Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The Fort Worth Tour

When the girls were in high school we had a total of 10 foreign exchange students. 4 of them were brought over through a corporation from Japan, Germany, and Columbia. The other 6 came over for 6 weeks through a school based exchange program. The German teacher had contacts in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the english speaking schools in those three countrys would alternate sending a class over in November and then they would go back in December. It was a great experience for the entire family. You find out that children are the same the world over and family life is the same all over the world. All the student could speak english at least a little some got to where they could speak it very well. After being here for about a month or two the student found out they were speaking so much in english they couldn't remember their own language. This could cause the student to stop learning english which is what happen to our columbian student. When he couldn't understand his mother he stopped learning english. The two students from Japan loved the shopping both of them kept asking for money when ever they wrote or called home. One spent their money on used clothing (she was a Madonna fan) and the other one spent it on perfume. Our favorite student was from Germany and he has kept in touch with us the most over the years. All the students had problems slipping back into their lifestyle back home because they were used to greater freedom so I heard about family arguements once they got home.

During the time they were here they all had the same english teacher who always gave them a list of Local sites to vist in Fort Worth. So I got in the habit of a regular tour I would take the student on throughout the year. This tour include; the Amon Carter Museum of Modern Art, The Kimball Art Museum, The Museum of Science and History, The Aeronautic Museum on the road to Grandview, Texas, Billy Bob's Honky Tonk, and the Fort Worth Stockyards. Their use to be a craft mall in Dallas and the Galarie in Dallas those were the last two places on my tour.

We enjoyed having the students with us the four years the girls were in high school. During the time the students were with us. My ex-husband was called up for Desert Storm he was sent to England and my husband and I got a divorce. Life went on and they were include in the our lives like we were include in theirs. It was a great experience and the girls found out what a brother were like.

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