THE WALKIE TALKIES

I have got just the sort of story you need for today! Are you ready?

Last night the two French boys came home at about midnight. I was on my computer listening to some great new music I overheard in a Starbucks downtown (Paolo Nutini) earlier in the evening. As I removed my earphones I could hear Michel and Gregoire's laughter from outside the front door. Hearing my students happy and enjoying life always makes me happy and proud to be doing what I'm doing.

As they entered the living room I saw that Michel was singing into a walkie talkie that he had in his left hand. I exclaimed "You got a walkie talkie!"

He responded "Yes! No more phone calls!" with a laugh and a smile. I understood immediately.

See, just around the corner from my house is a unit of apartments that EF calls the "Residence." The Residence is 30 apartments that house about three students each. The school owns them all. If a student wants more independence than being with a host family allows, they can opt for this independent living situation (for about 50 bucks more per month). It's really like the foreign students' dorms.

Naturally, all of my students end up having friends over at Valerio (the street name of the Residence). And how ingenious of the French guys to purchase walkie talkies! Instead of paying for minutes on their phones, they have instant access to their friends at any time through these perfect sounding handheld transceivers.

Whoever it was on the other end was having a blast with their sound system. I heard YMCA and about six other classic dance tunes in the span of about 2 minutes.