Lessons in Economics

When Max first arrived, we commented on how little luggage he had - just one suitcase, a camera bag and a backpack.  He explained how his parents had agreed that he would leave some things at home and buy new when he arrived, "because things are cheaper in the US."  His parents sent along a debit and credit card for his use.  He mentioned that he had a monthly budget as well.

Max has learned some valuable lessons about money already.  In the first month, he blew through his monthly budget in just a couple of weeks.  He went a little nuts on buying "school spirit" clothes.  Then the yearbook fee was due.  Then he needed soccer shoes for the school soccer team, and then running shoes because the team runs often.  We've also made a couple of clothes shopping trips since many of the items he brought didn't comply with the school dress code.

He's commented a number of times of how quickly the money goes, but is always prepared to justify the expenses to his parents.  He's also looking at purchasing some electronics while he's here.  We've found that the process of getting funds transferred inexpensively has been a bit of a hurdle.

We track all of our accounts and expenses in Quicken and Max has been interested in that whole process.  We had an interesting discussion about investments and the difference in risk tolerance between Americans and Germans.  He said it seems like Americans have a much higher tolerance for financial risk than Germans.  I pointed out the importance of diversifying and balancing a portfolio to withstand the ups and downs of the market.  And how to enjoy things in the short term while making long term plans.

We had a couple of "money talks" recently.  We struggle with how much to guide him on the finances issue, since it's his parents' money.  We started teaching our son about good money management when he was 5.  He's now nearly 10 and knows a lot about budgeting his money for the things he wants.  So, we're supposed to treat Max like our son, which means at least talking through these decisions and letting him decide how to use "his money."  He recently decided to scale back on an order for some optional school soccer team clothes in order to stay more within his budget.  

We'll see how this continues to play out during the year.

Max in the Big City

Labor Day weekend gave us an opportunity to visit my family in the Chicago area.  We had mentioned this trip to Max a couple weeks ago and he’s been excited to see Chicago.  I was a little worried about the long drive (about 10 hours) when Max said he hadn’t been in a car for more than 6 hours.

We picked up Max and our son early from school on Friday and left around 1:00.  It was a very long drive, especially since I took a wrong turn in the middle of Illinois and added about 50 minutes to our drive.  We arrived at my parents’ house just before midnight. 

Saturday morning was spent hanging around the house.  My dad, husband, son (Dylan) and Max played a couple of games of Ladder-ball.  Then we headed off to Arlington Park Racecourse for an afternoon of horse racing.  My dad explained how to read the race program and horse stats to Max and Dylan.   We had agreed we would give each boy $2 per race to put on their horse, and they would keep the winnings at the end of the day.  Max started out with the strategy of picking a horse to Win.  Dylan started with the strategy of betting on the long-shots.  The both quickly changed their strategies to picking horses with good odds to Place or Show.  Max tried cheese fries for the first time during lunch at the track.

Before the last race, we cashed in their winnings and gave them the option to use those winnings to bet more on the last race or walk away.  Max decided to add another $5 to his bet.  Dylan decided to use $2 to bet on a second horse.  During the post parade, Max saw that his horse was gray.  My husband teased him that a gray color meant the horse was old.  During the last stretch of the race, Max was yelling that his horse was winning and went nuts when a gray horse crossed the finish line first.  But, alas, it was a different gray horse.  Easy come, easy go, right?!  In the end, Max came out with a loss overall, and Dylan had a few bucks “profit”.  Max’s lesson learned: The best way to earn money is to work hard for it.  Dylan’s (9-year-old) lesson learned: I can come out ahead if I bed Mom and Dad’s money.  Hmmm….we need to work on that one.

That evening we took Max out for some Chicago-style hot dogs.  He was surprised at the HUGE serving of fries that came with them.  Somehow he managed to finish two fully-loaded dogs, the big bag of fries, and some of the cheese off of Dylan’s pizza.  He even tried Mountain Dew for the first time.

