Six Weeks Here!

It is hard to believe that I have been the mom to a teen now for six weeks. J and I went to his appointment for his hand. The good news is that he is healing well. Bad news is that he isn't quite healed enough to play sports. We couldn't take a chance on it breaking worse if he fell on it again, and then there would be no avoiding surgery. He has a recheck in four weeks that could lead to him being able to play in the playoffs. I am hoping that he can do that because he has found out that there has been a sort of take over in the soccer leagues back home. Basically, if you aren't Turkish in his region you aren't playing no matter how good you are. Playing here may actually end up being his last time playing competitive soccer. Knowing how important that is to him, I really hope that his hand heals good enough to give him that chance to play.

This past weekend, Jannis had his first mandated AFS orientation. He enjoyed himself there. He made many friends, but that is the way it is wherever he goes. There was a host parent orientation before picking up the kids on Sunday that I attended. It was very enlightening. I used the information basically for kids that may come because, quite frankly, there aren't any issues here with J. I know that may not be the case with future kids because kids and cultures vary. I saw that with my grandparents' kids. With the exception of the whole public transportation part of the program, there were things that I learned even though they didn't apply to my present kid. On the ride home, some things led to interesting conversations. We also enjoyed the uninterrupted talking we could do. It was just J and I in the car. L stayed home to watch T. It also gave J the chance to see some of the fall colors. Some areas on our drive were getting quite colorful.

Yesterday, J went to a friend's house after school. They only had a half day due to teacher conferences. He came home last night and tried to figure out how to use his graphing calculator the school let him borrow. It didn't come with a manual, and his math teacher told him to play around to try to figure it all out. Note to self, send this as an example to Obama for his education reform. L did think to Google the calculator and lo and behold we found the manual to it. J then read that as he has a math test on Wednesday and needs to know how to use it by then. Last night, we watched the Phillies clinch their NL East title. Hopefully, I will be able to land some playoff tickets. J would love to go a game, and there would not be any environment more electric than that.

This week there are a couple of soccer games J is attending. The big thing is that we are going to Hersheypark this weekend. I will post how that goes.