NEWSLETTERHOLIDAY2008-2009

HOSTING NEWS

“YNKUYA!” You never know unless you ask! We have known for a long time that the very best host family recruitingcomes from one-on-one word-of-mouth, especially with families who have an AFS Heart. The staff recently sent out an“Emma” email—I’m sure you received it. It was an appeal for our last five winter placements. The response in theNorthwest was rather amazing. It looks as though we may end up with three placements after the dust settles. Werecently found a replacement family for a student because his buddies took it upon themselves to make copies of mybusiness cards and pass them out to friends and neighbors. “YNKUYA!” So please keep asking! Our summer hostingseason will be here before we know it and the more families we have interested and “waiting in the wings” the moreplacements we can make early, so our families can begin corresponding with their students before they arrive. Wewould like to encourage all volunteers to have some piece of AFS information with them—at the minimum be able tospell out the 800-AFS-INFO number that connects folks with staff, but better than that have our local website handy sofolks can begin the process by completing a Form A to host; or interested students can apply to go abroad at

www.afscp.com <http://www.afscp.com/>

(The “cp” stands for Columbia Pacific Area Team.)

Sally Ann Wells, Interim Hosting Coordinator

Happy is HAPPY! - Happy from India

Pre-Departure Orientation for Winter Departure Americans

American students preparing to go on exchange are required to attend the PDO that will be held at the AFS office, 506SW Sixth Avenue on January 11, 2009 from 10:00 - 3:00. Emily Leis has managed to get 8 students registered,interviewed and guaranteed for winter departure. The following students will become AFS Ambassadors, leaving inJanuary, February and March: Mr. Michael M. ~ Semester-ARGENTINA; Ms. Malia R-E~ Semester-BRAZIL; Mr. JordanLeigh K-G.~ Semester-BRAZIL; Ms. Carly O. ~ Semester-ITALY; Ms. Myriam E. ~ Semester-ITALY; Ms. Anastasia G. ~Semester-PANAMA; Ms. Elizabeth P. ~ Year-COSTA RICA; Ms. Hayley B. ~ Year-THAILAND.

Sally Ann Wells

SENDING NEWS

Since being an Exchange student from India, I never gota chance to see the snow and all my friends and familyover here knew that. Sunday morning at 9:00, my friendwoke me up, but I was so tired because of the dance at myschool the night before. When he woke me up and told me“Happy, it’s snowing!” But because I was tired I was like“that’s cool.” Then I realized after a second “it’s SNOW,” Iwoke up and was like “Wait! What? Really?” I was sohappy.The snow was so beautiful. Both of us immediatelygrabbed our jackets and hand gloves and put on our shoesand ran outside. It was one of the happiest moments of mylife. We made snowballs and threw at each other and ranaround in the snow.Then I called my family back in India to tell them that it’ssnowing—even they were excited for me because I was theonly one in my family who had not seen the snow. Andbecause of the snow…Monday, I don’t have school! “I amstill so happy and excited!” I am planning to gosnowboarding with my friends, soon.

Happy, IndiaHappy wrote this article for AFS before his accident. For updates on his condition, visit the blog Happy’shost father Glenn Malloy created. http://happy-bhatt.blogspot.com/

YOUR AFS WORLDWhat did you think of the Thanksgiving holidayand what was your favorite food?

My Thanksgiving Experience—Andreas, Denmark

Finally! The weekend was there, and the school district apparently decidedto let us stay home Monday through Wednesday, which meant that mythanksgiving break officially started after school on Friday. The school hadbeen hard the proceeding few weeks, and I felt that a break was ill deserved!Fortunately, these few extra days off, cleared the way for our early departure tothe sunny state of California, where we would celebrate thanksgiving withfriends, and continue on to San Francisco. I was picked up by Robert in hispolice car when I arrived at Millikan Way max station, and was placed in theback seat (that's where all the bad guys go). As a result, bypassing kinder gardeners looked a lot when they saw a Danish teenage crook in the policecar.My first road trip on American soil, was a great experience as all of usplayed games and answered conceptual questions on the way down, with an occasional podcast here and there. 10hours is usually a long time, but Robert and Curtis made it worthwhile as we had great fun, and great talks. Some timelater, after a good nap, we arrived at the Hyatt hotel in Sacramento, a few blocks from the capital inhabited by ArnoldSchwarzenegger (the buff guy in Terminator). We stayed overnight, and next morning Robert and I made full use of thepool and spa facilities, while Curtis went for a joyous jog in the area. Later that day we enjoyed a thanksgiving dinner with Curtis' friend Ginny and her entire family. My first thanksgiving was a great experience that I will never forget, andthe food was perfect! Not much unlike what you get at a Danish Christmas actually.The next day, after taking a family picture and aiding the prop 8 demonstrators in their mission in front of the capital,we drove off to San Francisco. The drive wasn't nearly as long as our initial drive, and I made sure that the car radio wasplaying "San Francisco" as we drove across the bridge. We stayed at Hilton hotel, and thanks to Facebook, Robert hadreconnected with his cousin Warren, who offered to show us around the city with his wife. This tour with the best view of the golden gate bridge, pier 39 and much more could not have been any better. I had a wonderful thanksgiving with twoawesome host dads! Thanks for a wonderful trip Robert and Curtis!

