He Is Almost Here

Well, James is starting his journey to Phoenix as I type.  He has to travel from his home city in the northern part of Thailand, to the capital, Bangkok.  From there he will fly to Phoenix.  It is a pretty long flight and I am sure he will be exhausted.  AFS has all of the exchange students fly in to Phoenix and then takes them to a hotel for a group orientation.  The individual families come and pick up their students on Friday from 2-5 pm.  My whole goal is to not be the last family to pick up their student!!! (Wouldn’t it suck if you were the very last kid?  I mean, you travel days to get here and probably only understand half of what people are saying to you and on top of that you have some serious jet lag! …gonna be on time, gonna be on time, gonna be on time…)

     We are working hard to be ready for his arrival: new comforter and desk, school registration, lots of cleaning, and trying to fill out the “Participant & Host Family Questionnaire”!  

     …the questionnaire…WOW!  It really makes you think about the amount of adjusting that he will have to do.  AFS recommends that the host family fill out the questionnaire and review it with the student upon arrival and again in a few weeks.  The hope is that it will minimize confusion and clarify expectations, “Some of the questions below may seem obvious to you, but daily life sometimes differs in surprising ways around the world.”  Below are some of the questions.

·         How should I leave the bathroom after I am finished (door open or closed, fan, lights, heater off/on etc.)?  I don’t really know how to answer this…door open-unless…really? Can’t we just wait and see if there is a problem and address it then???

·         At what times do family members wake up (weekday/weekends)? UMMM…we seek to optimize the amount of hours spent sleeping-any way we can????

·         At what times may I and how long may I spend when I: watch TV, do my homework, shower/bathe, listen to music, use the computer? I don’t know!  -I get to watch TV when I want…I’m just gonna leave it at that.

·         Is there anything I should know about safety in certain parts of town?  I don’t really know. I have never felt unsafe.

·         Is there anything I should know about high school culture, school rules, peer relations, social tensions? Ok-You couldn’t pay me enough to go back to high school! I get queasy just thinking about this stuff.   

So this got me to thinking about teenage stereotypes.  Here is a list of current stereotypes from Wikipedia. 

• Bad boy
• Bitch
• Boy next door
• Bully
• Chav
• Cholo
• Drama Queen/Drama king
• Druggy
• Emo
• Floaters
• Gangsters
• Geek
• Girl next door
• Goth
• Hunk
• Jock
• Know-it-all
• Mut
• Nerd
• Indie
• Outcast
• Overachiever
• Party animal
• Player
• Queen Bee
• Skater
• Stoner
• Tomboy
• Wannabe
• Whiny

Where do you think you fit in?  I think I was a combination girl next door/nerd/overachiever...

OK-back to the questionnaire.