So you want to visit the White House?

Oh my, my. Are we sore today. We took the jaunt to the White House. We were met by men in dark suits and earpieces with curly wires running down their necks. Really. Our AYUSA contact did the legwork to get us inside. You have to get signed up in advance, get your background checked, and then you are on THE LIST to be let in. We probably now have permanent files in some FBI or CIA office now for harboring a German exchange student.

So since one can't take cameras inside, I volunteered to wait outside with Verena's camera while the kids, Doug and Verena took the tour. They thought that our AYSUA contact was going to lead a tour, so they dawdled inside the warm White House waiting for Betsy while I froze my a** off waiting outside. I guess I shoulda told them that AYUSA never said that they would send anyone for us. How was I to know that they thought that? Anyway, the kids came out bubbling over about all the color-themed rooms. Adam could not stop talking about the blue room (which in actuality could be argued to be the Yellow Room). He loved the wallpaper border that matched the real moire silk curtains and swags. So, I went through the tour too, and took the kids and Verena along for a second ride. It was a real hoot. (Though not as fun as with Adam in the Statue of Liberty in NYC where the boy climbed 156 stairs with nary a whine, and submitted to my weak attempt at humor when I joked with him about the statue not having any underpants as we gazed up her dress from the inside--she's French, you know) Am I going to have to go put up a wallpaper curtain border in his room now? I hope not. I thought his room was finally finished. Anyway, the kids LOVED the tour.

Funny how I often seem to be the only ones asking any questions on these kinds of tours. I asked about the ball and chains hanging from the eagle-shaped wall sconces, and the MIB in that room with the earpiece and curly wire dutifully answered that if you pulled both of them at the same time, all the toilets in the white house would flush. Hah-hah. Really, you can't do that since unless you have two people. They are too far away. Must be a safety feature. He did also say that the eagles were the USA (no kidding bub) and the ball and chains were a symbol of our dominion over the world. He admitted that it sounded arrogant. Hey, the sconces were very very old.

So we finish up with the White House. On the way to meeting a friend or ours to get lunch, I made Verena pose for a pic with the big president cutouts. She chose Bush, not Clinton. Is that even a fair choice? Blech! Now I have one of my Great Aunt with Clinton, and one of Verena with Bush. I have a nice little collection going! Even getting into the food court, we had to go through security. I wonder what Verena thinks about the USA when just about every place we have taken her she needs to go through security. It makes ME really feel how much the world must hate us. Oh well, GB got over it. So will we.

So then we were off to the Air and Space Museum. Mind you, it's too much to ask a couple of five-year-olds to walk all this distance, so Adam and Naomi are usually riding on our shoulders. OMG....the pain. But it was worth it. We walk into the A&S and I look back to see Verena's eyes widen and jaw drop in awe and wonder. Adam and Naomi are too young to "get it", but Verena sees all the large mass of worldwide achievement and surely does. She did remark how she liked seeing it all from our point of view. I had to agree that I like the same sort of thing while watching the BBC news. It's a good way to get a clearer view of the world and one's place in it. It's a good thing we had Steve with us, so that Verena could have some questions answered if need be. We were too busy wrangling kids to be of much help to her.

I was proud that we not only have all our achievements, but a good array of Soviet, and German (the Red Baron especially) and now, private business achievements. Hey, did you know that the A&S now owns the Mars lander? They renamed it, and plan to get a plaque up and mounted on it one day. They already have the plaque made and on display next to the model. Too cute. I was even MORE proud to see a copy of Doug's game "Ace of Aces" prominently displayed in a case outside the WWI section of the museum across from the Red Baron display. Way, way, way cool! My husband has HIS work in the NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM! OMG! Sure that I caught the ear of a security guard or two as I squealed in delight! Hmm....can you be proud and jealous at the same time?

It's now about 5:00 and he kids are now about to implode so we feed them a smoothie, hoist them on our shoulders once again, and make the long trek back to the car. Doug confessed this morning that he felt pretty good about how sore I was today because he thought it was "just him" gettinmg tired under the weight of a kid. He said that every fiber in his body was screaming for relief while we were walking with the kids on our shoulders, but he was going to be danged if he was going to put Adam down before I put Naomi down. Bless him, he didn't, and yes, we are wrecks today. We feel so very old! The thing is that we both need to lose a bit less than that the kids weigh, so think about how much better we'd feel if we could shed what we shed when we put the kids down after the day! Do we really feel that bad all the time?

