Cuisiner means To Cook

It's official.  We are spoiled. Saturday in our house is now officially crepe day.  Last weekend, before his soccer game, Abel made crepes.  It's true -- what you are all envisioning that looked like, it did.  At 6:45am, I came downstairs and there is an 18 year old French kid making crepes in my kitchen.  It. Was. Amazing.  I've already let him know that if he keeps up this kind of work, there are going to be lines from around the Twin Cities showing up at my door.  

And then yesterday, he let us know that he was making crepes again this morning.  But guys.  These crepes were even better than last week.  The amount of different jams/spreads/sugars/fruits that we have on our table while we all eat these amazing STILL WARM crepes.  I literally cannot.

Making the Saturday magic happen.

This is how happy Abel's tradition makes Jude.

Gagner means To Win

Today was Abel's first soccer game with the Armstrong Falcons.  Not knowing anything about soccer is kind of an impediment for my obnoxious cheering at games.  But I only let that stop me for about 10 minutes of the first half.  

Abel played a great game -- he was only one of three players to play all 90 minutes.  He plays CAM (Central Attacking Midfielder), and it is a lot of running.  No wonder he can eat so many marshmallows!

The best news was that they won, 2-0! When he first made Varsity, I couldn't tell if he was excited or not.  I wasn't sure if he was excited.  I couldn't tell if he knew how awesome it would be to go through this experience. When we met him after the game, he was over the moon excited.   He said that he loved the field.  He loved playing at night.  And then, when he got in the car, he said, "I could run all night."  We are so proud of him!

Falcons Win, 2-0!

Stade means Stadium

Nothing is more American than baseball.  Except, maybe taking your foreign exchange student to the baseball stadium with your fanatic son.  

One of the cool parts of being a season ticket holder is that you get to go to some special events at the stadium, and it just so happens that today was one of those special events.  We got to go in to the Champion's Cllub, hang out on the field, even throw some pitches in the bullpen.  Even Abel thought it was amazing...even if it was as American as apple pie.

Meet TC, the Twin's mascot.

Hanging out in the bullpen.

Sept means Seven

We are getting into our routine with Abel here, and part of that means getting ready for school.  Last night, I did my parental duty and went to the soccer parent meeting.  It was full of all of the things that American high school sports are full of -- booster clubs, fund raising, behavior policies, and more fundraising.  We even bought our fair share of tickets for the waffle breakfast.  It seems like the coach is dedicated to the sport and to the players, and the kids seem great -- I am excited to watch the season unfold.

As part of the meeting, Abel got to choose his uniform.  I had asked him before what number he usually chooses, and he said that he was 2 last season, so I expected to see the same thing.  After our meeting, he showed me his uniform and said, "I chose seven. Like Sete."  You see, in French, the word for the number seven is sept. You pronounce it the same way that you pronounce Sete, Abel's hometown.  Love.

Seven is Sept is Sete.

Jeu means Game

Yesterday was the first full Saturday that Abel has been here, so of course, being who we are, we had a million things planned!  

First, he we started the day with a trip to Apple Valley for Abel's first soccer scrimmage as an Armstrong Falcon against the Apple Valley Eagles. It was so fun watching him play, even though I know absolutely nothing about soccer.  

My favorite Armstrong Falcon.

Following the game, we made a stop at Portillos, which opened in Woodbury earlier this year.  After about 8 months without my beloved Maxwell Polish and cheese fries, it tasted amazing!  Abel declared that he thought the bread was delicious and that this was the best meal out in Minnesota.  He even added one food to the "try" list: American liquid-pump-nacho cheese. Although I have't yet asked for the 1 to 10 rating, he did have more, so it couldn't have been too terrible!  

Debunking the myth about French people and ketchup, one condiment container at a time.

However, after years of believing that French people didn't like ketchup, I have now learned that is all a lie.  A dammed lie. In fact, I'm pretty sure Abel could win a ketchup-eating contest.  

And then, as if schlepping all over the Twin Cities wasn't enough, last night was Abel's first introduction to any of our friends in Minnesota (we waited at least a week to overwhelm him).  We drove up to our friends Chrissy and Kevin's house for a night of AMAZING smoked chicken wings in Kevin's new smoker.  We also introduced Abel to one of our all-time favorite games, Settlers of Catan.  And I'm not too proud to say that he won on his first time (okay, maybe a little too proud and I had to rewrite that sentence 3 times).

