Hi,
I am a college student from the United States. Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting one of the most interesting people ever in my life, a 21 year old girl from Belarus.
We've been in the same English class for 7 weeks now, and I think we've hit it off pretty well. I help her with words she doesn't understand, and take time to explain idioms and various grammatical nuances to her. She laughs at my jokes, and always smiles warmly at me. She's also studying software engineering (computer programming), which has been a hobby of mine for the last 8 years. I think we're a pretty good match thus far. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Through the course of conversation, I found out that she is somewhat homesick, and since her family moved back to Belarus, she really has nobody to relate with. (I also found out that she is living with her "boyfriend", although that relationship is about to break, and she'll need a place to stay, but that's a seperate issue I need to deal with.)
Christmas is coming, and I've spent quite a bit of time scouring the web, looking for something that I could get her. I don't want to make her even more homesick, but I do want something that will cheer her up and remind her of all the good memories she has from Belarus.
I could really use your help! Any suggestions you could provide would be greatly appreciated. She is too sweet of a girl for me to ignore. I look forward to learning more about her and her culture.
Thank you.