Lately, I’ve been chatting on Facebook with Thomas, the German exchange student who stayed with us for a month in 2006 and 2007. It made me think about my own stint as an exchange student to Germany when I was 15. I went with three other guys from my school and was incredibly homesick. One of the boys, Rob Zielinski, kept in touch with me while we were there. His family took him to Misano, Italy and he sent me this postcard:

Wondering what the surprise was? A bottle of champagne. Pretty heady stuff for innocent 15-year-olds back then. We drank it on the plane ride home.