SCHOOL!!!!

Yikes, I just realized it's been over a week since I last posted. Let's see how well I can backtrack.

So I mentioned last Monday already. We got Carlotta enrolled in school and met with the tennis coach.

Tuesday was a slow day. Carlotta had her first tennis practice. I was VERY proud of her. When we got there she walked up to the girls and introduced herself right away. She has started to make some friends on the team. More on that later.

Wednesday was a chaotic day. We went to school in the morning and got her classes set up. She has a good balance between levels. She has one 9th grade class (honors biology), two 10th grade classes (English and US History), and the rest are upperclassmen classes (French 4, psychology, algebra II). Next semester she'll have photography and sociology. Those are upper level classes as well. I'm glad that she will be exposed to multiple levels and may different students. That night she had tennis practice.

Thursday was Carlotta's first tennis match. That morning we went out to buy her some clothes for her uniform (tennis skirt etc) and we got to school for the match. We were originally told that she needed to be at school at 1:30. We get to school and no one was there. We walked around looking for someone on the team and didn't find anyone. When we got back to the car, for some reason or another it would not start. I called my grandfather to jump the battery in the car. Stupid car - He gets into the car turns the key and it starts right up. Go figure.

There must have been some sort of divine intervention in that whole event. Just as we were about to leave, I see someone drive up who is wearing a tennis uniform. A few seconds later and I see some girls walk up in tennis uniforms and rackets. I asked them if they were on the JV team and they said yes they were there for the game starting at 3. YAY!!!! So Carlotta didn't miss her first game.

Friday was our plan to do a few things around town, but we never really got around to it. We were getting ready to go to the store when I got a phone call from a parent on the tennis team. One of the girls was throwing a party and wanted to know if Carlotta could come (!). She's in the country for a week and gets invited to her first pool party! She went and had a good time.

Saturday we went to Cincinnati. We went to Krohn Conservatory and then went to Findlay Market. We got pretty lost on the way to Findlay. William pointed out a drug dealer on the street. Carlotta asked how he knew that, and William said why else would a guy be standing in the middle of the street doing nothing? She was pretty impressed. She also got to see Findlay Market and how William gets all excited to buy fresh meat, fruits and veggies. She also got to see me go a little nuts over spices.

Sunday we went to Will's parent's house for dinner. We think Clayton, Will's brother, has a crush on Carlotta. Why else would a 15-year-old boy jump up to get a girl cantaloupe? Surely not because he's nice ;-) I honestly would not be surprised if he has a bit of a crush on her.

Monday we got school supplies and got ready for school. Not a big day. Tuesday was the first day of school. I don't think Carlotta slept at all that night. It wasn't the best day for her. She got lost, couldn't get into her locker, got lost again, got tons of papers and directions thrown at her - it was a mess. I think practice was what kept her going that day. I won't lie, she came home and cried. I tried very hard to calm her down and make her feel better.

My biggest message to her was that every exchange student was having the same problems she was having. It didn't matter how confident or outgoing they were, they were still having the same problems. I told her at least one of them was standing in the middle of the hallway totally lost, another fought with their locker and never got it opened even though they practiced over and over again during open house, another was late to every class, another one stood in the cafeteria looking for a place to eat but didn't know who to eat with. I think realizing that every student has those problems made her feel better.

My other message to her was that it gets better.

And each day got better for her.

Wednesday she had another match. I thought she had early release and was totally wrong. I drove to school to drop her tennis stuff off to her. Had I known she couldn't open her locker and eat all her lunch I would have left it with her. Needless to say, she was HUNGRY when she got home. I bought a pizza, I had a very happy Carlotta.

Yesterday was a VERY good day, in fact I believe she said that it was awesome. She got into the car and told me about the bus getting a flat tire, then got very excited because she got her locker open several times. She even managed to open it and have enough time to eat her lunch :-) She was so happy with how the day went and she was so proud of herself. I was a proud momma too. She was also very excited because she was invited to go to the football (not soccer) game on Friday night, a movie Saturday, and a pool party on Sunday.

Today was another good day. She caught the bus home for the first time (yay again!). She said she was really excited about biology because she volunteered to show her homework in front of the class as an example. She said she shocked the teacher. Frankly she shocked me. She went from baby steps to one giant jump! I'm very proud of her. Tonight she is going out to dinner (Mexican food) and going to the football game! I think she'll have a lot of fun.

It seems that Carlotta is doing well over all. She's figuring out school and getting some confidence there. She's finding friends and getting invited to be a part of a group. The tennis team has an awesome group of girls.

I'm very happy with how things are going.

School, sports, and dinner! OH MY!

I think the title says it all. Today was a really busy day!

I actually got up at 5:30 today. I'm proud of myself. The bright side to this is that I was half way done with my work day by 10am. It will be nice if I can keep doing it. I think it will be easier once I get everyone out of the house!

