New student due Aug. 19

We have a new exchange student, the 14^th we’ll have hosted, due to arrive in Cleveland Aug. 16. Following an orientation class at a local school, he’ll arrive at the Rantmeister hacienda Aug. 19.

He’s part of a class of 10 international students to attend the local high school this year. Jordan’s tall, blond, likes basketball and mixing music as a disc jockey. Taking a gander at his MySpace page showed someone creative who likes to have fun – always a good thing, unless the fun is carried too far and results in law enforcement officers calling our home in the early morning hours. This year’s hosting experience will be somewhat different for us as this is the first student we’ll have hosted from an English speaking country (Scotland), so there will be less of a learning curve on household communication. That may be a false hope on my part, though, as the exchange coordinator for the visit said the only students she has had trouble understanding, in all her years of hosting, are the Scots.

But picking an exchange student is always a crap shoot. For the most part, we’ve been very lucky in our selections – of the 13 we’ve hosted, I’d cheerfully host 11 again (excepting an abbreviated visit by a German girl and the most recent Russian.) I think a lot of the success in picking a student depends on the honesty of the student in posting their profile and the prospective host family’s objective flexibility. If the students are honest about their habits, potential areas of conflict can point host families to a different student. If families are honest about their own flexibility and capabilities, they can better choose the high- or low-maintenance student best suited to their home.

This year, we will also be dealing with a new exchange organization, which goes by the acronym FLAG. This will be the fifth or sixth organization we’ve dealt with, though we’ve only had two exchange coordinators. It seems to be a “coordinator’s market,” as the exchange coordinators with ties to local schools and exchange families shop for the best remuneration and support among the many competing organizations.

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We have a number of projects to complete before his arrival, including completion of the bookcases in the library (now installed, stained and partially trimmed out) and installation of a new dishwasher – our cheapie expired after only four years of 2+ loads a day! Imagine!