Lisa in New York

7am start.... Today is Wednesday and a pretty normal day here in our house. I started my day at 7am when I packed Christie’s lunch for school, helped her get dressed and ready to go before we drove to the bus stop (its still just a little bit too cold to walk).

Normally at this time I would head into college for Philosophy but there were no classes this week so I used the time to run some errands like sending mail home to Australia and organizing a night out in Manhattan with my friends.

Most importantly I booked my flight to Mexico. I’m taking my first week of vacation next month and I’m headed south of the border (I haven’t even finished unpacking from our family vacation to Las Vegas yet)!

Christie comes home from school at 2pm when I meet her at the bus stop and we stroll or run or skip down the hill home depending on our mood! Today we built club houses for her toy animals until it was time to go to Gymnastics at the local JCC.

Soon my host Mom came outside to play and I was allowed to finish early so that I could get back on the computer and organize my vacation.

By nine o’clock Christie was in bed and it was grown up time! My host parents and I love to eat a big meal together and talk about our days, our beliefs, our ideas, what we love and what we hate. We have a fantastic relationship and I feel like I’ve made two new best friends. Oh, and a great new little sister too!