Feet in the Pacific Ocean

Took Young Lee to Avila Beach today.  He said that the water was too cold for him to get in and he wasn't too interested in a wetsuit. Maybe next time :)

Weekend of "firsts"

It's been a weekends of "first's" for Young Lee!  School, Starbucks, Football, and Horses.

That's right....  Friday was the first day of school and as you all know from my last entry I was freaked out and worried the entire day.  Of course the day went well. I asked Young how his day was and he said "Pre calculus is very easy.  Literature (English) and History were difficult to understand what the teacher was saying".  So I assured him that as he speaks more English and is here more that it will become easier.  I also volunteered to help him however I could.  Since I'm good at English and I would be lost just opening a pre calculus book, this may work out well.  If he can handle the math class I know I can assist with the English and History.

When I got home from work on Friday the neighbor kid (as we all lovingly call him), Adam, along with Drew and Young were just returning from Starbucks.  Now Young has made it very clear that he only likes to drink water so imagine my surprise when I saw him sporting a venti frappuchino.  This was his first time to try Starbucks.  I yelled at Drew and Adam for corrupting him and then they explained to me that it is just a chai tea kind of drink and it's ok.   Whatever.  I still yelled at them and I told Young that he didn't have to finish the drink which seemed to make him relieved because it was HUGE.  And  then I bitched at Drew and Adam some more as to why they couldn't have even started him off with a SMALL drink?  Blank stares and shrugging shoulders....

Another "first", we went to the St. Joes/Morro Bay football scrimmage.  Now this wasn't probably the best first football experience since it was only a scrimmage, but it was the first time Young has ever seen the game played except for watching John yell at the Rams while he watches them on TV.  Drew tried to explain who was offense, who was defense, and what each team was trying to do. I think Drew was also having to explain this to Adam who although he graduated from St. Joes and attended football games and grew up in the USA, still needs schooling on football.  Young might actually understand more than Adam. (Sorry Adam, love ya son....)

Saturday morning I was running around like a crazy insane woman since my son had invited like 40 of his closest friends over for a bbq to celebrate his 18th birthday.  So... as usual Stefanie and the kids showed up and I gave Stef and the kids the evil death glare for messing up my newly cleaned house (for like the 10th time) so she took the kids and Young and went to see a friend of hers who has horses.  You guessed it, another "first" for Young.  He has never seen a horse before except on TV.  So anyways, Young was able to pet some horses and he really liked them.   Since my BFF Julie has recently moved to a horse ranch in Atascadero, I can assure Young of many more encounters with horses! Very cool :)

I pulled everything together and we had the BBQ for Drew's 18th birtday.  It was a lot of fun.  Young went outside to eat with the other teenagers but seemed a little uncomfortable since he didn't really know them and he ended up coming in and playing the wii with John for a while and hang with the family. 

I heard a basketball and I noticed Young disappearing out to the driveway to go shoot baskets with Drew and his friends.  He stayed out there for a couple of hours and seemed like he was having a great time.  He also had his very first piece of birthday cake and I assume he really liked it because he ate all of it. 

Drew thought since we are all 18 or older now we should go to the casino at midnight when he officially will be 18.  I really don't think that is an appropriate "first" for Young Lee and not so sure Young's parents would appreciate us taking him there...so I'll take Drew to do that one another day without dragging Young with us.  After all, Young Lee has already been corrupted by Starbucks and junk food, let's not get carried away....

By the way, I was happy when Stefanie turned 18, and it didn't bother me when Jon and Jordan turned 18, but with Drew being the baby and turning 18 I'm just not ready! I feel emotional and I don't like it. Where did my little boy go?

Even though I don't like it at all,   Happy 18th  Birthday DREW!


THOUGHTS:
Imagine being 18 years old and never have seen a horse before except on TV.  As I am learning more and more about Young and his culture, I find myself  appreciating more and more all of what we have here in the USA and all of the opportunities that we have that other people may not have.    When I returned from 2 years of living in the Azores, Portugal in about 1992 I had a new appreciation of the USA and all we have here.  This kind of reminds me of that time...and it's a good thing. This experience is teaching me to be more aware and more thankful for things that I just take advantage of.

Enough deep stuff....   Tomorrow we may go to the beach and see seals and I hear there are whales being spotted every day too. Imagine, if seeing a horse was such an amazing experience, wait till he sees seals and whales!!

First day of school

Today is Young's first day of high school in the USA. I totally feel like I just sent off my child for his first day of kindergarten.

I packed his lunch for school, a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, cheese-its, a small applesauce, a twinkie, and some water.  (He will only drink water, he says everything else is unhealthy).

