Our Fantastic Exchange Students

Tian - February 2007

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Renée and Tian

Meet Tian, she visited us from China in February 2007. Her English was excellent, which made for some very interesting conversation. When we have our students stay with us, part of it is learning about their culture and their lifestyle etc. What we found fascinating, however, is what they are taught about their own country and about other countries. These kids study, study, study and as a result are very intelligent. We were able to have quite a debate about the Chinese wall and it's purpose and what countries form provinces of China, and what we in Australia have been taught.

Tian only stayed with us for three days, a very short visit to say the least, from there she was travelling to Melbourne, then Canberra and then onto Sydney. Apparently her group was also wanting to travel to New Zealand, however they were talked out of this, as they wanted to do this in a trip of 7 days - not likely LOL - I don't think they realise how big Australia is.

We took Tian into Adelaide City, we were planning on taking a trip on Popeye (a small boat that travels on the Torrens), however we found this to be a little pricey, so from there we went to Pt Adelaide and the did the Dolphin Cruise. We had lunch on the boat which was lovely, although the Dolphins were a little disappointing this time around.

Aaron, Rod, Renée and Tian in Adelaide City

After the boat trip we also managed to squeeze in going to Glenelg, to check out the beach and go for a walk along the Jetty, it was a beautiful day, lovely sunshine and great fun.....Tian was quite excited about getting her shoes off and enjoying the sand and water on her feet.

On Glenelg Jetty, me and the kids

Nothing better than sand in your toes and sun on your face!

Crosswords were found to be very good homework for Tian, practicing her English skills, she spent quite sometime with Rod and Renee working on these, they were also great conversation starters......

Crossword time

SAKI - July 2006

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Meet Saki, also from Japan. Saki stayed with for two weeks in July 2006, she is totally delightful with a fun loving attitude. Her English was a lot better and we found communicating with her a lot easier. She even managed to teach us some Japanese - which was a big ask for me, I was hopeless. Although one word that I did grasp was Klu Klu Pa - which means crazy. The word itself was used frequently during Saki's stay, totally describing the environment that we live in LOL.

Aaron got along so well with her, in fact he found it very difficult to say Goodbye to her at the end of her stay, he really bonded with her. The last night that she was hear the two of them were running around like nuts giggling and laughing together.

We again did the trip to Gorge Wildlife Park, such a great place to go with our students, because of the interaction that they have with the animals, it is also free to hold the Koala and you can take as many photos as you like (what a bargain).

Family pic at Gorge Wildlife Park

Feeding the Wallaby's

We took, her on the Pt River Dolphin cruise, and the dolphins were so co-operative the day that we took her out, they were everywhere, it was such a beautiful day, she thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Saki and Me on the Dolphin Cruise

Saki taught us how to write our names in Japanese, they do this on rice paper with ink and a thick brush, quite difficult actually although Saki made it look quite easy. Aaron and Renee loved doing this. Origami was also big on the agenda....making cranes being very popular, but also a little difficult to do!

Learning our names in Japanese

Another popular tourist spot here in Adelaide is Glenelg, quite yuppy, the place to go! Right on the beach, lots of fun and excitement.

Renee and Saki at the end of the Jetty in Glenelg

Saki is a regular emailer, she is doing really well in school , and was so pleased to receive pics of Donna's wedding as she was here when she got engaged!

MIHO - November 2005

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This is Miho, she was our first exchange student from Japan. We had her stay with us for just under 2 weeks, in November 2005, she was so sweet. Communicating with Miho was a little difficult. Interestingly enough though we found that if we drew pictures for her, or wrote the words she was able to get the gist of what we were trying to say a whole lot better.

Whilst she was with us we took her to Gorge Wild life Park in the Adelaide Hills (see link for park) to enable her to mix with our Australian animals, you can tell she loved that experience by the photo.

We drove her to Waikerie in South Australia's Riverland where my sister lives to meet her family. It was hilarious really, Celina can be so loud and the Japanese aren't so used to being hugged and touched...the first time Celina saw her she went running up to her yelling out her name, frightened the life out of her..Miho virtually hid behind me until we could get her to understand that it was OK LOL. Whilst at Celina and John's though, we taught her how to cook her first Aussie BBQ, she loved doing this.

Cooking the BBQ

Miho with Celina

Miho had a lovely time at Celina's, Celina thought she was lovely because she was so girly and having two boys herself I think she found her quite "novel". It wasnt long after Melbourne Cup day that she was with us and Celina had made herself a hat. Miho just loved it and was so excited when Celina said that she could keep it, Miho loved anything pink.

Miho and Renee with her gorgeous hat!

We also took her to Bredyl's Reptile Park in Renmark, where she experienced her first snake holding. She was so scared, Renee didn't think much of that either. Funny though Aaron though it was fantastic.

At Bredyl's Reptile Park - Renmark

Our first experience of exchange was fantastic, hard work with the communication but we absolutely loved it. She was so delightful....we still occassionally get emails from her, which is just fab!