Over the weekend, I was given a wonderful opportunity to be a "house mother" to six Chinese high school girls. My immediate thought was, "Wow, this would be so much fun and nearly a dream come true." What I mean by that is, I've always wanted to host a foreign exchange student and this sounded similar. I was briefly told that you would go live in a house that is by the school with them. Not knowing exactly what it consisted of, I gave my number out to be contacted for further information about it. I had a lot of questions and thoughts running through my head about this like, "What do I have to do for them? Will I have to cook for all six girls? Do I have to constantly be there?" etc, etc.
I received a call from the guy who is the head of this program on Tuesday. He was incredibly difficult to understand as he was also Chinese. He was very nice and explained my requirements. They were few and simple: provide supervision and guidance, be caring and responsible, be there between the hours of 5pm-8am, and on weekends to provide transportation to stores and such. He said dinner would be provided by the school. The was my deal breaker if I had to cook for all of them since I have only recently learned to cook a few meals.
Back to the drawing board. I have no problem living there and helping out the girls. I think it would be so much fun to learn about their culture and teach them about mine as well as English. That's what I love. This is perfect for my degree to get experience. However, I feel the cons will outweigh this decision. They are able to provide some back up if I needed it for trips and stuff. While going through my schedule for the year, I have many nights and weekends planned already. Plus, what if I want to hang out with a friend at the spur of the moment. I would not be able to get away any nights at all. I don't think that would happen, but the point is, I'm stuck there. I can't just go out when I feel like it. Maybe the girls would be fun and I wouldn't mind being there, but how do I know. Maybe it's too much. Plus, six girls to transport around on the weekend? I don't even have a car big enough for that and I feel this would be overwhelming. Might I also add that I will have to drive 30 minutes to work now. I work at 7:30am which would put me out of the house near 7am where they wouldn't have supervision for an hour.
I think if this were one or two girls this would be fine. Basically, I'm their "mother." I have to supervise and be around them and take them where they need to go. Six of them. Oh wait, he said there could be two more even. So, the pros are living in another house/different environment, dipping into the Chinese culture (as I love Asian culture in general), getting to help and teach these girls, celebrating holidays with them, and experience. The cons however: tied down, transportation/no weekends to myself, longer drives every day, too many weekends/nights already planned.
I sadly think I will have to decline this opportunity for now. But it is still a goal/dream of mine to host an international student in the future!
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