Ronnie is going next month and he will stay with his pen pal. The way it works is that the 9 year olds go up to Rostock and the next year, their pen pals come down to Strasbourg, a week each time. The problem is that often there are too many Germans for the French families (and probably some who can't host). Also, there are probably children who move away, etc. This year, the class above Ronnie's was hosting their students and they needed five extra families.
They were supposed to give us a little boy named Julian, who broke his arm the Friday before leaving. We only found this out when we got to the train station but the teacher said she still needed us.
The train arrived and out poured a big group of 10 and 11 year olds in red hats.
They gave us a little blond boy named Alex. He seemed cool and didn't seem to put out with the English and French going on as we headed to the car. To make small talk, I asked casually if he always lived in Rostock. Ronnie came back with the translation. "He was born in Ukraine. He's only been in Germany six years." So our French-German exchange had turned into a French/American-German/Ukrainian exchange.
His gifts were a hit. Two Pet Shop-type cats, two singing stuffed toys (a duck later named Quan-Quan and a Frog named Ploofy), a box of chocolates and a nice Matrioska doll.
Scheduling was tricky. It wasn't technically Ronnie's class so some excursions Alex was with his class while Ronnie had normal school. Ronnie did get out of a few classes to accompany Alex with the other Germans. They had a tour of the city the first day that Ronnie came along for, ending in a reception at the old City Hall where I was married. It was beautiful upstairs too. Ronnie missed his ice skating class but once wont kill him.
Here is a photo of their arrival. They all wore red hats (ours' didn't have any sort of matching garb for their trip to Rostock).
These are from the reception in City Hall. Daniel and I were married downstairs.
This is the only photo of him ice skating. Ronnie was tired so Alex wore his skates and I took the girls.
These were just home shots but it's interesting as I took them with different cameras. The top one is from the iPhone.
Saying goodbye :(
The next day they went to Haut Koeingsburg castle about an hour south of here. We woke up to pouring rain and it continued throughout the day. No beautiful view of Alsace for Alex and his buddies.
Wednesday morning, there was a museum tour which Ronnie was invited to as well but posed some legalistically problems with the girls' ice skating. We solved it by my going all the way into town and dropping them off and picking them up directly from the museum (rather than taking the bus from the school). I brought Alex to the ice skating rink but, with the language barrier, he got all excited thinking he would ice skate himself. I had to say in my broken German "only for ice skating school". I should have guessed that being Ukrainian, he would skate!
Turns out the Ukrainians can understand Russian and that meant that Alex could talk to about half the people there. He was talking to Irina, the ice skating teacher ("Is he with you?!?"), her mother, some of the other moms, a few of the kids, etc. At one point, I couldn't get something through to him and then asked one of the other moms to translate...
To add to this confusion, the garderie where Davina goes Wednesday afternoons decided to do an outing with the younger kids. I have never heard of this and it was really badly timed for me. It's better for Davina to go to the garderie Wednesday after noons and play in their big garden and do art projects, rather than be in the car taxing her older siblings around. Now, I was presented with the fact that I would be taxiing two kids around... No, it wont work. I asked Talia nicely, can you skip gymnastics once??
Ronnie had a swim lesson and turns out, Jessica was sick so it was cancelled. I gave up, threw towels in the car and decided we'd all go swimming!
Then the real fun began. Turns out two other host families got the same idea, at the same time and place. We had a total of 10 of the German students there. It was a madhouse trying to keep tags on them all, in addition to our own kids. At one point, I lost Alex. I had to tell them that I lost a little blond boy who doesn't speak French but does speak Ukrainian and German. The lifeguard looked at me strangely and said "But your accent-where are you from??"
Hautepierre's pool is the best for kid to play. There is a little kids' pool and a big slide. The Germans loved the slide. They probably are telling everyone that French pools have cool slides but it's the only one we know of. It was hard because most of the line to use it is out of view, so I had to assume that's where they were when I couldn't find them. The other two St. Jean parents helped me keep tab of my lot.
Ronnie was cute coming out of the boys locker room. He was shouting instructions to Alex in German, talking with the other kids from his school in French and me in English. Lots of stares and one ticket guy "had" to ask...
I did manage to get Ronnie and Talia to Hebrew school but it's only an hour. I took Alex and Davina shopping nearby, to avoid more driving. Half-dead, we all went home...
Thursday morning there was a visit to the Vesseau museum, where Talia once had her birthday. Ronnie had the last rehearsal for the Saturday night show so he didn't go. Friday was a picnic at the park by the river. They symbolically took a picture on the pedestrian bridge on the border.
One issue was that I had to pack a lunch every day for Alex. That was a bit of a pain, as most of it came back. I couldn't figure out what he would eat. I took him to the store, I asked him, I showed him and still, he didn't eat much. Turns out, this is the problem all the parents have every year. The German tastes are different. I bought kosher salami (doubt he ever knew it) and just put it in a bag. He didn't eat the sandwich.
We had better luck at home. He liked Rhubarb pie (an Alsatian specialty). Also, the Koglehof Daniel bought the first day. The exotic fruit wasn't a hit but Talia finished off the Passion Fruit and all three ate the mangoes. The artichokes were a big mistake. I think that was just too weird for Alex to eat. He liked the mergez and the homemade pizza but wouldn't touch the lamb roast (strange as that is a kid-hit with ours'). Honestly, I didn't serve nor expect him to eat what our kids do. Anchovies and raw oysters are not what we serve but I know that not all kids love them as much as my three do. Still...
Otherwise, he was easy. He didn't make a mess, took showers and got ready quickly and by himself. It was good practice for Ronnie's German.
I was really sad taking him to the train station Saturday morning and saying goodbye. We gave him a San Francisco 49er T-shirt, a stuffed bunny from the U.S. for his baby sister and a box of Alsatian cookies for his family. I also gave him some S.F. and Alsace postcards. I had gotten attached to the little blond boy in just a few days! I was sorry to see him go but glad that Ronnie would have some one he knew when he goes up there next month.
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