Six months later, in late July 2035, with the hitherto star players having graduated, Flo feels more heavily the need to replace those players by newer players whom she hopes will be able to make up for it in the long run. The field in Congressional debate will be pretty stiff this season, and has proven much more popular than extemp, domestic or international. So I ought to issue an invitation to Francisco to attend the debate team introductory session, Flo then writes the email to him so that he can attend said session. I wanted him specifically for this, so I must make this count.

However, before the parish's schools would, hopefully, welcome the exchange students with open arms, the district has all the faculty and administrators at both VA and Lacassine attend a cultural sensitivity training professional development workshop prior to the arrival of their respective foreign exchange students. They are assembled in the front rows of the auditorium, with the instructor of cultural sensitivity standing ready to teach what they need to know about cultural sensitivity in a school context.

"Dear school personnel, this year is a year that will likely cause a shock to you" the instructor opens the session.

For some, it's a little new, but for Flo, the content feels like a rehash of what she was exposed to during her undergraduate years at Laval. And also about cultural competence training required by the NSDA before judging games at Nats. Laval had a big chunk of international students in the student body, which made it more ethnically and culturally diverse than it would otherwise have been. Maybe even more so than Tulane or LSU... Her thoughts then turn to whether Anastasia would be worth pursuing as a debate prospect on top of Francisco. They knew for months that Anastasia and Francisco would have both slots earmarked for VA.

However, once the first part of the cultural sensitivity training workshop ends, Flo meets with the FES coordinator at Lacassine.

"I heard about how complicated it has been for you guys to choose who would come here" Lacassine's FES coordinator, its French teacher, asks for more information about the hiccups VA faced at the selection stage. "Could you please tell us about what made is so difficult?"

Florence then proceeds to talk about how Marianne was punished for her unethical behavior surrounding the selection process for foreign exchange students. About how other teachers complained about how much room arts and academic team coaches were given in choosing who should attend VA on exchange, which they felt was excessive.

"Wow! You guys put disproportionate weight to extracurricular fit in the process! In comparison, our process was much more straightforward: nationality, GPA and course rigor ruled the day for us" Lacassine's FES coordinator is aghast at VA's actions when Flo tells him about these.

"I believe VA is hardly alone in going into the international student exchange markets to try to fill extracurricular gaps" Flo deadpans him. "However, this does not excuse the actions of our administration. For this reason, I believe I said everything you needed to know"

Lacassine might have had a few mathletes here and there in the past few years, most notably Blythe and Derrick, but right now, Lacassine is as starved for academic talent as the rest of southwest Louisiana (sans VA). At least I can understand where Lacassine is coming from, but the whole parish is now open to the international student exchange markets. VA was just first to get started, Welsh, Elton, Lake Arthur didn't have the resources to host a FES, Hathaway had no takers, Ena overhears Lacassine's FES coordinator talking about how their pre-arrival experience was much smoother than VA's.

"One more thing: when our FES arrive, we will host an introductory night where they will be shown around town and the town will know who they will spend an entire year with" Marianne announces to the rest of VA faculty. "However, I don't know the town that well, so I don't think I would be of much use as a guide for foreign exchange students looking to get more familiar with the town. That, unfortunately, is best left to the host families"

For that, there would not be a shortage of volunteers if teachers could do it, most of whom taught at VA for much longer than Flo had. Like Warren, who's in his pre-retirement years.

"However, before the exchange students can be shown around town, such as where to go for groceries, the stadium and all that, we'll host a meet-and-greet session for them"

I guess, time to order a Philippine and a Ukrainian flag, both of which will be flown during the meet-and-greet session, Steven then hastily shop online for these items, while Flo, on the other hand, is left wondering whether other faculty will even be given an opportunity to meet with this year's exchange students before tryouts for extracurricular teams start.

"I have one question: if we don't show the exchange students around, what opportunity will we have to meet with the students before the school year starts?" Florence asks about this aspect of the logistics of the early stages of hosting a FES. "Here's our chance to get to know these students better beyond academics alone. Remember last December when we made our choice preferences: the organization didn't give us much information on the prospective FES' personal qualities"

"Yeah, they just assume FES who make it to this stage fall within a certain range of personalities, and it wouldn't differ a whole lot between several students who make it to that point" Ena continues commenting on the shortcomings of the marketplace on which VA operates.

"You will have an opportunity to ask any questions you may have for them before the meet-and-greet proper" Marianne answers them before the workshop resumes.

-----------------------

A few days later, even though the two students arrive in Jennings without any fanfare, at least not initially, Ena and Flo both take one student apiece to show them around VA's campus. Science labs, library, arts classrooms, cafeteria, computer lab, bathrooms, gym, and everything else a student would need to be acquainted with during a normal school year.

At the end of the guided tour of the school, Flo starts asking her questions to Francisco:

"I wonder how you approach learning and school" Flo asks Francisco, knowing it's part of what a transcript doesn't show.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I know that some students will mostly aim to cram and grub for their grades, while others would cut corners elsewhere to get work done. But what I would really like to know is how that is distributed across subjects: often kids don't show the same attitude evenly. This certainly wasn't my case when I was a student, Flo internalizes what she wants to know most about him, and a few cursory questions about how his peers in his home country perceive him. Then comes the opportunity to attempt to nudge him towards playing on the debate team.

"Please excuse my lack of knowledge of the Philippine school system, but I wonder what's available to you in extracurriculars at home" Flo asks him about what primary differences he could expect from VA vs his home institution.

"We focus on arts and sports" Francisco answers her calmly.

"You said you were passionate about international affairs? I think I can recommend an activity for you" Flo then awaits his answer.

"Yes. What activity would you recommend then?" a curious Francisco then asks her.

"The debate team. There's one format I believe would fit you to a T, given your areas of interest"

"What do you mean?"

