Host an exchange student
There’s AFS, in which I participated during high school. Our school hosted three students each year. The ones I remember were from South Africa, the Faroe Islands, Sweden, Chile, and Germany. We had some relatives of celebrities and a dictator’s grandson among them, which was a bit of fun. Another that I don’t know anything about is EF Foundation.
You can have other kids in the household and the exchange student stays in your home doing American things with you during his/her stay, which is either a semester or full academic year.
Travel Site Recommendations
Stamped passport
Through the Virtual Tourist newsletter, I found out about multi-city package deals. They were worth passing along for those of you who like flitting through cities at a go. Visit European Destinations for vacations including flight and hotel from $800 or so. Sweet.
Not to be ignored, U.S. destinations like San Francisco, where I went last weekend, are worth checking out. SF grew on me, with its neighborhoods locked in a 1970′s jive movie, international flavor, indie fashion and food. I think I ate Thai everyday. Dance upstairs at Ruby Skye and you might get dipped all the way to the floor by a suave hipster. Hang with the doorman and get a sample of human psychology played out to your delight.
Foreign Films: Chile, Portugal
I thought I would mention a couple of films I rented last week worth recommending. April Captains (Capitães De Abril), a slice-of-life film set during a coup by a group of Portuguese army captains in 1974. Featuring a European star-studded cast with Italian Stefano Accorsi and French-raised, Portuguese-born Maria de Madeiros, Spaniard Fele Martínez, and a Portuguese actor I know best for playing evil guys in American action films. Not a war film but a character-driven, simple and elegant piece.
The other is a sexy Chilean thinker called In Bed (En La Cama). Easy to identify with the characters who hook up for a one-night stand only to slowly learn more about each other, perhaps more than they wanted. A nice combination of Wild Orchid-like sex (without slow-mo) and vulnerability.
Since I’ve watched so many foreign films already, I’m running out. A new trick is to purposely see films that are poorly-rated. This has been working out for me as long as the synopsis catches my interest.
