Alexa

Alexa is my host mother. She works for IP Office at Green River College (GRC). She has a great network, and she often has a house party. She was born in Korea and brought up in America, so she often makes Korean dishes. She also studied abroad in Spain when she was a university student. She told me about her experience of staying and studying abroad. Moreover, she often drove me around with her children.

Andreu

Andreu is my host father. He is from Barcelona, Spain, and he is so smart that he can speak Catalan, Spanish, English, French, and Italian. He is an academic student at GRC, and he studies IT. He was always busy, but he dropped me off at GRC in the morning and talked with me a lot in his free time. In particular, I was impressed with the stories about his childhood.

Kayla

Kayla is my host sister. She goes to an elementary school near our house. She is an energetic girl. When there were some events, Kayla always made a postcard for me. She also made a picture book or accessories, and drew pictures for me. She is really cute and she is a good sister for James. She likes to make a trash box with paper.

James

James is 2 years old and so cute, but he didn't really listen to me. On the other hand, he is wise. Alexa told me he was jealous of me. He couldn't call my whole name, so he always called me “Oko, Oko.” Also in Catalan “Oko” sounds like “moco,” which means nasal mucus, then Andreu always laughed at me. He really loves Kayla and they are close.

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Cara　

Cara came to our house one week before I came back to Japan. The Plourde family has only one room where international students can stay, so when I started home staying, I was lonely at the beginning, but I was happy to spend some time with Cara. She is from Malaysia, and she can speak English and Chinese. Moreover, she really loves Japan, and she can read hiragana and katakana. Also she brought some green tea chocolate as a souvenir from Japan to give the host family.

It was the first time for my host family to accept international students. Before I went to America, they used to live in Tacoma. They were always kind to me and bought me a rice cooker and good quality of rice.

When we had some events, we had a party or we went out. As my host family was a member of YMCA (gym) , they invited me to their group and I went to the gym sometimes.

My host father and host mother were very busy, so I didn't have a chance to talk with them very much. However, we talked about what happened that day while eating dinner, and I watched movies with them. Moreover, we had really fun time, like making sweets with my host mother, Kayla, and James, and curving a picture on the pumpkin.

My host family often asked me about Japanese culture. For instance,　“American culture is this. How about Japanese?”　With those questions, I changed my mind and learned American culture.