Chapter 22
Jeffee Tries to Get an Exchange Student
At two o'clock today, hopefully, I have another student coming over who wants to live with me while they're in the USA to study English as a Second Language. This will give you an idea of how easy or not it is for Jeffee to get an exchange student. I had two high school girls as exchange students many years ago; one from Korea, one from Germany, and the following year one girl from the Czech Republic. They weren't paying me any money but under the English as a Second Language program, an exchange student would actually pay me $650 a month for living in my house which seems fair to me since I'm giving them a nice place to live.
I found out about the program by accident. I'm a very rigorous reader of newspapers and everything and I saw this ad for the San Antonio HomeStay Agency. They had real need for host families for their students were mostly from Saudi Arabia and other foreign countries. The San Antonio HomeStay Agency was reaching out for new host families for International okay University students. I found hosting an international student was a rewarding experience for both families and students.
While it hasn't been too rewarding for me so far in the monetary sense; in the sense of meeting a lot of different Saudi Arabian students it's been very rewarding because I have met a great number of students, who are all very nice, more than I was hoping to meet before I actually got a student to live in my house.
I started the easy way by calling Pat who is a very lovely lady who runs the program. I told her I was interested in hosting a student. I told her me and my wife lived overseas for 17 years, so we were a little bit used to the international world. We told her we hosted a Korean student and the German student one year and then the next year we hosted a Czech Republic student and except for a few minor things it was pretty good experience with the girls living in our house. They were high school girls and the students in this program are University level students mostly from Saudi Arabia who come here to go to Incarnate Word University and learn English as a Second Language.
I told that Pat we would be happy to host a student. She even mentioned that there are military people in her program who go to Lackland Air Force Base. She asked if I was interested in hosting a military person. I said personally I love military people but I since I live 35 miles away from Lackland Air Force Base, I didn't think it would be convenient for a young soldier to live in my house. I told Pat I'd prefer to have a student who is going to go to Incarnate Word University to study English.
The first student I had contact with was a student named Saad. Pat called me and said I'm going to bring Saad from Saudi Arabia over to your house at six o'clock on Sunday evening. I told Pat that was fine. I looked forward to seeing and meeting Saad from Saudi Arabia at my house at six o'clock on Sunday. So I cleaned up the house as best I could and started watching a basketball game and got ready for Saad to come over.
First before I tell you what happened that 5:50 p.m. Sunday evening. The first time Pat called me to tell me about Saad from Saudi Arabia, Saad from Saudi Arabia was with her and after I talked to Pat for a few minutes she put Saad from Saudi Arabia on the phone.
His English was very good and I told him I'd be happy to have him come out and see if he would like living in my house and see if I would like him living in my house because it has to be a 50-50 proposition. He has to like the environment that I live in and I have to like him since he's living in my house.
So I talked to Saad from Saudi Arabia. He seemed very nice. I told them you're more than welcome to come over and again Pat said we will come over at six o'clock on Sunday. Pat said she would drive him over because Saad from Saudi Arabia doesn't have a car.
I'm at my house around 5:50 about 10 min. before Saad from Saudi Arabia is supposed to come to my house. As I'm sitting there watching the basketball game my phone rings. The caller is very hard to understand and sounds like an Indian Indian. I have heard many Indian voices in my time because all my computer helper helpers seemed to be from India and a lot of telemarketers are from India.
So this person keeps talking to me. I keep telling him I cannot understand you, I cannot understand you. The caller keeps repeating and repeating his message and I all I could hear is something about a home and I thought this person is somebody trying to sell me something for my house. I really couldn't understand him at all.
So I hung up the phone and slammed it down as I am tired of hearing English with an accent. I have too many voices that speak with heavy accents and I longed to just hear American English and not Indian English and Philippine English and Guatemalan English etc. and everything else so I hung up on the guy.
At 6:00 PM nobody shows up at my house, no Pat or Saad. Then 6:30 p.m. comes around and still nobody shows up, nobody calls, nothing. I'm just left holding the bag like I used to be on many a date in my youth. A little while later I believe Pat calls me up and says Saad from Saudi Arabia said he called you a little while ago and you seemed very mad and angry at him so he didn't want to come over. I immediately asked Pat what the heck was Saad doing calling me at 10 minutes to six? I said I didn't even know he had my phone number. I didn't know you were giving it out. I was expecting you to come with Saad from Saudi Arabia at six o'clock and meet him. You didn't call me to explain that Saad was going to call me and I really didn't appreciate being treated like that.
