Calgary Home Stay Trip - Part 1

I was planning on writing about this later, but I just can’t wait!  I am going to do this subject in parts because I have a lot of photos and it was a week-long trip.  So let’s get started!!!

On March 15^th to March 23^rd, 18 students and 4 teachers (including myself) from Tarui, Japan went to Calgary, Canada to experience Canadian life and to share their Japanese culture with the local community. 

On Thursday, March 15^th at noon, the students, parents, teachers, and important towns people (the town Mayor, for example) met at the Tarui Culture center.  A few people gave a few speeches, like a student, the principal, and the mayor.  It’s interesting because the students stood in two straight rows, the parents were behind the students, and the important town people were on the sides.  I find it interesting because nobody sat down the entire time, and the students put themselves in organized rows for the speeches.  I guess this makes bowing easier!!

I was happy to see that some of the students’ who went to Calgary the year before came out to support the new exchange students.  We loaded the buses, waved our goodbyes, and we were on our way.

We drove for about an hour and then unloaded the bus.

Soon, we caught the Shinkanzen.  We were headed for Shinagawa.  For many students, this would be the first time they have travelled this far.  Most of them have never been on an airplane before.  We ate our packed lunch on the way and saw a spectacular view of Mount Fuji.

Once we arrived at Shinagawa, we were rushed to a Narita Express Train, which took us to the Narita Airport.  At this station we saw a double-decker train!!  Cool!

(Ok, ok.  I thought it was cool.  I was the only person taking pictures of it.  What a tourist I am!!)

Here’s Kumiko (one of the teacher chaperones) and myself, trying to do a “serious” photo and a “silly” photo.

Finally, we arrived at the Narita Airport.

Now you might be saying, why, oh why are you giving such a lengthy explanation?  I wanted to give you an idea of just how long these kids had to travel.  Even getting to the Narita Airport took a long time.  Here’s the duration of the trip so far:

Bus ride: 1 hour

Shinkanzen: 2 ½ hours

Narita Express train: 1 hour 10 minutes

The above times do not include the time we waited for these trains.  So just to get to the airport, we travelled over 5 hours.

We went through security and eventually caught the plane that took us to Vancouver.  After about 10 hours on the plane, we arrived at Vancouver, picked up our bags, went through security and immigration (and all that fun stuff) and caught our final plane to Calgary. 

This whole time, I couldn’t tell you how much the students or teachers slept.  I know I tried to sleep on the plane, but I was so excited that I only had a 30 minute nap.  Every time I saw the students, they were wide-awake and excited.  I didn’t see anyone (except for the teachers) sleeping.

And finally, we arrived in Calgary!  Yeehaw, we were in Cowtown!!

We grabbed our luggage and rushed to our downtown hotel by bus.  The students had one hour to themselves after they received their room key, and I suggested that they napped during this time.  Did they take my advice?  Nope!  Did I take my own advice?  Nope! 

I had students phoning home, students wandering the hotel, students leaving the hotel 10 minutes before our meeting time saying they were going for a run.  (Even though the students were away from home, they wanted to train for their club activity back home, so they wanted to go for a run.)  I was a little nervous that some of them planned to go for a run in downtown Calgary (some of them have never been in a city before and their English is strong, but I don’t know if they could handle an emergency.)  To make matters worse, it was rush hour and the the cars go down the streets on the opposite side of the road.  I don’t know if I felt more worried about their safety or shocked at the fact they were planning to leave the hotel without telling an adult! 

A few times during the trip the students did what they wanted without asking or at least informing an adult, but I understand that in Japan the students are given a lot of responsibilities.  And with these responsibilities come a lot of freedoms and trust, and it’s ok that the students act more independent. 

For example, when were in Banff on Monday, we ate dinner at a restaurant in downtown Banff.  After dinner, the students were told they had “free time” and they had to meet back in the foyer the next day at 6:30am for breakfast.  What, no bedtime curfew?  They were allowed to wander Banff Avenue and go shopping after dark?  I’m not a parent, but my spidey-senses were tingling.  But not surprising, most of the students immediately returned to the hotel to phone home and to “hang out” in the lobby.  The rest went to bed early. 

