Friday, June 27
This is the last day of school for the students. It is so hard to believe that we are almost done with our stay. Yesterday was a challenging day, physically (and mentally ... fatigue affects our mood!) for a lot of us. We did a lot of walking in hot weather. We kept reminding them to drink water and we also brought sunscreen. But even through the exhaustion, students kept positive attitude and they were polite to everyone. We were very proud of them.
We first went to a Japanese language class. The students participated well. From there we went to a forest preserve. We had a picnic lunch and had a little break at the park. What did they do there...? Play ... at ... the playground! Seriously ... how old are they? Then Then we took a stroll in the forest with a guide. This area was hit by a sandstorm 300 years ago and was buried by the sand. So someone famous (...but I forgot the name...) planted pine trees to restore the area. Now it is one of the biggest pine forest in Japan. Interesting fact. American pine trees have three leaves (those needley things are clustered in three). Japanese pine trees have two leaves. See ... everything is bigger in America! There was a cool looking shrine there too that worshiped fox.
There was a little pond. Someone found fish ... 'Fish!' ... Americans running to see the fish ... there are fish in America too ... remember? The kids are so funny. They get excited about everything. We came back to school around 3:30 and participated in club activities. Students chose Calligraphy, Tea Ceremony or Cooking. The cooking club baked Japanese sweets and students enjoyed that. The calligraphy kids did a great job too. They made some beautiful artistic work. The are bringing them back to America, so please enjoy them! The sweets? Not coming back, sorry. They are gone. You know how teenagers eat ... it took them an hour to make them and took them 10 seconds to eat them.
We are at school all day today. We went to thank the teachers at their morning meeting. Jeremy did a great speech, even though I asked him to do it with 15-minute notice (he was the first student I saw this morning ... lucky Jeremy). Jeremy's school buddy is going to a tennis tournament that starts today, so yesterday was their last day together. Naoyuki (host buddy's name) is such a great student. He is funny, he is attentive and he always took great care of Jeremy. They bonded well so the goodbye was hard. Jeremy said that Naoyuki cried ... so sweet.
Another great news! Elaine conjugated i-adjectives correctly!! Yay Elaine! :) I don`t get to tease her any more ....
Students are now in classes with their hosts. They will go to the first 2 periods and we all go to a cooking class to make our own lunch! Then in the afternoon, we will be dressed in yukata (casual version of kimono) and take a traditional dance lesson. It should be interesting. Since it is our last day, the Japanese students are trying to talk to our students a lot. They are getting stopped a lot.
Tomorrow is a non-school day, so students will spend time with the host family and we will meet at the farewell party in the evening. I might not be able to write detailed e-mails anymore. So ... thank you so much for your support and trusting your children with us. This has been an amazing experience to see the students' resillence and growth. We are so very proud of them! Please continue to motivate them to give 100 percent in everything they do. - Sensei
This is E, her friend, N, and a Japanese student. They're wearing uniforms on loan from the school. That means the "outfits" we bought her for school aren't get worn at all! At least the uniforms look cute. I told her to try to get another pic of her and N with N's eyes open. A full-length shot of them in the uniform would be nice. I suppose the loaner uniforms go back at the end of the day since their school visit is ending. I warned E to take lots of tissues to the going away party on Saturday. I'm sure there will be lots of tears and laughter.
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