Welcome!

Hello again, and welcome back to another year of fun with our little AFS host family!  I am so excited to be able to host another student this year through AFS USA... This year's student is Urara from Japan.  Hosting her is special in two distinct ways:

1.  In 1990, my family hosted our first exchange student, Yuko, from Japan.  I loved Yuko so much.  She was only with us for 3 weeks in the summer time, but I thought she was amazing and we had so much fun.  I have wanted to host a Japanese student ever since.

2.  This is the first year I have handpicked our student.  Our three prior students, I left up to the AFS "wheels of fate" to determine.  I have absolutely NO regrets about it at all.  We had amazing bonds with our girls.  But I'm really curious to know how I've done in selecting a student versus accepting a student!

So Urara will arrive in about a month, around August 12 or 13.  I selected her back in November, but we've only been allowed to email for about a month now.  I hear from her really quickly as soon as I write to her, and I have also heard from her parents.

Urara is from the Ibraki prefecture in Japan, just north of Tokyo.

Her city, Hitachiota, has about double the population of Fredericksburg, where we live.

One of the most interesting things I've learned so far is that Japan has over 6,800 islands.  I thought it was 4.

So far, the only thing I've really done to get ready is to attend the local AFS host parents orientation.  This took place on Saturday, July 11th up in Oakton, at the same place where we are going to pick Urara up on or about August 12.  I missed orientation last year because we were matched with Ine so late, I got to go to an abbreviated version the night we picked her up.  It was nice to go to this one and meet the other families, although in truth, I don't think I will probably get to know most of them as we are the only family in Fredericksburg this year.  That kind of stinks, because I really loved both the families that hosted last year in town and it was nice to share rides and kids and have fun with them!

AFS volunteer Jerene Thomas who has been a volunteer for more than 50 years, and Nancy Thompson, who has been involved for 10

The orientation was interesting, we learned a lot of things I already knew and I picked up a few tidbits I didn't know, which was good.  It's good to get dates locked in as well, so we know when we have to be various places.

I found this sign in the church afterwards, and it pretty much sums up why I love learning about other cultures via foreign exchange:

 

Today, Leah and I started cleaning the house and moving furniture around.  I spoke to Ine about her bedroom and her experience in there, and she said she had wished she had a shelf so she could have put stuff on there and kept her desk clean, so I managed to make that happen.  I'm pleased with how the room looks and look forward to decorating it.  I'm also pleased with getting the rest of the house in better order.  It sorely needs organizing and cleaning before Urara's arrival!

In the coming weeks, I'll be tweaking this blog a bit, so this boring style isn't staying this way.  But my favorite blog background site is down at the moment and hopefully will be back shortly.  Till then, keep checking back for updates!  I'm sure we'll have more fun to come!