Ive been to foregin countries and stayed at my fiends' house- that is like a host family to me, every time I met my friends' parents- its always really nice to talk to them.
And I had a wonderful experience during my high school Junior year back in 1999-2000. I stayed with the Conard Family- as many of this blog readers (friends) know that I love them so much and even know we are connecting. I just visited them last year- which is already 6 months ago- wow unbelievable feels like yesterday.
So i know how it feels to be welcomed, but I never really experienced having someone at my house except my host sister Danielle or my friends- but i already knew them very well, but this time my family decided to participate in this JICA One day host family program which I accidently found on INternet when i was serching Interational Youth hostels around teh world... "One day host family wanted in Osaka area"
wooooow I thought, I should so do it!!
Even our family isnt the most traditional family in Japan- im sure she will have wonderful experience staying at our house cause first of all, we love music, and i speak English, and then we loooooooove talking. So I thought thats enough
I met her in Shinosaka Youth Hostel on January 1st- there were 10 people total and they were from Ukrain and Georgea.
hmm?
Georgea?
The state of Georgea? No no way, well where IS GEORGEA?
yes, I had no idea. Honestly, I thought it was the same as Russia, and I thought the person was form Russia.
So, when we were at Youth Hostel, this really nice guy ( iforgot his name) had introduced as a brief information about the coutries and the youth,how long they have been staying and what they've done so far
Then we met and introduced each other- she was so nice and from the first time I saw her, I knew we would be really close and good friends!
She was 24 years old, just one year younger than me
but she knew a lot of things - so smart and talented!!
After we got off at Amagasaki Station, we met my mom at the supermarket near the station MARUHACHI,
there to shop for Nabe. We put lots of veges and meat, Tofu, mushrooms in a big pot with boiling soup and soak it in a soysauce based sauce iTs so yummy-
Nino and the other members had been using chopstickes everywhere to practice, so that even if we didnt have forks or spoons they would be ok to use chopsticks- How sweet!! hehe
So we had fun talking talking talking- My best friend from school Risa was over to, so we taught Nino some funny Japanese like
Nandeyan, Moukari makka? Bochibochi denna-, meccha oishi! etc...
and her pronunciation was so good that it sounded like she was a real Osakan!
Then the next day I showed her around my city Amagasaki, KUISE to be exact.
We took a local Hanshin train from Kuise to Amagasaki.
Kuise Station(Hashin Train)
We also took a nice walk around Kuise, through KUISE SHOUTENGAI (Kuise archade)
and in Hanshin AMagasaki, we also took a long walk to to places like this!
and ate this
Okonomiyaki- Japanese Pizza? in restaurant called Demekin
This Okonomiyaki is the best... really. really. GOOD!
We talked about many things but i think the most important thing we talked about was the war and the political situation of Georgia because it was something that we never paied attention to before, and we could come to understannd about her country a little better. Nino said, "The reason why Japanese young people arent interested in politics as much as the Georgeans is because in Japan the politics is stable and you dont have to worry about forexample war, or great depression and so on, when you have a big problem with the coutry, believe me, everyone will be interested in politics"
Wow, I see, it is true. Young people are just interested in fun things- going to Karaoke shopping, media... "war" isnt fariliar word for Japanese youth. It is a good thing- but I think from now I wanna share the story about war thats hapening oversea with my students- and so more and more Japanese youth will understand and be aware of the world situation.
Adults are tend to hide the crises and bad situations with the kids to avoid talking about things- but why? if its reality, kids should know what is hapenning in the world- and they will appriciate the life they have now- and also especially for my students- they will feel the necessity of lerning english a lot more- for the world peace and coming to understand each other by comunicating in English.
This host family experience was definitly a plus for me, for my friend,and my family:)
Nino, you have a second house now.You can come visit us anytime you want. Oops, I should have given you a spare key!
Once again, Nino, thank you for coming, and we love you so much!