Cultural Exchange

For one week in July, Tim and I hosted two girls from Kazakhstan ages 11 and 12. The girls were here as part of their English class and our church helped to find places for them to stay while they were in Florida. The girls who stayed with us were Kristina and Kamilia and they were really lots of fun. We picked them up on a Monday evening after they drove here with their group from a stay in Atlanta. I was so excited to meet them, but I think Tim was a little nervous about what to expect. In the car ride home from the church we identified some cultural common ground that made things easier.

1. Beyonce- Yes, they just love Beyonce and they were thrilled that I had put a couple of Beyonce songs on Tim’s ipod. This was bad news for Tim, as he isn’t really a fan. In fact, every time we got in the car it was nothing but Beyonce, Fergie, Jonas Brothers, JT, and other bands that make Tim cringe. But most of the time I was carting them around Tim was at work, so it wasn’t too horrible for his ears.

2. Russian My Space- I quickly found out that Kazak has its own version of My Space and the girls were on it every night. I showed them that we have Facebook and I looked to see if there was a Russian Facebook, but I guess there isn’t. They get all their email and everything from this Russian MySpace page. Tim did enjoy altering our laptop so that it would write Russian characters. He put some kind of tab at the top of the screen that they could tap on that would change it to Russian.

3. Apple Cider and Honey Bunches of Oats- The girls couldn’t get enough hot apple cider at breakfast. We discovered this on day 4 or 5 after they didn’t like any of our tea selections and we had run out of orange juice. We sent them home with all the Instant Apple Cider packets that Tim’s mom had left at our house (we had many boxes of that stuff). We showed them a big country biscuit breakfast one morning and then I took them to the store to pick out what they liked. It was all about the Honey Bunches of Oats.

4. Limited Too and Old Navy- I kept telling them that they should have gotten their shopping done in Atlanta because Gainesville just doesn’t have too many clothing stores. They really wanted us to have this store Justice that they had been to in Atlanta, which we definitely do not have. I did get a lesson in how much girl’s clothing costs when I took them to the Limited Too. When we entered the store we were surrounded by the back to school crowd in a sea of sparkly pink everything. And I mean everything- the floor was a crazy pink terrazzo with sparkles and some kind of acrylic coating that allowed for maximum shine. I ended up waiting outside the dressing room for about 40 minutes so I had plenty of time to inspect the floor and try to think of how I could find out show did that floor finish for them and how to maintain it. I’ve been looking for a way to shine up our floors at home- minus the glitter, of course.

5. Domino’s Pizza and Pimp My Ride- We went over to Mom and Dads one night to chill by the pool and I ordered pizza for the girls. I ordered one pepperoni and one onion pizza- onion isa favorite of mom and me. The girls went for the pepperoni at first but tried the onion for round two. They were pleasantly surprised by the onion and I could tell that the pizza dinner was their favorite. Since we were already experiencing the stereotypical unhealthy American dinner, I thought I’d make the evening complete and flip on the TV. (Remember, mom is addicted to TV and they have one in every room, including outside in the lanai where we were dining). I knew that they liked the Hanna Montana show on Disney, but that wasn’t on at that time. Then I remembered- when Tim and I made that crazy trip to Czech and Austria we were surprised to see that everyone under the age of 30 was watching Pimp My Ride. It was like it was on 24 hours a day. So I flipped over to MTV2 and there it was. The girls loved it and were surprised to hear it in English. Apparently in Kazak, they dub over it, which is also what we found in Austria and Czech. The episode we watched featured a 1991 Ford Festiva that was rehabbed to have leather seats with Tattoo details, nitro for increased speed and a deluxe flame paint job. It horrifies me to think that this show, Pimp My Ride, has become a widespread example of American culture, yet I have to admit I like watching it. And the girls had a blast watching it. I’m sure their comprehension of American slang such has Xzibit, tricked out, and dog as term of endearment has increased tenfold.
The girls did get a chance to go over to Disney with their group on Friday and Saturday, which worked out great because our friends Jessica and Wade came into town for a last visit before their move to LA (Louisiana, NOT Los Angeles). The girls left on the following Monday for a day at the beach, another day in Atlanta and then back to Kazak via Moscow.

The next week went by super quick as my sister Kathy and Allie and Weston came down for an end of summer hoorah before Allie starts high school and Weston starts Middle School. How could my little flower girl Allie already be in high school? And Weston is a big time skateboarding punk! How did they already group up so much? We all piled up in the Family Truckster (my wagon) on Thursday and headed to Universal and Islands of Adventure. That’s right, we jammed 6 people and one baby into a single vehicle (he Truckster has a rear facing third row seat and I put the stroller on the roof rack Thule) and I am the bad, white trash mom who dared to drag her 5 month old to the Amusement park. Davis did amazingly well and I know lot of it had to do with Pops and Gigi’s help, plus the fact that he finds Allie and Weston to be hysterical. Kathy even tried on the ol’ Baby Bjorn while Allie and I rode Dueling Dragons, but it proved to be a little too much for her back. Davis even rode on one ride – the Seuss Carousel. We rode in a Seuss-mobile with Pops while Gigi (mom is trying to change her grandma name from Gramms to Gigi) rode the pink flying elephant in front of us. We all had a great time, but I ended up spending most of Friday in the bed recovering. Tim decided to take Friday off to spend a little family time with us, which was wonderful.

We are looking forward to next week and the start of Infant Swim Resource (ISR) swim lessons for Davis. In the mean time, I am doing lots of "Gator Mountains" at the stadium to fight off this belly. Its not so fun, but we still swim almost everyday and thats lots of fun. I will include swim pics in the next post. I think I have more pics of the Seuss Carosell, but I can't find them now. Will post when I find them.

Jenn