Well, I think I have all rights to say that I had a perfect opportunity to learn what American sense of humor is like. And you know why? The answer is - my host family! They are wonderful people in all means and all through the year I felt being cared for, thought of and... teased! My host dad Michael is a great Teaser with capital letter "T"! I am sure he would struggle terribly if it would be forbidden to him to tease people! I guess it would be like a death penalty to him! Ok, to let you understand why I am so emotional about this, I should say that very often I was the one who happened to be the object of fun-making. But to say to you all the truth I should admit that I actually enjoyed it a lot! Except for hearing such words of morning greeting as "How come you are so short?" when I was so touchy about being not very tall. Well, it wasn't Michael who said this. It was his brother, who is even worse addicted to teasing than Mike. His name is Joe. He couldn't let to go any chance to tease as well. One time I heard phone ringing (it was Joe calling, which I didn't know, of coarse), so I picked up and what I heard was: "Who's that?" I said: "It is Lena. Tori and Mike's exchange student. And who are you?" In reply to that I heard: "So what did they exchange for you?" What can one reply to that? 

Now I want to tell one story that is one of the most memorable to me. It was one of those evenings when I had nothing better to do than to sit at home and watch a rented movie. You can improve your English in that way too, you know, so that was my excuse for spending time staring at that box for hours. So here I am sitting on a coach in a movie room which was next to our living room, where Tori and Michael were sitting at that same time. To give you the picture I should say there was a window in the wall separating these two rooms, so we could see each other. I don't remember what I was watching but I guess it was a nice movie, because I felt relaxed and peaceful. Suddenly the movie stopped for a moment and then started to play backwards. I didn't get what was going on. I looked around trying to find a remote-control from the VCR. Having no luck in that, I had to stand up from my nice and soft coach, go to the VCR and push "play" button on it. After accomplishing that, I got back on my coach and returned to my relaxed mode. Well, that didn't last too long. In a two minutes, the same story happened again, only this time the movie tape was playing forward. I was all confused... I looked on the coach, thinking that I might have been sitting on the remote control, which could cause all those problems. But "no"! Couldn't find it. Still not understanding what kind of weird thing was going on, I stood up again, pushed "play" on the VCR and sat back on the sofa. Imagine my surprise and confusion when in half a minute the tape stopped playing. I just didn't know what to think. I kept on looking for the remote. I looked in the next room through the window, and saw Michael telling something to Tori with the most serious face. Seeing no other way out I went to the TV and pushed "play" again. As soon as I turned my back to the TV-set, I heard the sound of rewinding tape. That was it! I couldn't stand it any more! I was just furious! From such despair I screamed: "What in the world is going on???!!!" At the very same moment Tori and Michael just burst into laughter in the next room. Here I understood everything! This is what actually was going on: Michael sitting in living room saw the remote-control lying on a table, saw me watching the movie and thought "Uh! I've got a toy!!!" So he was pushing "pause", "back", "forward" and was driving me crazy! Can you imagine this?! Oh, yes, staying with my host family was so much fun! I miss being teased in this kind and funny way so much! I miss those hours of laughing together when Tori and Mike's friends came over and we all teased each other and joked hours long. The most fun was when we were playing cards:-) Tori, Mike, do you remember? "50!":-)