Our Foreign Imports

For those who are close to me, they know I am not the most open person. I have always told my friends I grew up in the wrong generation. Although social media is a great tool, I am not always the biggest fan of it. I know that is really weird for someone to say who is chasing a social media certificate. I just don't like thinking that someone can know a lot about me, without ever meeting me. I'm not even that big a fan of cell phones. Every month it is like a game at our house when the phone bill comes and has how many texts each of us sent. I of course am always the loser, because I would much rather have face to face contact than talk through text. Oh by the way, is it bad that my 53 year old dad sends on average 300 more texts than me every month?

Now I am not hard to talk to, and I think I can be very personable to someone I have just met. My mom and grandma tease me because they say I am an exact clone of my grandma's dad. He was the same way, very personable but always reserved of who let get close to him. I truly believe I should have grown up in the fifty's and sixty's. During that time period everyone didn't know everything about you by looking at your facebook wall. If someone actually wanted to get to know you, you had to have a conversation with them.

One thing I can't thank my parents enough for is culturing me. In my 20 years on this earth, I know I have experienced more than many will experience in a lifetime. I have traveled all across the country countless times. We go on out of state trips at least twice a year. I have been to all parts of the united states except the north west part of the states. Every time we go somewhere I try to absorb as much culture as possible. One of my favorite memories from my middle school years was when we took our summer vacation to Maine. We have a few relatives out there and they tried teaching us the "New Englander Accent." Did you know Lobster is not pronounced Lob-Ster its just Lobsta. Also if your lucky you might go past a McDonalds that's sign reads, "Aya Lobsta Heya."

Every place I have been to is so different and I love it. I love going places seeing new things, and experiencing the culture. With that comes meeting new people, and there are many people I can never forget. I will admit that I am terrible with names so don't ask. For me though it is not as much important if I remember the persons name, but that I remember the lessons and cultural values they taught me.

For as well traveled as I am, I have never been outside of the country (canada excluded). I plan to in the future travel outside of the United States, because I know there are so many things to go and see. If your wondering how I can praise myself for being culturally diverse but never visiting any other countries let me get to my next point.

We have had three foreign exchange students/teachers live with us in five years. Four years ago we also adopted one of my mom's lifelong friends son when he was 17 years old.

Our first experience was with a man named Ram, pronounced like cd-rom. Ram was a 26 year old South Korean man. My mom had just finished her Doctorate studies, and my dad was doing case studies for his. They both traveled to China the summer before for my dad to study the education system in China. There they met up with the leaders of a program that was interested in sending teachers to foreign countries. This is exactly like foreign exchange students, just instead of being a student they are the ones actually teaching the class. I remember getting the call late at night because it was daytime in China, and my parents said that we were possibly going to be having a Korean teacher come and live with us for a year. Of course I was excited and it was only a month or two before Ram came to little ol' Capac. It was a total wake up call for all of us involved. Myself and my two siblings were still to young to really be friends with him. I was the oldest and I was 12 years younger than him and entering my freshman year of high school. At first I was all about getting to know as much about the Korean culture as possible. Ram taught me a lot about what it the culture is like for a first born male in Korea. The first born no matter their failures is still the most successful in the eyes of their parents. Ram was the first born in his family and he used it to his advantage. We found out that Ram was not actually that interested in becoming a teacher. Ram lived with us for about three months before things got unbearable. We found out that Ram would only go to school a few times a week. The rest of the days he would spend his days locked away in his room drinking and playing on the computer. Ram had a budget that he came to America to live on for year which was reasonable for someone who was becoming a teacher. But then all of a sudden whenever Ram was worried about money, he would get a few hundred dollars every so often. Ram later had told me that his brother was an executive at Sony. Once my parents got wind that Ram was skipping his responsibilities of teaching at the school things went downhill quickly. We were not looking to get rid of him and we wanted to help him. It was only after he started verbally and almost physically assaulting my younger sister that we knew we needed to part ways. Ram was raised on the values that a women should not speak unless spoken to, and even at that her opinion does not matter. It was after Ram moved out that we found the dozens of liquor bottles hidden in his room. We contacted the person he was living with, and within a week Ram fled to Florida. He broke the rules of his visa and became an illegal alien.

