Yesterday, at 3:30 pm, after school, I helped my son to pack his luggage
and I dropped him off to his new "Host Family".
I was a bit anxious, since I never did something similar before...I am
keeping my finger crossed, hoping that it will be a good experience.
I'm not giving him off for adoption...let's be clear. He's just
participating in the "Homestay Program", organized by the German
Partner Tongue Department of the JFKS school. It's
a voluntary program addressed to all new students in the German
Beginners Class. My son, as well as other students, will spend a week with a
German host family, with a child the same age, in order to become more familiar
with the German culture and language. He will attend his regular classes
at JFKS during his home stay week and will, therefore, miss no instruction
time. After school, he will meet with his host family, spend the day with them,
have dinner and stay over night. Then, the next morning, he will attend again
his regular school. In addition, mutual school visits on two consecutive days
will also take place.
As soon as we received the application on November, we agreed in participating.
It's after all a wonderful learning opportunity for our son.
We met our assigned host family on Thursday evening, at a parent evening
organized by the German teacher. They are French/German and they have 3 kids: a
14 yo girl, a 13 yo boy and an 8 yo. Reena, the host mother, and I were busy
coordinating the pick up and drop off schedule, exchanging contact information
and getting to know each other a bit more. At the other end of
the table, Julien (the host son) and Josh started conversing in a
English/French/German mixed language, and in less than 3 minutes they were able
to discover quite an astounding amount of common interests....Lego, Mine Craft,
etc.
When I heard that Reena and her husband Christian have already 3 kids
and that, despite this, they are willing to take in another kid, a foreigner,
for a week, I thought that they were extremely... courageous!
What to say? I'm happy for him. At his age, I would have certainly loved
to have a similar opportunity. I'm sure he'll be smart enough to make an
extraordinary and memorable experience out of it, to meet new people and make
new friends.
From our point of view, as parents, we will miss him a lot...
But let's be honest. We won't be sitting next to the phone all week,
waiting for his call....It's going to be a week of dining out...
enjoying some live jazz music at local pub...and staying out late without worrying about home work, sport activities and being home looking after him. It's going to be a memorable experience also for Giuseppe and myself!
enjoying some live jazz music at local pub...and staying out late without worrying about home work, sport activities and being home looking after him. It's going to be a memorable experience also for Giuseppe and myself!
