The Intercultural Exchange

Last Saturday we had a Intercultural Gift Exchange. Mr. Simon, a local American, brought about 20 Japanese children onto base to play games and have a pizza party with 20 American children. They decorated crafts, which were crosses. It was sad to watch the difference between the Japanese children and the American children. The Japanese were much better behaved. Not all of the Americans were being bad; I guess you can have 19 good kids, and then 1 bad kid reflects on the whole group.

The Chapel Middle-School Drama Team put on a play for the Japanese. Arielle is Joseph. It was fun to watch. The actors would say their lines for a bit, then the Japanese translator would translate to the Japanese.














There was also singing...I still have that tune stuck in my head!

And then there was the gift exchange. It was really neat to watch. Five Japanese children would stand, facing five American children, they would step towards each other, bow and then exchange gifts. Amazing and touching to watch.

Here it comes!

I'll try to keep the updates coming a bit faster and regularely. I've been busy, but anyways, here I am!

It is snowing outside and sticking; I hope we'll have enough snow on the ground tomorrow to do the things Americans boys and girls do in the snow: snowmen, snow forts, and snowball fights.

School is going well. I'm wrapping up the first unit, ending with the French Revolution. They were pretty messed up. I read the U.S Constitution and was totally amazed at how beautiful it was. But then I read the Declarations of the Rights of Man, and that was very creepy. It was hideous.

I'm in the process of writing an essay of comparison between Shintoism and Christianity. I've got 12 points (yeah I know, a lot). I've covered the first 2 points, and I'm already at 2 pages; this is looking like it is going to be a big piece of genius! lol

Skype!

Hey! I know its been a while, I've been busy! Here's some pictures from this last week. We took it easy for school, and just had a family Thanksgiving dinner. We've been working with Skype and I've had a few conversations with brothers and sisters stateside.

What are we doing?

Oh. Look who joined us for dinner? They all called and we were able to have a conference call. It was Thanksgiving in Japan when they called, but by the time we hung up it was Thanksgiving in Japan, Texas, and Oregon.

Guess what?

Yep, there's a birthday in the house! Guess who's it is?......




Happy Birthday Dad! You're the best! If there is one person who I could be just like, it would be you!

We're all pretty busy with school and chapel sort of stuff. I have youth group on Monday nights, which is fun.

We also have piano lessons during the afternoon

It has been raining a lot these last few days. I was looking out my window, watching the dark clouds build. I said, "if you're going to snow, then snow! If not, then warm up into the 90s!" A couple of minutes later it started to snow. It has been snowing most of today, making it a very cold run!

The ocean was a bit agitated by all of the rain and whatnot

I don't know...I just saw it and so I decided to put it on!

Science!

I've been busy with school. The other day I ran down to the farmers pond to get some pond water for experiments in the future. I let them sit over the weekend and then on Monday went to work. I had four jars, one had egg, another had soil, another hay, and the last had rice.

And then I actually did the experiment, with siblings wanting to take a look in the microscope. They all were sure they saw "something," but it was always different from what the other saw. lol

Stacia even said she saw a princess!


I was cleaning up the mess in the garage...because the jars smelled bad. I had the garage door opened. I was heading inside when I noticed a pair of feet standing on the other side of the door. I could tell by the make of the boots that it was Japanese. I bent down, the same the Japanese gentleman did. We both stared at each other from under the garage door. "Uh, konichiwa." I say, trying to make it seem like total strangers sticking their heads under my garage door was normal. He started speaking...I couldn't understand him, but nodded me head in whole-hearted agreement. He said, "domo" and then walked off. I have no idea what that was about! Mrs. Kim, any insights?

I'll update tomorrow!!!!