I do things for only a few reasons.
1. I’m not feeling like I’m doing enough and think I need to add to the list of stuff. You have no idea how many activities I’ve volunteered for because of this obsessive need to be busy.
2. Guilt. It’s the long-lost Catholic in me.
3. I don’t know how to say no.
With the down time of summer, the inability to say no, and the guilt of the possibility of missing an opportunity, I signed us up for a foreign exchange student.
Next week she comes, all the way from Japan.
The kids are very excited. McKayla is looking forward to having another teenage girl in the house. She is especially excited to share her room. I believe she’s imagining a month of sleepovers with late nights talking about international boys. I think she’ll be sorely disappointed when she finds out that her new sister will speak very little English. She may come away from this whole experience with a vast knowledge of Japanese swear words though.
The boys are excited for the opportunity to take our new sister places. They’ve decided it’s imperative that she visit a major league baseball game, go to the beach and Disneyland. Mike also thinks we should take her to every fast food restaurant in the whole state. I guess it’s one way to experience the American culture.
They are also very excited because they heard that she will come bearing gifts. Lots of gifts. A little Japanese Santa Claus, who I’m sure has never even heard of Santa. Instead of balls and video games, we’re told she’ll bring candy and chopsticks. There’s even the possibility of his and hers ear cleaners which I’m really looking forward to.
We are encouraged to have a small welcome gift for our student. Something American. All I’ve come up with so far is candy. There is also the possibility of sporks. If she brings chopsticks, I could give sporks. I could gather them from fast food restaurants. Maybe I could give her the Twilight books. All teenager girls love Twilight. Then at least her and McKayla will have something to talk about. Jacob or Edward? Vampire or Werewolf? Tough decisions.
If you were hosting a Japanese student what would you give her? Besides sporks and candy, that’s already a given.
Overactiveovaries 
I definitely think you should take her to fast food places LOL!! Ice cream! Especially Ben and Jerry’s world peace 🙂 and flip flops! Cute california ones! whole american package right there! With the sporks of course!
Fast food sporks? I would never! Why not this one:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/kitchen/8ace/
Or, if we really like her:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/kitchen/bced/
Maybe a can of spam? Do they have Spam in Japan? It’s awfully close to Hawaii so I guess they probably do.
Maybe a cowboy hat. I’ve never seen a Japanese cowboy. I’m guessing because there doesn’t exist a 37.85 liter hat.
I don’t know. I’m still working on it.
There was that Japanese cowboy on Heroes. Remember, he wore a ten gallon hat and was a trucker.
Our German exchange students were always fascinated with the supermarkets.
We found that they valued experiences more than stuff.
🙂
A quote from Emma – I miss you guys and WalMart and Cheetos and hanging out and birthday cake ice cream!!
Notice how high up on the list WalMart is?? I think it is the experiences that they appreciate & remember the most.
I do miss WalMart a lot it’s true!!!! Definitely for me it’s the experiences that stayed with me the most!!! The first Summer I was in CA, Bill asked me what I wanted to do and I reeled off a whole list of random stuff like the Baseball and walking over the Golden Gate Bridge and he made sure that we did it all!!! That was just the start of my love for the Gaines Family 🙂
How about RANCH dressing!!!!!!!! There is nothing more American than Ranch. Have her dip some pizza, and whiz bam, she’s Americanized. How about some sports regalia? T shirts with maybe a RED SOX logo on it, as they are really America’s team 🙂
Great ideas Barbara!
How about a gift uniquely from California. Something made in our great state like See’s Candies. Maybe something that has California Poppies on it?