Blood... Thicker... Water... argh, all liquids!

Friday morning I've received a call which really surprised me, not only because of who was at the other end of the line, but also because of the reason for that call.

If you've been reading me for a while you do know that I have a few cousins (read 65 on my father's side alone), so for one of them to call me out of the blue was no big deal, but when it was one that I was never really close to or haven't talked to for at least twenty years, was somewhat surprising.  D called not because she wanted to let me know how life was treating her or to catch up, but because she needed something - big surprise - from her cousin who lives in town (yep, that would be me).  

Her daughter, who's twenty years old, wants to become a chef. She wanted to come to town to study at l'institut d'hotellerie du QC (which is walking distance from our place), but because she's from a small village (I don't even know where) and because of what she's heard of the big bad city, she's afraid to come to Montreal.  Her mother, in her motherly love thinking way, decided to call me to see if I would be willing to help her daughter, by offering her room and board, since I lived so close.  Huh... don't think so!

At first I thought we could, to help her out, but when she mentioned that it was for a period of six to twelve months; alarms started ringing.  When she mentioned how scared her daughter was, I suggested residences for students.  That wouldn't work, because daughter didn't want to live with strangers (but she was willing to live with us, and we've never met her, even if we're related); can you hear those alarms?

Daughter is really sad and oh so scared, because she really wants to do this, especially that after her course there is an internship in Italy. Ding! Ding! Ding!  Ain't that something?  She's too scared to come to Montreal, because she never left her village before, but when it comes to going to Italy it's all good; of that she's not afraid. Weird, huh?

To top it all off, since I wasn't letting her stay with us, if I could help and find out some information about someone with an extra room among my friends or something like since her registration is Tuesday. O.M.F.G. you've got to be kidding me.

Granted we're related, but did D really think I was that stupid?  Really?