Foreign Exchanged Student

When I was 8 years old I was in the 3^rd grade and my parents decided to apply for a foreign exchanged student for various reasons but mostly so we could all experience a new culture. We applied and were approved for one about a year after they decided to host one. Laurie Lambert was her name and she was from Belgium. She had already graduated high school when she came to the United States but was here for the experience and retook the 12^th grade. Laurie and I shared the same birthday and when it was our birthday she sang it in German and my family and I sang it in English. She loved to cook when she was in Belgium. I cooked her a birthday cake and she got to cook me one. We also got to meet other families who had exchanged students. It was cool to see all the different kinds of people together. I have never heard so many languages spoken before. Even though everyone was so different we all became good friends by the end of the program. Laurie was amazing at playing the piano so I tried to get her to teach me. I learned a few little songs but anything she played was hard. She was only in the United States for a school year, but we did a lot in that time. We took her on vacations so the she would get to have the full American experience as much as possible. We took her to Florida and she had a blast seeing the white sand. We also brought her hunting on our friend’s ranch in West Texas and she did not get anything, but we got some great photos of her in the deer stand that she got to take home. Along with all the fun adventures she had, Laurie also got to experience a tornado while in Texas. It was early one morning the wind was whipping harder than ever. When our parents saw our patio furniture flying by they realized it was a tornado so my older sister and I took shelter in our parent’s closet. We were nervous for Laurie because she was staying in our pool house. The tornado was over as soon as it started. My dad went out to check on her and she was just fine and joined us in the house. She definitely had a unique experience staying with us in Texas. Over all I think she enjoyed the trips and was able to take back some cool stories to Belgium. Laurie is still a close family friend that we keep in touch with to this day. She has been traveling all around Europe since moving back and is currently living in Spain as a language teacher. She plans to one day come back and visit.