Anyway, Dan and I (it's good to have friends with vehicles) are in town again, this time hanging out at said coffee shop while we wait for our respective loads of laundry to finish tumbling about in suds at the laundromat across the street. Me likey wi-fi. Some of the RAs already tease me about my dependency on internet because they have seen the desperation in my eyes when the wi-fi in French Quarter decides to go berserk. Which is often. *harumph*
Last night, I drove the Spaceship to the Asheville airport to pick up one of our early-arriving High School division students (the official registration for High Schoolers isn't until tomorrow). She is a fifteen-year old cellist named Elif. Do you know where she flew in from? Freaking Turkey!! She flew out of Istanbul and connected in Detroit. How awesome is that? I can't even imagine being fifteen years old and traveling on my own on a transcontinental flight that lasted nearly two days to a completely foreign country with only a limited grasp of the English language. I admire her for that alone. I do NOT admire the airline for telling her that they would be delivering her cello to her by hand once she landed in Asheville...and then leaving us to pick it up in horror as it plunked down the chute and onto the baggage claim conveyer belt! Ugh.
Anyway, I tried to be as warm and welcoming to her as I picked her up and drove back to the music center. We stopped at a grocery store so that I could get her some food (a simple chicken sandwich) and some toothpaste. I asked her what she thought of American food:
Elif: "Well ... it is very ...sugary. For me."
Ysabel: "Yes. Yes it is."
The conversation was largely one-sided (on my part) as she hadn't slept very much and hadn't eaten very much and it was late at night by the time we got back to BMC. She had a lot of questions. She tried to ask them to the best of her ability and I tried to answer them to the best of my ability.
It was all going well until she said this, "Oh, and I must tell you. I have a ... how do you say? ...phobia. Of ... insects." And then I pulled something out of my ass and said something reassuring like, "Oh, well your RAs - the women that will be living in your house - have been cleaning all day (which was true). So it should be fine. And if you keep your room clean all the time, you won't have a problem (which may or may not be true)."
Anyway, off to put my clothes into the dryer.
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