Larry, my american Dad

20 years ago, in March 2002 I travelled from Switzerland to San Diego to attend Language School, learn English and take my Cambridge Certificate Exams. I was in my early 20ies, and while I already finished my apprenticeship, was working and lived by myself, it was the first time I travelled that far from home for that long and stay with a family I didn’t know!

Now, I feel I need to elaborate on that point for the younger audience. 20 years ago the internet was in its beginnings. There were no Smartphones, there was no readily available Videochat. Phoning overseas cost an arm and a leg. Email was there and I remember there were a couple of Emails going back and forth between the Hochstadt Family and myself. My point is, I never met them before and I was going to live with them for 3 months.

The day of my arrival, I was all nerves. When I’m nervous, I’m babbling. So I come into the house at Baxter Street, I was welcomed by Robin and Alyssa, then Larry.

I go on and on about my trip, my first impressions, just chattering like crazy. Larry looks me in the eye and in his gruff voice he says: «Kiddo, what are you doing here? You already can speak English!»

I think I speak for all my fellow students here when I say that no matter how old you were, to Larry, we were always the Kiddos. And I loved that, he was my american Dad.

We shared a love for movies, we would watch them together and discuss movies we loved. I remember that we also watched the Oscars together and I was so excited to see it live on TV! He would let me watch my favourite TV Show, eventhough he would shake his head at the fact that I liked «Buffy – The Vampire Slayer» so much. Years later, he would still send me Newspaper clippings about the TV show by snail mail because he knew I loved it. He tried to explain Baseball to me and even took me to a Padres Game. However, that’s a passion I could never share and we would make fun of that fact.

Sometimes, when Robin wasn’t home for Dinner and couldn’t watch out for all of us to eat our greens, Larry and us – the Kiddos – would indulge in Mac’n’Cheese, Pizza and Doughnuts or Cinnamon Rolls. In our last Skype call I was describing to Robin what I was cooking for dinner and Larry hollered from the back of the room «When’s Dinner!» which was always a sign that the menu sounded yummy to him.

When Larry told you a story, he would do so with those amazing expressions in his weathered face and his laugh was infectious. One time, he very proudly told me he could speak some Swissgerman. Then he pointed at Kristy (the beloved Labrador Puppy back then) and say: «Schloofende Hund» which means «Sleeping Dog» and then burst out in his raucious laughter.

Both Larry and Robin gave a home away from home to generations of language students from across the world. I can’t put into words what this meant to me, to have the fortune to find a family in a foreign country. It’s an honour to call Larry my friend and my american Dad.