I think I made Drew want to shoot me this morning. The conversation went something like this:
Me:    "Drew, make sure Young eats breakfast"
Drew:  "Ok mom" (said sarcastically)
Me:   "Drew, make sure he knows exactly where to meet you after school and when"
Drew:  "Ok mom" (said even more sarcastically)
Me:     "Drew, make sure Young takes his lunch. It's right here, I made it for him. Do you want me to make your lunch too?"
Drew:  "Ok mom. And you haven't made my lunch like EVER. I make it myself. I'm fine" (he said this while he was making his lunch)
Me:   "Ok Ok.   I'm leaving for work. Bye".
Drew:   thinking to himself:  Get the HELL out of here you are driving me crazy"

I tell Young goodbye and let him know I'm leaving for work.

I leave, and call Drew on the way out of the driveway..

Drew:  Answers phone "Really mom?"
Me:    Ignoring Drew's smart ass comment...."Drew, make sure Young remembers where his locker is and make sure he takes his black binder with him, it has his schedule and the combination to his locker on it."
Drew:  "OMG! OK MOM!"


So......... that's pretty much how the morning went.

Anxious to hear about how school went today!!

More experiences...

Young Lee had his first taste of Lasagna and he told me that he loved it :)  And no, it wasn't Stouffer's, I actually MADE the Lasagna.   We had Lasagna, broccoli, and rice.  He is used to eating rice for dinner so every night I put some in the rice cooker for him.   Drew took him to Taco Bell and he ate a chicken quesadilla.  More new foods to try out.  I think so far his favorite foods are tri tip and lasagna.

We went to the China 1 Restaurant in Orcutt. Young ordered all in Chinese and had a long conversation with the lady that worked there, which he seemed to enjoy.  He said that the sweet and sour chicken that John was eating is more from North China than where he lives (near Shanghai).   Young ate everything on his plate so he either really liked it or he was extremely hungry.


St. Joes has a pretty strict dress code including the no facial hair rule, so I bought him a razor.  He didn't know how to use it so John went in and taught him how to shave. It was a father/son kind of moment.  So he is all clean shaven and ready for school.
Speaking of school, Young thinks that school being over by 3:00 pm is too early and he asked if he could stay longer every day. I think school is going to be quite a change for him and he will for the first time in his life have some free time.

Before coming to the USA, Young had never seen football.  I explained that we would be going to watch football at the school on Friday night. He asked if Drew was going to the game and I said that I thought he was. He asked me if dad was coming to the game and I said yes and he started smiling, because he thinks it's funny to watch John watch football on TV and yell at the TV. So he is ready for his very first football game.

Progress with the laundry. Young gave me all of his laundry and I washed and dried everything. I washed the silk pajamas on delicate and then hung them in the backyard to dry because I was so afraid of ruining them and I know they are his favorite things to wear.  The good thing is that because the pajamas were in the laundry he was outside playing basketball while wearing shorts and a tshirt :)

Pajamas

So I thought I had made great progress with the whole "wear your pajamas only in the house when you are going to sleep" advice I gave Young yesterday. Apparently I was mistaken.

He got home from his tour of the school, told me "school was boring" and changed into the silk pajamas.  Then he asked me to move the car so he could play basketball.  I headed him off at the gate that goes  out to the driveway and explained once again that he needed to change into his shorts and tshirt and not wear the pajamas out of the house to play basketball.  He kind of ignored me and kept walking. I moved the car and then again explained about the pajamas.  He said "in China it's ok to wear these because they are comfortable".  I attempted to explain that in the United States they are only worn for sleeping and not outside of the house.  He said "I have to change?"  I answered "Yes, you should change.  And people will look at you funny and it is not really ok to be out here in the pajamas".  He kept playing basketball......in the pajamas.

It only took my mother a few minutes before she called me and said "I just saw Young outside your house playing basketball in his pajamas.  You should go tell him to change into other clothes".  

Um ya, thanks mom.

I got some basketball shorts for him and hopefully he will wear them.  I think the pajamas to him are like us coming home and changing into sweatpants.

For those of you who think I'm being too harsh  I understand it's a cultural difference and in the grand scheme of things it's not as important as a lot of things.  But...I have to say, I wouldn't let my kids outside to play basketball in their pajamas and he is one of my kids now. 

***  Someone sent me this article about how in 2010 city officials in Shanghai started a campaign to get Chinese people to quit wearing pajamas outside of the house.  Young is from a city near Shanghai.
(See, it's not just me) lol
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/17/opinion/17gao.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=pajama+game&st=cse

Adjustments

We are still adjusting to Young and the differences in our cultures and he is adjusting to us and our customs.  There are a few main things that we need to work on over the next 10 months.

