Monday Mentionables

Mentionable #1: Spent the weekend in Washington, D.C. with our Norwegian exchange student (pics to follow!). We were blessed with wonderful weather both days and had a chance to see the major memorials and a couple of the museums. Worth mentioning: the newly established WWII Memorial. It is just gorgeous: a circular memorial with a pool & fountains in the center and quotes engraved around the entire monument.

Mentionable #2: Am currently reading We Need to Talk About Kevin, an award-winning novel about a 15-year old school shooter - told through letters written from his mother to his (estranged) father. Really, it's a study in motherhood, and what happens when a child isn't the burbling, happy, normally-developing child you thought you'd have, and when motherhood isn't the traditionally fulfilling experience you expected. It's very, very good so far. Anyone else read it?

Mentionable #3: It's so hard to find time to write once school starts! I have about 75 pages of my YA to finish revising, and I can see the end in sight, but between grading papers and planning lessons and keeping up with the basics of the household, somehow all my time in every day is just gone! Must figure out a way to work in a little writing before months pass by...

Friday Fun Facts: Lady Jane's Salon!

Have any plans for the long weekend? (That don't involve visits to the East Coast beaches??) We're spending 3 days in Washington D.C. with our exchange student - got a good deal on hotel rooms and figured it was one of those must-do trips for someone visiting from another country. Any suggestions for best things to see and do? We've been once before, but it's been a while...

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And in totally unrelated news, here's a plug for my fellow writing friend Cat Johnson, who'll be appearing at Lady Jane's Salon in NYC on Monday, September 6th. She'll be reading from her latest release as well as signing and selling books. If you're anywhere nearby, stop by and support her!

Writers' Wednesday: Ruminations on Hosting an Exchange Student

Continued from Monday...reflections on the first week of hosting an exchange student.


First, it's fun. Experiencing a new person from another culture gives you a lot to talk about.


It's also interesting in ways you don't expect. Language barriers (even when your student speaks pretty fluent English) can lead to trouble communicating. Best to speak slowly and using common terms if possible.


It's exhausting. I'm sure this is partly the adrenaline of the whole change/experience of meeting someone new, but for us it's an added exhaustion because we don't have other kids. I'll be honest: having to consider someone else in your house (besides hubby, who can pretty much fend for himself by now) isn't something I'm used to. It's OK, and I'm getting used to it, but it's definitely a psychological change.


It makes you think about things you hadn't thought about before. Your own politics. Your own country and quirks about the culture. How big everything is here. Which qualities and thoughts and values you want to communicate to your student (and which are better left unspoken).


And this is only the beginning. I'm sure there's much more in store (and hey, maybe a story idea or two as well). To sign off, some pictures:

Outside her adopted American high school

Opening a Chinese fortune cookie for the first time!

At a wedding over the weekend

Volunteering at a local pet shelter (each student actually needs 10 hours of community service for the year)

Husking corn for the first time!