Showing posts with label foreign exchange. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foreign exchange. Show all posts

Foreign Exchange Student - Week 4 and Good-bye

Posted by My Heart Song

7/23/2012

Our time with our foreign exchange student Sebastian is over. 

During the past week, the group of students enjoyed a beach day with a picnic lunch, ice skating at a local indoor rink, and an all-day trip to an amusement park. Last Saturday all of the host families and students got together for a farewell picnic. 

One evening, my daughter played "soccer" with Sebastian in the street, using a big bouncy ball. He loves soccer!

For our last supper with Sebastian, we headed to a local pizza restaurant. 

You can see that we're a very serious, no-fun-at-all type of family. :-)


Our last family picture with Sebastian.
 
And this morning we said good-bye!

 

 The 4 weeks passed very quickly and we were all sad to see Sebastian go. My daughter really bonded with him, so she was especially sad and teary.

It's been almost a year since we had our last foster children. The year that we spent fostering was difficult on our biological children. I have often wondered how deeply it scarred them. Seeing my daughter bond in a good, healthy way with Sebastian is part of the answer to that question. She is healing. She is still capable of loving someone and she is learning that sometimes in life you have to let go. 

Adios, Sebas!

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Foreign Exchange Student - Week 3

Posted by My Heart Song

7/17/2012

It's already been 3 weeks since our foreign exchange student Sebastian came to America. 

We haven't seen a lot of Sebastian this week. He got together with some other students and host families a few evenings last week. One family invited him over to spend the night on Friday, so he did. He was gone all day Saturday with them. On Sunday he spent the day with us - church, resting at home, then out to eat for my husband's birthday. But that evening he was sick and didn't sleep well. But Monday morning he felt better and was able to make it to the regularly scheduled activities - classes and excursions. 

The group has enjoyed a local waterpark, went bowling, played on go-karts, went to another beach and today is enjoying a sports/game day.  

Each evening we ask Sebastian how his class went that day. They have a theme or topic that they discuss, totally in English. One day it was technology, one day it was careers. On Friday, it was superstitions because it was the 13th. One day they debriefed their trip to Shipshewana, where they witnessed the Amish way of life. We had a good discussion that night about Amish, technology, the pace of life, work. Sebastian said, though, that if he couldn't have his cell phone, he'd rather die! In that way, I don't think 18-year-olds in Spain are any different from teenagers in America!

Now the countdown is on. 
Next Monday we say our good-byes to Sebastian. 
 

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All American Baseball

Posted by My Heart Song

7/12/2012

What is more all-American than baseball and apple pie? 

Last weekend we were able to introduce our foreign exchange student Sebastian to both!

Our nephew is playing on Wisconsin's All-Star youth baseball team. Last weekend his team was playing in our area so we were able to make it to a game.

On Sunday my father-in-law had a retirement party. One of the many delicious items my mother-in-law prepared was apple pie. After the party, some was left over and sent home with us. So we've been enjoying apple pie all week!

All-American summer favorites - apple pie and baseball!

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Foreign Exchange Student - Week 2

Posted by My Heart Song

7/10/2012
 
Another week with our foreign exchange student Sebastian has already passed. 

My daughter has enjoyed reading some books with him. He reads and she helps out with any words he doesn't know.  She has done really well with him, trying to communicate both in English and some in Spanish.

She's taught him how to play Cootie. He wasn't so impressed with that game.

And we worked on a puzzle of the 50 states. He was familiar with only 10-15 states. A few days later they talked about the states in his English class, so the puzzle would good preparation. 

He had two days off of classes last week, due to the 4th of July holiday. On one of his days off, I arranged for him to play tennis with my niece (the only person I know who plays tennis). Sebastian really likes tennis, so he was glad to have an opportunity to play. When classes resumed, they visited nearby Potato Creek State Park, went shopping at an outlet mall, and headed east to visit Amish country in Shipshewana.

Last weekend Sebastian went out for ice cream with another host family. One evening, we enjoyed swimming at the pool of some neighbors after the 100+ degree heat of the day. He also has gone with us to church, which is apparently quite different from anything he's known in Spain. My husband's father also had a retirement party last Sunday, so Sebastian was able to participate in that - both the party and the clean-up afterwards. 

Sebastian's visit is half over. 2 weeks down and 2 weeks to go before he returns to Spain.

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Foreign Exchange Student - Week 1

Posted by My Heart Song

7/3/2012

It's been a week now since our foreign exchange student Sebastian arrived from Spain. 

The highlight of his week: getting together with 20+ of the other Spanish students to enjoy watching Spain beat Italy in the Euro Cup soccer tournament last Sunday! Go Spain! 

Thankfully Sebastian has younger siblings, so he's a good sport when my kids want to play games like Cootie or dress- up. :-)

We enjoyed a visit to the county fair, despite the 100-degree heat. Sebastian posed with this Spanish soccer-playing scarecrow!


A picture of our family and Sebastian. 

As a group, the students went to Lake Michigan / beach, toured the South Bend Chocolate Company, toured Notre Dame and went shopping at the University Park mall. 

Week 2, here we come!   

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Foreign Exchange Student

Posted by My Heart Song

6/29/2012

Earlier this week, we welcomed Sebastian into our home. He is a foreign exchange student from Spain and will be with us for about one month. 

Sebastian is 18 years old. He has traveled internationally with his family but is being stretched by a month-long visit with complete strangers in America! 

My 8-year-old daughter really likes introducing Sebastian to board games like Candyland and Sorry. My 4-year-old son isn't sure what to think of him yet. But Sebastian is very friendly, laid-back, and curious about life in America.

The exchange program is set up so that Sebastian has language/culture classes each weekday morning. Then the group eats a sack lunch and goes on an afternoon outing to local sites. Yesterday was the beach. Today is a tour of a local chocolate company. 

During the evenings, he is back here observing family life. We hope to take him to the county fair next week and are excited for him to experience our neighborhood 4th-of-July parade too.

We view this opportunity as one way to show hospitality in the name of Jesus. To welcome someone who needs a place for a while. To learn about another culture and maybe make a lifelong friend... what a great bonus!  

PS: Some blog readers may remember that we hosted a different student through this same program 3 years ago. You can read a blog post about that here   and here.

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