The Just Thought I'd Share Thread

[LikeAWillow]

Originally Posted by Zombie

Well, technically, it's my foster parents that do it. When they stopped doing foster care, they decided to do something different, and tried foreign exchange.

We had no idea what we were getting into when Zheng showed up, lol. He just ended up being so damn awesome, it was an insane experience. He had only three words of English - "okay," "black" and "blue" (the colors of his suitcases) - when we picked him up, but after about 3 days, he was speaking in complete sentences. Scary smart, even if he accidentally picked up some of the Pittsburghese (please picture a boy with a VERY heavy Chinese accent informing you he accidentally walked into a jaggerbush on the way home from school, and do we have any band-aids?). He's got the most bizarre sense of humor, and I love him to bits.

So yeah, Zheng was so damn awesome, we were like, let's do that again, so we've had two more Chinese dudes since then. The other two, Xiao Jin (our second) and ZeZheng (here currently), are also really great. All three have been SO excellent with my kids, and ZeZheng is just chock full of the Helpful Advice for Living, by which he means, "That's not how we do it in China so ur doin it wrong," like, "You shouldn't drink cold things, it will make you sick." or "You shouldn't have sex too much, it will make you sick."

So it's been really fun and interesting.

When Zheng came to stay with us, we also briefly had a kid from Venezuela, Andres, at the same time, but he didn't stay long. He came from a very rich home, with maids and his own driver and junk like that. We don't have maids. Or...uh...any money.

He was very uncomfortable and wanted to move out, so he wasn't with us long. My foster parents were really offended, but I told them, "He just comes from a very different place, I don't blame him for being weirded out," and they eventually got over it.

The moment I saw him, though, I said to Linda (my foster mom), "You watch, that boy is going to have the entire female population of the school pregnant by the end of the year. And half the male population, too." He had that totally suave Latin thing going on, very good-looking and charming, very well-dressed. He couldn't even manage to turn the charm off with me, and I'm, like, ancient. Or should be considered ancient to a 17 year old kid, anyway.

I've heard some horror stories from other host families, but we've been really lucky, because all of the boys have been so great so far.

Wow, this is absolutely incredible. Does someone in your family speak Chinese? I'm assuming they do, but if not, how does the communication process work and develop? Have you been able to pick up any Chinese from the students? Ahh, I wish I had the heart to open up my home like that, but I'm too afraid that once the novelty wore off, I wouldn't be as willing to deal with all the work of hosting someone from such a different culture. Moment of honesty on a Monday morning.

For a slightly related JTIS-- I get back to that wonderful land of Pittsburghese in two days. Rumor is it's going to be in the high fifties, and I'm tracking down some ice cream and ordering it with jimmies just because I can. Cancun has nothing on the excitement of SpringBreakSteelCity.