There were many negatives that came from the Ram situation, but I can not deny that I learned a lot about the South Korean culture. Also one thing I really missed when Ram left was his cooking.

It took us a full year for our family to decide if we take on another foreign exchange teacher, this time from China. Eventually we realized that we couldn't let one bad egg spoil the bunch. My parents contacts at the program knew of our previous situation and worked extremely hard to find us someone who stood out from the crowd. We knew that Ran Tao a 25 year old female was coming in August to teach at the high school my dad was principal at. In July our family took a trip to visit my mom's lifelong friend in Oklahoma. It was there that my parents pulled my two siblings and I into our camper and we discussed having Elijah come and live with us. Without hesitation we all said yes. I had known Eli my whole life and we were only a year apart. I was probably a little naive on why Eli was coming to live with us, but I was just to excited to have another brother. So come August Eli packed his vehicle up and headed to Capac, and two weeks later Ran arrived from China. Two months earlier we were still trying to decide if we wanted to take on another foreign exchange teacher, and now we have not only Ran but also Eli. There was never a dull moment. Eli and I were both playing varsity football and learning new things about each other every day. Ran was teaching Chinese at the high school and assisting the world cultures teacher. My brother Logan and sister Meredith were adjusting to switching to the school district where my dad was High School Principal. My dad was finishing up his Doctoral program, and my mom had just started her new position at the Macomb ISD. To say things were a little busy was an understatement. It was almost best for all of us to be living together because we everyday was something new. With having Ran teaching us more about the Chinese culture, and Eli there being the southern cowboy he thought he was there was never a dull moment.

After one full year, Eli was graduated from High School which is something he was not on the path to do in Oklahoma. He and I had our share of rough patches but came out of it with a stronger brotherhood. Today Eli is back in Oklahoma where he is working for his families industrial insulation company.

Ran decided teaching wasn't for her, and after a year of soul searching decided to become a nurse. This past January Ran who is finishing up at U of M Flint got married. She lives in the Flint area, and is expecting her first child in November. Ran has taught me so many things, and not just about the culture of China. I know she'd also be upset if I didn't mention how great of a cook she also was. Your noticing a trend here aren't you?

This brings us to our third foreign exchange experience. This past August, I remember it being welcome weekend in Mount Pleasant and I was hanging out with friends I hadn't seen all summer. My mom calls me and tells me I am on speaker phone and that we need to have a family discussion. Of course my mind races that I am in trouble and I have no idea what it is. They tell me, that they just got back from my siblings orientation and that there is a Danish foreign exchange student who is coming in a week, and has no host parents. Being away at school I said yes without hesitation. I knew my parents could easily handle another foreign exchange person. So come the last week of August Monika Haubro  who is 16 arrived from Denmark. When I started to listen to what Monika was telling us about Denmark and really most of Europe, I realized that most of all my assumptions about Europe were wrong. In the year that Monika has been here, I can say with a straight face that I have never known someone who has traveled as much as her. Since August she has traveled to; Chicago twice, Orlando, Florida twice, Hawaii, Maine, Washington D.C., St Louis, and every travel spot in Michigan. She has taken every chance she got to go on a trip this year, and she can go back to Denmark at the end of this month and tell everyone of her experiences.

Today was actually Monika's graduation at our local high school. However, she did graduate from American high school she still has one more year left of schooling before she graduates high school in Denmark. The coolest thing about today, was Monika's parents were here to celebrate with her. They flew in this past thursday to come meet our family and see Monika graduate. Before her parents leave thursday they are planning on seeing as much as possible.

I guess I should mention that although Monika didn't cook meals, she loved to bake. She was constantly making baked goods to take to school to give to teachers and friends.

As of now, we don't see ourselves getting another foreign exchange student or teacher. After having Monika live with us, we realize we can only go down from here.

I have learned so many things from each different person that lived with us. The most important thing I have learned from each of them is to be accepting no matter what. Everyone is so different and everyone has different values in life. Even if it takes us a while to really get to know each other, that doesn't mean were aren't learning from each other. I know I am a better person today because of my experiences with each of these four people.