Andreas, Denmark

Thanksgiving was great! I reallyenjoyed it with my “new” family! Mostof all I liked the stuffing & the sweetpotatoes. It was a lot of fun & I amlooking forward for the black Fridayshopping at 4am—

Anna-Lena,Germany

Sweet potatoes!!!—

Dianhong, China

Absolutely the stuffing! :) I love thatstuff!!! One of my cousins alwayseats all of it but he was at hisgirlfriends house so...there was a lotleft. :-) I loved Thanksgiving & wehad so much fun! -

Maria, Denmark

My favorite was the turkey—

Jean- Baptiste, Italy

I don’t see why it is such a BIGholiday in Portland. We get 10 daysoff just for thanking God. I think itshould be a lot shorter because weshould thank God, not ourselves. Ihad a very nice Thanksgiving dinner with our neighbors. We had thetraditional turkey & lot of different sidedishes. It was a fun day & I also gotto babysit a little. All in all I reallyenjoyed the day and the 10 days off—

Daniel, Austria

The day began in Minneapolis,Minnesota. I had been there sinceSaturday & visited friends & my hostsister Karin. It was so much fun!When I came back to Portland myhost mother Carolyn came & pickedme up. The whole family went tosome close friends for Thanksgivingdinner & it was yummy! Turkey,mashed potatoes, green beans & thedesserts. Pumpkin pie & the best,pecan pie. Everything tasted so good& afterwards we had some niceconversations & played guitar. It wasa fun evening & I would like to do itagain! But maybe eat a little bit lessnext time, ha ha—

Hulda, Sweden

I really think it is an honor for peopleto celebrate Thanksgiving becausesome cultures don’t celebratesomething like this. I thinkThanksgiving is a family day & I lovefamily days because I LOVE myfamily. My favorite dish was theturkey & pineapple dish that mygrandmother made. I also like somepies my host mom baked. I justenjoyed my first Thanksgiving & it is apleasure for me to celebrate a new for me holiday! -

Philip, Germany

I really had a great Thanksgivinghere. Actually, this was the secondtime for me. This day was a familydays. We spent time together,playing games & eating together. It’shard to tell what my favorite food wasbecause I am a foodie!!! I love to takepictures & taste them. But the best of them that I thought was the mashedpotatoes with gravy! -

Patty, Nutnida,Thailand

It is a sweet & warm holiday.Everything is tender & nice. Sweetpotatoes with apples. Turkey of course—

Tiantian, China

Our visiting teachers and their liaisons attended the diversity filmfestival sponsored by instructor Gigi Doncan on December 8th. Mr.Geoffrey Brooks, retired Master teacher and supervisor for University of Portland’s MAT candidates, introduced the film and conducted thediscussion on the film Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers. Eva,Suwannee and Vicki were engaged and had good questions for discussion. We had so much fun, we plan to attend the rest of themonthly gatherings—won’t you join us?The following is a listing of upcoming films:January 12 – Life and Debt; February 2 – Thomas Sankara The UprightMan; March 2 – Reinventing the World: Food; April 6 – Reinventing theWorld: Cities; and May 4 – Reinventing the World: Work and Time.The premise of showing these films and discussing them is tocontribute to the education and understanding of Jefferson students.The poster contains the question: “Who’s in Control? Where do I fitin?” Each film will be shown at 6:00 PM in the Community Room A-43,at Jefferson High School, 5210 North Kerby Avenue, Portland, OR97217. Light refreshments are served and good discussion is generated.It’s fun; it’s FREE! See you at the movies!

VISIT OUR WEB SITE, WWW.AFSCP.COM!

Don’t forget that we have a great resource for both host parents and exchange students at our web site, www.afscp.com.You’ll find current and past newsletters there as well as pictures from AFS events. Visit the site now to see the first pictureever taken of you and your host family at Arrival Orientation. The online calendar is a great source of information. There’sa quick list of all of the mandatory orientations. Remember, AFS Columbia-Pacific’s website is www.afscp.com.

James Spears, Area Team Webmaster

YOUR AFS WORLD

Thanksgiving is national American holiday. The true story tells us that Pilgrims were very thankful toNative Americans with surviving in new land. The main meal of the holiday is turkey. Every familyon Thanksgiving are going to cook a turkey with another different kinds of food.This Thanksgiving was my first holiday in America. I have never celebrated it in Kyrgyzstan. OnThursday, Thanksgiving day, my family had two events. They are brother’s birthday andThanksgiving. My brother, Gabe, was very exciting about it, because he had his birthday at thesame Thanksgiving day. Gabe is nine now. This year my family invited more than 15 people. All of them are relatives and friends from the both sides of my parents. It was pleasure for me to meetnew members of my American family. Afternoon was the most busy time during the day, becausewe were cooking the last meals for the dinner. I cooked the tradition meal of my family. It is onion-pie. Dad’s sister helped me to prepare it. The main ingredients of it are onion, sera-cream, cheese and corn. It was newmeal for me , I have never tried onion-pie before. My mum gave me opportunity to prepare turkey for the oven. I spicedan oiled it. Also I helped to my uncle’s wife to decorate her food. It was vegetarian kind of meal. That night I was full alot. Besides I tried every meal on the table, we had dissert after. There were three kinds of pie. All of them weredelicious. They were apple, pumpkin and nuts pies.My Thanksgiving in America was very good. It is good custom to join together with whole your family during the turkeydinner and thank each other for helping.

Raima, Kyrgyzstan

Thanksgiving—Raima, KyrgyzstanVisiting Teachers attend Diversity Film Festival at Jefferson High School