Youth Exchange Visit, a personal account

We were standing at Birmingham Airport with slight apprehension what will she be like, will she like us, and will we like her?

For those of you out there who have hosted an exchange student you will understand the thought process of waiting for the young person to arrive who is going to become part of your family life for the next few days.

Last year when the district officer came to talk to our club about Youth Exchange, Terry and I were very keen to take part in this wonderful Lions activity and there we were one year on waiting for the experience to begin.

Yumiko Otani, aka Yumi came into our home with courtesy, enthusiasm for the British way of life and the idea that we only ate fish and chips, curries and no fruit or vegetables. She was amazed that for her first meal she ate lasagne followed by a choice of fresh fruit. Even more amazed the following day when we had a prawn stir fry eaten with chopsticks.

The British weather, ever the nations favourite subject, caused many problems with the type of activities we had planned. Luckily the first few days were beautiful and allowed us all to go for lovely walks with our dog. Yumi thought that the atmoshere was wonderful because Japan at this time of year had high humidity; she delighted in the open spaces and the abundance of trees. Then down came the rain and even more rain!

Shopping beckoned and a visit to Birmingham and a few days later, Merry Hill, wore my feet out with Yumi yearning for more. How would she fit all the extra items into her suitcase was not my worry; it was more how would I fit all the bags into the boot of my car!

Kinver Edge with its Rock homes, Whitley Court with its impressive fountain, Harvington Hall and the priest holes, Sainsburys with the amazing choice of apples, we counted 9 different types, and Morrisons with all the variety of beers, everything fascinated her. HP and Worcester sauce, even horseradish sauce was tried with eagerness. Sadly fish and chips failed to impress but traditional Sunday roast Lamb with all the trimmings wowed her. My family arrived with their usual laughter, incessant chatter and high spirits wanting to learn more about Japan. We were all given a gift of our names written in Japanese followed by their Japanese meaning. After lunch an origami lesson entertained us with varying degrees of skill producing, what was meant to be, a stork.

Sadly the visit was coming to a close, we had seen We Will Rock You in Birmingham, eaten at our favourite Chinese restaurant and had a social with Bromsgrove Lions, and another with Birmingham Chinatown. We had been to a Dog Agility class, not even known of in Japan and visited Warwick Castle, what a wonderful 10 days.

The day came for Yumi to go to Keele to join the other students. Tears flowed as we said goodbye and after she had gone I went into her bedroom to find presents and a letter that expressed her thanks and love to us. The letter is private but an extract will sum up the experience: “ this was the most amazing ten days of my life”

What more can I write except “Sayonara”

Lion President Helen White
Bromsgrove Lions