Hosting A Foreign Exchange Student

hey guys, so i know that i said that i would start making videos soon after igot to japan and i know it's been, um, three weeks since i arrived in japan but i promise that in addition to procrastinating i do actually have a pretty goodreason for not making videos until now

Hosting A Foreign Exchange Student, actually a couple pretty reasons so so i thought that i would make my first video a storytelling video. i'm gonna try to keep this short but i have a feeling it might get alittle long so

you've been warned. so a little backstory in case you didn't know when i was 16 i went on a exchange for twoweeks in high school to yokohama so first i had 2 girls stay with me in the spring time for 2 weeks and then i stayed actually with my roommate's host brother at his house for two weeks in thesummertime. my host family was super awesome and it was probably thebest vacation i've ever been on in my life. we went to the fireworks, we ate so much, went shopping, um,

on trips and i drank so much melon soda. so. much. melon. soda. so fast forward acouple years and i finally registered for five monthsabroad to japan and i'm super excited and of course i optfor the host family option instead of the residence becausewell after the experience i had i can't imagineanybody who would still want to stay in residence. i also wanted the optimal japanese learning experience so i thought that beingimmersed

in the language with family that spokemostly japanese would be a perfect way to pick up japanese phrases pretty fast of course i didn't expect it to be exactlylike my last year because i was only here for two weeksand that would be unsustainable but i was hoping for a similarexperience just a little toned-down when i arrived at my first host family's house it was about 8 o'clock in the evening after 13 hoursof flying after introducing ourselves i was prettymuch immediately bombarded with rules while i understand that rules are important

which they are because im staying forlong term, it was almost too much for me to take in.especially after having traveled for so long i kind of shrugged that off, but as the days on i was quickly dispelled thenotion that i could have a host family anything like my old host family was. it was pretty lonely and the only time that i ever heard anybody speaking the house was when i heard the other girls who were also home staying there getting yelledat for using

too much hot water or turning their heaters too high which is kind of crazy considering that our hostfamilies are actually being paid to be our host families so after one week of this i had prettymuch had enough and i requested to change they told me to wait an extra week to see ifit got any better but i mean, if you're looking for family lifeand the family that you're put into justdoesn't have that kind of family life and you probably not going to get thatfamily life by just telling the family

you want to be part of the family, like it doesn't really work that way i heard so many stories have people whohave gotten host families that they loved and they spend time withand it was super awesome and so i thought to myself "it couldn'tget any worse, right?" i was wrong. i was really, reaaally wrong. so the next family that i stayed with i like to call them the host family fromhell. why? you'll see. so, it was a mother and daughter whostayed in a tiny apartment that was clearly inadequate to

host two students from abroad i wasintroduced to my room after a long day of traveling that in which is a whole'nother story on its own and was carrying the two suitcases whichis probably more than most people i have a lot of stuff, okay? so i was quickly shown my room which is right at the front of the hallway, and i was kind of taken aback. it was tiny, and even for japanese standards. not only that but itwas full with the bookshelf, a closet and achest of drawers that were all full of their stuff. i was basically sleeping in their storage room.

and i might even add some footage if i have any so you guys can see how tiny was. all ihad was a bed, a desk, and this rack that they had acouple hangers thrown on to indicating that was where i was supposed to hang all my stuff which was ridiculous. it was way to tiny for someone to stay for fivemonths especially. not only that, but her cooking wasn't verygood and i had a curfew. 9 o'clock. *mouths* nooooo.

i instantly knew that this wasn't going to work outbut i didn't want to tell the housing administration until a little bit more time had passedbecause i knew that that's just what they're gonna tell me "oh, you've only been there for me for a day""just see if it works out" so a couple nights after i moved i went to gocheck out the residence with a friend and i was only there for short amount of timebecause of my really early curfew and i left the residence at about 7:40 since i had only gone home

from school once or twice before i wasn'tcompletely familiar with the lines to take home but i thought i knew my way well enough.i was wrong. i accidentally took the right line but inthe wrong direction but only for couple stations before irealized that none of the names on the a screen were recognizable to me so i got off and i switched onto theright line right direction and i actually got tothe station where my house was around by nine o'clock

which is right on my curfew up so i arrived at the apartment at 9:20. so at roughly 9:20, maybe a little bit before i tried to open the door of the apartment with the key that i had and i opened it but it only opened a couple centimeters before stopping, because they have one of those like chain lock things on it. i was like "crap." so i just kind of like stand outside the door until finally, she comes and and without even opening the door, shesays "what time is it?" and her english isn't very good

so she's really abrupt but i have a feeling that even if her english was good, she's probably say something just about just about like that. so i immediatelyapologize and try to explain to her as best as i can with my japanese ability why i was late and that i really didn'tintend to be late and that it was an accident but she wouldn't hearit she watches me through the crack at the door for acouple seconds silent before slamming the door openholding her hand out like this and saying "give me your key." stunned, of course, i do what she says and she lets me in,points to my room

and says "pack your bags." i couldn'tbelieve it so i do, and she stands in the doorway arms crossed, her beady eyes burning holes in my skin as i try to pack my bagsin this super cramped tiny room. i thought that she would saysomething tell me i could finish in the morning..or that she was just trying to scare me. but she wasn't. she just stood there,crossed arms, staring at me. so finally i am done packing my bags andget out into the tiny hallway and she just watchesthe door

close behind me so, there i am in foreign countryeighteen-years-old so technically a minor speaking minimal japanese, with no phoneservice two suitcases and nowhere to sleep. i have to say it's probably one of the scariest moments in my life. so i wheel my suitcases awayfrom her house luckily i knew that there was a ã“ã†ã°ã‚“(koban)a small japanese police station around the corner so i immediatelyheaded there. up until this point

i had been pretty calm because i was inshock, but the moment that i tried to ask the police officer if he had a phone, icompletely lost it i just like started crying, i couldn't pronounce the wordsproperly and he was probably no older than 25 and he had no clue what to do with the cryingforeign girl in his police station. finally i showed him the numbers that i was supposed to call andhe understood and called it for me it was theemergency number for my school i was told to meet at my school in shibuya, which was about a 40 minute train ride from

where i was and so i did. i have some footage of me trying to tell the story the night thateverything happened from my hotel room but it was kind of a mess. i might just add a little clip from there just so you guys can see *groan* ...crazy, i just like, i can't... i can't believe.. in... in what

in what world is this acceptable? and i mean, like i'm still technically a minor here injapan drinking age and everythingtwenty-years-old. like, this is like in canadian terms, like having a 16-year-old girlstaying at your house and kick them out on the street because she home 20 minutes late forcurfew. anyways, the only thing that i can say that is a benefit of this is that like my room this is like thenicest room that i've stayed in like the bed, and they come with these cute little pajamas

like that, and like a nice bath and showerand i don't have to worry about like everything. after all of this i stay in hotel rooms and you can letme see cases at the school and the next day i was put into theresidence likely will my dad was doing hisresidency in california he actually befriended a japanese man well i was staying in the hotel room hewas of course worried and so he emailed him asking if he knew where i could rent anyapartment

my dad's friend was actually so kind as toask if i wanted to stay with his father-in-law near tokyo. and that is where i am right now so as you can probably tell it'sbeen a pretty long road for me to finally feel settled in tojapan but here i am, and yeah i hope you guys enjoyed my storytelling. if you guys want tosee any particular videos, a room tour or school tour or just me and my friends or whatever

just comment or message me or whatever. i love you guys, i miss you a lot and *mwaaah* kay, bye.