In the Beginning

The next twelve hours, I expect, will move rather slowly. And quickly. In almost excactly 12 hours, our first exchange student lands at Laramie airport after a fifteen hour journey from Germany. The information packet recommended starting a blog about the experience, though I expect it will be something I don't keep up with. In any event, Jonas is a 16 year old German student, coming to wyoming to spend a year attending an american high school. Since about january, Reid and I have been corresponding with him and his family, first by email and later over skype. They seem in every way a model family. Anke and Michael, the parents, are a music teacher and an engineer, respoectively, and they have two sons younger than Jonas. We have had some great conversations with them, and I hope we can all meet in person in the future. All these months of eagerness and anticipation seem to be culminating, today, in anxiety. For weeks I have been working on preparing his bedroom and the rest of the house for his arrival. I refinished an antique teacher's desk for his room, shampooed the carpets, cleaned out the closets, got a dresser (which still needs refinishing), repaired an office chair... the list goes on. But today, with his arrival only hours away (he is probably over massachusetts at the moment), I find myself foundering. I've been thinking for so long about today that I'm just not sure what else must be done. The house is ready, really, but iw ould still like to clean the garage and tidy up a bit. We still haven't bought him a welcome gift. I will shortly go to the store to make some prints of his home and family, to hang in his room. I still need to install drawer-pulls on the desk. I want to make up a small welcome basket. We have to go over his expectations worksheet and figure out what his chores will be, what is and isn't allowed, and so forth. Essentially, we have 12 hours to become parents.