MORE ON THE AVOCADO: SECRET MEXICAN GUACAMOLE INGREDIENT
Posted by: Christine on: 19 July 2009
Dani filled me in on the secret ingredient!
Dani, a dark-haired black eyed, dutiful beauty, came to Cambridge to study English so that she could please her large family and get into Harvard Law School. They must not have realized her English skills were so basic and that to twirl around in the halls of Harvard Law required a quickness of tongue that Dani wasn’t going to learn in two months or two years. Her personality was more suited to human rights and labor law–which her well-to-do family didn’t want her to pursue– and she was dedicated to Mexico, her home country. Dani couldn’t understand why her aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins raved about the United States. “I don’t like it here. Read the rest of this entry »
ROBERTA: THE ITALIAN AVOCADO EATER
Posted by: Christine on: 13 July 2009
An Italian who looked like a cheerleader
Not many Italians apply for homestay. Part of the reason may be that in Italy it is unheard of–or at least very rare–to share your home with strangers. Home is for family; immediate family, not cousins, aunts, uncles. So it works both ways: odd to stay in someone else’s house. When our daughter went abroad for her junior year to the University of Padova, the university there found the international students homestay rooms. These were not typical Italian family homes, but university professor homes, or single woman’s homes. People either looking for company and money, or academics from countries more accustomed to sharing living situations than Italians.
So when we get an Italian, it is most often an unusual situation. In Cesca’s case, she ended up with us because ‘there was no room in the dorm.’ The living situation worked out just fine for her and for us; in fact we remain friends to this day. One warm October er we hosted Giuseppe, a rather nervous Carabinieri from Rome who was interested in advancing his career. He worked in the stolen artifact department and played a trumpet in the Carabinieri band (more about Giuseppe in a later blog). Then there was Roberta. Roberta was young, sixteen, and her father wanted her to be in a family home while she attended a summer program at Harvard to improve her English.
Roberta stayed with us for a month. She was from Modena, a river town in north central Italy famous for balsamic vinegar, Pavarotti, and Maserati. Her English was already quite rapid and confident. Read the rest of this entry »
Our First Homestay Student Is Now Dr. Cesca & Dogs Love Her!
Posted by: Christine on: 10 June 2009
I’m talking about real dogs, not bad looking guys because her fidanzato, Gianni, is quite handsome; a graceful, well-ironed young man with blue eyes, big smile and great sense of humor. I am happy “my first homestay daughter” Cesca found a man to love and a man to love her.
Now back to the story about dogs: One evening Matt, Cesca, her friend Elena and I were walking around the extraordinarily beautiful seaside town of Trani. Trani is all beige-ish white, sun-bleached cobblestone, turquoise and sky blue with bits of green along walkways and flowers in window boxes. In the 11th century, Trani was a major launching position on the Adriatic for the Crusades.
Trani is crowded with Italian tourists in the summer: hundreds of expensive sailboats moored in the gently sloshing harbor; Italian men wearing perfumed ascots, perfectly pedicured blonde women, and kids in crocs out for an evening passesgiata. Gelati American music. Italian chatter. Vespa horns. Strings of lights. Wafts of espresso, garlic, and fish both fried and grilled.
We were there in April, not the tourist season, and we were the only Americans there. The evening was chilly enough for a thick sweater. The four of us walked along an ancient cobbled strada past the crescent harbor out to a promontory to have a look at the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas. Everybody in this part of Italy loves St. Nicholas. His Trani cathedral lies on a raised open site near the sea and is built in the characteristic white local limestone. It has also a large crypt and a lofty tower. The Romanesque portal are beautifully ornamented in the Arab style.
The sun was about to set, accenting the sturdy building’s clean Read the rest of this entry »
We’re in Italy Visiting Cesca
Posted by: Christine on: 11 April 2009
Read Apple& Cinnamon Series Parts 1-14 to find out more about her.
our first homestay daughter
Our Third Megumi Was Japanese Royalty: She Drank Jack Daniel’s and Pondered Love
Posted by: Christine on: 6 April 2009
(RECIPE FOR Penne with Prosciutto and Artichoke AT STORY’S END.)
