Our Japanese exchange student, Yuki, arrived yesterday. He’s 13 – 10 days younger than Zach – and he comes from Hiroshima. He attends the Shinonome School which is a sister school to Zach’s middle school. Each year a small group of students and teachers come here at the beginning of school and then a small group of our students and teachers go there at the end of our school year. It’s a rich learning experience for all involved. And hosting a foreign exchange student with minimal English is, well, downright exhausting.
It’s one thing when you can easily ask someone, “Do you need anything? Are you hungry, thirsty, too hot, too cold, sleepy, etc.?” It’s quite another when little things like that turn into a game of charades and mind reading, as Zach put it this morning. But then having a student from Japan adds a whole other dimension. His cultural upbringing is all about formality and not being so casual and gut-wrenchingly honest like us crass Americans. I can only imagine what we must look like in his eyes. I saw one of the photos Jay took at the welcome celebration that pretty much says it all. I arrived toward the end of the celebration and went over to meet Yuki, who bowed to me politely. I grabbed him and gave him a hug. I figured he needed some maternal affection to stave off homesickness. By the rigidness of his stance I might have figured wrong. Anyway, that’s when Jay snapped the photo of me with my big mouth open and Yuki looking all meek and, well, a bit freaked out.
Ah, but that’s all history. I think he likes us. Well, he might have been starting to until Olivia sicced the snake on him. She just loves terrorizing people with that thing. He’s a great pet. Then, Yuki proceeded to stealthily beat Zach AND Jay in chess, which raised Jay’s hackles and, as much as he tries to restrain it, brought out his competitive nature. The poor kid was so tired but Jay was going, “One more game, just one more game.” I’m just kidding. He might have only said it once.
During the day yesterday, we took Yuki to see some BMX Extreme bike riding. Crikey, those guys are NUTS. Let me ask you, why does one person look at a picnic table and think, “Hmmmm…with a little cleaning and a tablecloth perhaps, this will be a fine place to dine,” while another person looks at it and thinks, “Now, if I can put another picnic table on top of this one, and then add a couple more off to the side, this will be a great place to jump on and off of with my bike.” Veronica, ask Costello about that, would you? I think he’ll have an answer for us. Either way, I think it was a good introduction to crazy Americans.
Then we took him to the rock-climbing wall. “Ever done this?” I asked. “First time,” he replied. We strapped him into a harness and set him loose. And wouldn’t you know it, he climbed right to the top. What a trooper.
I don’t think he’ll go home and say he was bored.
Stay tuned for more. He’ll be here all week.