February 12th, 2008: My roommate Sofie is from Sweden, and last night on our walk around the block with our host dad Bill and his black lab, Poudre, (pronounced: poo-durr… its Dutch), Sofie had to stop and take a photo of a fire hydrant.
She thought it was so cool, as they don’t have them in
Sweden.
My roommate Jessica is from Tucson, AZ, and has never spent any significant amount of time in cold weather. When we stopped just inside the front door to take off our coats, hats, mittens, and unbundle ourselves, she commented that it was just like when its cold in the movies! Cold for her is 50 degrees, so Nebraska in February has been quite an experience.
Today was our first day of doing our curriculum in schools called “Stand for Peace”, and I ate lunch next to a first grader named Eleanor. She was at a table alone, seemed very comfortable and talkative with grown-ups but not really included by her peers. We were having a nice chat; she told me how we had the same hair, and about her favorite TV show called Cyber- something, and how I can read more about it on PBSkids.org, and out of the blue she says, “Will I ever see you again?” Just so matter of fact, and I am shocked to realize that the answer is very likely no. It really touched my heart, that here I was sitting with this little girl, and she could read that I was just passing through her life. I told her that I didn’t think so, as I was off to another school in the afternoon and leaving for Iowa on Thursday. She’d never been to Iowa, but did have cousins in Kearney (which I had driven through yesterday). She showed me how where to dump my trash, and bring my lunch tray and silverware, and as she walked away, she said in a very wise and charming little voice, “Well, its been nice chatting with you.”
Eleanor from Rousseau Elementary school is a very classy little lady, and I hope when I grow up, I can be a bit like her.
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