Habby Every Day!

definitely not going to miss the state of our guest rooms! This picture is actually when it was "neat" - it was worse a few days before i took this photo!
Our second batch of exchange students are leaving. It's a bit of a bitter sweet feeling. I'm definitely not going to miss their loud chatter, jumping, running, sometimes screaming and just being 11-13 yr olds. At the same time, i'm going to miss the way they all come out to greet me when i come home from work with a loud and cheerful "KEEEEEEEEEEMMMMM!!!" (Kym) and also their sweet and playful selves. I smiled when I read their farewell letters to our families. They had sweet, sincere words but best of all... it was all in Engrish! hehehe! 
"Herro? Habby Every Day!" 
They're going to be bringing many Herro Hachi t-shirts back to Shanghai... I wonder if anyone will clue them in on what "Herro?" is referring to? haha!
They like play with me b/c i am beautiful girl! hahaha! ;P

I Ta Chi, Yeah!

Our first set of exchange students are gone :( In the beginning, I wasn't too fond of the idea of having students live with us but through time, i actually began to really enjoy their company. It was pretty sad when they left, I could tell they were sad too because they weren't talking much and they wrote such sweet letters for our family. When i got home from work the day they left, I found a hand painted wooden frame in my room! It said... 
"Kym, we will miss you. Bye!" 
It was so sweet! I had a good laugh though because there were random words and drawings on the frame.
"I Ta Chi" "FLY" "Wang""YEAH!" 
I wasn't too sure what "I Ta Chi" meant... any ideas anyone? haha! 
Our 2nd set of students arrived last Wednesday and it was a rough first night! These 3 new students are the complete opposite of the first two! They are younger, more talkative, and more hyper! Our first night was rough because they were jet-lagged so at 4:45AM, I could already hear them chattering away, laughing, jumping, singing. O.o I'm sure through time i'll start enjoying their company too. 
It's just hard when you start caring for someone and then before you know it, they're gone! :( 

Hannah Montana - Bridging Cultural Gaps

Thank you everyone for your suggestions on what to do with our exchange students! After 3 days living with us, I finally figured out what they really enjoy. While we were watching TV, I asked them if they wanted to watch the Disney Channel, they nodded excitedly, their eyes lit up, and one of them asked in her cute chinese accent "Hannah Montana?"

It's amazing how little English they know but they know all the words to Hannah Montana's theme song and all High School Musical song. When Zac Efron came on during a movie preview, they said something in chinese to each other, giggled, and said to me "handsome". Hahaha! They are slowly opening up and learning more and more. It's exciting for me to see them get excited each time they understand a question that I ask them! ;D

Speaking of cultures, what comes to mind when you think of the word "multicultural" ? Think of words, images, phrases, etc. :)

Cultural Experience

Yesterday, we had two exchange students from Shanghai arrive. They are here to learn English and will be staying with us for the next 3 ish weeks. Thankfully, we got really nice and respectful 13 yr old girls but the hard thing is that i'm running out of ideas on how to entertain them! Today, we brought them to the mall but evidently at 13, they are not quite into fashion yet so that was boring to them. I did figure out that they really like sports, video games, and tv so we took them to a video game store and thats what excited them. 
The picture above was the little gift they got for me from Shanghai, it's one of the mascots for the Expo going on back home. It's quite hard communicating as you can imagine b/c their vocabulary is limited and it takes them a few seconds to process what you've asked before they can respond with a yes or a no. Hopefully they'll learn more and more the longer they are here. My strategy is to try to learn their language so that at the same time, it makes them think of the phrase in English and connect it to what it is in their language. 
Random note: Their first day here, I was so amused/excited because one of them was wearing a shirt that said "HAPPY WANT TO HAVE" hehehe.
What else can i do with the students? Any ideas?