Other News from the Home Front

Our family is growing. No, not that. We have two boarders for the next semester. At the start of the school year, my wife befriended a new teacher at her school. Who had arrived from the Philippines the day before school started. She had made arrangements with a Philippine company to teach in the U.S. The company found her and a few others employment with the district and bought them a plane ticket. For an exhorbitant price that's coming out of each paycheck this year. Then left them on their own to find transportation to/from work and a place to live. They mined a few connections and came up with an arrangement, but that wasn't the best. They found another arrangement which seemed better. The teacher was transferred to another building a couple of weeks into the school year, but the spouse kept in contact with her. Over the holidays, she learned that their new situation was even more unbearable than the first. We have two extra bedrooms and don't mind helping out someone in need, so they are renting from us. She takes them to and from work every day, so she has to get up early and home late. And we have more "family" meal times now. Other than that, the change hasn't been too significant yet. They keep to their rooms most of the time doing homework and chatting with their families back home. It'll be interesting to see if I feel so nonchalant in a few months.