THE SUBSTITUTE

This weekend I am going out of town. You may have asked yourself at some point while considering all the joys and trials of Hosting Foreign Students, "What if Phil wants to go away for a while?" Sometimes I definitely want to get away. :) Retreating is good, and healthy in my opinion. This weekend, for example, I'll be camping at the Live Oak Music festival with my sister and dad.

If am ever absent for more than two days I need to have someone substitute in for me. In the past it has been my good friend Beau. He's an artist. I have had my mom come and cook a meal for a couple of nights if I will be gone for a short weekend.

The next three days a great girl Allie is going to be taking my place at the homestead. Last night at the dinner table I told the guys (six of them) that a 20 year old girl would be there for the weekend and they all sat up, interests and libidos piqued. The Swiss guy quipped: "Is she nice?" [yes] "I'm not going to Las Vegas now."

I'm always interested in hearing how things went while I was gone. One time a student came home so drunk they thought he had alcohol poisoning, and Emmanuel had to put him in a safe position to pass out without harming himself in his sleep.

Hopefully it won't be that bad, Allie!