Liz teaching Abel how to play Settlers.  Abel planning his world domination.

Ensemble means Together

One of the things that I feel like I am missing with Jude being an only child is the adorableness of Jude engaging with a sibling.  And even though there are 11 years between the two of them, and he's from another country, having Abel here may be as close as Jude gets to having a sibling.

I had to sneak in when they were playing the Harry Potter theme song on the piano the other day.  Yes, together.  They were playing the piano together. 

So here's to 10 more months of playing piano together, throwing balls at each other in the backseat of my moving vehicle, and general adorableness.

Essayer means to Try

I remember when I studied abroad that I tried something new about every day.  Things I loved - Tarte Flambee, Kronenbourg 1664, le sandwich au thon.  And some things I didn't love - French toothpaste, French gum.

Since Abel has arrived, he has been awesome at trying new things.  It's amazing to think about all of the things that we eat every day here that are just a regular part of American life, and how each of them are new to him.  

So I asked Abel all of the things that he has tried over the last five days that have been brand new to them, and to rank them on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being "never feed me that again" and 10 being "do you have any in the cabinet right now?"

Here's the official ranking.

Peanut Butter: 3.5
Chili: 8
Mountain Dew: 7
Root Beer: 0
Chorizo: 9
Frozen Yogurt: 7.5
American Marshmallows: 10

So clearly, the big winner is American Marshmallows.  And at this rate, by the time that Abel leaves in June, he will have tried a total of 420 new things, not sure if any of them will come close to topping american marshmallows.

Guimauve means Marshmallow

Today, my heart was broken to learn that one of my favorite french words, guimauve, is not really what anyone says in France.  In fact, Abel schooled me by saying, "I can't even remember one time in my life that I have said that word." Instead, all the cool kids say chamallow. I'm starting a campaign to bring  back guimauve.

After soccer tryouts today, we took Abel to Chipotle and then to Yogurt Lab.  He did a great job ordering at Chipotle (although he was suprised when I told him later that he ordered chorizo).  And then, we walked across the street to get frozen yogurt, which was pretty amazing.  I mean, frozen yogurt by itself is amazing, but when you take someone who has never operated a frozen yogurt machine, the whole thing takes on a new level of wonder.  

He had a couple of sample cups, and settled on an awesome combination of red orange, chocolate, limoncello, with nerds, and animal cookies. With lots, LOTS of mini marshmallows on the side.  Abel's favorite part about frozen yogurt was for sure the mini marshmallows -- in fact, he had to go back in and grab more before we left.  I see many more trips to Yogurt Lab in our future, and that's just fine by me.

All the toppings.

Montagnes Russes means Roller Coaster

In an effort to totally overwhelm Abel on his second day here, we took him to the Mall of America.  Okay, we didn't really want to overwhelm him.  We really wanted to get his phone set up and the "big mall" has every phone store in the book.  Little did we know that it would be so easy to get it done!  Abel brought his phone from France, unlocked, and we just went in to AT&T and got a SIM card for him.  All that worrying and prepping that we did before his arrival about his phone amounted to that -- just showing up at the AT&T store.  Now he has a cell phone with an American number...and the harassing texts from his host parents has begun.

We did ride a couple of roller coasters while we were at the mall.  Jude made us all squeeze into one log for the log ride, where we awkwardly tested our knowledge on the Paul Bunyan mythology while explaining it to Abel.  Then Liz, Abel, and Jude went out some other spinny twisty roller coaster that makes me sick.  Like any good Americans at the mall, we went to the food court, where I'm fairly certain that Abel was completely overwhelmed by the food choices.  He ended up going to A&W, which, in the list of hamburger places, has to rank very close to the bottom.  But that was Jude's choice, so being the easy-going guy that he is, he just went with it.  Then one more roller coaster and home.

When we got home, Abel got to make me feel like an ignorant American as he explained rules about soccer to me.  Including making fun of me when I asked who he cheers for when Manchester is paying France, saying "France is a country."  Thanks, cool guy, thanks. I may not know what off-sides is, but I do know that France is a country.  

