It had snowed pretty heavily during the night, so we had about one or two inches of snow on the ground. The kids were eager to get outside in spite of the cold temperatures. The boys were the first outside and the first to start a snowball fight, although for some reason, I seemed to be getting hit with the majority of snowballs.
Last year, I trick Japan into scraping the ice off the van by claiming--Tom Sawyer style--that it was "fun". This year, I tried the same trick on Win and he fell for it too. Hahah! In fact, he even told me, "This is fun", something I'm positive nobody in Wisconsin has ever said about scraping ice off a car in the morning. It is probably one of the absolute worst chores of winter in Wisconsin, but I guess it's all a matter of perspective. For the Thai kids, it was a new experience and they enjoyed it very much!
The girls finally came out and joined the fun. However, in spite of their enthusiasm for playing in the snow, the temperatures were bitter cold, and so they kept running back inside to warm up before dashing outside again to briefly play in the snow.
I went inside to prepare some hot chocolate and make sandwiches for lunch. Dada, In and Fah kept coming into the kitchen to "invite" me to come out and play with them, but I'm no fool! I knew what they had in store for me out there. Finally, I relented and walked outside, sure enough, all the kids had prepared snowballs to throw at me. So I got pelted by a bunch of snowballs and they kids all laughed like they'd just pulled the greatest trick in the history of the world. Oh yeah, guys, you really "tricked" me, haha!
On the way into Manitowoc, we stopped by my parents' house so the kids could drop off presents for my mom. My mom's dog, Pepper, really enjoyed playing with the kids, and he's gotten very fat last year. Probably because my mom has been feeding him bread crusts. Tsk. Tsk.
Once we got to Manitowoc, I wanted to buy some colored pencils so we made a detour to Hobby Lobby. June and Didi were very excited since Hobby Lobby is their favorite store. We parked the van in the lot in front of the store and the kids all rushed inside to check out the cool arts and crafts products.
Unfortunately, in their rush to get into the store, they left the door of the van wide open. Luckily, I stepped out of the store to put some items in the van so I noticed the doors before anything was taken, but I was still pretty upset about it. ALL our bags, phones, and computers were in the van, so anyone could have walked up and stolen everything we had.
I went back inside and told the kids to check out, and once we were on the way out of the store, I took them aside and spoke to them about responsibility. I was pretty annoyed because I consider this to be a serious breach of conduct on their part. It's one thing to forget to lock the doors, but to walk away from the van with the doors wide open? That's quite a different matter. I'm sure in their minds, they were all thinking, "I'm not the last one out, so it is someone else's job."
So when I spoke to them, I told them I'm not talking to them as a teacher, but as a fellow traveling companion. I told them that we are all on the same team and that the actions of one person effect the security and safety of the entire group. It doesn't matter who forgot or "who's job it was", it's everyone's job. So if one person forgot, it the job of the next person to remind him/her.
I told them that we were very fortunate this happened in Manitowoc, because it's a safe city with relatively little crime, but if they had done something like this (leave a hotel door propped open or whatever) in Chicago, it almost certainly would have ended badly for our group. I reminded them that Pat and I cannot protect them from themselves. They need to keep a basic awareness of their personal safety. I said, "Maybe before you came on this trip, you always had someone take care of these things or remind you when you forgot, but you're far from home now and it's time to start taking care of yourself. Today, you grow up."
I hate to be a rain cloud on their sunny day. The kids were really happy coming out of Hobby Lobby, and then I poured a bucket of water on their good mood, but sometimes that's necessary. I'm not trying to win a popularity contest and I'm not trying to be their best friend. My job is to keep them safe, period. And when they do something that jeopardizes their safety and the security of the group, that's when the hammer comes down and I put on that "serious face" I'm so famous for. I don't like it and I'd rather be cheerful and carefree, but my motto on these trips is: "Do your job first, find ways to help, and then have fun." So the job in this case was "lock the van". Someone forgot to do that, so someone else should have "found a way to help" by reminding them or checking to see if the door was closed and locked. Once that had been done, then it's OK to race into the store like rowdy teenagers.
The kids all quietly piled into the van and we headed over to the library. They seemed pretty abashed and I asked Pat, "Was it too much?" and she said, "No. They needed to hear that. They've been trying to get away with doing as little as possible on this trip. I hear a lot of grumbling about doing something that isn't their job, so they need to understand that they can't race out of the van so they can avoid the 'chore' of locking it."
Once we arrived at the library, we ate our lunch and then went to the conference room for our orientation class. First I taught them a bit about American money, and then I gave them a worksheet with some basic facts about America and Wisconsin. I told them to use the resources in the library and online to find the answers to the questions on the worksheet.
Then Pat worked on her blog while I took a nap. Jet lag has been hitting me hard on this trip and my energy drains pretty quickly. I've been running most of the errands, coordinating with Americans and getting activities set up and confirmed, so that keeps me pretty busy. Back when I did this trip by myself, that meant I would end up doing my blogs in the middle of the night and so I would be exhausted and cranky every day. However, now that Pat comes along on these trips, I can handle the errands and activities while Pat communicates with everyone back home. Being able to divide the labor makes this trip a lot less taxing on my old body. I still would like to keep my blog as up-to-date as possible, but when I do miss an update it's not a "blackout" because everyone can still keep track of our adventures through Pat's blog.
Kay Larson (Aumin's, Jean's, and Gene's host mom) stopped by the library to chit-chat with Pat. We'll be seeing her and Jean tomorrow for bowling. I'm looking forward to seeing Jean again. He's been here for almost a year, and it'll be great for the homestay kids to talk to an "experienced" exchange student who's graduated from the homestay program to a full-time exchange. I'm sure they'll have lots of questions for him.
After the library, we headed over to Taco Bell for dinner and then drove up to the roller rink for skating.
Some of the host families joined us for roller skating. It was a happy reunion for the returning students and a low-key "ice breaker" for the new students. The kids enjoyed skating very much. June seemed to remember how to stay on her feet this time and In was speeding around like she'd been skating all year. Win was also able to skate pretty fast, but Phu and Carrot really struggled to keep their balance.
Carrot's host family stopped by and our loud and crazy Carrot suddenly turned into a shy wall flower. Her host family seemed very nice and I think Carrot will get along very well with her host sister Skyanne. In the van on the way home, the girls all commented on how beautiful Skyanne was, and Carrot lamented that her name was not as pretty as her host sisters' names. She said, "Skyanne, Arianna,.. CARROT. It's too hard." So she experimented with new names for herself, perhaps, "Carryanne or Carianna or Carolina". Ah, teenagers :-).
Fah's host family also showed up and Fah did an excellent job talking with them. When In came over to chat, Fah said to her host family, "This is my friend In. She is my age." I was very impressed at how polite and well-spoken Fah was. She seemed very confident and at ease. I think she will do very well with her host family.
Phu got to meet his host family too, but unfortunately they couldn't stay to skate with us. Win got to meet his host parents and his host sister, but his host brother was at another event and couldn't come.
After a long and eventful day, Pat and I took the kids home. On the way, the kids slept and so they didn't notice when Pat and I stopped the van to get out and admire the night sky. There were so many stars! Living in light-polluted Bangkok, I'd forgotten what it was like to look up at night and see a black sky with thousands of twinkling lights. I think at some point during this trip, I will take Pat up north to my old hometown, Shawano. There are fewer towns up there and so there is less light-pollution and a lot more stars. We can even see the Milky Way!
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