2nd
my dad made me write this. i'm glad i did.
13 years after I got us started, my dad ends up the chairperson of the Bloomington Nomal/Asahikawa Sister Cities Committee. Of course, he’s re-designing their website. He asked me to write about my experiences as an exchange student, So I figure i’d post it here too.
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It was 7th Grade.
All I had to do was get my parents to sign up, and we would get a Japanese Kid in our house for 10 days… Sort of like the Bunny you could take home over the summer in elementary school, but better.
I thought this was pretty cool, and my parents were game. We weren’t going anywhere for spring break, and this exchange student hosting gig was an opportunity for the international friend-making that I had always craved.
[Aside, to my tumblr friends: I found the xeroxed announcement about this opportunity in the principals office during my 3rd period shift as a hall monitor. I decided to forgo study hall for the privilege of picking up attendance slips and delivering hall passes. Dorkiness RULEZ!]
We were matched up with Tomoyo, a bright, funny girl from our Sister City in Asahikawa, Japan. We had to do a lot of communication with dictionaries, charades, and smiles. We met other families with junior high exchange students there were lots of field trips, and a dance. She stayed for 10 days, and we had a blast. The time passed too quickly. I BEGGED to go to Japan to visit my new best friend halfway around the world.
My parents finally agreed, and I spent three weeks that summer in our sister city, Asahikawa, in Northern Japan. As soon as I was old enough, I set my sights on the year-long exchange program.
In my sophomore year of high school, I won a sister cities scholarship to live in Asahikawa for a year, living with a family, and attending Japanese high school. I had never taken Japanese, but I learned fast. I was good friends with the other Sister Cities Exchange student. We wrote a monthly column for my hometown paper. In my host city, I was something of a local celebrity, as one of the only blond foreigners in a town of 500,000. I made a ton of friends, and I would have stayed another year if my parents had let me.
However reluctantly, I came back as confident and worldly as a teenage girl from Normal could be
I feel very lucky that the Bloomington Normal/Asahikawa Sister Cities committees fund these scholarships. The people skills I picked up making new friends in a different language have served me well ever since. I can feel at home in just about any situation. It was a tremendous experience, and I would recommend study abroad to any student looking to broaden their horizons.
10 years after we first met, after visiting New York City with my host sister Maki, Tomoyo moved to New York City for a year to study English. It just so happened that I had an open room in my apartment, and she became my roommate.
I still marvel at how amazing it is that Tomoyo and I first become friends visiting each others’ families on opposite corners of the globe over a decade before. She is truly one of my oldest friends.
It is because of the Sister Cities Committee that I will always have family in Japan, and all the students who’ve stayed at our house over the years will always have family in Central Illinois. I’ll be forever grateful.