Spokane-Nishinomiya High School Exchange

Even though it's already going on my third week of being here in Japan, I thought I should probably finish writing this blog post about my first week. So--here's how my first day of school went! First of all, I woke up at about 6:30am and made my bed. Then, I went out to the kitchen to eat breakfast with my host family. The breakfast consisted of French toast and juice; the day before, I tried showing my host mother how to make French toast, and then she managed to make it even better than I did! Now that my second week here has already passed, I usually eat cereal or bread for breakfast, which is delicious nonetheless! After breakfast, I got changed into my uniform and left to walk to school at about 7:30am. About half of the walk is uphill, and since the humidity is so high I got really sweaty. When we arrived at school it was about 8:10, and Hana and I were supposed to give our introduction speeches to the all of the teachers. Beforehand, we met three important faculty membe...

おはようございます! Hello everyone! We have finally arrived! Every since I was little I have wanted to travel to Japan, and now I finally have! When we first got off the plane, I knew it was going to be humid, but I was still surprised by the humidity. Shiho and her family have been telling me that the weather well get much, much hotter and humid. Right after we got off the plane, we dropped off our luggage at our host family's houses, and then we went to dinner with everyone. I was surprised with how good everyone's English was! Shiho, Nori, and Nanase, all are very skilled at English, which makes me feel a bit insecure about my Japanese skill level. However, everyone is very kind and helpful when I need help with putting together a sentence in Japanese!  Shiho's mother is extremely kind and funny, and I've already been shopping with her a few times. The day before yesterday we went to a shopping center right by Shiho's home, and I got to look around a 100yen store a...

こんにちは! そしてはじめまして! 私の名前はサラ・ホルマンです。十七さいです。三年生です。 I am a student at Lewis and Clark High School. I have been studying Japanese for two years. I chose to study Japanese because my sister and I have been keenly interested in the culture since we were little. We had an exchange student when we were younger that introduced us to her culture, and my sister and I were involved in learning about Japanese culture since then!  This exchange program is granting me an opportunity I've wished for ever since I was a child--and I'm so excited to have this experience! Recently, I have been trying to study kanji since it is my weakest aspect in Japanese. There are many things I need study up on, and it's making me a little nervous! There is a Japanese tutor in my school, so I will probably ask her and my sister to help me study. I need to prepare many things! I learned that we have to arrange a three minute speech for introducing ourselves in Japanese. It shouldn't be too much of a ...