Japanese Homestay

This weekend we are hosting 2 teenage japanese students through VIEC. Approximately 300 students from the same school travel together for a 'taste of Canadian life' to see if they wish to pursue an English program longer term. As a group they travelled by plane to Vancouver, chartered bus onto BC Ferries then to University Canada West where they had an orientation then were paired up with their host families. We got them home by 7pm, where we made a very quick omelet dinner. They had been travelling for 10 hours, were hungry, but excited, even though the time difference meant it was afternoon tomorrow in Japan!!

I'd say the omelet wasn't one of the student's favourites - I hope I can do better tomorrow! I bought stirfry beef, but didn't have time to make rice tonight, so for a quick dinner I made omelets with cheese and broccoli. I was considering smoothies, bagels and/or cereal for tomorrow...although the Japanese breakfast is considerably different. However, I am supposed to show them what we (as a Canadian family) would normally have...

I learned a couple of things, for instance, Japanese apple juice isn't as strong as it is here...so I mentioned that my husband adds juice to flavour his water and that might be an option to try next time. I learned a Japanese greeting to say AFTER dinner is complete, however, I have no idea how to spell it :)

This is truly a great experience, one student showed me photos of his family and home tonight :) We brought out my husband's old trumpet for the other student to play - he oiled it, but its still a bit 'off' - he likes playing jazz like louie armstrong, etc...he liked looking at the sheet music we had as well.

Plus, our 5 yr old son was as entertaining as ever. The students brought us gifts, a beautiful japanese platter, origami sheets (they made a crane for me and an airplane for my son), as well as some rocket balloons that kept my son running around giggling all the while after dinner.

And, as it was a long day, they are calling it an early night - I guess it's likely a good thing that our clocks go back tonight - gives them an extra hour to adjust :)