Our French Exchange Student arrived Sunday. She from Toulouse, a really sweet girl, speaks pretty good British English. Our kids are learning alot from her. (Like Table Manners... :rolleyes:). She's here for 2 weeks. They go to see all the tourist stuff in Chicago during the week. (Sears Tower, Navy Pier, Art Institute, ESPN Zone, etc...) She will also accompany my daughter to school one day and shadow her, to see the difference between their schools and ours. The evenings and weekends she spends with us to see what a "typical" American family does.
Her parents and I e-mailed back and forth several times prior to her arrival. He's Doctor and she's a stay at home mom. Anyway, here's my dilemma, they sent us gifts. I mean REALLLLLLLY nice gifts. A bottle of 1989 Chateau Cap de Mourlin Grand Cru Classe, that was probably the finest bottle of wine I've ever tasted. '89 was an exceptional year for Bourdeaux, so I figure that probably bottle was probably in the neighborhood of $150-$200. They also sent my wife a set of glass coasters engraved with various wine labels, a book in French and English about the Violets of Toulouse, and finally a small jar of candied Violets (Toulouse is renowned for Violets).
Crap. I suck at buying gifts. I don't want to be a jerk and give them an Obama-style gift. "Thanks for the wine. That there's a genuine Mayor Richie Daley Bobblehead." White Sox and Bears jersey's do not scream "class". Booze ?? Come on, they're French, I might as well send them a bottle of urine, that would be less of an insult.
So I turn to APS'ers (Hey Laurent!!! You out there ?!?!?) for some ideas on tasteful gifts (Chicago or American) that I can send back with our "temporary" daughter to give to her parents and show that Americans are not total cads.