A whole year?

Looking for Castilian

We’ve been trying to find Spanish language resources for Chloe and it hasn’t been easy. Little did we know that most of the Spanish taught here in the Pacific Northwest is Latin American Spanish, but, of course, that makes sense. I was surprised because I assumed that the Spanish taught here would be standard Spanish (Castilian) and that Latin American Spanish would be considered more of a dialect and so not taught so comprehensively. Everyone who teaches Spanish here, has learned it here, or just knows someone who knows someone who has taken a Spanish course, says to not worry, go ahead and take that because there are just a few differences in pronunciation. The few people who I’ve talked to who have some connection to Spain, however, say to absolutely not take Latin American Spanish and that Chloe must learn Castilian first because Spaniards are very particular about their language. What they are saying, but are afraid to articulate for fear of offending many people, is that it wouldn’t be wise to go over there speaking only “Mexican Spanish.” Surely this is a generalization? I can’t imagine that most people would fault a visitor for doing her best with a language that is foreign to her. It wouldn’t occur to the people dispensing language advice to be anything less than helpful to a visitor who was attempting to learn our language, so why are they so quick to assume that people in other countries would behave any differently?

So she’s taking the second half of Spanish I next trimester at school. She’s doing it as pass/fail, so she’ll be able to concentrate on learning as much as she can without having to worry about her GPA tanking because she’s jumping in in the middle. She needs to have at least some background in the language and Latin American-based Spanish is better than no Spanish. In a Web search, I came across the name of a teacher at a Seattle private school who was the chair of the languages program at the University of Sevilla, has a Spanish husband and they’re raising their children to be bilingual, and has lived in Spain off and on for more than twenty years. I’m hoping that she’ll have some suggestions for language instruction, something that doesn’t require a private tutor. One year of tuition, books, and lunch at the high school level at this private school costs nearly $20,000. I’m guessing that her students’ parents’ idea of what they can pay a private tutor differ from mine.

Spanish language

Last year when Chloe registered for this year’s classes, she insisted she wanted to take Japanese (only Japanese and Spanish are offered at her school). I reminded her that she wanted to be an exchange student and that she said she did not want to go to Japan. No matter where she ended up, there was a better chance that Spanish would be more helpful to her than Japanese. After she found out where she was going next year, I told her to let me know when it was okay for me to say “I told you so.” She promised that I’d be the first to know.

But that won’t be necessary. She’ll be in Spain for close to a year, so she can’t help but learn the language. She’s had an easy time with Japanese and knows quite a lot. And, a Japanese friend told us that some of the pronunciations in Japanese and Castilian are similar. Many people have teased her about her decision to study Japanese, but she’ll be familiar with one foreign language and fluent in another. That’s two languages more than everyone who is teasing her.

How long again?

About a month into the RYE application process, I told Steve that it had suddenly occurred to me that we wouldn’t have any kids at home next year, two years before I’d planned on it. Our son will be away at university and Chloe will be somewhere other than here.

“Yeah, but it’s only for, what, three months?”

“Uh, no. She’ll be gone for the whole school year.”

“A whole year? I don’t remember anyone saying anything about a whole year! I’m not so sure about this.”

Since then, about once a week, or whenever we talk about study abroad, he whines, “A whole year?” as if it’s news to him. After a couple of months of this he asked how long she’d be home for Christmas. She won’t be. I think he won’t be going to the airport with us.

Surprise mandatory meetings

Got a confusing message from the Vashon Rotary contact. He forwarded a message from a district member:

2nd mandatory exchange weekend is week end after next. Feb 6th (6PM) to Sunday the 8th at 6 PM. . . . Students need to meet at the Houghton Park and Ride at 6PM.

District Conference. Last of March first weekend in April. Portland Ore. Clubs do not have to pay conference registration for the students. District will pick this up. You will be advised of the room costs. We will be having the students stay in the conference hotel(s) and sharing rooms. We are working at having some fun things for them to do. Including meeting other exchange students.

Huh? Chloe has to be somewhere this weekend? The only location given is a park and ride. And the second weekend meeting is the same day as the mandatory day-long outgoing-student orientation, the meeting where we're supposed to find out lots more information.

I e-mailed the district coordinator and she said that the forwarded message was meant for inbound exchange students, the ones who are already here from other countries. And the second weekend is the district conference in Portland, but it's the end of April. The coordinator said the outbound students might get to go to that, which would be fun. They'd get to spend some time with the other outbound students and the current inbound students.

That's it for the backstory

Now you’re all caught up and from here on the posts will be current. Or at least current-ish.