"It's a bit abusive to call it a debate format, how it actually works is that you draw a subject at random, you have thirty minutes to prepare a seven-minute speech on that topic and then deliver it" Flo explain what extemp is, without actually calling it extemp. "The real debating portion of it happens scarcely, and is typically reserved for high-level rounds"

Francisco is astonished about how Florence described extemp to him. However, he has yet to realize the true reason why Flo seemed to believe Francisco would be best served doing extemp, and international extemp at that. She then talks about extemp cross-examination and how it happens. And then send an email with the time and place of the first team meeting.

In extemp, as far as I can make out, you can get away with limited prep, however, I feel like he would need to brush up on domestic topics before our season opener. Which would be straightforward if he takes AP US Government, Flo starts making notes in her head about how he would go around improving as an extemper if he actually ends up playing extemp. On top of that, topics tend to be more US-centric in actual debate formats, maybe some LD topics could be less so, but I wouldn't count on it. And, of course, I will pay for Francisco's NSDA membership out of team funds if he joins the team.

She then leaves it to other teachers the opportunity to question him, as well as Anastasia, about what they feel matters most to them, and Anastasia doesn't seem to be of much interest to her.

When the meet-and-greet session begins, Marianne takes center stage with the two FES in tow behind her. With the Philippine and Ukrainian flags being flown on opposite sides of the American and Louisiana ones. The townsfolk are very curious since it's the first time they ever hosted a FES, and the host families are invited, to attend, too.

"On behalf of Venomous Agendas High, welcome, Jennings residents, to the first meet-and-greet session for Venomous Agendas High's foreign exchange students! It takes several months for us to do all the work required for them to come study on exchange, so let's meet the students for whom we worked so hard!" Marianne makes the opening. "Exchange students, you have the floor"

"I'm Anastasia Volzhin, originally from Kyiv number one eighty-nine in Ukraine..." she rambles, in a Ukrainian accent, about what makes her excited to come to rural southwest Louisiana on exchange, before letting Francisco come to the podium to introduce himself.

"I'm Francisco Vargas, from Cebu, in the Philippines..." he rambles, too, as Anastasia did before him.

"May the exchange be fruitful for both the students and their host families! Speaking of host families, here's your chance to introduce yourselves before the exchange students can answer questions from the residents, and later, tour the town"

So it appears the former superintendent's family is hosting Francisco, while Anastasia is hosted by another family of empty-nesters. Once the host families announced who they are hosting for this school year...

"I'm Ena Gale, foreign exchange coordinator at VA. None of these would have been possible without the support of..." Ena then names the organization responsible for foreign exchange students the parish deals with. "If you are interested in hosting foreign exchange students next year, please contact me, and a maximum of five host families will be accepted for next year"

"Ena, why a maximum of five host families?" a prospective host asks her.

"It's because of J-one visa regulations: host schools can't get more than five exchange students on any given year" Ena answers the would-be FES host.

Ena then answers more questions about what makes good hosts to foreign exchange students. So many realize the costs of hosting FES aren't trivial in their personal contexts and, for this reason, some balk at hosting since they feel even providing for three meals per day, and then stuff such as laundry, utilities, and so on, might be a little expensive to assume for an entire year. (The parish provides busing from and to school to an exchange student as it would any other student zoned to VA, so long as the host family is zoned to it)

And then the foreign exchange students are bombarded with questions from the locals about what they hope to accomplish here, how was school life in their home countries, and so on. In fact, some of them didn't see anyone from their respective countries in their lives, so it's only natural for them to get to know more about the foreign exchange students and their home countries.

-----------------------

A few days later, Flo comes to the first meeting of the debate team for the season with a handful of new players, which include Francisco.

"Hello everyone, I'm Florence, and I am the head coach of the Venomous Agendas' speech and debate team. Welcome to the first meeting of the debate team this season. New players, please take a look at the list of common events scheduled at tournaments we enter this season, but please be advised that, if you play on this team, you're expected to pick one event and put your speech and debate focus on that one event. You're welcome to switch events if an event proves a poor fit for you, however" Flo harangues the prospective players. "Oh and we have a Filipino exchange student for this season, Francisco, so please introduce yourselves, by name and event"

There's a new player coming for orat and one more for LD, on top of Francisco, who realizes, upon reading this list of events, along with traits of successful players, that extemp really is the best fit for his interests and disposition.

"For those who haven't already taken AP US Government and aren't a freshman..." Flo starts giving more instructions, while Francisco raises his hand.

"Flo, what's a freshman?" Francisco rolls his eyes at the use of the term.

"A freshman here is a ninth grader. What I was coming at is that, if you haven't taken AP US Government already, and aren't in ninth grade, I strongly recommend you take it this year if you take part in the following events: extemp, Congress, public forum, Lincoln-Douglas and policy" Flo issues her recommendation to the new players.

"Why?" a puzzled new LD player in ninth grade asks her.

"First, ninth graders cannot take any AP courses, and second, the way the AP US Government teacher teaches his course, you will gain exposure to current political issues as well as how government works. Which is very important for a lot of common arguments being run in debates or, for extempers, domestic topics"

"I have one question about AP US Government: how much work is it?" Francisco asks her, while having some reservations about taking it.

"Unfortunately, Francisco, I am not able to answer this question. That said, you can ask the teacher about the expectations of the course, and the teacher may even hand you the syllabus for it" Flo then emails the AP US Government teacher for this year, with several debate players as copy recipients.

Oh God, I hope that the AP US Government instructor will not be bigoted towards Francisco if he takes the course! Yet I often feel like outsiders will often get things wrong about US politics. Heck, even local residents will get things wrong, too, Flo then shivers about what she feels could transform into a flashpoint and make Francisco's life harder as an exchange student at VA.