There’s been much ado about nothing regarding the 19-year-old German au pair and her relationship with Stephen Grant, the creep who murdered his wife and scattered her limbs throughout the Stony Creek Nature Center. So what if this au pair’s role went beyond the usual housekeeping chores, so what if she slept with an older man. Is it really necessary for our local media to hound her and her family? I’m sure there’s a mixture of emotions running through her head: sadness for the victim’s children, shock from knowing what a person is capable of, and relief for being back home where she can try to get on with her life.
This has me wondering about a Portuguese tramp my parents had living at our house when I was a free-spirited, free-loading, college student. Her parents sent her to our country through a foreign exchange program as a last ditch effort to separate her from an elderly Portuguese gentleman. This had disaster written all over it (for my family anyway) the moment she arrived at our front doorstep. Her attitude sucked. She’d walk around the house naked—yes, naked—and let me tell you, from what I saw, she was very hairy. I don’t know if Madonna made it popular or not or whether it was a cultural thing, but this gal didn’t shave her armpits.
My parents had rules, not many, but still they were simple to follow: Tell us where you are, who you’re with, and how long you’ll be gone for. Easy enough. Yet, she would disappear for an entire weekend and reappear Sunday night as if nothing were out of the ordinary. It wasn’t until my parents threatened to have her sent home that they learned about her situation. Still, they were patient, hoping she’d wise up.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was when she told a high school counselor that her host family abused her. I’m not sure if she hinted at anything sexual in nature—oh sure, I’ll admit to an incident with a girl from Columbia whose underwear ended up in my sock drawer. It was merely a laundry mix-up. The girl was a friend of another foreign exchange student living at our house at the time; Sleepovers were the norm. “Is this yours?” I had asked her, holding up the underwear in front of my parents during breakfast. She denied it, even though the word “Columbia” was printed across the elastic. But I digress. The high school counselor called my parents and the Portuguese gal was soon boarding a plane back to her country and probably into the arms of her sugar daddy.
Side Note: Live Forum regarding /Blogging Ethics, What does it mean to you?
13 comments:
Just goes to show you, things are never as they seem to appear. What happened to the bubbles?
MW
I go with MW on this, and Jim Harrison's "nothing is as it seems." Unless you're a writer ;)
Good story.
Interesting, JR. Laundry mixup, huh? You always have the most interesting stories! And I saw that Ivan stole your hot tub photo, too. I'm stealing your web address so I can place a link to you on my site... if you don't mind. You are one of a kind.
Jim, Nice hot tub! Maybe you should move it right in your backyard. In regards to the foreign exchange student, she was from the Czech Republic. Even I remembered the right country. You know that you got the Portugese close to you know who's country! Adios mi hermano. --Bro, Ron
The term "Au Pair" in this country doesn't usually have anything good attached to it in one way or the other. I can think of one or two other "newsworthy stories" over the years in which the Au Pair was mixed up in some legal mess or other.
Oh sure, a laundry mixup. Are you sure you aren't confusing au pair with oh, pair?
It's a pity when hospitality is abused like that. As a foreign student myself once, I'd like to thank everyone who opened their homes to us. Some of us appreciate it a lot.
MY word....walking around nakid in someone elses house....whahahaha...crazy:)
Just goes to show, you can't fight true love.
Charles gramlich, always with an insight. Comes from humour.
Ivan
Dude, that picture breaks at least five major obscenity laws in a couple Southern states.
Your right boob is sagging.
Thanks for stopping by. In response to your question, I would want to do that for any number of reasons, not the least of which is just to see people's facial expressions because it amusing to me. In response to this entry, I think this illustrates beautifully how you cannot force people to do things against their will. It just doesn't work out, and in your words, it leads to disaster.
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