Next scheduled stop, The Holocaust museum with AYUSA.

Our Exchange student adventure has started off well.

I really should have started this when Verena arrived. Alas, as with everything I do, there is just not enough time. Our start was a bit rocky, as AYUSA, the organization that set up her exchange appears to not be terribly on-the-ball. To their credit, they were the only ones to actually get back to us with more than a form letter. I expected to have student arrive in September, but there she was, at our doorstep January 16th. According to AYUSA, she was to start classes on the 26th. That would give her a week to get her jet lag under control. When I called the school, they would not let her start until the following week, when the semester started. HUH??? Since when did the semester NOT end at Christmas? Well, this was a shock, and poor Verena had to sit here twiddling her thumbs fro two weeks being bored out her mind until she could meet people at school. We did an "intervention" and called some friends of friends that had kids in school and we got them together with Verena. Ahhh...social interaction! The second blow for Verena was that she could only choose 2 classes. TWO??? Yes, they only have 4 classes a semester. It seems lots of things have happened since I went to school in this county. We had 7, as I recall, and so does Verena's friend who is studying in Wisconsin (poor thing). After some convincing by me and one achingly silly false Chemistry start (where they introduced the metric system and the concept of a mole!), she finally ended up with the two classes they require of her: American History and American Literature, and (geeze, I wish I had had this) Forensic Science and Psychology--both half credits so she has two other silly fillers to back them up. Boy, Verena looked mighty blue for a day or so after that first scheduling meeting. She felt awful that she was going to not have any math. I did try to warn her that she was WAY too smart for our schools. Even the school and AYUSA did not believe me until our contact, who was a Spanish teacher "tested" her on the spot and finally agreed with me that the girl was fluent and should NOT take Spanish 2.

The two weeks I had spent with her spoke HUGE volumes as to her education and intelligence. For those of you that know anything about the German education system, she is in Gymnasium-the highest level-at home. I offered her the chance to change host families, and told her that she would NOT hurt my feelings if she wanted to go to a larger city with a more diverse school schedule. She flatly refused and regaled me with stories of woe from other exchange students she had known or heard of. Simply awful things involving opening and reading mail, forcing muslim girls to go to church, issues with host family sons, and so on. She feels we are a real find, and I think I must agree. We seem to be the only ones that are not just "lumps" providing a bed and some meals and asking that she do chores. We want to show her the US.

We just got back form Chinese New Year in NYC! We took her to her first Broadway show (Hairspray, what else?). We showed her Chinatown, The Empire State, Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty (We hadn't been to either Ellis or Liberty) and (Gulp) Ground Zero. THAT was hard. I had come so close to losing 4 people in there, and one in the Pentagon. It was an odd mixture of feelings as I stood there, with my guts on the floor for how horrific it all was, and triumphant that my twins, who were two months inside me at the time it all happened, were happy, healthy, and a grand raspberry to those sick and misguided warmongers who were tricked into doing a madman's work. The tears in Verena's eyes were a strange shadow of what every American feels about it all. It was comforting to see such solidarity with us in a young European's face. Ahhh... the wonderful heart of youth. It seems to be the same, no matter WHAT the nationality.

So, as I said, this girl is so smart, and so poised that I keep forgetting that she is not a native speaker. She speaks 4 languages (Her German, with the usual bundle of English, French, Spanish), fluently, and no one would know that she is not a native English speaker if you were to read her class essays. It's still tough for her to get any social activity outside school hours, and I feel for her on that matter. It peeves me to no end (and I'm sure pushes my buttons because of my own experience in high school) that a couple of the girls (the ones we hooked Verena up with) will offer to do something with her, and then back out at the last minute, saying that their parents "won't let them". Huh? Not sure I believe it, but hey, I haven't gotten my own act together enough to get their parent's over here for dinner so we can meet---but then neither have they. The one time we dropped off Verena at a Super Bowl party at another exchange student's house, the host family could not even be bothered to come out to say hi to us, and meet us. I was NOT invited inside, so I did insist on getting out of the car to at least meet the exchange student who was waiting outside for us, shivering in the cold.

Is this not weird, or am I?

So, Verena is settled in, finally receiving real snail mail form all over the world. She says that she does not know what she wants to do with her life. Does any 17-year-old? Oh, man, to have her brains, talent, and skills at just 17.....the world truly is her oyster.