just some random story blah blah blah

Well, I really have nothing to blog about today, so I am just going to pick some random story out of my head and grace you all with it. Lets see, here. No, not that one, or that one... ahh, I think I may have found one!
My senior year in highschool we hosted a foreign exchange student. What was really supposed to happen, was I was supposed to GO be a foreign exchange student. I wanted to live in France for a year. But, my middle sister was supposed to be getting married (never happened)and, because of the money and time her wedding (would have) involved, I didn't get to go. Instead, my Mom and Dad asked me if I wanted to have one, instead.
Well, why not? I thought. Could be interesting. Of course, this meant I'd have to share my room with someone I don't know, but, hey. There's always the couch, right?
So we sign up, and go through the "interview" process. They take our picture. A few weeks later, we get a packet that has a picture, and biography of the person who will become part of the family for a year. Ipek, from Turkey. Turkey, you say? A Muslim country? Yep. Turkey. But this was 1988, so we didn't really think much about the religion or politic thing when she was assigned to us.
One summer evening, we all drove to San Francisco, to pick up our new family member. It was strange. She got off the airplane, and I recognized her immediately, despite the grainy, crappy photo we'd been staring at for weeks. We got along immediately, and set about becoming sisters. Her clothes all matched mine, it seems. We would skip school periodically (hey, it was my Sr. year). Especially Monday's. I still hate Mondays. She taught me some Turkish, I taught her some English. (Though she had been speaking it for years.) I can still say "Ipek is not at home", "I love you", and "Merry Christmas" in Turkish.
The year flew by. We never argued, (except on April fools day, just to mess with my Mom.). The other foreign exchange students, six in all, came over to our house on a regular basis. We were the UN that year. Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Dominican Republic, and of course, Turkey. We even "borrowed" a few exchange students from different areas of California, getting another Turk, and a Finnish girl. That week, Four of us slept in my room, all crowded into a queen sized water bed. I'll never forget the day we all sat at the dinner table, and Heico, from Germany, oh so nonchalant like asks "So, when did everybody lose their virginity?" Yeah, my Dad was real interested in hearing that answer! No one answered, of course. . .
The year came to a close, and Ipek had to go home, and I had to go to bootcamp. We both graduated, had a few, end of the year parties, then it was time to say goodbye. That was a rough day. She became my sister in so many ways that year. We were very lucky to have been paired together. (They'd almost saddled me with Marianna, from Italy, who was a whining prima-donna type. I'd have killed her inside a week.)But she went home. And I went to boot camp. We both grew up. We both married, then divorced. She is remarried, with two adorable children. I don't hear from her very often anymore, maybe once a year. Mom and Dad went to Turkey once, to visit. I plan on doing so as well. I learned a lot from Ipek, and all the others. And in the end, I am happy fate took control, and I stayed home. I doubt my year in France would have been as much fun as the year I had with Ipek.