What goes up, must come down!: In honor of this upcoming weekend of craziness....

This weekend we are hosting 3 Japanese high school seniors (girls) in our home, from Kashima, Japan. It is only for three days, but trust me when I say it could end up feeling a LOT longer.

During the summer we hosted 3 Japanese students for 10 days in July. It was probably the most stressful/busiest time of my life. They were really nice and the boys loved having them around.

They were (in order left to right):

Kiyama (19), Takahiro(2o), and Yohei(15).

While it was a great experience, I was way too overbooked for that week and so it became a real albatross around my neck. Especially with the director of the program filling their heads with ideas of what they would like to do, which always involved me going way out of my way to complete their requests. I learned, that week, that I really need to learn how to say no. Which this coming weekend proves that I haven't yet learned this valuable skill.

I do not know how many times I went to the mall during those 10 days or to some other shopping center, but it was like having 7 boys (well, I guess it wasn't like.... it really was parenting 7 boys. UGh). One of them frequently wore one of those surgical masks we used to see asian people wearing all over during the SARS outbreak. I never had the nerve to ask him why. It was only at certain times of the day, but I couldn't figure out the reason.

But, anyway, the experience was neat. The boys loved Yohei. He was one of 3 boys in his family so he fit right in around our house, playing the Wii, playing basketball, poker whatever we put his way. He was a lot of fun. Takahiro was very shy and whenever we were at home he was in his room. We got him to come and play basketball with us one time, and he really loved poker night. I guess they play it over in Japan too. :)

Kiyama was the most independent of the lot, which normally I would have applauded, except for that he always wanted to go his own way, which meant he kept skipping out on the tour groups activities and making me drive him all over kingdom come for different things. I REALLY didn't like that, because I was supposed to have that time to myself and ended up having to babysit one of them while the other two were off doing their group things. The worst thing was that I would ask him way in advance if he was planning on attending these activities and he would say "yes" and then last minute when I was getting everyone in the car he would tell me he wasn't going. UGH. Making me change my plans for the day. It was kind of a big pain. (I was trying to get packed for our 2 week California vacation while they were here because we left for California as soon as I dropped them off at school for the last day. it was a little much).

But on the flip side I totally understand. He was here to experience American things. He had goals and plans of things he wanted to see/do and was really driven to complete them. I think that I would be that way too if I were him. So even though it was a pain, I liked his sense of adventure and confidence.

Oh, and did I mention that Joe was gone for 5 days during this hosting time??? I think that was what really rocked my world. Entertaining all by myself. Yuck. (Not to mention that the boys had swimming lessons everyday, calder had cub camp everyday that I had to drive him to, I had to pack lunches and take these guys to school in LO everday, and it was our week to clean the chapel.)

Kiyama helping Kaelan get a drink: