Miku

Last month we had a Japanese exchange student, Miku, come and stay with us for 3 weeks while she went to a local school.  What an experience it was.  I had experienced a sort of culture shock when I moved to Hawaii, but that was nothing compared to what our student went through.

She was 15 years old, deathly shy, and an only child, who's mother and father were both an only child.  So she had NO aunty's, uncles, cousins, nothing.  Imagine her shock when I told her I was one of 6 children, and had 43 first cousins on my mum's side of the family alone.  There were just so many things that were different to what she was used to; little kids and all the noise joy they bring, eating cereal for breakfast, using a western bathroom, hanging her washing outside on a washing line, helping cook dinner, having lots of free time. Language barrier was huge, but with the help of google translate and some sign language we made it through, and by the end of the 3 weeks she was so much more confident speaking english.  The boys loved her.  Vili called her "meetuuu" and bossed her around like no other, ordering her here and there, telling her to bless her food and get in the car and come play cars.  Malachi just wanted to be with her all the time.  They must have sat for hours on her bed reading books to each other.  He picked up on how I would speak slowly and with hand movements and started doing it too, it was hilarious.  It was awesome to share our ''kiwi'' lifestyle with her, and to have her share a bit of her with us. 

Here are some of the things we did while she was with us.

Playing at the park with the boys. She was super sporty so we were outside as much as possible.

 

We went for a walk through the arboretum, which happens to be infested with chickens. Miku was DEATHLY affraid of them, and after about 20minutes of coaxing, and me holding her hand (literally) we finally got her to feed one. She was so proud of herself.

 

We went out to Raglan Beach to play and have fish and chips.

 

 

We went to the stock cars, something very different for her.

  

She wore this super cute school uniform every day. 

  

 

The day before she left, her and the other students that had come over from her school in Japan put on a farewell evening, where they sung and danced and showed us little Japanese games.

 

 

They even had a little 'graduation' ceremony where they got a certificate for being in NZ lol.

 

We hope to have another student come next year and look forward to it.