Cultural Experience

We have a Japanese high school student staying with us for a few days. So far it's been a little stressful and fun. She's very sweet and hopefully we aren't too boring for her.

Nothing like a wall full of DVDs to occupy a teenager...

That and shopping. She is a girl, after all!

This came to be step by step. The 2-minute summary: when we went to Japan in 08, we decided we have to go back. But, it was a lot of work to get the trip together. I challenged my husband to take Japanese language courses, offering that if he took 2 semesters (and passed the classes) I would organize another trip.

Lo and behold, he signed up at the community college. There, he got in touch with a like-minded group of people who are enthusiastic about Japanese culture. His teacher also teaches at certain local high schools. She led him (and by extension, both of us) to the Japan America Society here in Kansas City. We joined. My husband also got involved in some of the extra curricular activities involved in the class and the JAS. We expressed interest in hosting a student or traveler.

The high school program does a Japanese exchange program with a specific school in Japan. While we offered to host, it may not be the best situation, because we don't have a child in the program. Yet, there was one family that could only host for 1 week. We could take the other week.

We signed up.

We took over yesterday.

She wants to call us Mom and Dad. That's so sweet...