Rich foreign kids..
When I was growing up my parents mortgaged themselves to the hilt to buy a nice place and to help pay for it they rented the two small bedrooms out to the local language school. The deal was that foreign students learning english would board with us for breakfast and dinner and be treated a bit like the family every day so they could pick up the language in a natural way. As a kid this rocked as you were always living with some amusing, occasionally quite schizoid (a story for another time) and sometimes *insanely* wealthy people. So here's my three favourite rich kids:

The Saudi guy in his early 20s who's mate dropped by to see him and parked up on my parents little drive way in a Ferrari F40. (My dad figured it was worth at least twice the price of the house!) I think it was the same guy who didn't really like english cooking.. and what do you do if you don't like your host's cooking? Cook your own tea perhaps? - NO don't think so small!! - Why you phone home, your London home, every evening and tell daddy's buttler of course! Then he gets the chef to make enough for you and all your friends. Then the chef gives it to one of daddy's Chauffeurs who drives it 60 miles from London up to Cambridge. EVERY DAY. I think it was the same guy who bought Terminator 2 on video before it was on general release.. he just paid the £80 to buy it with the full rental rights and naturally just left it behind when he went home! (He also left a nice leather jacket which was a bit baggy and I kept.. though it did smell a bit of overly strong aftershave! Still can't complain too much, beggars can't be choosers..)

We had a nice Brazillian girl who must have been about 18 stay with us for a few months. She actually seemed quite normal.. yes she bought small bars of cheap soap for £20 from Harrods and so on, but she was polite and friendly so all was good. We didn't really figure out how loaded she was until a bunch of her family visited to see how she was doing one day. They were all having a weeks break in the UK and "dropped in" for a cuppa as it were. My mum got chatting to the grandmother who was saying how the whole extended family all lived on one big farm. My mum commented how it must be nice that she can see her grandchildren so often. Grandmama's response was "oh no, it takes most of an hour to fly across the farm to see them" Filthy rich? I think so.. but in a nice way.

My last Rich kid was a quiet fella who was only 16 and had come over to do a months english course from the United Arab Emirates. I was about the same age at the time so we got on and chatted about this and that. He lived in a different world though.. I fantasised about getting enough cash together to afford a crappy car, insurance and fuel once I'd passed my driving test. You know what he told me? - "If I pass english course my dad buy me a Lexus!" - Smug little B'stard!
(OrangeMochaFrappuccino last watched Dexter on, Mon 13 Oct 2008, 22:20, Reply)