ハワイ・オアフ島の南東部に位置する、落ち着いた住宅地であるカイルアとハワイ・カイ地区に滞在する学生たちから、ホームステイの様子についてレポートが届きました。

My Host Family
Mai Rikiishi

I will write about my homestay experience. I'm staying in Kailua. Kailua is so far from the university, but it is a very nice town, because there are beautiful beaches. In addition the local people are friendly and tell me the way when I get lost. I love Kailua. My host Family is Keith, Kathy, Rosie and Rina. They are very kind. Also, they have three dogs. They are so cute.I feel happy that I came to this house because Kathy's cooking is very good. I look forward to dinner every night. Often Keith drives me to places in Kailua. I also enjoy shopping and looking at the sea. Rosie recommends movies for me to watch. She lent me a lot of movies. I want to improve my English by watching movies. I can't speak English well，but my host family always listens patiently. They sometimes teach me English. I can learn from my conversations with them. I'm going to work harder and I want to talk a lot. I will move in June. Although I will be lonely, I want to make many memories by then. My host family loves Japan. They have been to Japan twice. I would like them to know more about Japan, so I want to make Japanese food for them. I'm looking forward to that day. I want to enjoy the rest of my time as much as possible.

Homestay
Rina Sugahara

I live in an area called Hawaii Kai. It takes about an hour by bus to get to school. The area is a residential. Also, I can see the mountain called Kokohead from my host family's house. This mountain is said to be the hardest to climb in Oahu, so I really want to climb it. My homestay family is my mother, Santa and Shiho. My host mother is busy because she has to work on weekdays, but she eats dinner with us. Santa is grandpa living in this house with us. My host mother and Santa are very friendly and showed me photos of when they went on a trip together. When I talked with my host mother, she told me that she is like my mother. Also, she encouraged to me when I said that I couldn't understand English well and that I was sad when I couldn't express myself properly. She is very kind. Her cooking is very tasty, so I'm always looking forward to dinner time. My homestay house has many different things from a Japanese house. For example, I wear shoes in the house. Also the washing is done once a week. At first it noticed lots of things that are different from Japan and I was often puzzled about what to say in English every day, but after about 3 weeks, I got used to my life. However, I want to talk with my mother because I want to know more about her, and I want to learn English by talking. I would like to be able to talk with her, teachers and local people in the remaining 4 months.