To make a long story short, Saad from Saudi Arabia, is not living in my house as an exchange student.
On to exchange student number two. Student number two was Faheed from Saudi Arabia. His friend I believe whose name was Mohammed called me and said that Faheed from Saudi Arabia would like to come out and see my house and would it be all right if Mohammed and his cousin came out with them because Faheed did not speak the best English. I told him that would be fine, come on out.
Then they said oh could you come down and pick us up because we don't have a car right now. So I said fine. They wanted to come out that evening.
As is typical in my life there is much I don't control; my wife was working late that night so I had to babysit Malia, my granddaughter. I told them I said I can only come out and pick you up about 9:15 at night. I told him to meet me at Jim's Restaurant which is a very popular restaurant very close to Incarnate Word University since I do not know my way around Incarnate Word University. I felt they could at least walk two blocks and meet me at the restaurant and they said fine.
I'm a fanatic about being on time and not keeping people waiting my wife isn't; most women aren't but I am as most men are. Luckily my wife got home around 8:30 p.m. and she could watch Malia so I got ready to go out and pick up these guys. Naturally I'm dog tired because I've been up since five in the morning with work and now I can’t go to bed early which I would like to do in after a tough day at work and a tough evening watching Malia for a few hours. I was ready to hit the sack but no my day doesn't end so I get in my car and run down to Jim's restaurant to pick up Faheed and Mohammed and his cousin.
I get to Jim's Restaurant about 10 minutes after nine, and I sat at this little bar area at a table right next to the door. I order a cup of coffee and drink it. I notice the time now is about 9:20. Right near the entrance is a TV set and I can watch CNN news and patiently waited. The waitress came over and I ordered a second cup of coffee as a good way to kill a few minutes. On the phone they promised me they would be there right on time.
I drank my second cup of coffee and still no Faheed from Saudi Arabia, Mohammed, or his cousin. So I order a third cup of coffee and I am still waiting for Faheed from Saudi Arabia and Mohammed and his cousin. I brought my cell phone with me and I called my wife around 9:30 p.m. and I said well honey looks like I've been stood up again because I've been waiting 20 minutes for Faheed from Saudi Arabia and I'm still sitting here in the restaurant.
My wife said Mohammed from Saudi Arabia called the house and he said where was I? They were waiting at Jim's restaurant, where is Jeffee? I get this sinking feeling in my stomach and I go outside into the parking lot and here I see Faheed from Saudi Arabia, Mohammed, and his cousin sitting on a little brick ledge at the edge of the parking lot. They tell me they have been sitting outside the last half-hour waiting for me. I told Faheed from Saudi Arabia, Mohammed, and his cousin that the custom in America is that if you're going to meet somebody in a restaurant you actually walk into the restaurant and don't sit in the parking lot waiting. They didn't seem to understand that but finally we got together so off we went.
We all got into my car and I drove them back to my house. So Faheed from Saudi Arabia, Mohammed, and his cousin stepped into my house. I showed him around and showed Faheed from Saudi Arabia where his bedroom would be, where the bathroom, was the sunroom was etc.
I told them that I have two little dashhound dogs that live in my house compliments of my daughter Jinty. I tell Faheed from Saudi Arabia they are very sweet and loving dogs. I tell him we also have a cat, also compliments of Jinty, and a granddaughter, also compliments of Jinty. Basically Jinty left me with four critters that keep me quite busy as sometimes the critters don't mix well.
Of course the two dogs Bonnie and Frankie were barking like crazy at Faheed from Saudi Arabia, Mohammed, and his cousin because they always bark at new people for the first time and then after 5 minutes, they jump up in your lap and went to sleep with you. At the time Faheed from Saudi Arabia seemed very happy with my house and said he would be happy to live there and he would be back in contact with me very soon. Pat said he was in a hurry to find a place to live because he was staying at an expensive hotel.
Once again I don't hear anything for a one-day, two days, three days, and finally Pat calls me up and says: "Oh Jeff, Faheed from Saudi Arabia said he was scared of your dogs and so he's not going to move in. I'm thinking to myself this is unbelievable: I go to all the trouble to pick him up at Jim's, wait half an hour for them, bring them over to my house, and now the guy’s going to stiff me.
