International Ep4: Exit Asuka, Enter Ping

Quick note- Lifehack revision's at 45%-ish. Things go slow with the baby, but the world can be patient for Caitlin's sake.

Anyway, Asuka's stay had a few weeks left when the school board rang us up about a new student.

"From China, you say? She's going to be here the day before Asuka goes home to Germany, you say? How do Chinese girls feel about having the sofa for one night?"

Blissfully ignorant, I went to Rei to tell her the news. "Hey, we're going to get a new student when Asuka goes!"

"You say only short time with another student...!
"Well, it's been OK with Asuka, you two get along fine.."
"But you say..."
"Well, the school board has asked us to, and now it would be rude to say no. Besides, she's Asian too, you'll have a little bit more in common...!"

Rei's eyes became huge, and I understood anime in a whole new way. "What? No asian student! Anyone but asian!" Nerf? I didn't want to put my foot in my mouth here, so correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Rei's own Japan part of Asia?

Well, as further research on the topic taught me, it is, and it isn't. Japan has become very westernized, especially compared to China. This seems to give Japan kind of a 'black sheep' status in certain situations. It's also floating off to the side like that, oh, and there's all that WW2 stuff.... yeah well... yeah...

But we suspect none of that was foremost in Rei's mind. An Asian student would travel in social circles much closer to her own in school, and this could lead to the leaking of sensitive information on Rei's ongoing hunt- to which we had very little idea about at the time.

Later, Rei shows up in the doorway of my office again, looking forlorn as she can. "You lie me."
"Wha?"
"You say only 3 months. You lie me."
"Well, at the time, I thought it WAS going to e only 3 months."
"It better just you, me, michelle."

Oh man. I had heard tales of the powers of the Japanese teenage girl, and it was in the crosshairs of the 'poor little me' mode. She was good at it, no doubt. A big part of me just wanted to make everything OK for her, but my hands were tied at this point. She stood around looking sad for a bit, and I tossed the occasional comment trying to be supportive, and encourage a more openminded outlook. What do I get?

"Maybe I need live other house." Oh good lord Rei, aren't there any nearby cliffs you could threaten to throw yourself off of? Isn't that the traditional climax to this sort of act?

"Well, I'll talk to the school board about it." I did. But I just commented that Rei wasn't taking the idea very well. It wasn't the first time I felt the need to report Rei's displeasure about having another student around to the school board; I thought it was best to keep them abreast of that kind of thing, and they might have advice. They told me I was doing well, and that she was lucky to have a host parent that was this concerned with her happiness. So, we'd muddle through.


The day came when Ping arrived. Due to scheduling, my wife could only take her halfway from the airport to home, my dad and I picked her up from there. "Hi Ping!" (another codename, by the way) She fell asleep in the car on the way. It seemed this power to sleep anywhere was not unique to Japan.. but we could also pull the 'teenager' card.

We're quick to point to cultural differences. but it's often just teenager-ism, or "rich girl" ism. Almost all the the students that come here from abroad are rather well off. More on that in the next post.

That evening, me, Asuka, Rei, and Ping lingered in the hallway, lite only from the lights coming from the surrounding rooms. Polite chatter all around. Rei was mostly quiet. I think she was a bit relieved that Ping's english was a little worse than her own. Asuka had hints at emotional moments- tomorrow was the big day she'd go home.



My wife and I wanted to take Asuka to the airport ourselves, but because of the large group of Germans headed out, they insisted we just take them to the school board office. From there, they'd all bus to the airport. That morning was emotionally charged. By the time we got to the school board, with those buses staring at us, Asuka was crying, and so was Michelle if I recall correctly.

There was some waiting to be done, and some random socializing happened with other students. Asuka and my wife's crying got steadily heavier, and I joined in a little.

Asuka's friend was pretty sad too... "I fell bad because my host family didn't stay. They just dropped me off and left." This was baffling to me. Asuka had become family despite the shortness of her stay. How can you not treat these brave young students with every hospitality you can? They're far from home, and a lot of them can barely communicate when they get here. (Germans can, but that's beside the point. Every German student I've met are worried we won't be able to understand them.. well, they worry about that until they hear one of the Asian students talking english...)

