4 Weeks Homestay In North Carolina

The smell of the T-shirt brought back memories of 4 weeks homestay in North Carolina.

I still remember the voices of people I spent time with.

“I take it black, like my men!”

“Relax!”

“Funny!”

“It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.”

“Neat!”

I still remember the blooming crepe myrtles, the huge beautiful oak trees, and the red-throat humming bird chasing away others from his feeder.

I went there with ten exchange students and a college leader on Labo international exchange program with 4-H. Thanks to excellent 4-H stuffs, I have to admit that my job as a chaperon was quite easy. So I decided to enjoy my homestay.

I stayed with three families. My first host was a pilot, recently came back to his hometown with his Thai spouse. He told me about his job, household, family, ancestors, their plan to move, and many other things. He introduced me to his relatives and took me to the church and his ancestor’s graveyard. He also took me to “the field trips”. We went to the fire station, the construction site, and county office to get the license plate for his “brand new old used car”. He was always joking. He became one of my favorite left-handed people.

And his Thai spouse! He was a good cook and “a lady’s man”. We spent great time cooking Thai food and Japanese food. Cooking rice balls together was one of my best memories. He took me to community college and we took ESL classes together with students from different countries. I enjoyed the classes very much. Students talked and asked questions a lot in the classes. They were friendly and very kind to me. Studying abroad was one of my dreams and I liked it very much! In the afternoon, he took me to his favorite shops and we enjoyed shopping. He was the best mail company for shopping I’ve ever had. We enjoyed walking and bike cycling, too. I’ve never felt that refreshed and relaxed in my life.

My second host family keeps me busy for the next week with shopping, visiting parks, going to the movie, and so on. The family have three daughters. The eldest were going to enter the university in other state, the second were going to enter public residential high school, and the third started her first year in high school. I am thankful for accepting me in that busy time. I went to the second one’s high school and attended the guidance for families with them. I learned a lot about their school system. Not so many Japanese have ever done this, I guess.

At school cafeteria, one of the seniors came to three daughters’ table and talked for a while. This never happens in Japan. I saw many super friendly people in NC. When I visited Biltmore house, the largest home in America, I saw a woman with a little dog sitting on the bench next to my bench. While I was sitting there drinking lemonade and watching people for thirty minutes or so, at least three people came to her and talk to her. Even in first food shop counter, they talk. Later, when I went shopping with the third family’s hostess, she said she was tired and would sit on the chair and wait for me looking around. When I came back to her ten minutes later, she was talking with a stranger. After we went out from the shop, she told me that he told his life story to her!

I spend the last week in the second host family’s relative’s house. The couple in the house already retired and came back to their farm, and are living in the beautiful house. They were full of hospitality and made my last week fulfilling. In NC, trees were big and beautiful and birds were colorful. They showed me around their farm, beautiful mountains and famous gardens and told me a lot about trees, birds, flowers and butterflies. I took notes every day. I noted down 21 species of trees, 15 species of birds, 3 species of wild flowers, 3 species of reptiles, 3 species of mammals, and 5 species of invertebrates. I’m sorry that I can’t stay there for the whole year. I wish I could see blooming dogwoods and coloring baldcypresses. We spent morning and evening in the porch sitting on the rocking chairs and watching birds. I miss it very much.

When I think about people I met, I still cannot find the word to express my feeling. My heart is too full for words. I learned something important in my life. Love of everyday life, family, our roots, nature…. Our time is short. There is no time to waste with quarreling, depressing or whatever.

In the air plane on my way back, I watched two beautiful movies. I enjoyed them very much, not because my progress in hearing. I know people now. They are just like us even we speak different, look different and behave different. We love our life, family and culture. I laughed at the hush puppy joke in the movie titled “Chef” and it made me happy because I noticed that we cannot laugh at jokes when we don’t understand each other’s culture.