SOCIAL ADJUSTMENTS:   He continues to be very quiet.  I think he would be content in his bedroom watching videos on the computer, all day long, every day.  Last night John got him out of the bedroom to play basketball. John told me that the only awkward thing was that he went out in the driveway to play basketball in his silk pajamas.  John didn't want to embarrass him so he didn't mention the pajamas. I'm like..ummmm...you have to tell him! So this morning when he went outside to play basketball and Drew came in and asked me if I knew he was playing bball out front while wearing the silk pajamas.  I had to go tell him... so I sucked it up and told him that he should only wear the pajamas while in the house in his room when he is going to bed and he should wear his clothes out of the house and when he plays basketball. I'm not sure if he totally understood me or not but he hasn't had the pajamas on since this morning. That's a good thing.

FOOD:  Ok, so I taught him how to make Cup O Noodles for breakfast since he is used to having noodles in the mornings. Now I know it's high in sodium and I know it's not ideal, but com'on people, I'm trying here. He learned to make it himself and it's easy.  Most importantly he likes it.

Yesterday I thought we would try to make a sandwich in order to make sure he likes sandwiches for lunch when school starts.  I started out showing him how I make the sandwich with ham, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and mustard.  He did great at first, he added the meat, cheese, and lettuce. I turned around to get something out of the refrigerator and when I turned back around he had added in some watermelon slices I had taken out to eat with the sandwich.  So ya...

He seemed to enjoy dinner last night: pork chops, broccoli, and rice. Most meals he takes the food and then goes quickly into his room to eat it.  Some meals we actually all sit together and eat at the table so when we do that I will have to make it clear.  Until then whatever works is good I suppose. As long as he eats and likes the food and gets full then I'm happy :)

Today was hamburgers for lunch. I showed him my hamburger with lettuce, tomato, and pickles. I put some baby carrots and cucumber slices on my plate NEXT to the burger.  He grabbed some lettuce and cucumber slices and put them on the burger.   At least he likes to eat healthy.

LAUNDRY:  Young wants to wash all of his clothes by hand.   The other day I tried to do his laundry in the washer and I thought I had confiscated all of it.  When I came out of the garage (aka laundry room) he had washed clothes and towels in the sink and hung them out in the backyard to dry. Yep...we need to work on that.

All in all I think the adjustments we are making are good and we just need to teach him about American culture.  As school starts I think things will get easier and easier.  He seems to loosen up a little bit around kids his own age.  I just want him to be happy and enjoy this experience.  I don't want to hurt his feelings or say anything wrong so I've let a few things go as he is adjusting to us..but as things present themselves I've got to speak up and teach him (like the pajama/basketball thing).

Wish me luck.... it's going to be 10 months of adjustments but I think we're up for it!

HOST FAMILY

So....... I haven't used the blog really since I started it. I now have a Chinese exchange student and I figure now is as good of a time as any to start writing again and documenting some of this cultural experience.

Yang (we have renamed him Young) arrived last week on Friday, August 20th.  I was so excited to go pick him up and couldn't wait for him to arrive, it was like I was having a new baby. I know, rediculous, but that's kinda how it felt.

So upon seeing me he waves with a "hi mum!" and I think "awesome!".  The "hi mum" was the only thing he said the entire way home.  He rushed to his room to unpack and then presented us with awesome gifts and we presented him with some gifts as well.  It was a bit awkward but the first night was under our belts and I was sure we would talk more the next day when he wasn't so tired.

.... well, day 2 was quiet.  He spent most of the day in his room.  I kept going in and trying to talk to him but the boys (John, Drew, Nacho) told me to leave him alone. Sigh.....We went to the grocery store. I tried to find things he would like to eat. He said nothing looked familiar to him and I'm sure Food Maxx was a bit overwhelming.  We came back home and he took a long nap (major Jet Lag). Ramen noodles for lunch.   We had tri tip, chicken, beans, and rice for dinner and he ate a lot of meat and rice.

Day 3 still quiet and I notice he wears pajamas all the time.   I tried to convince him to purchase some more clothes for school but he said he doesn't need them.  Stef and I took him shopping with not much luck.  I bought him some clothes and shoes and gave them to him as a gift and I'm hoping he wears them.  The boys took him to see the new Bourne movie and to the mall.  I think he had a good time.  We had asada tacos for dinner and he liked them - either that or he was super hungry because he ate 3 of them.

He is very quiet and spends most of the day in his room.  He told me that he goes to a boarding school in China with 6 boys in his room, and school is 6 days per week, 6am to 10pm.  So he is in for a bit of culture shock and lots and lots of free time on his hands.  Hopefully he will adjust and get used to our customs :)

And the journey begins...