Off to Woodstock

Every time I hear that name I immediately think of the 60's and Joplin. The the second image that comes to mind is Snoopy's pal (the bird).

My wife had plans to meet one of her friends near the gate entrance to the fair sometime around 10 a.m. The weather for the most part should cooperate, though there is a chance of showers.

Aya told me that her memorization of all 50 states and their capitals must have worked for she said she had gotten a 100 on the quiz. (She said it so matter-of-factly, I think she was confident that she would get a good grade). Regardless, I showed her I was proud of her.

Sheep sheering, pumpkin weighing and sand castle building, oh my!!

There was a lot of walking around, we stopped for drinks every 2 hours it seemed because it was a bright day and it didn't take long to get parched. We ate at one of the many food venues. I usually hit the caramelized nut stand and go for the roasted Almonds or Pecans. Then we got Fried Dough and I got a caramel apple.

The "Bird of Prey" show was neat although it was limited due to the fact that there was a nature hawk interfering with the show display and the Falconer felt that the show birds would be lunch.

We skipped the rides because we were on a tight budget and the fact that these rides were only put up for 3 days, who knows the safety record.

There was a Karate exposition and an Old time fiddle and banjo band all of whom were over 60 years old.

Homesick

We were told during pre-orientation and in the Host Family guide book this time would come. It is one of the phases a young student goes through, during their stay aboard. If it were only a few weeks, it may not have a chance to kick in, but a stay like a school year will definitely have an effect.

I think I realized she was feeling a little blue during the past 2 weeks or so, but haven't actually spoken to Aya about her feelings of homesickness due to the fear of just asking about would bring it about.

She told me that a classmate from her High School in Okinawa who is now with a Host Family is extremely homesick, which started the minute he left from Okinawa to Narita (Tokyo).

She told me she had cried on the flight over to the United States, but seems to have recovered well which is why I didn't notice. I think today she might have phoned him (using her calling card) and by just talking to him and emailing him caused her to realize that she too missed Japan (its food, its lifestyle and its TV programming).

You can see it in her eyes (holding back moisture) - she longs for eating Mochi and enjoys watching old shows on YouTube. She even has text books that are written in Japanese that her mom sent over that has English on opposite page to aid her in studying U.S. History and others which are just Manga and other magazines (comfort items).

This in conjunction of her staying in contact with her Japanese friends (exchange students in the U.S. and friends from back home) causes more emotional confusion.

Per the guide book, we are supposed to limit her contact with her home and email; it will only cause her to withdraw more so instead of being more outgoing.

I asked Aya if there was anything bothering her. She said she felt a little animosity from my oldest whom she shares a room with during her stay. It seems my oldest daughter is trying to keep ties with her friends, yet keep a connection with Aya. Allies friends seem to be winning. This only exacerbates Aya's feeling of isolation.

I spoke with Aya and told her that there is 3 years age difference and as a Freshman, Allie is going through a lot of changes (new school, old/new friends) and sometimes it can be overwhelming when she has to choose how to keep everyone happy, including her parents. The whole maturing process.

Somehow Aya feels like Allie is upset with her. I know it doesn't help when Allie's friend asks to go places without having to have a tag along - this includes our youngest daughter as well. We did explain to Allie that she would have to understand you can't just turn on or off your NEW sister because you want to go hang-out with your friends. This is part of the experience and part of the learning curve both sides have to adjust to.

We (my wife and I) questioned Allie alone about how she felt and if she was upset with Aya for anything. She told us there was no issue that she knew of. Allie had tried to invite Aya to go to the movies or mentioned that her friend wanted to go to the Spencer fair and that she was welcome. Each time Aya declined. I can only think that maybe Aya is getting the feeling from one of Allie's friends not to be included. /sigh girls...

It may be a long road to cheer Aya up and make Allie understand that we have a NEW person in the home living with us; we can't make her feel like she's not part of the family (for they have no where else to turn or go).

In the past week or so, my wife and I have noticed Aya retreating to an quiet area I set up in the downstairs entertainment room to study with desk and good lighting - a place to just get away. Some people can study just fine with music on a bed or on the floor (like Allie), where as Aya seems to be accustomed to studying at a desk in a library like environment.

Handwriting

I know I have tentative plans this weekend to maybe go to Boston. I know Aya's been longing to go and quite frankly I haven't been since early Summer and would like to visit a day.

