Well, first off, let me say that Japanese girls are A LOT different that Japanese boys. And not just in the obvious ways. ;) The boys are very reserved and solitary (even from one another) and the girls are excitable and sociable. For example: I had made up 3 beds for them, but no.....they all wanted to sleep in the SAME bed. (the boys all wanted separate rooms) When we drove up to our house the girls started talking excitedly in Japanese and when they got into the house and saw inside they started jumping up and down and chattering. "yay" "Beautiful" "I am so exciting (meaning excited) to be this house" I guess they were expecting a hole in the ground? But it was really cute to see how happy they were with our house.
But the thing that they were most excited about was KK. They LOVED him. They obsessed over him. He loved and hated it at the same time. He would sigh, and say "The girls love me." They would want to hold him and touch his face and tickle him, too much for KK's liking. I heard him a number of times say "Stop it!!" "Go away!" Which they didn't understand, but would giggle at. That, BTW, reminds me. They spoke almost NO English. It was a herculean task to communicate anything with them. I think that the English "word" of the weekend ended up being KK's name. They would squeal it every minute or so as they followed him around. I can no longer call him "KK" without hearing it with Japanese inflections. Almost ruined his nickname for me. They also loved Ansel and would shower him with gifts and requests for him to sit on their laps. Which he ...tolerated. It was like living with starstruck teenagers...(well I guess that is what they were, so no wonder). I just kept waiting for them to squeal "Justin Beiber" or some other teen heartthrobs name, the voices mimicked the American "teen scream" so perfectly. They really were cute girls though. One 16 year old, two 17 year olds.
Left to Right:
Rina, Yu, and Mika
You will notice that almost all the pictures where they posed, they are doing the "peace" sign. The Japanese boys did that too. Can't figure out why they would want every picture with a hand sign in it. But it is definitely a universal Japanese teen thing. No matter what we were doing when I went to take a picture they would put down whatever they were holding to do a peace sign. Joe and I got a good chuckle from it. Rina was the smart/shy-ish one, Yu was the feisty/aggressive one, and Mika was the sweet one. Every time I spoke to them, Yu and Mika would turn to Rina for a translation. It was cute.
I picked them up on a Friday night and somehow was able to get a consensus on a fun activity for that night. They all wanted to go bowling, exuberantly so. I have never heard anyone be so excited about bowling before. There's a first for everything I guess.
It was girls (and KK) versus boys. Joe, the boys, and their friend Nathaniel whooped it up big time. Apparently enthusiasm for the sport does not equate to skill.
KK, being new to the sport was suitably impressed. He would grab that ball with both hands, run full tilt, stop and throw/drop the ball with a crash. Then it would slowly/painfully make its way to the pins at the end and miraculously even knock some down. I thought for sure we were going to attract the attention of the people in charge. There has to be a rule somewhere about dropping the ball. I just know it.
Kaelan Celebrating.
"I win, I win" Is what he would say every time it made contact with the pins.
He also loved the ball return. I was pretty nervous that he was going to end up with smashed fingers by the end of the night, but fortunately that wasn't the case.
Peace signs again...and matching puma track suits.
Bowling was a big hit...and more expensive than I would have imagined.
We were lucky (weather wise) while they were here and got alot of sunshine and warm weather.
Saturday we had soccer games in the morning, and then I took the girls shopping at the mall.....for 5 hours. Just imagine following teenage girls around the mall for hours, helping them make purchases, trying to translate for them, and finally finding out what exactly is sold at Spencers... (I had NO idea that place was x-rated!!) Try explaining that in Japanese will ya?!
That night Joe and I had to Chaperone a multi-stake dance (Joe is YM pres. and couldn't find anyone to help....so guess what....that's right, we were it), so the girls had to come along. I can't imagine what they thought of it. Joe and I were laughing out loud just thinking about their impressions of a church dance. At least the kids there tried to engage them in conversation. Several came up and spoke Japanese with them.
The people in charge of the exchange student program instructed us to never leave them home alone. So we followed that closely. Even dragging them to church for 3 hours. Poor girls. Can you imagine sitting through church for 3 hours and not understanding a single word said? Fortunately for them it was our Primary Program practice and so they got to watch the kids for the last two hours. Marginally more entertaining than Sunday School.
After church we took them to see mountains (after a rigorous pictionary drawing session trying to decipher which nature "feature" they most wanted to see). There is a small mountain right near Mt. Hood that is perfectly situated for getting a spectacular view of all the volcanic peaks in the NW Cascade range. (Mt....starts with an F, I think) We took them up there to get a good view of all the mountains. It was pretty amazing. I had never been there before.
MT. Hood:
You could also see, Mt. St. Helens:
