Sylvia's Journal

We were welcomed back at our own home with hugs as if we were old friends. This was not a surprise. When you live for two weeks in someone else’s home you learn a lot about their personalities. We learned first of all what they looked like from the many family photos on the walls. We also saw what books they are reading (we like some of the same authors), the games they play as a family, the kids’ toys and books, the garden (we enjoyed their raspberries while they enjoyed ours before Scottish and American birds got them), the spices they cook with, the wines they drink. Everything in one’s home is imbued with what one values. And once you discover that you have some of those values in common, there is an unavoidable attraction. 

We also communicated a lot over the last two weeks on WhatsApp about such mundane things as garbage disposal, the demise of the little apple tree, where do we find the toaster, etc. All these things together created a bond one could not possibly expect if the exchange had been a commercial transaction.

The guidelines from Home Exchange suggested we unclutter (a good suggestion) and remove very personal items. We found that it is these very personal items (unless fragile, of immense value and/or irreplaceable) that are important in an exchange, and set the stage for a friendship to bloom – something we have never experienced using VRBO, AirBNB or other vacation rentals. This is the brilliance of the home exchange idea – you actually create new friendships across oceans and lands. 

We were in invited to dinner in our own home – it was at first a strange sensation, to be served by people you have never met in your own kitchen and seeing them move with ease, knowing exactly where to find what. They had gotten as much at home in our kitchen as we had been in theirs.  

We were served tea and cake, (there had been a birthday), followed by a swim. Then it was the cocktail hour. We had champagne, and toasted to our new friendship. The boys watched movies in the living room while we exchanged stories about our adventures over dinner preparations. We discovered that Axel had snapped a picture that included the kids’ grandma who is part of a rowing boat crew we watched while having our pint on the Portobello Promenade. It was great being a guest at home.

The dinner was exquisite: a crab bisque made from crabs caught by the boys, washed down with a crisp and cool white wine, followed by eggplant parmigiana and a desert consisting of raspberry crème, toasted oats and fresh raspberries, plucked from our raspberry bushes that are in full production.  

The champagne, the wine, the food and the five extra hours of the time zone change made it hard to keep my eyes open. I retired to our office where we had set up temporary quarters until our friends move to their next exchange in Newport today.

This was our second exchange. There is one more when we leave for Maine, a family from Canada. It was a good idea, this signing our house up for Home Exchange a year ago. It was a lot of work to get to the first exchange but now we are in the period of its sweet rewards. By the time we get back from Maine we will have accumulated enough points (the currency of Home Exchange) for about 22 days in houses anywhere in the world that Delta’s frequent flier miles can carry us.