I had not mentioned this to the family yet, but I am sure most would be willing to go. Aside from all the fairs Aya may attend and Boston a possibility, I would like to have her spend at least 2 hours practicing reading cursive and writing cursive. I found this website that talked handwriting being a dying practice amongst all the technology we have today. Honestly I haven't written in so long I nearly forgot how to properly do a Capital "Q".

My feeling on the ability to learn quick, is that as an adult she can absorb much more and quicker (say 3 days) as opposed to a 3RD grader who in maybe a 3 weeks period will learn to write the whole alphabet.

The Shisa

A few days after Aya's arrival, she presented us with several gifts. One in particular was a set of statues of a lion looking creatures. She told us it was unique to Okinawa and their culture - I asked my mother (who is from Kyushu) if she knew what it was, but she did not.
Curiousity got the best of me so I did a little research which I found comes with the story of linked here "The Shisa"

Matsuri 祭 - Festival (Fair)

Tomorrow we plan on getting up and headed towards our next fair on the list, as I've stated earlier we usually start out small and work our way towards the biggest - there can be some argument as to which is bigger between Woodstock and Spencer, but there can be no argument that the Big - E is simply that.

Wales, MA (Old Home Day Fair)
Brooklyn, CT (Fair)
Woodstock, CT (Fair) <-------------(Friday)

Spencer, MA (Fair)
Big - E (Eastern States Exhibition) - Springfield, MA

U.S. History Test Today

Aya brought to my attention that she had to prepare for her History Quiz today, it was on the States their capitol cities.

I snickered at the ease of it or so I thought. I had helped her study by use of some flash cards which had more information on each state and the geography each etc. However, I quickly realized I don't even know all the capital cities of all the 50 States, though I bet any 5Th Grader would since it most likely would be fresh in their minds.

She did fairly well, though she had not budgeted her time to studying these as intensely as she could have (she had 2 days for wrote memorization). I think in her mind, she was done with school in Japan and this was more of a visit/site-seeing than an earnest attempt to work hard in a U.S. High School.

I am sure her attitude will change, but for now she is looking forward to going to Boston, New York and other attractive cities if possible. During the studying of the states, she mentioned to me that she had hoped for a stay in some of the mid-western states (Nevada, Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska).

Aya told me at 13, she had visited Hawaii for a 3 week "Home stay" in Honolulu and hope to get a chance to visit there again soon. She had stayed with another Japanese student who was 18 at the time. (I can only imagine it was like a real nice vacation: Beach, Surf, Clubs, and Sightseeing).

She also has some math homework to do and something as simple as "the square root of 10" stumped me without the use of a calculator as I forgot the most efficient way of doing this. She is required a Scientific Calculator, which I couldn't not remember where I stashed it from college days; so she had gone out to purchase a cheap on at Wal-mart "Casio". I can remember these things used to cost more than $40.00, it is now $19.99 and have more to offer including solar power.

I stumbled across something I never knew Google to be able to do, in the search I just typed
"Square root of 10" and it displayed like a calculator. Other information such as dealing with squares, was helpful for finding the Square of 10 the without the a calculator . Amazing what kids have access to these days. Even something like "convert 10 miles to feet" produces answers.

School Daze

I called home to the family from work, because I couldn't wait until I arrived home to hear how the 1st day of school went. As this Blog is more about the exchange student and not my own kids; I will refrain from putting their experiences here.

Aya told me she thought that the first day was pretty good and in another sentence she said it was fun.

I was later told by my oldest that Aya was hunger after coming home from school, for she missed her lunch because she had a great deal of difficulty with the locker combinations. Apparently she's never seen a dial (numeric combination) before that we were all accustomed to - if so she's never used one.

We tried to explain to her that the numbers given were X-Y-Z and that for X you have to turn the dial Clockwise (which for some reason, there was no translation to) and for Y Counter-Clockwise and again Clockwise for Z.

She expressed great distress over this and said she was still uncertain on how to go about it. In between classes she needed to put things in her new locker, but there was no one around to help her on the floor where her locker resides - they were all in class at that time.

Gym class doesn't issue a uniform which seemed odd to her as I assume they get one back in Japan since ever time I've seen students they wore a uniform to school for normal class, that having an issued gym suit would be natural.

She though parenting class was fun and that the Math class was a little strict; translation the teach seemed to be a prude.

Another problem for Aya was that a lot of the work assigned or some items of discussion was written in cursive (handwritting) on the black or white board. Apparently Aya has not been taught in school what they characters are supposed to look like when linked. This will be yet another task which she will have to quickly master in order to continue, as I don't see that the teacher will print on the board to accomodate her.

The calm before the storm...

Tonight is the night before the start of school. I noticed Aya hasn't said much this evening, I believe she is mentally trying to prepare for school tomorrow.

I don't know why, but I have sympathetic nervous feeling about the whole ordeal, not unlike the first time you put your kid on a bike without training wheels and let them leave your grasp. It must be the fatherly instinct in me or just the compassion for another humans plight into the unknown.

I honestly think I could get sick to my stomach just wondering how the day will progress tomorrow. My oldest, Allie will be attending the High School for the first time as well, but as a Freshman - oddly I have not fear that she will do just fine. Part of the reason I have the most confidence in her there, is the fact that she knows a lot of the students there since they were part of the Junior High last year.

All I can ask is that God be at her side and always have communication go both ways with clear understanding. We want to debunk the "Tower of Babble" and hope things will go smooth. (Fingers crossed)

They both should go to bed early tonight for I will have to wake them bright and early at 05:00 a.m. - this ought to be interesting.

Wish us luck...

A Bed Time Story

To help Aya with her language we choose a more subtle approach. We started Saturday night with her reading a bed time story to my youngest daughter who will be 10yrs at this months end.

At first we though Dr. Seuss would be fun, but there were a lot of unusual made up names that rhyme with sounds and other oddities that confused Aya. So now we resorted to the Clifford series.

Although the words are simple, we are just trying to get her to read aloud to our daughter and correct any odd intonations and pronunciations.

It kind of cute listening to her read - she was having the hardest time with Emily Elizabeth and any other "L" or "R" sounds. We tried not to chuckle, but it was nearly impossible not to; we assured her that we weren't laughing at her just tenacious attempt to reproduce our sounds and dialect. She learned from someone with an English accent - so it was a little harder to hear our New England accent versus what she was used to.

I wouldn't say we have a Bostonian accent, since our family grew up in Southern Connecticut (which to me doesn't have any geographic accent that I can tell). I can tell even places like Hartford or Bristol Connecticut has a different dialect than say Norwich, Connecticut.

It was a fair day after all...

My youngest celebrated her birthday at her grandparents house. It was a rather "muggy" day, as Aya picked up on the unusual word. Now she knows it is similar to humid.

I spent a good 10 minutes before I really got into the pool after grilling the burgers for lunch. Both my daughters were trying their best to pre-soak me before I entered the pool. They had giant squirt guns and some foam guns that were basically giant syringes filled with water. It came down to a soaking from the garden hose with cold tap water (I reigned king).

Aya wanted to come and join us but felt a little reserved - so she sat this one out. The remainder of the family jumped in the pool as well just to cool off.

After during the drying process our youngest hastily opened up her presents - there was much rejoicing. She got mostly cash, to which she will spend on what she likes instead of getting something she didn't really like. It seems this is what our family does most of the time, not that we can't be thoughtful about gift giving - but sometimes you can't always pick what a person likes and this saves the return process.

The sun was getting low in the sky, so we headed down from southern CT and drove to Rhode Island to check out the beach, for this would be Aya's first time on the Atlantic Ocean.

Standing on the sand watching gulls fly above and the surf pound the shore. We got sandy, sticky with salt and wet all at the same time - but it was worth every second. For people who grew up near the ocean it was nice break from the land-lock feeling of being in the center of New England.

I found it strange when Aya told me that they do not have Sea-Gulls at her ocean in Okinawa. I joked with her and asked if they had become a food item or were shot by fishermen - she assured me that neither my guesses were facts.

After the short ocean visit, which was more of a tease because we had to start heading back to Massachusetts, we headed for a fair in Brooklyn, Connecticut.

We as family typically start out at the smallest fairs and work out way up to the largest. This year the list includes:
Wales, MA (Old Home Day Fair)
Brooklyn, CT (Fair) <-------------------------(today)
Woodstock, CT (Fair)
Spencer, MA (Fair)
Big - E (Eastern States Exhibition) - Springfield, Ma

This was Aya's first agriculture fair. There were barns filled with chickens, rabbits and cows. There were tractor pulls and oxen team pulls. Not to mention all the vendor stands and food stands. They had country music jamming at the larger venue (not sure who was playing). Prices are going up though it was now $10.00 per head just to get in and $5.00 to park. Things never seem to stay cheap for long.