My adventure doesn't end at that point, because a day or two later, Pat calls me back and says oh Jeffee, Faheed from Saudi Arabia is reconsidering and he'll let me know in a day or so whether he wants to move in. I guess he didn't want to move in because I haven't heard back on him for the last two or three weeks so on to number three.
Number three was a guy named Acma from Saudi Arabia. I think he was like a meteorite or shooting star because I heard from him once and didn't hear anything back from him. On to the next one.
Here's number four. I get a call from a guy named Owen. I talk with Owen and I say yes the room is still available despite my repeated attempts to find an exchange student. I say you can come out of take a look at my house. Then about 10 or 15 minutes later I get this call from somebody named Lewis saying they were interested in looking at my house for another exchange student.
So now I'm thoroughly confused as usual, and I leave a message with Pat and I said Pat, a guy named Owen called me and said he wanted to be the exchange student living in my house and then a few minutes later another student named Lewis called up and said he wanted to live in my house.
Pat cleared up the confusion once again for me by telling me that Owen was calling in behalf of Lewis because Lewis doesn't speak English that well. As I find out later on, it really didn't matter whether it was Owen or Lewis calling me because neither one of them ever came by to look at my house. Whatever plans they had I'll never know because once again they disappeared into the night and I never heard anything again from them.
I've had so many students it was hard to keep track of. I actually forgot about the one girl that Pat told me about. Again another shooting star or meteorite because she blazed before me for a little while and then was never to be seen or heard from again. Pat called me to say that this Japanese girl was looking for a place to live and she was considering another house as well is my house. I guess she accepted the other house because she never came to my house and I never heard back from Pat again about her.
Well supposedly in about half an hour exchange student number six is coming by to look over my house and decide if you would like to live in my house. Aziz from Saudi Arabia is the latest student parading to my house. Hopefully, hopefully he will be the last one I will finally get the student to move in and I can make the money from the rent I need desperately.
Here is the story of the sixth student who came to my house. Remember like I said Aziz from Saudi Arabia said he would come to my house at two o'clock. Well about 2:15 in the afternoon I did get a call from Aziz from Saudi Arabia that his taxicab was late and he was on his way. By my standards that's an A for effort. Aziz and his friend Mohammed finally showed up at my house around three o'clock. He was very nice and I gave him the grand tour of everything. Again like every Arab student who had come to my house, he was terrified of my two little timid friendly dashhounds and was scared of them. I told them they were very loving and gentle and they just bark at a new person for the first 5 minutes and then jump in your lap. I said don't people in Saudi Arabia have pets? He said he said the only pets in Saudi Arabia are cats. Everybody likes cats but nobody has dogs as pets so I can understand why seeing dogs for the first time could be a little scary.
I offered him a ride back, the cab fare for 15 miles or so is very expensive, just read below with Dhari is paying. They drove to my house in a cab and it was probably pretty expensive so I gave him a ride back to their apartment about two blocks east of Incarnate Word University. Aziz from Saudi Arabia and Mohammed who basically was doing some translating for Aziz from Saudi Arabia because his English is not quite as good as Mohammed's said they would talk it over with Pat, remember the lady was in charge of the home stay program? Pat was also Aziz of Saudi Arabia's teacher so I guess Pat also teaches at the English as a Second Language Program at Incarnate Word University which I didn't know. So stay tuned and I'll fill it in Monday or Tuesday whenever I hear what's going on and whether Aziz of Saudi Arabia will be a student living in my house.
The story never ends with Aziz because he came back into my life when Pat told me a couple of days later he was reconsidering moving into our house after saying no the first time. I think she told me on a Saturday and said he will make his decision on Monday. Again I can only guess that his decision was not to live in my house because I have not seen or heard from him or Pat about him for a week; so once again I was stood up at the altar by another student abusing me and getting my hopes up that I would get a student.
Doesn't this sound like more trouble than any human being should have to go through? And the saga isn't even finished yet. I wonder who student’s number 7, 8, 9, and 10 will be. I may never get a student but I'm getting plenty of material to use for my book. I really wish I didn't have to add this material to my book but since the title of my book is: "My Only Crime Was Being Born", you can see why I would include this information in my book.
The saga of obtaining an exchange student is still ongoing. The latest news is. I got a call from Pat last night that we finally really have a student – I'll believe it when he lives here. The students’ name is Wesam. Pat assures me he's really going to live in my house because she said his parents in Saudi Arabia have already decided this is where he will live. So I guess I get to take this student sight unseen and I'll just hope everything works out for the best because I really need the money. Just another day in paradise.