Mercifully, the time to load the buses up came. Sobbing, hugs, blah blah blah. Michelle and I went back to the car and waited there until the buses left. Our first time sending a student back home.

Next post: I dunno, should I do "Ping VS Canada" or something about the baby for a change?

International students, ep3: Enter Asuka

"A Geman, huh?"

Asuka's (yes, another codename) 'docket' arrived shortly after the conversation with the school board. Her picture looked a bit on a punk side. Just a little. Cool.

I had a pal in highschool who was a German exchange student, and he was a neat bloke. We made a bit of fun with his accent now and then, ("We watched wiolent wideos in wancouver.") and he got his revenge by stealing my girlfriend. Well, not really.. he actually asked permission rather formally, since he knew she and I had some kinda something going on, but that's a whole other story.

Anyway, Asuka. Before she arrived, we has to let Rei know there'd be another girl in the house. We told her over dinner. Her response? Emo silence for a while, followed by "I think just 3 is better." (Me, my wife, and Rei)

I figured she'd adjust to the idea, and that she just wanted to be the only student in the house beacuse she wanted to be special. Little did I know- she probably just didn't want someone in the house that she went to school with... that could pose a threat to Rei's cunning plan.

Asuka arrived, looking notably less punk-ish than her picture, but with all the spunk and energy you might expect. In many ways Asuka was Rei's opposite. Outgoing, open, chatty. (A contrast that coincidentally mimics the namesakes of thier codenames.) Rei was also mortified that Asuka's english obliterated her own. The Germans study english a good degree more seriously than they do in Japan.

Japanese highschools seem to study english almost as a novelty. The Germans study it to communicate with their neighbors. Asuka, much like my buddy from highschool, was almost entirely fluent, with only the occasional unknown word, which was easily explained without the use the little notepad that Rei and I had been using a lot.

It occurred to me briefly that we now had descendants of the WW2 axis living here. History is odd. If you could have sent a picture of our dinner table with everyone joking and talking back to 1950, what would people think? In 2050, will my daughter be hosting students from Iraq?


Asuka's level of energy brought a bit of much-needed volume to the house. Remember I said in the last post that I was trying hard to be quiet and un-rude for Rei's sake? That went out the window, and I realized that I might have been giving Rei the impression that I didn't like her much. (Which is kinda silly, given how much unrequired time I spent with her on homework and such.)

Asuka didn't need much help with homework, but we had lost to talk about.. like chocolate. We would have an hour long chat at the drop of a hat about chocolate, and related items. How this kind was good, that kind was not, and the stuff at the corner store was mostly shameful shadows of true chocolate.

Then a week later, something would set one of us off, and we'd have nearly the same conversation again, with just as much enthusiasm.



In 3 short months, this spunky girl had become part of the family.



Next post: Exit Asuka, Enter Ping.



Book update: Lifehack revision 33% done. Evenings don't get much done, I have to try t make better use of the mornings. Lil Caitlin's an angel in the mornings.

International Ep2: Rei. Also- new book covers

I cranked out new covers for Lifehack and Yute. Show first, then talk:

Ok, I lied, the covers aren't QUITE like that. The covers will have slightly different aspect ratios, and the only text on the front will be the title and my name. These are designs for oversized promo postcards.

The lifehack cover is just a little different from the one I posted before, with a new logo for the changed title. The Yute cover has the girl removed, (no more anime implications) and a new photo for the background. That's the sahara, courtesy Adam K. Wait nonono, that's the Yute desert. Yes. I plunked a nanite down there.. more of a symbloic thing, since of course a nanite wouldn't be that huge by any means.. anyway, onto the international student thing-

ENTER: REI

So the school board rep calls us up to see if we'd like to take a Japanese student. Cool! I'm more versed in Japanese culture than most north americans, (even counting the typical rabid anime fanbase) so it would be fun.
We sent out letter/picture package to her, and she sent a similar one back. This is our house, here's one of the rooms you can pick, here's our pets, blah blah.
"Hide the octopus." a couple friends joked. "Things with tentacles and Japanese schoolgirls have a rough track-record."

