A Rather Lovely Week

So basically, I haven't posted since last month. Has it really been that long since I did a post? I think yes... Anyhow, it's been a while, and I figured I'd just post about a few anecdotes from this week. First, let's start with a list of everything I did.

• I hosted a British exchange student from last Saturday to this afternoon.
• I participated in Valerie Ervin's SNAP the Silence challenge for a day.
• I ate a lot of chocolate (I won't bother to write about that one)
• I learned how to tango (That's pretty self-explanatory)

1-First things first, my British kid. I kind of feel bad, because before all y'all came, us hosts continually referred to you as "My/Your British kid", but we told y'all that, so it's okay.
The absolutely wonderful British student I hosted was Rhiannon, and we got along very,very well. Because our British friends were only here for a week, all the activities we did were super-duperly rushed, which kind of sucked a little. I think the most wonderful thing about the trip, though, was the fact that everyone who came as/hosted a student changed because of this new experience. It's kind of weird at first, because you have a total stranger sleeping in your house, but by the end, this afternoon, I felt like I had known almost every single one of those 14 kids for years, as if we had always gone to school together. Exchange experiences like that don't always happen, and I know that from experience, so this week was especially special for me because I made strong connections and relationships with people who live on another continent.

2-Second things second, I participated in SNAP the Silence, which is part of a campaign by Valerie Ervin, a county council member, to raise awareness about poverty in the county. The challenge was to live on 5 dollars a day for five days, which is slightly more than what people living on food stamps in Montgomery County get. The actual amount is $4.28. Although I only could do it for a day, the experience really helped me realize just how big an issue poverty is in the county. I went to talk to each  CAP 10 advisory last Friday to sign people up to do the challenge, and one kid asked my why I was doing, and why I thought it would make a difference.
I think that there are a lot of problems and crises in the world that we know about and are slightly conscious of, but we never really try to do anything about them, because we don't think it affects us. I've found that once you experience something, you really do develop empathy (sympathy?) for that issue, that you're much more motivated to something about it because you know what it's like to feel this or do that, because it's nagging you in the back of your head. The idea that someone lives on less money per day than that needed to buy a burrito at Chipotle seems ridiculous to me, (both because Chipotle is overpriced and it's unfair to those living in poverty) and even though I only lived on 5 dollars for a day, the idea of having to do that for weeks and months at a time is terribly daunting and depressing.

3- To sum up what I've learned this week:
-British kids are awesome and I want them to come back because I miss them all terribly and I'm lonely.
-Knowing about a problem isn't the same as experiencing and trying to fix it.
-Chocolate is delicious.
-Doing the tango is not actually that hard.
-Apparently chuffed is a word. Who knew?

Just for fun, and to get points for multi-media content, here's a song by Dar Williams. It's called "I am the one who will remember everything". I love it!