A whole year?

Colegio San Cernin

Got a copy of the guarantee form today. Now we know the school Chloe will be going to, the name of her first host father, and the address where she’ll be living. Also included was a copy of the photo page of a passport. No notes or explanation, just a photocopy, which is a good idea (especially if there’s not a common language between the parties) because it contains a picture, birth date, and address. It’s for a girl who’s a year younger than Chloe. She has the same last name as the host father, so we’re assuming that she’s a host sister.

The school is San Cernin, a Catholic school that, according to the Web site, sounds progressive and inclusive (and it looks like uniforms). She starts school el 6 de septiembre de 2004 (Labor Day here) and finishes el día 17 de junio de 2005 (our lesson for the day: months aren’t capitalized in Spanish). I’m guessing that means she’ll be leaving before her September 1 birthday. The school day is from 8:30 to 14:30 (2:30 here), and then back on Tuesdays from 16:20 (4:20) to 18:15 (6:15). Since she’ll be so close to school and there are probably not too many farm chores to perform in a seventh-floor flat, she could get up around 7:30 instead of 5:30 like she does now.

According to the address of her host family, she’ll be living in an eighth-floor flat in the middle of Pamplona (population about 200,000), near several large parks. It looks like the school is just a mile or so away – I haven’t found the scale yet (one map site says 12 feet, but I’m pretty sure that’s not quite accurate). From what we’ve been able to infer from the little information we’ve gotten, it looks like just about everything will be 180 degrees from what Chloe’s used to, which is even more exciting. I spent most of the afternoon Googling (let go - it’s a verb now) (and trying to figure out how to read Spanish addresses) and can’t imagine what this was like before the Internet. But, back then we didn’t expect any more. We’ve gotten so used to being able to find out just about anything in minutes that we can’t remember what it was like to wonder about things.

There’s also a phone number for the host family, but no e-mail address. Chloe e-mailed the head of the English department at the school, explained that she’d be a student there next year, that she’s just now learning Spanish, and asked if she’d be willing to answer a few questions. Chloe’s also going to have her Spanish teacher help her write a letter to her host family.

Neither Anna Rae nor Andy have gotten their guarantee forms back yet, although Anna Rae’s heard from her host sister. We’re really curious to see how close Andy and Chloe will be living.

One station closer on the reality train.

She'll be living in . . .

Pamplona! Just got a one-line message from the coordinator saying that Chloe will be in Pamplona. The coordinator is sending a copy of the guarantee form to us so we'll have the name of the first host family and the school she'll be going to. Now we can do more specific research.

Keeping track

“What ferry are you taking? Who’s picking you up? How are you going to get to C’s house? No, you are not walking to her house in the dark. Yeah, I know nothing’s going to happen. Who’s going to be home? Who’s that? Her mom’s not home? What ferry are you taking home? How will you get there? Who’ll give you a ride? I don’t think so. You won’t be leaving here until you have a better plan.”

All this just so Chloe can go to her friend’s house in West Seattle to spend the night. I need to know the who, what, where, when, why, how, how long, and with whom. For one school dance (at school on Vashon Island), there were convoluted plans to take the ferry to West Seattle to C’s house to eat dinner, go back to Vashon for the dance, then back to West Seattle to spend the night at C’s house. For various reasons (no parent home, not sure if there’d be anyone to pick them up at the ferry at 1:30 in the morning, etc.) we told them they had to come back here for the night.

Then it occurred to me: Chloe could become a groupie for a Portuguese punk rock band and hitch a ride in their VW Transporter to follow them on their eastern European tour next year and how would I know? Does this revalation mean that I relented and she went to C’s house last night and walked there in the dark? Uh uh. Next year will be here soon enough.

Where in Spain?

Anna Rae found out where she’s going in France (Annecy in the French Alps) and who her first host family is. Her host sister is currently living in Seattle (where Anna Rae also lives) as an exchange student. How lucky is that? I e-mailed the RYE coordinator and she said she was following up on the unknowns this week. But that doesn’t mean that she’ll get any responses this week, or next. All these little steps help to make it more real, but the exchange fades back to an abstract concept during the weeks and weeks of no information at all.

Chloe’s excited to get her blazer, so I called today to see when they might be in. They’ve been waiting since March for one last girl to get measured, and the woman said she had to do it this week or they’d order without her (some kids going to the southern hemisphere are leaving soon). From then it should be about a week and then Chloe can have it fitted. One more official step toward departure. Who would have thought that a 15 year old would get excited about a stuffy navy blue blazer, one that she wouldn’t be caught dead in in the real world?

Choices

Chloe gets to spend almost a year living in a European country, something that not a lot of kids get to experience. Still, almost weekly, she’ll realize something that she’ll be missing while she’s gone: her friends’ birthdays, Christmas at home, not getting to drive for one more year, school dances. What if we get a puppy while she’s gone? One of our dogs, the younger one, has just died – the older one has been circling the drain for some time now. She can’t look for a job. Maybe we’ll go on a vacation – gasp! – without her. Probably her great aunt (who’s only 60) will die.

It sounds silly, but we look at it like, “You get to spend a year in Europe and you’re whining because you’re going to miss a concert in Seattle?” She knows that she can’t complain because, after all, she’s spending a year in a damn European country, dammit, but that doesn’t change the fact that she’ll miss a lot here. It’s a lesson in having to make choices and, even though it’s a pretty spectacular choice, it’s not always easy.

One girl went to Denmark last year and had to come home for a few weeks for a family emergency. She said that was an eye opener. Until then, she’d hear from her friends at home about everything that had been going on: parties, dances, shopping, hanging out, sports, etc. When she got home, she realized that while she was gone she only heard the highlightsof her friends' lives as home. She’d sort of forgotten about how much time is spent doing nothing, being bored, hanging out at home, griping about homework or the weather, getting sick of school. After she went back to Denmark she had a much greater appreciation of her time away from home.

Spanish from Mel Gibson's teacher

Been listening to the Spanish with Michel Thomas audio CDs. I found them (an 8 CD set) at www.textbookx.com for $42.80 instead of the list price of $75 ($54.37 from Amazon.com). He's a German "language teacher to the stars" and his program is the "choice of corporate professionals all over the world." No workbooks or memory drills - just listen and repeat. At first, he's a little hard to understand, but it doesn't take long to get used to his German accent, and he seems to be a stickler for correct pronunciation. So far I've listened to just the first two in the car so we'll see how it goes.

It's probably designed for travelers because he begins with words like necessary and like that ("It is necessary for me to have it that way at this time", which I'm sure will be more useful than "must have now"). He talks a little, then you and two other students (a boy and a girl) repeat after him. Maybe I'll speak Spanish with a German accent.