American Life Club

Today we had the opportunity to host Japanese students for the American Life Club. The purpose is to show them how Americans live and give them the opportunity to practice their English. Eisley and I had these awesome 15 year-old guys to hang out with. They came all the way down from Osaka, Japan, which is about an 8 1/2 hour trip by bus. They didn't speak a lot of English, but we definitely all learned something new from each other today and the creative communication to get our message across made it fun. 

 The first thing we did was take a walking tour around base. I took them to the commissary to practice some English identifying items and also just showing them how different it is from a Japanese grocery store (I will have to do a post on that for you all soon!). I had fun showing them different fruits and veggies that they aren't used to seeing and pointing out Kingsford Charcoal and telling them how it is made in my hometown and showing them on a map where I am from. It is always nice going to a store and being able to find a little bit of home! I think the biggest cultural difference I found at the grocery store is the American obsession with breakfast. Even in our tiny little commissary we have an entire aisle full of cereal and oatmeal, a large portion of our cooler section, and a big chunk of our freezer section all dedicated to different breakfast foods. It was crazy trying to explain that Americans like hot breakfast and cold breakfast. How we eat cereal cold covered in milk or hot oatmeal and scrambled eggs with hash browns, or bagels covered in cream cheese and toaster strudels and cinnamon rolls covered in icing. I was showing them how pancakes are different than waffles, but you cover them both in maple syrup. I realized how weird to concept of a big American breakfast would be to someone whose never had a bowl of cereal. I asked them what they eat for breakfast and their enthusiastic answer was RICE!
We gathered a few items and went through the self checkout which they don't have in their grocery stores. They were fascinated with our kids race car carts.

Next I took them on a tour of our house and we settled in for our "English Lesson" which was just a little worksheet with getting to know you questions and a game of Jenga. They were struggling with the worksheet since they didn't really know that much English so we only did part of it. For Jenga I put word labels on sticky notes on each piece so when they took a piece they had to label the item. It worked out really well and they enjoyed the game. 

Even Eisley got a label :)

We made lunch together so I made homemade crust and had the boys choose their toppings. They were pretty overwhelmed with the choices but they had fun and did a really good job making delicious pizzas!

Three full size pizzas in one oven? No problem!

Seiya

Daiki

Bunta

Matumoto

Rinntaro

Eisley got some pizza too

Eisley loved having some friends today

After lunch we got together with the other home stay families and had a little "Trunk or Treat". We had the kids decorate the trunks as part of the activity. They didn't really get the concept of going from car to car so most of my kids just stuck around and got candy from me, but it was fine. 

Our trunk

Lupita's Trunk

Lupita had them play games for candy

We wanted them to burn some energy before their bus ride so we had them play soccer. Not quite American but it works :)

Eisley loves playing with Finn

Eisley is obsessed with Dogs so she loved seeing Bella today. Bella took her on a walk.

Overall it was a really fun day and I'm glad it went so well. It was my first time so I was a little nervous but I will have a better idea what to expect next time. I feel like I learned just as much from them as they did from me. I'm excited to do it again with new kids!