Two summers ago we had the pleasure of hosting a German exchange student named Kai. Our youngest son was part of a German/ American exchange program. Each of the students spent a month living at each other’s home practicing their language skills and attending high school.
Kai was curious about everything. We were prepped for months preceding the student exchange by our son’s German language teacher. “Let the students see your normal lives” he told us. The ordinary things in our lives might seem extraordinary to the German student. He was right. Kai was fascinated with our squirrels. He pronounced it something like “sqvirrels”. I am not ridiculing him; it was charming. Our first indication of his fascination was seeing him run into the house for his camera when he saw two “sqvirrels” on our deck. Apparently this is not a common sight in his country.
We tend to treat squirrels with disdain. We look at them as intruders at our bird feeders. Time for a paradigm shift. I began to notice they are kind of cute, however these are the same rodents who dug up my tulip bulbs, dragged walnuts from the neighbor’s tree onto our lawn, and chewed a hole in our deck floor one winter trying to get at an acorn that was stuck between two planks. They have gnawed through my plastic droll bird feeders to get at sunflower seeds. My father in-law was determined to keep them away from his bird feeders with little success. A local radio personality calls them “Midwest Monkeys”. They will do anything to achieve their goals. Many people just give up and put some corn out to feed them. But there is hope. Perhaps we could work out a trade or exchange program with Germany and send them some sqvirrels.
Kai was curious about everything. We were prepped for months preceding the student exchange by our son’s German language teacher. “Let the students see your normal lives” he told us. The ordinary things in our lives might seem extraordinary to the German student. He was right. Kai was fascinated with our squirrels. He pronounced it something like “sqvirrels”. I am not ridiculing him; it was charming. Our first indication of his fascination was seeing him run into the house for his camera when he saw two “sqvirrels” on our deck. Apparently this is not a common sight in his country.
We tend to treat squirrels with disdain. We look at them as intruders at our bird feeders. Time for a paradigm shift. I began to notice they are kind of cute, however these are the same rodents who dug up my tulip bulbs, dragged walnuts from the neighbor’s tree onto our lawn, and chewed a hole in our deck floor one winter trying to get at an acorn that was stuck between two planks. They have gnawed through my plastic droll bird feeders to get at sunflower seeds. My father in-law was determined to keep them away from his bird feeders with little success. A local radio personality calls them “Midwest Monkeys”. They will do anything to achieve their goals. Many people just give up and put some corn out to feed them. But there is hope. Perhaps we could work out a trade or exchange program with Germany and send them some sqvirrels.
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