We have a destination

A couple of weeks later, Chloe got a message from the district coordinator telling her that Spain was very particular about their language and could she count on Chloe to really study Spanish? She’d said the same thing about Argentina, so language study was in the plans, but we still didn’t know where she was going.

About a week after that, Chloe got a message from the Vashon contact congratulating her on Spain and that he understood that was a plum assignment. I e-mailed back, asking him if he knew something we didn’t know. He forwarded a message he’d received from the district coordinator saying that she was lucky enough to get Chloe to Spain, but Chloe already knew that. No, she didn't. She couldn't have because no on told her. So far there’s been a consistent pattern of no big announcements.

Never mind that "crushing my dreams" remark

After a few minutes, I decided that, while I was out walking around, they must have formally told Chloe that she was going to be a Rotary Youth Exchange student. But about ten minutes later, the coordinator mentioned that, as far as she was concerned, Chloe was in. The other district member concurred, and that was it. But there was still this Argentina business.

The coordinator had a good contact in Argentina, and that would be an easy placement for Chloe. So, is Greece out? Oh, they hate us now, they’re too close to Turkey, and “they pinch more than the Italians.” What about Italy? No clear answer on that. And Spain, well, we’ll see, but Argentina would be a sure thing. If the coordinator didn’t hear from Spain in a couple of weeks, Argentina it would be. When asked, Chloe said her choices were Italy, Spain, then Argentina. I think I know where the "always got the kids their first choice" statistic came from: tell them where they can't go, then have them rank their choices from a limited list of countries provided to them.

That was a pleasant ride home.

Or not

Just before Christmas, the coordinator said they were giving Chloe a second chance. Everyone was surprised, but elated. She would talk with the coordinator and another district member on the Monday after Christmas.

Realizing that she blew the first interview and that she was lucky to get a second, Chloe knew that she’d have to perform better this time. The Vashon Rotary contact graciously offered to do a mock interview with her, which was a big help. She practiced not being shy. She anticipated questions and practiced answers to them. Then it was showtime.

We met the two in a coffee shop and I took a walk for a half hour. If Chloe blew it this time, she had no one to blame but herself. We didn’t know when they’d give her a decision, but we knew it would involve another excruciating wait.

After a half hour of wandering around downtown Edmonds on one of the most beautiful winter days in the history of the Pacific Northwest, I went back to the coffee shop, where they were still talking, but they invited me to join them. They were talking about where Chloe might go next year. What, no waiting? Did that mean they’d changed their minds? And what was all this talk about Argentina?

Thanks for crushing my dreams

Never has Chloe been so disappointed, and it was agonizing to watch her suffer the letdown. I told her that she needed to wallow in self pity for a day or so, then we’d figure out something else. Bottom line, she was going to be an exchange student next year, and Rotary was just one option. But we thought the Rotary deal was done, and the thought of starting over was daunting. The next day I told her that she should fight back. We didn’t get a clear answer about why they decided she couldn’t go. She had the support of her teachers, her counselor, her principal, Vashon Rotary, and her family. How could the Rotary district members - who didn't know her - make a decision based on a twenty-minute interview, effectively negating the opinions of those who knew her best?

She didn’t want to write the letter: what if they get mad at me? They’ve already made their decision and they don’t need me bothering them anymore. Slowly, however, she came around to the idea that she had nothing to lose, and she wrote an excellent e-mail message to the district coordinator asking her for a second chance. She cc’d her counselor and the Vashon Rotary contact. They commended her on the message and offered their support. They thought it was a long shot, but worth the try.

Post district interview

So nice to have the interview and selection process behind us. Chloe’s days were filled with thoughts of where she might be next year and the anticipation of waiting for the news. Her first choice was Greece, and the coordinator said that, in three years of coordinating, she’d gotten each student their first choice of country. After Greece, it was Italy, then Spain.

A couple of weeks later, the Vashon Rotary contact called me during the day: “I have some surprising and disappointing news.” Damn. “Chloe has not been selected to go next year. They know she’s only fifteen, and they think she should maybe wait a year.” He’d gone to the high school and was in the counselor’s office, waiting for Chloe so he could tell her himself. Damned decent of him. I told him to have Chloe call me after he’d finished telling her the bad news.

She did. It was just after lunch, and I could hear her counselor in the background saying, “It’s not fair!” Chloe said, “Mrs. F is crying and she’s going to take me into town for a latte and then take me to the ferry to come home.” Mrs. F knew there was no point in Chloe finishing the school day. I love that woman.