Mum’s Youth Hostel is officially open again.
I love to travel
but when we can’t get away
we do the next best thing…
We have the world come to us!
We have our twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth
Japanese Homestay guests living with us at the moment.
Three lovely student nurses from Kyoto
who have never been out of Japan.
We do love the Japanese
Always so polite and calm.
Well, until they accidentally set off the burglar alarm…
then there is much shrieking and panic
on a par with the din from the alarm,
but generally it’s quiet and I adore hearing their giggles!
It’s a big deal to come to Australia.
They arrive with enormous suitcases
often bigger than them.
Empty of course,
as they are here to learn English, to study
and for shopping!
On the drive home on day one
I warm them about the Crazy Poodle
our over enthusiastic pocket rocket of a dog.
The Crazy Poodle launches himself
with all his love and affection,
usually at the one girl who has requested a pet free house.
‘Welcome Home’ I say cheerily!
Their English is often extremely limited
but somehow we get by.
If the going gets really tough we resort to a translator
but mostly I’m become (even if I say so myself)
quite good at acting out what I’m asking.
It’s my version of charades or
an adapted version of ‘animal, vegetable or mineral?’…
‘The dog is barking at a possum in the tree’
more giggles and get me an Equity card please!
I really must do an teaching English as a foreign language course.
I’m getting too old to be seen through the windows
on all fours barking at my husbands leg,
what the neighbours must think!
Oh the fun we have…
Our visitors book is filling up.
Over the past six years
we have opened our home to visitors
from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Germany, America, United Kingdom,
Canada, India, and Bali.
Never a dull moment here!
J is for Japanese
Linking with Alphabe Thursday Thank you to Jenny!