine's mousse was the runaway hit of the evening, I don't think there was a soul who didn't have seconds.  We also enjoyed pizza, I made Chipotle burrito bowls, chips, spinach artichoke dip, veggie trays, cheesecake, cookies, and candy.  And this was from 6 people!  Crazy! :)  Once we had eaten dinner, we took dessert outside to the firepit.  Ine had never enjoyed the great American s'more, so my friend Emily quickly made her one, and she admitted it was quite delicious.

Then we sat around the firepit, burning whatever we could get our hands on until almost midnight, when Andy, Emily, and Amber left--Danielle had gone home maybe an hour earlier!  It was a lovely night, we managed to make one really beautiful fire with bonfire logs and Andy's old college textbooks.

There was a great deal of laughter and it was just a lot of fun.

That brings us to the start of a new week!  I'm hopeful Ine will join us for church today and then we are going to head out to Westmoreland State Park this afternoon for a picnic and some time at the beach.  Tomorrow night we are heading to Richmond to see Frozen on Ice, and I am going to let both girls sleep in in the morning and get tardy slips to school on Tuesday. :) 

I am enjoying Ine's time with us so much.  It is going by quite quickly, and I'm sure there will be times when it drags on a bit, but we have been keeping busy and that is moving things along.  She is a lovely girl, very quiet but unfailingly cheerful and has a lovely personality.  I think we will have a great year together!

Leah teaching Ine to iPad :)