Our student is here!!!

Today is the beginning of our second full day with Takayo, our "daughter" from Okinawa. Monday at 5 pm we picked up Takayo from her orientation and brought her home with us. The students had been traveling for about 20 hours at that point and in Japan the time would have been around 2 am. Wow! We came home and gave Takayo a quick tour of the house and had dinner (spaghetti with crab in Alfredo sauce---good first American dinner, right?). After dinner we went outside for a little while so she could see the area around the house. She seemed impressed with how much property we are on. Emma and Audrey were tossed, fully clothed, into the pool and had great fun playing for a while. Takayo had kind of caught a "second wind" and wasn't tired yet. She didn't go to bed until after 10 pm! Tired girl!!

Tuesday morning Emma, Audrey, and I took Takayo into Mt. Vernon for her class at Christ the King Church. (note: this is not a church-based exchange. the area coordinators have access to this church for use as a classroom. it appears that many of the host families are Christian and know the area coordinators through church.) Class begins at 9 am. In the afternoon, the students were taken to downtown Mt. Vernon to go to the bank and post office and walk the downtown area. Emma, Audrey, and I ran a bunch of errands and didn't get home until 2 pm. Just enough time to get the girls ready for Carissa's birthday party across the road. After dropping them there, I went back to CTK to pick up Takayo at 4 pm. I was met at the door by Dayle, one of the coordinators, who told me that my daughter was not just tired, she was TIRED. Uh-oh. I had been asked to take another student to her host family's house on my way home. Whenever I looked in the mirror I could see Takayo slumped forward sleeping. As soon as we got home I sent her to bed. The downside to this shadily is that we had to be in Mt. Vernon at 6 pm for a Welcome potluck. How much good can a one hour nap be for this girl?? We wound up letting her sleep a bit longer and didn't leave home until 6 pm. I'm hoping that I remember at the end of the program to recommend the Welcome party be on their second full day instead of the first. It would have been much more fun for everyone. When we arrived home I helped Takayo with her homework---American money identification and a questionnaire about the family to help her understand some of our rules and whatnot. A slightly earlier bedtime last night.....

So now it is Wednesday. One of the other host moms took Takayo in to town for me today. She will have class in the morning and then in the afternoon the students will go to the mall for shopping and a learning activity. After I pick up Takayo today we'll go to the grocery store and see if we can figure out some foods that she likes. We'll try and keep this evening as low-key as possible.

Takayo's English is pretty good. We were told at the orientation that the student's conversation skills will be much lower than their reading/writing English skills. During homework last night Takayo was able to read pretty much all of her questions and needed help with spelling only a few words. It's difficult to get into the habit of speaking more slowly and clearly and using fewer words to communicate. Today I'm going to work with the girls on that. Once they are able to grasp the better way to speak with Takayo they will have even more fun.

Emma and Audrey were quite nervous Monday evening. They are really enjoying their new big sister though! They take turns sitting beside her in the car. We received some wonderful gifts from Takayo. The girls got little juggling bean bags, origami paper, and gorgeous festival clothing. Audrey has been asking every day to wear it! (I took a picture, let's see if I can get it on here.) Justin and I each got shirts from Okinawa and a beautiful calligraphy that she did herself. It's a kanji which represents "Good Luck". She also gave us local cookies and candy and a set of Shi-Sa. Little "lions" for good luck. The owner is supposed to display them by the front door. Ours are up above it (and I need to dust up there!!). Takayo is very sweet and courteous. Tomorrow we will go with the exchange students to Birch Bay Water Slides. Should be fun!

We added two new additions to our family on Monday. Takayo and a rooster. I can hear him cockadoodledooing right now! Our neighbors (with 16 chickens) were surprised to have three of their hens actually turn out to be roosters. So now we have one of them. He's beautiful and looks a bit like our Silver Lace Wyandottes. We have two eggs so far this week (since Saturday when we'd eaten all the previous fresh eggs). Still only one--or none--a day though.

Still a lot to do around the house and I have a much needed haircut appointment in two hours. Yay!!

We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance. Japanese Proverb