What's the current exchange rate?

First, let me preface this by saying we often have bizarre conversations at the dinner table. We are an articulate (ahem. . . talkative) family made up of iconclastic (ahem. . . weird) individuals. So dinner is typically a free-wheeling moving-target conversation peppered with references to "The Princess Bride", "Monty Python", and obscure books.

You still with me?

We also have a wonderful young lady living from Kyrgyzstan living with us for the academic year. While "N" speaks English beautifully, there are some colloquial expressions she doesn't get quickly. Then there are our family's quirky personal metaphors.

Okay. So tonight, my husband informed us that for the first time in a while, the American dollar was actually worth more than the Canadian dollar. The exchange rate was something like $1.01.

My sons thought up a scheme whereby they would somehow make a ton of money exchanging money back and forth. They were convinced of its merit. I thought it sounded like a perpetual motion machine--fine in theory, but not quite workable.

My older son then informed me that his high school was looking for host families for a French exchange student. My younger son asked if we could volunteer. I reminded them that we already had a student living with us.

So what's the logical next step?

We decided we had to know what the current exchange rate for an exchange student would be. Could we get 1.5 French students for 1 Kyrgys student?

I'm pretty sure she knew we were joking. . .

:)