Cathy Nohe: Organizing life as an International Host Family

Cathy Nohe is a member of the Lexington-Deauville Committee.  For many years, she has been instrumental to the Internship Program between the two cities by helping to find internship sites and hosting many interns during their time in Lexington.  Please enjoy as she discusses her experience with her many international students!

Life as an International Host Family: 

What happens when you get involved with Sister Cities Lexington?  Well, imagine this scenario:  A French lawyer goes into a bar in Paris and meets a pretty French artist.  They start talking about themselves, and they discover they both have been to America…and to Kentucky…and to Lexington…and they both know Steve and Cathy Nohe!  That’s just one of hundreds of great stories we have after 15 years of working with this organization. We, and other Sister Cities families like us, are living proof that President Eisenhower’s 1956 vision of creating bonds between different cities of the world through individual friendships and cooperation works – and it’s fun.

From left: Ted (Nohe family "Korean son", Steve Nohe, Cathy Nohe, daughter Quinn, son-in-law Sean and grandson Connor.  

Our story weaves together more than 25 French students from Sister Cities with 18 other students from South Korea, Japan, China, Netherlands, and Germany participating in private home-stays with us.  We counted up our “children” – and, combined with our own four biological children, we are currently up to 47.  J

Antoine and Alex join our family reunion in Baltimore.

Alex and his Lexington parents!

We started our service to Sister Cities by providing support to French students who were living in campus apartments.  When we realized they were lonely and we were spending all our time driving them back and forth to our house, we invited them to live with us.  More than once we have had our house packed to the rafters – and we have never had more fun.  Our dinner table is like a miniature UN. All these energetic, humorous, inquiring young people have kept us young, too – not to mention informed and up-to-date about world affairs, the younger generations’ points of view, and cool stuff to see and do on our iPhones and laptops. 

Anastasia and Carole.

Anne-Sophie and Anais.

Anne-Sophie.

Cassandre and Miho making sushi

 

Esther still gives Ted advice about girls.

Fabienne loved our cat, Fleur.

Johanna and me!

Jules and Cassandre at Toyota

Johanna and Deborah.

Jules and Victor.

Jules and Victor drove around town with these costumes on!

Cathy, Jules, Victor, Cassandre and Steve. 

Justin (Korea), Steve, Anne-Sophie and Anais

Lea, Antoine, Renaud

Laurence and Deborah

Flora, Anastasia and Carole at the Patriotic Concert in Lexington.

Pauline

Renaud in Lexington.

Salome and Mitsuho in New York during a high school exchange.

Salome, Cassadre's sister. 

Quinn and Esther at Christmas.

Carole, Anastasia and Flora making friends in Lexington.

Their families have been equally warm and generous, and we have welcomed them to our home and visited their homes in France. 

Our beloved "cousin" Valentin Noe.

Valentin's family

Steve & Alex

Mothe Family in France

Mothe family mother!

with Steve!

Diouf siblings. 

Alexandre's brother Adrian later spent a year in Japan as we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and my birthday with the Diouf's in Normandy!

 Here are our French interns and what they are doing today:

To get the full “Eisenhower Sister Cities effect,” add girlfriends, boyfriends, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends to the list, and you are talking about a network of hundreds of French people. Then throw in all the family and friends of the other international students we host!  It’s been an incomparable experience for all of us.

Renaud and Melanie on their wedding day in Bayeux.  

Me with the wedding car.

Igor Patry.

Isabel Patry-Santos, Igor's mother and the vice-mayor of Deauville. 

Me with Pascal, Igor's father. 

Antoine's brother, Pierre, and friend Quentin. 

Alexandre Diouf spent the summer in Lexington and brought back his family the next year!

Alex and girlfriend Charlotte with Catherine Breton and Nohe's. 

Alex with his parents Sylvie and Jean Noel and us. 

Alex's brother Pierre-Hugues

Pierre-Hugues and Souka.

It’s also provided us with lots of funny stories; here’s a sampling:

Wearing his black uniform, Alex V. was bicycling through downtown Lexington to get to his workplace at 5am in the morning when he was suddenly surrounded by three police cars.  An hour or two earlier, somebody had cracked a person over the head with a gun and robbed him, and Alex looked suspicious with his black outfit and bike.  Things were sorted out after half an hour. When we asked if he was frightened, Alex said, “No, I knew what to do.  I watch American movies.”  

Marion bought a decrepit old truck to drive to work, and she was going home with Anne-Sophie and Anais one night when a campus police car turned on his flashing lights, expecting her to pull over. Not understanding, Marion drove an extra quarter mile into her apartment complex and parked. The girls got out of the truck, but the policeman shouted, “Back in the truck!  Back in the truck!”  They had no idea what “back in the truck” meant.  He finally herded them back into the truck  and then told them he just wanted to let them know a headlight was out!  After they stopped crying, they couldn’t stop laughing.

Assembling these pictures has made us realize how complicated it is to make a linear photo story of our experiences. So many kids returned numerous times with their friends and family that the years blend together.  Many of them formed lasting friendships here, made easier through social media and resulting in a huge mosaic of affection and understanding.  We have standing invitations in all their homes in return for our hospitality.  We’ve watched graduations, attended weddings, celebrated milestones, and shared our lives, and it has enriched our family in too many ways to count.  We highly recommend that you jump into the Sister Cities family, too! 

Steve and Cathy Nohe

Lexington, 2017