I've got the fifth or sixth or seventh or eighth exchange student coming over hopefully today at two o'clock which is Saturday. That fifth or sixth student or seventh or eighth student never did come over so we will go on to the next student. Didn't realize I hadn't come to the end of my saga with exchange student so I put Wasam’s name up at the top of the chapter side remembered him and now more about him.
I might have the best chance of getting this student named Wesam. Pat assures me she's told his parents everything about us and has emphasized to them that we do have two dogs and a cat and a little grandchild and according to his parents and I guess according to Wesam that is fine.
Of course my work is never done remember like a told you earlier so far I've gone down to Jim's restaurant near Incarnate Word University and picked up one student and two of his friends and drove them to see my house and then drove them back to their apartment in Alamo Heights near Incarnate Word. Then the other students came out here by taxicab so all I had to do this time was to drive them back in my car so I only had to make half the trip but not a round trip.
This time I'm assured that Wesam is arriving Friday, April 22 and he has arranged transportation to take him from the airport to our house. He is landing about 6 PM so I'm guessing he will come to our house Friday, April 22 around nine a clock at night would be my guess. So I really hope this is the end of my saga and we get a really good student and we start making a little extra money that would really help. So far no one else in my family is really bringing in any extra income. My poor wife works hard at Starbucks part time but you're not exactly going to get the Rolls-Royce by working for Starbucks if you know what I mean. We actually lose money when Judy works at Starbucks we have to put Malia in daycare. Daycare costs more in our and Starbucks pays my wife believe it or not.
And my daughter just lost her job at the Westin Hotel (now as I edit this, my daughter has gotten the job of her dreams at KCI and will start May 16 so I really got my fingers crossed that this will last and she will turn over new leaf and become a good employee and stay with the job). I don't think I'll be counting on her to take care of me in my old age if you know what I mean. I can always pray for a miracle but that doesn't seem likely so I think I'm basically on my own for surviving into my old age.
Of course it wouldn't be Jeffee's life if something else didn't come along that involves him doing more work that should have been done by somebody else. Pat tells me that Wesam is going to come and live with me and then she just routinely tells me find out about the bus route he needs to take to get to school at Incarnate Word.
I'm thinking hey shouldn't the home stay program that finds houses to live in for many students be able to have some kind of a link to the bus company which is called VIA in San Antonio? Wouldn't you think they would have all sorts of bus routes easily accessible and wouldn't rely on the house that the student is going to live and to find out about the bus transportation? I sure think that. Of course I'm such a nice guy or is it sucker that I will go to the trouble of trying to find out the bus routes for him.
Of course like most things in my life it's far too complicated and difficult to do. I first go to the VIA website which I would think would have an easy way to find out a bus route. Of course not. Do you think they would use any common sense and have something as simple as typing the address you are leaving from and type in the address you want to go to and then I could l print out the bus route and the transfers to other bus routes and the stations where you would have to make those transfers? That would seem perfectly logical to me but then again I have a load of common sense so I guess I must've gotten several million other people's common sense because they don't seem to have any.
I even tried going to Google or something which actually had this feature that said type bus routes did and they actually did have the address you are leaving from going to this address you want to get to so I typed it in. Naturally Google could not find any route for that particular trip between my house on Bluffridge and Incarnate Word. How typical for somebody born on Friday the 13th.
VIA had a message box where you could send them a message so I sent them a message saying I will be hosting an exchange student at my house and I would really appreciate if you could tell me the bus route the student would take from my house on Bluffridge to Incarnate Word University.
I also sent an e-mail to Incarnate Word University and told them that I'm hosting an exchange student who will be going to your English as a Second Language Program and hopefully they could help me figure out the bus route the student would need to take.
I will keep you posted if I have any luck whatsoever getting help easily for the bus route. I sure hope so because that would be very untypical. I hope suddenly one or both of the e-mail people I e-mailed which is VIA and Incarnate Word come back and tell me the bus route.
I did have one student tell me how to make two or three transfers to go from my house to Incarnate Word so it does appear to be possible to find out the bus route you would take. Of course I haven't ridden the bus in my entire life in San Antonio and I've been here 17 years so I don't have a clue about anything involving the buses.