We went to Jude's basketball practice, where the key event was discovering the Jude and Abel have made up a secret handshake.  It's amazing to see the relationship that he and Jude have developed over even 72 hours.  I can already tell that he will be crushed when Abel has to leave!

Today was Abel's first soccer practice, which he said went well.  Since sports are not tied to your school in France, this will be the first time that he has played on a school team.  All of us are so excited to have the chance to go and cheer him on -- it's going to be fantastic.  He got his warm-ups which look super official.  Liz told me I wasn't supposed to say that they are cute...

Premier means First

Today, we met our first exchange student!  We were feeling nervous and excited as we drove to pick him up at the airport...but I kept telling myself that he was probably even more nervous than we were.  There were many other families at the airport also picking up their exchange students.  Kids were pouring off the plane from Japan, Sweden, Germany -- all to spend the next year in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  

We were pretty proud of our welcome sign.

On our way home, we stopped home for lunch at Red Robin, of all places.  We gave Abel three choices: the 5-8 Club for Jucy Lucys, Lake Nokomis to eat outside by the water, or Jude's favorite Red Robin.  So that was the choice!  

When we got home, Jude gave Abel a hysterical tour of our house, pointing out things like where the cat food is and how to operate the dimmer switch.  We hung out downstairs for a while and then Abel went up to his room to get organized.  He hung a huge French flag on the wall for ex-pat pride!  

Jude spared no time persuading Abel to play foosball (le babyfoot)  downstairs, where Jude got his butt kicked, 2 games to 3.  Then, like Jude's dream come true, Abel asked him if he wanted to play outside so they spent time outside playing soccer and basketball. 

Jude is pretty much in heaven.

We served spaghetti, caesar salad, and garlic bread for dinner.  Liz made sure to tell him we didn't make anything fancy...and I spent the whole time being nervous that he hated the food we served.  But he did clean his plate, so it couldn't have been too terrible!

After dinner, Abel brought down some gifts that he brought from Sete for our family, including some cookies, a beautiful dish that says "a la mer," a polo that says "Sete" for Jude, and this amazing France-shaped dish.

Our beautiful gift, direct from France!

So our first day with our first exchange student is over, and it was amazing and awkward and wonderful.  

Demain means Tomorrow

When we made the final decision to host an exchange student, my immediate reaction was the research.  How should we choose our student? What are the do's and dont's? What should we do with our student when he's here?  What program should we go through?

My research-hungry self was underwhelmed (to say the least) about the resources that I found.  I found a lot about how hard it can be...diatribes of why people would never host again.  I found even more about how amazing it is...how it changes your life.  What I didn't find is information about the little things.  So this blog is to share the little things with you as we go through the next year with our exchange student, Abel.

When we started the process, we knew a couple of things:

1. We wanted to host a boy: our son is currently 7 years old, and we wanted someone that he could look up to as a big brother and learn from.

2. We wanted a student from France: I was an exchange student in France in college, and I was a French major, and I'm a basic Francophile, so there was no doubt in my head that for the first time (and probably for all of the times) that we are hosting an exchange student, we want to host someone from France.

But that's all we knew. To be honest, I wish I could say that we did a ton of research around what organization we should go through.  That we looked into who had the best orientation and materials and website.  But honestly, I decided that I just wanted a program that was organized.  So when Jean from Pax called me as a follow-up to an online inquiry that I made, I was sold. 

I also wish that I could say that we reviewed tens of applications to select just the right student.  We had shared with Jean that we wanted a boy from France, and she sent us the very first application that came in.  It was from Abel, and we knew almost instantly that he was the perfect student for our family.   He comes from Sete in the South of France, plays the piano, is passionate about soccer, has a little sister, and comes from a wonderful family. 

After months of preparing for his arrival, he comes tomorrow.  His room is all ready.  Now, all we need is him.  This blog will chronicle the next 10 months of Abel's stay with us -- I know that we'll learn a little about Sete, he'll learn a lot about Minnesota, and we'll all learn a lot about ourselves.

 

Abel with his family as he leaves for his 10 month adventure.