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

History of Twinning: Part 2

Formation of the first Sister Cities Committee

In 1973, under Mayor Foster Pettit, Lexington french teacher Betty Mills took an interest in revitalizing the Deauville student exchange program, and the first Sister Cities committee was formed. 

Foster Pettit

 

In 1975, the first student exchange took place under the revitalized program.  Since then, over 450 high school students have participated in the Lexington-Deauville exchange program.  

2017 Lexington students before their flight to France. 

In an effort to expand the program, two scholarships to the University of Kentucky were created for Deauville students in 1976 under Julian Carroll.  Many Deauville students have since come to Lexington to study at the University of Kentucky.  

In 1978, Deauville Mayor Anne d'Ornano created two annual teaching assistantships for 2 Lexington students to teach English to elementary school students in Deauville.  To read about one of our most recent TAs experience in Deauville, you can read Barton Lynch's blog here.  

Barton Lynch, one of our 2016-2017 Deauville TAs. 

Two scholarships were also created for UK students to study at the University of Caen.  

Many more programs developed throughout the years between Deauville and Lexington.  In fact, Deauville Jumelage President Philippe Behuet was an intern in Lexington years ago!  

Stay tuned for more information on the history between Lexington and Deauville.  

History of Twinning: Part 1

Introduction of Sister Cities International: 

Following World War II, President Dwight D. Eisenhower wanted to create a program that would help to promote peace throughout the world.  In 1956, he created the "Sister Cities International" organization as a means to promote "peace through people" with citizen diplomacy.  He believed that “if we are going to take advantage of the assumption that all people want peace, then the problem is for people to get together and to leap governments—if necessary to evade governments—to work out not one method but thousands of methods by which people can gradually learn a little bit more of each other.”

Lexington and Deauville become Sister Cities:

In August of 1957, Lexington and Deauville twinning during an official ceremony in Deauville.  Mrs. Lyman Wagers represented Lexington Mayor Shelby Kinkead.

In October of 1957, Deauville Mayor Robert Fossorier visited Lexington for the official ceremony of the twinning.

The two cities beginning this relationship made sense because of the common bond of the horse industry.  To learn more about Deauville and it's connection to the horse, visit here.

During the summers of 1958 and 1959, 40 high school students studied in Deauville for 6 weeks.

Though the program lay dormant for many years, it was revitalized in 1973 by Mayor Foster Pettit and French teacher Betty Mills.  They created the first Sister Cities Committee.

We will continue the history of the Lexington-Deauville Sister Cities relationship - stay tuned!

To watch President Eisenhower's speech introducing the Sister Cities program, check it out here.  

60 Days of Impact - Blog Project Kick-off

This year, Lexington and Deauville will be celebrating their 60th Anniversary of Twinning.  In 1957, the two cities started their long friendship journey, and it has evolved into a program that has impacted many people.  

2017 Lexington-Deauville students celebrating Bastille Day in Lexington.

To celebrate the impact of the Lexington-Deauville twinning, Lexington Sister Cities and the Deauville Jumelage will be sharing blog posts, videos and stories of personal experience from participants in our programs.  For 60 days, we will countdown to the beginning of the 60th Anniversary celebrations in Deauville.  

The students met Mayor Jim Gray in Lexington. 

The blog will feature contributors from both America and France to share their different experiences!

To subscribe to our blog and get notified each day when a new blog has posted, scroll to the bottom of the page and enter your email under "Follow by email".  

To begin this exciting blog project, please enjoy videos from Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, Deauville Mayor Philippe Augier, and Deauville Jumelage President Philippe Behuet.  We are excited to share all the experiences and stories from our program, and we hope you will enjoy the posts each day!

Welcome Message from Lexington Mayor Jim Gray


Welcome Message from Deauville Mayor Philippe Augier

Welcome Message from Deauville Jumelage President Philippe Behuet