The only thing I know is there is a bus station right on the corner of Bluffridge and Henderson Pass which is about one block from my house. So I know the student would start by getting on bus route number 648. Actually that is dead wrong because I did hear back from VIA and the student has to get on the bus at the corner of Thousand Oaks and Henderson Pass about two blocks from my house. VIA was very nice to me and actually sent me the bus route from my house to Incarnate Word University. The bus rider would only have to change buses once to get from my house to Incarnate Word University which is about 12 miles away from my house.
Occasionally I could give Wasam a ride home because I work fairly close to Incarnate Word but I am not going to encourage him to lean on me to be his transportation. If he wants to ride in the car I will suggest to him to rent one for three or four months. I do enough for everybody I'm drawing the line in the in the sand on this one like they did at the Alamo and I'm not going to be the pushover for everybody like I've always been.
Well the saga of Jeff and the exchange student did have a happy ending believe it or not! Wasam arrived by taxi about 7: 30 Friday night. He only brought one suitcase and seemed very nice and polite when I first met him. Now Wesam has been living in my house for two weeks and he is really a great person to have living in my house.
He has made a lot of friends already. I told him as soon as you start going to the school on Incarnate Word University you will meet a lot of other Saudi Arabian students and make a lot of friends very quickly. That is exactly what happened. Wasam made many friends including Zigab or the Z man as he likes to be called. Wasam and the Z man have been spending a lot of time together because the Z man rented a car. Since he plans to stay in America after he completes the six-month English as a Second Language Program, I told him he should think about buying a car a used car.
Incarnate Word University is supposed to mail me a check every month for the $650 rent. It's now May 5 and I still haven't seen any money but it's probably early. I would think I get a partial payment since arrived April 22 so stay tuned and if I haven't finished the book, started selling it to the world I'll let you know either in this book or a plan of volume 2 at some point of my biography because I certainly haven't exhausted all the topics I could possibly cover but I figure around 250 pages for this sucker is more than enough to read the first time. If you like this one I'm sure you'll be glad to buy volume two and I'll certainly put it out there as quickly as I can do it. Finally, good news, I did get my first check for $650 on May 23 hallelujah. And then as usual bad news, my daughter reminded me I still owe her $600 that she took from her bank account to make the down payment on the third car I bought for her since we came back to San Antonio in 2004 so I'm losing two hundred of my $650 immediately.
It's about 10 minutes before the latest student by the name of Aziz from Saudi Arabia is supposed to come to my house. I'll let you know what happens in the continuing saga and I really pray to God this is the last student, he decides to live in my house, and I start making some money as I really could use it.
Actually Aziz never came to live with me as an exchange student. I forget why too hard to keep track of the program. Finally I did wind up with a very nice student by the name of Wasam. Pat, the lady who runs the San Antonio HomeStay Program, basically just called me up one night and said Wasam is arriving tonight at seven o'clock, this is room ready is? I told Pat yes, Wasam can move in tonight.
Wasam wound up staying for one month. He was a very nice young man, 19 years old very polite very sweet loves our granddaughter Malia, finally get used to the dogs because in Saudi Arabia very few people have dogs as pets so it takes them a while to feel comfortable around dogs and cats. Wasam made friends with a guy named Zigrid or something like that. We all gave him the nick name the Z man, he liked that.
Wasam did not like riding the bus 13 miles from my house to school and luckily the Z man had a car and so he used to give Wasam rides to school and home from school. After living with me for a month, Wasam decided to move in with the Z man in either an apartment or the house where Z man was staying I don't really know. Pat called me up to inform me Wasam was moving out and then said don't worry I'll find you another student.
The new student who came to live with me and the still living with me is named Dhari. It is also very nice and polite. He has been living here about two weeks and just like Wasam, Dhari does not like to ride the bus. My wife Judy has been giving him any rides in the morning to school and we have not been reimbursed any gas money. And then in the evening Dhari does not like to wait outside in the heat and it is around 100° in San Antonio, so he has been taking taxis home all the time and a taxi ride from Incarnate Word to our houses anywhere from $40-$60 a ride which is quite expensive. So I called and e-mailed Pat and said you gotta talk to me about this and maybe help Dhari find a carpool or something because the current situation is not good for me or for him. Stay tuned maybe in volume 2 or 3 I'll update the latest adventures of Jeffee and the exchange student.
Dhari is pretty good guest but has trouble waking up & my wife winds up driving him to school too many times – but he is getting better. I’m sure he doesn’t like riding the bus but realizes taxi rides home are pretty expensive!