The Exchange Experiment Student

I love sharing our home with people.  We haven't had anyone living with us for almost 2 years!  Derek has been a bit hesitant to invite in strangers.  In his line of work he sees only the worst experiences.  But, finally he conceded to have 2 Japanese exchange students for 2 weeks.  We went with Experience America Homestays, since they give you a stipend to feed and entertain the students.  I'm pretty sure we spent most of the stipend on said food and entertainment, so this isn't a way for us to necessarily make money, but it was really a perfect experience!
It was great because:
1.  I had to cook breakfast and dinner.  Everyday.  My cooking muscles were quite flabby after I instituted frozen food Tuesday and dinner out Thursday during the spring while I was teaching.  Then we were vacationing.  I was happy to have a reason to get cooking again, even if it did seem tiresome for the first few days until we got into the groove (and took them out to dinner a few times, LOL.)
2.  We had to take them out and show them Seattle!  This was a great excuse to get moving and do some of the touristy things that are fun in Seattle that we never seem to get around to.
3.  These girls LOVED our kids.  Playing with our kids (especially on the trampoline) was all they wanted to do.  They ran around, tickled, teased, had stuffed animal fights, and generally would be ideal babysitters.  I really could have just let them jump on the trampoline the whole time they were here and they would have been happy.
4.  They told me my food was delicious.  Every meal.  My kids NEVER do that.  Okay, almost never.

The girls has school every morning and excursions with their school group on several days.  So we got to entertain them only about 1/2 of the evenings they were here.  We chose some simple favorites.

Anthony's Beach Cafe in Edmonds.  They love cheeseburgers.  But they eat everything with knife and fork.  They didn't pick up any food with their fingers.  

It was hard for them to get a real picture of the beauty of Edmonds beach with the smoke in the air from BC fires.  

Derek taught them to skip rocks. 

Cafe Rio and Coldstone Creamery.  They thought Cafe Rio was way too spicy.  Poor things had tongues burning!  They liked ice cream! 

We walked along Alki beach to get the views of Seattle.  

The thing they videoed the most was bowling.  They really thought it was fun.  One of them had been bowling before, the other hadn't.  I think they filmed every frame they bowled.  

Derek and I played on our own lane without bumpers.  We played best 2 of 3.  We were tied 1 and 1.  But Derek pulled way ahead and beat me by a mile in the last game.  

I thought they would love shopping at the outlet mall.  They did like looking around, but they didn't buy anything there.  I, on the other hand, did.  Hmmmm...

Disney store was a big favorite.  But their true favorite was the Anime store.  Go figure?

Both girls patiently let Libby give them pedicures.  She was so excited for this!  

Twice they got to cook food over the campfire.  Burn ban?  What burn ban?

We had one whole Saturday with the girls.  We took them to Wallace Falls and we hiked to the Upper Falls.  2.8 miles each way.  (This sign was part way up.)  It definitely tired them out, but they did it! 

On the way up, Sarah got really tired.  The cute student on the right in this picture's "mother heart" was on her sleeve.  She helped Sarah (physically holding up her backpack and helping her over roots, etc.)  It was so cute.  

The Norton Reading Challenge happened while the students were in town.  They got to witness the chaos of a Norton competition.  I'm sure they understood about 5% of what was going on, but they got to hear a lot of spoken English!  

Bffs right here!  On their last night, I asked what they wanted to do.  They wanted to bring friends over to jump on the tramp.  They also played dress up in Sarah's dresses.  

When we said goodbye, there were tears shed!  It was a really fun experience and I hope we can do it again next summer!