Posted on 07/03/2005 2:57:02 AM PDT by Caipirabob
July 3, 2005 -- Summer plans for dozens of French kids wanting to visit New York City are toast — the apparent victim of anti-French feelings here since the start of the Iraq war.
World Exchange, a nonprofit organization that coordinates a summer exchange, is scheduled to have 92 French students land in New York this week. But only 30 have a place to stay.
The organization can't find New Yorkers willing to take the rest.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I have mixed feelings on this.
Ok, they're French, but they're just children. It might be a good time to impress upon their youth that America can be a wonderful country and the people aren't the monsters that Jockstrap has lead them to believe.
Still, I wouldn't feel compelled to invite a stranger into my home, either. There was a time when such things were more common, but the values were also more common. I don't believe it's the same situation today. I wouldn't want to keep a potential anti-Christ heathen in my home near my children for months at a time. Feed them a meal, show them charity, yes. Beyond that, the French have worn out their welcome in my house.
So really, I can't blame the country in general for feeling that way.
Still, a few months of being exposed to Judeo/Christian values might save some of the children. Perhaps the group should have actively pursued such homes knowing the children might have a better chance of finding welcome there...wait a minute...you know the French are going to do that intentionally...
Their loss...
I'm not near NY, but I may be able to make room for an 18 year old French girl. If she shaves.
... and, more importantly: BATHES. :)
Not conflicted, are we?
If one were "to impress upon their youth that America can be a wonderful country and the people aren't the monsters that Jockstrap has lead them to believe", then NYC might be less than ideal place to do so, for one might be looking for a place more representative of the country. How representative are Hillary voters?
good point, the beard and mustache can be a turn off.
One of my favorite "ex" stories is about this gorgeous Brasilian girl I met when I came down here. Drop dead beautiful, but they don't shave their legs. She wasn't a gorilla, but when she came here, she didn't feel compelled to "comply with standards".
So when I met her and we dated for about a month, she aanounced that she was going to shave her legs. To be honest, she didn't really have enough hair to be visible on her legs even though she had jet black hair. But she was determined so she followed through.
She had been watching those commercials for "Epilady" at the time. She thought it was great! She had to have one. I was skeptical, but I wasn't going to debate a lady on any issue of personal hygiene.
So we went to the mall and she bought one. She told me to wait downstairs. I sat back and watched some TV, when all of the sudden there was a piercing scream from upstairs!
So I flew up the steps to her room. There she was on the bed, with the tail end of two feet of her long curly black hair in the epilady, which was busy knawing away at the joint of the inside of her knee. She had brought her leg us to use the Epilady on the top side of her knee, and the Epilady caught the hair on her thigh. When she leaned over, it caught her long locks as well.
I yanked the cord and ran to get scissors. In less than a minute I cut her free. She was in tears, but uninjured.
She had had enough for that day. She decided to take care of things "the old fasion way". I did a good job of masking my feelings, but when I finally got in the car to leave, it took 10 minutes for me to get the keys in the ignition. I couldn't see for all the tears of laughter in my eyes...
To this day I'm sure she blames me for it...
Before I finish my morning coffee, my own name is a matter of debate - ; )
That's really too bad, especially as there are some kids in this group who might have brains. (They'll probably scrounge up the requisite number of families needed.)
It sometimes happens that a bunch of French kids or teens will get onto one of the little tour boats which go up and down the Rhine river. When that happens, the other passengers will invariably get off the boat and demand their money back, and get it.
Wow, that sounds similar to the nuisance kids In Brasil, who will block traffic to beg for money from the blocked cars. Then they go and buy beer for their parties on the beach with the money.
Are these kids doing the same thing to the passengers?
I have good news, the Euro girls are shaving these days.
A bizarre story this is. That said, I wouldn't take one either.
Shaves where???
NYC is a great choice!
I live in a suburb just outside NYC. Last year about 14 of us hosted a group of Swedish hs students. They were great! They were smart, their english was incredible and they were interested in everyting. They didn't spend a lot of time in our houses because they went into the city just about every day, but they had serious assignments to observe our culture. (Each one had a different aspect to cover.) They did spend 1-2 days in our town, in classes with our kids, going out at night to the movies and other kids homes. This was during the Yankee-Boston ALCS series, and one was lucky enough to be with a family with an extra playoff ticket. He went home with tons of pin-striped stuff!
Our town and HS are very diverse, the Swedes were in an incredible variety of homes. One was with a one-child family, one shared a room with a bunch of kids of a family of 9 kids. The large family is a born-again Christian family, about 5 families were Jewish, the rest Catholic & 1 one other protestant. I think all the families were white, but the hs is very mixed so they were with lots of black & hispanic kids too. One stayed in an apt, the rest in private homes. They were spread among the real affluent areas and the middle class homes. We tried to match the Swede & host by gender, but otherwise it was pretty random. Worked perfectly!
Among the must-sees on their lists?? Times Square, Ground Zero, Chinatown, a movie theatre (their english was good enough for that!), Empire State building, shopping, shopping, shopping!
Since it was a few weeks before Thanksgiving, we had a pot-luck traditional American Thanksgiving dinner for them at the hs one night. We all shared our impressions of eachother. What an experience for ALL the kids.
That was my first thought as well. Let's not stoop to Chriac's level; let's rise above. They are just kids.
ROFL!
Oh, when I mentioned to my husband that we were going to have an 18 year old Swedish girl with us for a week, he thought he'd died and gone heaven.
Seriously, she was very smart, polite, and an impeccable english speaker. And drop-dead beautiful too.
Yes, she cleans up nice.
Perhaps no one can afford all the cheese. It is rather expensive you know.
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