Well, the Third Megumi wasn’t a typical Japanese girl either.
Whisky helped her to think
Compared to the Second Megumi, who taught us bad chopstick manners, the Third Megumi perched on the opposite end of the Japanese personality continuum. She wore tailored clothes, had her hair cut at Sassoon, read German novels ( in German), studied law at Harvard, and was completely and utterly refined, gracious, artistic, mystical, romantic, and logical.
Her claim to fame in our house was not her music, her Chanel #5, or her very expensive shoes. Megumi-three was the only Asian we have known who enjoyed eating black olives. As an hors d’oeuvre, crushed and smeared on bruschetta, or as an ingredient in pasta, Megumi never refused a Gaeta, Kalamata, cracked Provencal, or Moroccan dry-cured.
She came to live with us when our family was preparing for the move across Massachusetts Avenue, from Buena Vista to Oxford Street. We packed for months while she studied in the ‘student’ room on the second floor. Our belongings slowly filled boxes and then a huge moving truck. She observed Matthew’s anxiety and my panic attacks about the responsibilities of the new house: it’s size, the cost, the neighborhood.
When moving day arrived, Megumi’s computer and printer fit in the back seat of my car. She had few clothes and the ones she did hang in her bedroom closet were from Burberry. They fit Read the rest of this entry »
The Second Megumi Taught Us Bad Chopstick Manners
Posted by: Christine on: 1 April 2009
RECIPE FOR MY MISO SOUP FOLLOWS STORY
(At the table) What's the worst thing you can do with your chopsticks?
The Japanee girls who stay with us are extremely polite, respectful and so observant of our customs that they blend seamlessly into our household. But as in all situations that involve groups and people, there will always an acception to the norm. That exception was The Second Megumi.
Same as Megumi One, Megumi Two came from a small town in southern Japan. She was bow-legged and wore high heels and really short skirts. At the time, I wondered if her bared legs were a sort of Japanese female-on-the-hunt signal, since Megumi Two, from day one, was interested in meeting men. She asked me straight away how she could find one.
I suggested an internet dating site. We sat together at the dining room table to fill out the questionnaire. One question asked the woman: what do you like in a man? Megumi told me to fill in the blank with: “Men who smoke are very sexy.”
She herself did not smoked. On questioning, she insisted smoking was a masculine habit Read the rest of this entry »
The First Megumi Left Us with Spring Rain (HARUSAME)
Posted by: Christine on: 27 March 2009
(RECIPE FOLLOWS STORY)
In January 1996, I received an envelope with a yellow checkered pattern on the back flap and a little red and yellow kitten wearing a bow tie on the lower left corner.
Inside was a note from Megumi, who was scheduled to come live with us at the end of the month. Her penmanship was very precise but wiggly; it looked to me as if she was a born cartoonist. Along with her greeting and her telling us how excited she was to come to Boston and live with our family, Megumi sprinkled a dozen happy faces on the margins of her already very cute stationery. She was from a rural town. Kyoto was the closest city.
She arrived all polished and smiling. From day-one she never dropped the corners of her mouth. Every mornring Megumi bowed to us and held her palms together near the center of her chest. Her pink jacket matched her pink gloves. She wore baby blue sneakers. I found flowers on my counter top and by the time spring actually showed up, we all felt as if it had already hit our house.
Her English was really weak and it didn’t get much better. Megumi was so sweet, her words didn’t count. She collected friends, lots of friends, Read the rest of this entry »
- None
- Lee Davis: Christine, I don't know if you'll remember me, (Debi) Lee Davis (yes, I'm in the yearbook). I was also in your art class (as a person with no artis
- Christine: I still get emails from her!
- Susan May Tell: Sounds so good. Wondering if I should open the avocado I have on my counter ....... BTW - what happened to Roberta?
your homestay experience?