On Sunday we drove up to Milwaukee, WI to visit my sister in her new house.  We had lunch at Cracker Barrel and talked Max into eating breakfast food for lunch.  Dylan also taught him how to play checkers there.  We then drove to the subway station to take the train to downtown Chicago.  When we walked up the stairs to street level in the city, Max’s eyes turned huge.  He started snapping photos of the buildings around us.  He said he had never been in a city with skyscrapers.  Our plan was to take him to the top of the Sears Tower, but it was a 2-1/2 hour wait, so we opted to skip it.  Then we took a cab over to Navy Pier, during which Pete, our cab driver from Greece, gave Max and Dylan all kinds of advice about life.

Navy Pier was extremely crowded and it was difficult to get around.  We planned to go on the big ferris wheel so Max could get some pictures of the city skyline, but the line was long and Max preferred not to wait.  My husband suggested we walk along the lakeshore so Max could take pictures.  That turned out to be the perfect suggestion.  We walked back to Millenium Park and found the Cloud structure, which was pretty neat as it reflects the skyline from all angles.  Even though we spent only a few hours in the city, Max absolutely loved it.  That evening we enjoyed some Chicago pizza at Gino’s East.

American English doesn't make sense

Wow!  Max has been with us now for three weeks!  Where did the time go?!  Because he arrived just after school started, he's had a lot of adjusting to do all at once - with our family, making new friends and going to school.  After the first weekend, my husband and I agreed that Max fit in so well with our family.  It seems like he's already been with us for months.  He's a great kid, easy-going and easy to please.  Our 9-year-old son had very high expectations for his new big brother, and Max has lived up to those expectations (mainly being willing to play basketball and board games).

Max started school on the Monday after he arrived.  He's taking some challenging courses - chemistry, calculus, law-related education.  The first few days, he came home exhausted and went to bed early.  While he speaks English well, there are still many written words that aren't in his vocabulary.  And, a couple of his teachers have thick southern accents, so that probably makes it even more challenging.  We try to help him understand his homework, and I've issued many apologies that it's been 18 years since I took calculus and don't remember a lot of it!

Max seems to really enjoy the social aspects of school.  The concept of extracurricular activities and school spirit is new to him, and he's really embracing it.  We're glad he's been able to make friends pretty easily.  He even seems to have his eye on a girl on the dance team, and "she's pretty AND smart!"  He's joining the Science & Math Club and he tried out for the soccer team.  The try-outs didn't go as well as he wanted because it was about 100 degrees and humid.  He hasn't acclimated to the extreme summer temps we have yet.

He has commented numerous times at how nice and helpful everyone is.  Yup, that's Southern Hospitality at its finest.  The first couple days of school were filled with funny adventures.  He got off the bus at the middle school instead of the high school, so a teacher had her daughter drive Max over to the right school.  He missed the bus home one day.  He had trouble with his locker and was given his first tardy to class.  But a teacher helped him get it excused.  He started his Spanish II class, and surprised the teacher with his fluency in Spanish (he already had 6 years of it).  The things he doesn't seem to like about school are the dress code, all of the rules, and how long the day is.

We've had fun showing him different things around the community.  We took him to his first baseball game, and enjoyed the fireworks at the end of the game.  We took him to our favorite hamburger joint and he declared that America has the best hamburgers.  We went bowling with another host family and their exchange daughter from France.  We attended his first high school football game and he said "it was amazing!"  Max made his first batch of potatoes gratin for an AFS pool party event.  He claims it wasn't as good as what his mom makes.  We have always enjoyed showing our son different experiences, so now we have double the joy.

We had no idea how silly and difficult that American language can be until trying to teach it to a foreigner.  I told our dog to "back up" and Max looked at me strangely and said "Back. Up?"  No, it really doesn't make sense when you stop and think about it.  We've been playing word board games on some evenings to help Max expand his vocabulary.  And try explaining our government and some of our laws to a foreigner.  Forget about it!

Overall we're off to a great start to the year!