Lily time

My tiger lilies are blooming!

Sensei's update:

Tuesday, June 24
We are all back in school today and everyone is doing well. But it is not all amazing great awesome time. Some students are experiencing frustration, feeling blue, sadness, etc at times because of things like being homesick, struggling to communicate because of the language and cultural differences, simply being over tired etc. But they are good about telling us how they feel, venting to close friends, so at the end of the day, they all pick themselves up and keep going strong. It is quite impressive. I just want to hug them all! They are really becoming stronger and more mature.

Here is the weekend update. ... Our students are getting the attention that they are not used to getting back home. There are always people looking at them and screaming. It is cute to see our students' reactions sometimes. You know your kids, they are not the type of kids who get a lot of attentions or screams at OPRF (no offense ... I love them). Sometimes they just don't know what to do! They are looking around like they are a bunch of lost squirrels and turning red. Oh, I wish you could see them.

Okay moving on to more weekend stories. ... Elaine met her host aunt and the whole family went to see a play. They went to a kimono store and took her out for lunch. They also did BBQ at night.

Yesterday we went to a tea farm and made our own tea! This is a very prestigious tea farm that is well-known in Japan. It is the most northern tea farm in the world. As we went up the mountain, I saw a sign said 'Watch out for bears.' Don`t worry, I didn't tell them what it said. I am sure if a bear saw our students, he would have ran away screaming, 'Americans!' At this tea farm, they don't use any pesticides and they do every process by hand. It is the only tea factory where they don't use any machinery in the tea making process. First we went to pick the leaves. Since they don`t use pesticides, there were bugs. Someone found a grasshopper and shouted out. Our students all ran to see this grasshopper. First of all, there are grasshoppers in America, kids. This is a prestigious tea farm in the mountain with 300 years of history ... and you are glued to a grasshopper? Secondly, the grasshoppers must have been terrified to see you more. I am sure if they could speak, they would have hopped away shouting, 'Americans!'

Then we took the leaves back, the leaves were steamed for two minutes, and we dried them by tossing them in the air. Students wore aprons and tied a bandana around our heads. Then we had lunch. I enjoy seeing the students' lunches. They are very pretty and neatly packed. Delicious and nutritious. After lunch, we rolled the leaves in our palms and dried them some more. We took a walk while the leaves are still drying. We found a shrine and a beautiful temple. he area is just gorgeous. It started to rain just a little but even the rain made it very mystical and pretty. We came back to school and went home. This morning, students are rested and they are in classes. The first two periods are cleaning time. Here in Japan, students clean the building. There are no janitors. So there are quite a bit of cleaning to be done from the festival. Our students were very helpful. We are proud of them. They are doing their presentations today.

I hope you are all well. We are already in the second week of our stay. We will help and assist the students the best we can so that they can strive to make this experience great till the end.