So today we enrolled Carlotta in school, and had very few problems. The person doing enrollment told her to stay away from the boys. She gave Carlotta several complements, but I don't know what she made of it. She also asked if she was interested in playing any sports, which was a really good thing that she asked us! After we told her yes, she sent us over to the high school to meet with the AD and get paperwork for Carlotta to play sports. In a 10 minute conversation we found out that she is eligible to play sports while she is here. I had emailed the tennis and track coaches over the weekend and hadn't heard anything back. When I told the AD this, she pulled out his phone and called the tennis coach. Long story short, we met with the coach and Carlotta starts practice with the team tomorrow! I am so excited that she gets to play tennis while she is here! She's worried about a few things, but understandably so.

Tonight, Carlotta came into the kitchen and asked if she could help me cook dinner. I obliged her ;-) Tonight I was making chicken enchiladas and aside from browning the chicken, Carlotta made the whole thing. I told her where to find the measuring cups, what needed to be poured in and when, and she just followed along. It was quite fun. William took pictures. I'll put those in later.

Forgot - We went to Skyline for lunch today, found out that Carlotta does not care for it. I honestly did not expect her to. On the bright side, will bought a tub of UDF peanut butter cup ice cream. Carlotta squealed in delight. Need to get that girl of peanut butter cups. Can't wait until Christmas when I make dozens of cookies - peanut butter being one one them :-)

Overall, a very good and very exciting day.

The End of a Great Weekend

I can't believe that Carlotta has been here for 4 days already. Okay, three full days and four nights, just a minor thing.

This morning we went to Frisch's for lunch and Carlotta had her first Super Big Boy. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, it's a rather large hamburger (double decker) with tarter sauce as a topping. Will gets them all the time, and I have never had one because I just don't like tarter sauce. Carlotta said she really liked it.

After we went to Monster Mini Golf and played a round of mini-golf. It's quite possible that Carlotta won. It's a close match between her and William. If the pencil had lead in it, then perhaps I would know the score. Regardless, we had a lot of fun playing. After we finished, Carlotta and William played a round of table hockey. Carlotta was winning for quite a while until William took over. I think the final score was 7-4. I think they both had a good time playing.

We were going to go to Will's parent's house tonight for dinner, but plans fell though. We spent the afternoon and evening at home. Carlotta made her Mii and played some Wii sports and Mario Party with William. It was really funny watching them playing together. I think them playing canoeing was one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time. After, we put in Harry Potter (She's only seen the first one, I don't think she's a huge fan and I'm okay with that!) and Will bought the wrestling pay-per-view (Carlotta said she was interested in watching it, brave brave girl that she is).

Tomorrow Will goes back to work :-( and I'm going to start getting up early again just to get used to it. We're going to school tomorrow to get Carlotta enrolled, and Wednesday she gets her classes setup. Crossing my fingers that it goes well and she doesn't get all freshmen classes.

Hopefully with me getting up early I will get done with work early so we can go do a few things about town. I'm feeling super guilty about her being bored. She hasn't said anything about it, but I still feel bad. I'm trying to not make the same mistakes that we made last year. Perhaps that is why I'm worried that she's bored.

Regardless, it's going to be a really good year.

Welcome Carlotta!

Perhaps this year I can keep this thing current. Let's cross our fingers!

So for those to know, or don't know, Carlotta arrived on Thursday! She arrived from Germany Thursday evening. Between traffic and her flight getting in 15 minutes early, we were a tad late. We at least beat her luggage ;-)

That evening we went to Toot's, which is a local restaurant. William and Carlotta enjoyed burgers while I ate a salad. My salad was sad looking. I think Carlotta managed to stay awake for about an hour after we got home before she gave in to the need to sleep.

I was shocked Friday morning when we were all up by 8:30. I expected Carlotta to sleep in until noon, but she was awake and cheerful at 8:30. We made a sad attempt at cooking breakfast. The pancakes turned out more like fried biscuits. We had scrambled eggs and bacon for backup. Sadly, this is the third person in my life who eats their eggs with ketchup. I'm outnumbered, but I have no intentions on joining the club. Will and Carlotta drove around for a bit in the morning to show her around the area. We also went out to Mariemont to show her the town square that looks like a German village. It's cute, but totally odd.

We went to my Mom's house and also ran into my Uncle. Carlotta got to meet the twins and play with them for a bit. We went to LaRosa's for lunch and grilled out for dinner.

Today we were expecting it to storm all day so we didn't plan much. Sadly it didn't. Regardless, we went to Jungle Jim's and Best Buy which is always fun. I think Carlotta is starting to feel some jet lag. Better to get it now versus when school starts.

I've contacted some coaches at school and I am crossing my fingers she can participate in a fall sport. It will give her an opportunity to meet some of the kids before school starts and a chance to get involved. Being a young host family has it's up side and down sides. It's nice that we are young and active - I mean we like to go out and explore new things. The major down side is the lack of companionship. Being an only child can be lonely, and even more so for an exchange student. I was so worried that Yuki was bored last year, and I worry about Carlotta too. I'm crossing my fingers that it's not an issue this year.

Tomorrow we'll see where the road takes us! School starts in a little over a week. Hopefully we can get in a few things before school takes over her life!