When we found out that Viona was coming to live with us this year, I did a little searching of terms in Albanian and Turkish, the two languages she spoke at home. The Turkish word for daughter, Kiz, seemed to stick with me, though I must confess I never felt as though I got the pronunciation correct. The i is not a typical English I sound, neither short nor long but some schwa in between -- but I did notice that my pronunciation was getting very close to the local term of endearment (and sometimes derision), Cuz. So I combined the two -- in my mind I think Kiz, but I say Cuz.
The Kiz and I usually start our day at quarter till 7 with the teenage girl occupying the closest bathroom to the bedrooms: Age before beauty evidently does not apply. Viona usually makes her lunch or dries her hair while I take Lottie outside (our dog) and then we depart together at about 7:20. The ride to RV (her high school) is a nice time for the two of us to chat (or not depending on how tired we are) and we have had a number of interesting conversations in the 5-7 minutes it takes before I drop her off -- anywhere from movies to hearing the news of Cliff Lee signing with the Phillies (that was a rather one sided conversation) to issues that Viona finds interesting. Our present engagement is a sort of Tayloristic experiment to see which route to RV is most time effective. I will certainly report back with our findings.
When I drop her off at RV Viona claims that she goes to classes, but who knows -- the straight A's on the report card could somehow be computer manipulations. But lets assume that she goes to class -- currently she has a history course (along with whatever else of less importance). They will be seeing 3 films this semester: Saving Private Ryan, Iron Jawed Angels (brilliant movie on woman's suffrage and Alice Paul) and something else .... but 7 hours of film designed for entertainment? come on, what are my taxes paying for? that's not education, and I find it insulting to my academic field that these pieces of hollywood ..... ok. Nicole has advised me that I am not allowed to show my displeasure at the curriculum choices of the Kiz's high school teacher. Humbug.
Viona normally comes home around 2:30 though at times she does stay after school for an activity. She plays with the kids, maybe has a snack and then studies. What a wonderful student she is. It is too bad that some teacher is wasting her mind on an entertai .... alright. We eat dinner together at 5:30-6:30. Most recently, Jack has taken to asking Viona for a lollipop when he is finished with dinner, presumably because he does not think that Mommy or Daddy will get it for him. Viona, sometimes with my help, cleans up after dinner. She has been very forthright and assertive in helping around the house. We have seldom asked her to do anything -- but we don't have to. She does almost everything on her own. A testament to her family in Kosovo.
Maybe we watch TV together or view a DVD -- the last one I remember we showed her was The Emperor's New Clothes, a what if story about Napoleon if he had escaped from St. Helena (and yes Jeff, I did explain to her). But if there is school work to be done then Viona is upstairs on the internet like any typical American high school student -- or studying.
The other night we had to go to the store together to buy her something for school. On our way home I wanted a drink, or perhaps I should say Soda, and so we stopped at a 7-11. When we entered Eddie Grant's "Electric Avenue" was beatin' through the store. The people behind the counter were cheerful and of course 7-11 is filled with all our favorite treats. Viona turned to me and said, "this is the happiest place." I smiled and walked down electric avenue for a moment and thought, "it sure is."
We went home with soda and ice cream.
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