Exchange Student from Osaka, Japan

Sakura was our exchange student that stayed with us for 5 days. It was a really fun, exciting, neat experience and am looking forward to hosting someone else again. Sakura was so sweet and loved Lyla, but who doesn't? Since she was only her for 5 days we had to cram what life was like here in Oregon and America in such a short time.


Feeding Lyla some marshmallows


Playing with Lyla at our brownie ice cream get together.

I took her to school everyday, picked her up, went shopping at Fred Meyer's, had a bunch of friends over for brownies and ice cream, took her to a mall, carpooled to the Tillamook forestry, got ice cream at a local parlor here in town, got a slurpee and had a potluck dinner and a small presentation from the exchange students at Forest Grove high school. I really enjoyed everyday. She didn't speak a ton of english, which made it harder to communicate. I tried really hard to have American meals, we had a hamburger from a local joint here, got some pizza from Papa Murphy's, french toast, pancakes with peanut butter and syrup, and fruit loops. It was really sad to have her leave. She really loved Lyla. It was so fun watching her play with her and show her off to all of her friends.


Sakura and my friend Cori's boy, Trennon @ the high school potluck


Here are the exchange students singing a goodbye song to the families who they stayed with. They started crying and Sakura wouldn't look at us during the whole song. She hid behind her friends, because every time she looked at us she started crying.

The lady who was in charge of the whole thing told me, "Sakura was not too excited when she found out she didn't have anyone her age. All of the other students were talking about how the families they were staying with had someone their age and were really excited to meet them. But now I have only heard good things and she says she is having a really good time and enjoys staying with you." That made me feel good, because it was hard to tell if she was enjoying herself with the amount of english she spoke and the lack of Japanese I knew.


The night before she left she opened up a ton. She was talking about her family and friends, laughing, showing me pictures and I felt like she really enjoyed her time with us. She helped me get Lyla ready for bed and just hung out with us.


For her going away gift we gave her a Book of Mormon in Japanese with these two pictures of me and Lyla with her, some candy, beef jerky and a necklace. Overall I would hope to say she had a good time. I know we did. We miss you Sakura.