Arrival

She's here! In the end, it happened so fast (believe it or not). Ok, it is only day 2 but this has been easy and wonderful. AFS did a great job of bringing us together. Iris has an amazing amount of poise and energy after her long journey. I had no idea what a quick itinerary they have between arrival, long bus journey then right with their new families. Why is she not tired?

All the students must line up and introduce themselves before meeting their new families.

Must be still working off the initial excitement of the event. She did admit last evening that the translating is very tiring but I'm sure once she starts thinking and dreaming in English (they say it happens), she will not be affected by that.

Anticipating overwhelming her, what do you do at first!?!?! Go to the general store, in our case, Fred Meyers. What would a day be like without a visit to "Freddies" in our lives (one stop shopping). On the way we made a quick stop to our outdoor, Saturday Market where Alexa showed Iris around while I stood in the infamous bread line after they made their bread & pastry selections. Thank goodness for Pacific Sourdough, just wish we could get all the selection in the off season but they certainly must need a long vacation when you see the variety. When I finally made it to the front of the line I spotted "Finnish Cardamom Sweet Bread"...how amazing I thought. I kept with the multigrain bread Iris selected but before we left I had her take a look at the Finnish bread. She had never seen that in Finland....we'll have to learn more later but I suppose you shouldn't even judge bread by their labels.

At the store we all stocked up on shampoos and the like, a little food and then had to stop at Radio Shack to get a European to US electric converter. Iris's computer now has electricity (I'm sure her parents and friends are anxious to hear from her).
Back at home, a few of Alexa's friends were very anxious to come over. There was a slumber party in town so we agreed to drive them all. Those tweens were giddy about meeting Iris, she is a rock star already.

Iris's AFS liaison stopped by, "Aunt" Katy, and we all braved the fog for a beach walk with the dog. Perfect.

Yes, it has been close to perfect, still dream-like. Easing into a daily routine but knowing we won't be able to resist doing a bit more activities at first. We'll all be looking for our new balance points as the year stretches on. Exciting?, absolutely!