When we went to go pick up Rei (This is a codename by the way, lazily ripped from Neon Genesis Evangelion) we waited and waited at the airport. The plane arrived, and it took an hour for passengers to start coming out. Yay for customs. After another 20 minutes of "is that her? No, she said she's have a pink suitcase" finally she came down the passage. I'm easier to recognize in my wheelchair than she was in a mob of other japanese people.
I don't wanna say "they all look the same to me", cuz that's stupid- but if you're not dealing with japanese people often, it's trickier at first to tell similar looking people apart. And no one looks exactly like their photo.
Rei stood before us with her case. We greeted her cheerfully, and she responded quietly and politely. My wife asked how the flight was. "Good."
Alrighty then, I see we're going to be chatty. We led her to the car as she meekly followed behind (refusing help with her baggage), and we almost felt like we were abducting her.

No sooner than we have felt the parkade, than she was asleep in the back seat.
"Well, the time difference and jet lag..." you might begin to think, but nay! I have heard that Japanese people (and I later found out this partially applies to China and Korea) can fall asleep anywhere. Cars, trains, wherever. Apparently they also have the magical ability to wake when needed, to catch their train stop or whatever.

On the first day of school, my wife walked Rei the 2 or three blocks to the highschool, and took her into the office, to make sure she got to the right places.
On her way out, my wife saw many other international students, looking quite lost. Many other host families had dropped their new students off on the curb, and just left. My wife corralled them all towards the office before coming home.

I was very self-conscious about being the 'loud american', so I did my best to speak quietly, and keep humble. I helped her with homework sometimes, and to help her pronunciation, we would take turns reading a newspaper article every night.
Her engilsh was very spotty, as you could imagine. I kept a notepad handy so we could sketch things she didn't know the words for, and we have lengthy discussions about words, and other random topics.
She would also hear something at school, and due to people talking fast, she couldn't understand them. She'd ask me what "tewer" meant, for example. "Can you tell me where you heard it?" "Teacher say to write on a tewer three page." "um.. maybe it was 'write two or three pages'?"
She'd think a moment, eyes staring into the galaxy of her memory, then POP! A cute nod, and "YES!" One I couldnt figure out for the life of me was "Festival".
"Like a carnival? A Fair?"
Eyes narrowed.... "No... just she say 'Festival, ra ra ra ra ra...'" (ra ra ra is seemingly Japanese for 'blah blah blah'.) This one was a puzzlement for a long time.

Every evening after homework, she'd end with "sankyou!" Cute. I could correct her, but she had other english issues to deal with. Eventually, on teacher recommendation, she started watching TV. We set the subtitles on for the hearing impaired, and that helped a lot. One day, months later, she yelps in gleeful discovery.
"FESTIVAL! IS 'FIRST-OF-ALL'!!"
That night, I brought up 'sankyou'. "TH- ankyou. TH is difficult for many asians."
"Ohh... THankyou.." we went on with the homework, and when she left, she was almost aroudn the corner, and she said "Sankyou!" I gave her a jokingly stern look. She gasped. "I mean thankyou!"
"Good good!"

It wasn't all giggles though. Some things pointed to trouble on the horizon. To make conversation, I asked if she had a boyfriend back home.
She gave me the strangest angry look. "You don't ask this."
"I was just trying to make conversation....!"
"Just do not ask that things." And she left the room.
Ohhhhhhhkaaaaay.....?

Another happened on garbage day. We all take our grabage to the back. She took hers, and I was along shortly after with my little bag. She heard the bag rustle, and popped up form nowhere. (Also with the sleep-thing, Japanese people have the ability vanish and appear out of nowhere.)
"You look in garbage?"
"Huh?"
"You look- inspect garbage?"
(blink blink).... "I was just putting more in...." I partially pulled my little bag out again to show her. She looked relieved, but still ill at ease. At this point, should I worry that she's got bad stuff, or just respect her paranoia, based on tales from the east of bizarre pervs who would not mind stopping to garbage searching to satiate their fancies? Bah, I'm lazy. Let sleeping dogs lie.

A month or two, the school board calls- "Can you take another student?"

Next international student post- "Enter:Asuka"