Hi, I’m Ruka Iwashita. I’m going to tell
you about my home stay. I experienced a variety of American culture through
this 4-week program. During my stay, I’ve kept a diary and I noticed that I
learned a lot of things. Though I’ve been to Canada to study English for a
month, my hopes, fears and expectations changed during this stay with my host
family in Minnesota.
First, I expected that I could go
everywhere in anytime, but American people always go somewhere by their cars
and I heard that it was dangerous to go outside without a car at night. When I
was in Japan, I would often go out late at night and when I needed something, I
could always go to the convenience store on foot or by bicycle and buy it.
Second, I worried about the difference of
eating habits. Actually, after I came in the U.S, I started to dislike hamburgers
and I was tired of seeing all the bigger food around me, so I was struggling
for overcoming and getting used to them for a while. However, I got used to most
of them as I stayed here.
On the other hand, my two biggest surprises
were that when my host mother and I were in urban area, there were some people
begging on the street with complaining cards on their hands. Moreover, when my
host mother and I walked on Grand Avenue, a strange man was holding some snacks
or sweets and asked us something. When I was a high school student, I was
joining a NGO group called “Free the Children” and examined beggars and child
labors in Mexico, the Philippines and Mongolia, so I could understand what they
were doing. However, I had no idea that there were some beggars in the U.S.
because I thought the U.S. was the richest country in the world. Another
surprise during the stay is that it’s a vaguer rule of taking off shoes. In
Japan, people have to take off their shoes when they come into the house and
I’ve heard that American people don’t take off ones. When I first came to my
host family’s house, my host mother said “You have to take off your shoes”, so
I thought it was the same as Japan. However, when a member of family was in a
hurry to get back home and bring something, she stepped in the floor with her
shoes! I was so surprised because Japanese people don’t come into the rooms
with shoes.
Next, I’ll tell you about the most
interesting lecture to me. Jody Matheson, a woman who brought up her children
and some adoptive children, told us about adoption in America. My host mother
is a Korean adoptee, so she sometimes told me about her experience and I’ve
known about adoption a little before I had the lecture and I got interested in
it. She said that some teasing came from ignorance of adoption, so I wondered
how we could spread the idea of it. It not only has a sad side but also happy
one because adoptive children get able to live peacefully. Especially,
comprehension of adoption for Japanese people is still superficial, but I think
Japan is a fairly nice country to live like the U.S. That’s why, we should
accept adoption more.
Finally, I’ll tell you about my host family.
They all are really kind, so they always helped me get used to life here. At
first, I didn’t know everything and I was nervous a lot. They made time in
their busy schedule to attend to the events such as welcome picnic and skits,
and on weekends, they took me to go bowling, shopping, to the church, to the
movie theater, to Stillwater, to some lakes, and to another host family’s
house. Moreover, my host mother helped me understand my homework from Bethel,
adoption, eating circumstances, religions, history, social systems, and so on,
and it helped me a lot to communicate in English by comparing these things with
our Japanese culture. When I faced problems or I felt sick, she listened and
gave me some advice. My host sisters showed me their interests like soccer, bugs
and handicrafts. A funny moment is that a host sister, Isabelle showed me a bug
and told me that they called it “Japanese beetle”. However, beetles in Japan
were quite different from what she showed me, so I searched those pictures on
the Internet and she was really surprised. My host mother’s relatives also
helped me a lot. Though they aren’t my host family, Joel and Linda were so kind
to us too. Then, I won’t forget that this trip was realized with my real
family’s support. Thanks to all of them, I had a wonderful time in Minnesota
and it’ll be the unforgettable experience for me. I really appreciate their
thoughtfulness.
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