You see,  we took the “best” students of the second graders on this trip, so I guess the other chaperones didn’t worry about their behavior or whether or not they would get into trouble.  Everything ended up being ok and the trip was fine.  My heart just skipped a beat a couple times.

Anyways, we all met for dinner in the foyer and the boys who went running returned to the hotel, safe and sound and mostly on time.  (It’s at this meeting place I instructed the students that they should inform an adult of their whereabouts in case something were to happen to them…and they mostly remembered to do so.  Mostly…)

We ate dinner at the hotel.  Our first Canadian meal had three entrees.  First, for a salad we had a classic Caesar salad.  For main course, we had breaded Salmon with potatoes and veggies.  And finally, an apple strudel for dessert.  It was our first official meal in Canada!!

Unfortunately, they were very slow in serving us dinner, and it is Japanese custom to wait until everyone is served before eating, so we ended up being late for the reception.

By the time the students and teachers arrived at the reception, I realized that all of us had been up for about 28 hours straight.  I was responsible for leading the reception, and I was so exhausted and excited to be back in Calgary, the whole reception seems like a blur.  I briefly talked about the program, introduced myself, thanked the people involved, and the students sang a song and briefly introduced themselves in English.  (At least I think that’s how it went…maybe not in that order.)  Also, a few people gave speeches and the students and teachers finally got a chance to meet their home stay families for the first time for about 15 minutes.

After the reception, the parents went home and the students went back to their hotel rooms to sleep.

The next day, a bus took the students to their host school.

They brought their luggage and met in the library. 

That morning, the Japanese students were placed in a Junior High Canadian Classroom where they followed the Canadian students around and experienced Canadian school life.  The Japanese teachers were given a tour of the school.

At lunchtime, the Japanese students had a reception in the library.  They had a wonderful buffet lunch with all sorts of treats (which most of the students avoided.  From my experience, Japanese people don’t eat many sweets at all.  I had to practically pass the chips around and tell them that they could eat it later if they wanted).

The students were white-hatted, which means they become official citizens of the Calgary Community during their stay.  I thought this was a big honour because many important people (including political people and famous people) have been white-hatted in Calgary in the past.  The students had to say an oath and were presented with a white cowboy hat to keep. 

There was also a Canadian trivia game in which the students could win Canadian prizes.

Later that afternoon, the Japanese students presented their Large Demonstration to the entire school population.  The home stay families were invited, and the Japanese students were excited (and really nervous!) to present.  The students had worked on this demonstration for over 7 weeks, sacrificing their Saturday afternoons to meet and practice their demonstrations at their school.

The gym had loud music playing and the Canadian students enthusiastically came into the gym.  Many of the Canadian students and teachers were wearing green because the following day was Saint Patrick’s Day.  I think the Japanese students and teachers were very surprised at how loud and excited the Canadian students were.

Finally, the students began their presentations.  The audience was quiet when they needed to be and roared into applause and cheered when the Japanese students finished a part of the demonstration.  I think the cheering probably surprised the Japanese students, but it didn’t throw them off at all.  In fact, I think it gave them a boost of confidence because many of the Japanese students spoke with more expression than usual. 

The presentation was a great success and the students did a fantastic job!  (In fact, the only glitch was that the LCD projector got unplugged during the presentation and it took a moment to reset.)  I was so proud of them!  It’s not easy speaking another language, let alone speaking in front of an entire school whose native tongue is the language you are trying to speak, but the students were very clear and confident.  Yata!!!  (Yippee, Yahoo, they did it!!)

Afterschool, the students left with their new home stay families for the weekend.  The students later told me that they went to a BBQ, they went shopping, skiing, some of them went to the Calgary Tower, the Zoo, Drumheller, so it sounded like the students had a great time with their home stay families over the weekend.

On Monday morning, the Japanese students met at the school library again.  This was the day that they left for an overnight trip to Banff.  This is about the halfway point of our trip, so I will end this post here.  Please check out my next post, because I will continue (and hopefully conclude) the Calgary Home Stay trip post.