YOUTH EXCHANGE:
Report from Nagasaki

This month I celebrated my 18th birthday, my host mom's 54th birthday, the Rotary Christmas party and Christmas with my host family.

My host mother's birthday was 2 days before mine and we celebrated it by having cake and hanging our around the house.  On my birthday my host sister and I went to an orchestra concert that I was invited to by a Rotary guest.  The concert was one of the coolest things.  All the musicians were extremely talented and mesmerizing.  They also had a choir singing along to the songs by Mozart.

After the concert we went to Coco Walk (a nearby shopping mall) and went shopping!  Then we met up with the rest of my host family at a pasta restaurant and had dinner.  Then at the end of dinner my host family surprised me with ice cream cake from Baskin Robins!  It was so good and because we had extras we shared it with the people eating next to us.  Then we went home and I opened by presents from my host family.  I got a new backpack and some new pajamas!  I was so happy and I felt so special that I get to spend my birthday in Japan.

Christmas was a week later and I celebrated it with my host family and the Church they run.  Because of the Church and how hectic it was our Christmas was mostly spent hanging out in the church but it was still fun and we were able to spend time with lots of people.

Since I have been off of school for Christmas break for awhile I have had lots of time to relax and spend time with my host family.  And, as I think you all know, I went with the host mother and 2 sisters (Meguni and Stoko) to Busan, South Korea! 

How was everyone's new years? Since I have been off of school for Christmas break for a while I have had lots of time to relax and spend time with my host family! And, as I think you all know I went with my host mother and 2 sisters (Megumi and Satoko) to Busan, South Korea! 

This trip was probably the most fun trip I have ever been on! We left from Hakata port at about 1:00 on the 26th and took a boat for about 6 hours to the Busan port. We arrived there at about 6:00 and meet up with a travel group that drove us and a couple other people to the Busan Tourist hotel where we checked into our rooms and then headed out in search of dinner. Dinner that night was an adventure for my host family and I. We had a small book of recommended places and we pick one out of the list and went in search of it. It took about 20 minutes to walk to the restaurant and another 10 minutes to find it. But the searching was well worth the wait! We had a noodle dish with lots of Kimchi (really hot fermented cabbage) It was very good.

After dinner we walked to the the Busan Tower that wasn't to far away and took some pictures and just looked around. After that we walked down a really popular shopping street that was covered in Christmas lights. We think that there was a church even going on at the time because there were stages and many Church speakers around. One really odd thing I noticed about the shops on this street is that they were all hiking name brands like Columbia, North face, and so on. I think that's becoming the style in Korea (at least in Winter because it was extremely cold there!) After walking around and taking more pictures we walked back to the hotel, at some ice cream and then went to bed!

The next day we got up about 8 and got ready and had breakfast (bread from Family Mart) Then we meet some of my host mothers friends who are currently living in Korea with their son and Daughter (Erimu and Urimu). Then they took us to the large Aquarium in Busan where we walked around and admired all the fish! After that we went to have lunch at another noodle shop and then to a nearby coffee shop where we said our goodbyes to my host mothers friends and took a goodbye photo.

After saying goodbye we spend the rest of the day SHOPPING! This was so much fun and such a treat because the exchange rate from Dollars to Korean money is really good while from USD to JY is still not good. So because of this I did a lot of shopping I hadn't been able to do in Nagasaki yet! Which was really nice. that night we found another really popular restaurant that was packed! It was amazing! But the food was worth it and we had a blast. 

On the last day we spent the morning packing and then went out for some last minute shopping and gift buying. We got back to the hotel at about 4 and by 5 we loaded another bus that took us to the Busan Port. We boarded the boat at about 8:00 but the boat didn't leave port until 10:30. Luckily I was able to sleep the whole ride and so it felt like we never even left! Although the boat landed at about 3:00 we couldn't get off until 8 because of customs. After customs and all that my host father meet us and took us to have lunch with my host grandparents.

And that was the end of Korea! But something special Megumi and I are doing for each other is making a scrap book of our trip! I'm almost done but Meg is still swamped with homework and is quite busy now that schools starting soon. 

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! :)

For new years we celebrated it by having Church friends over and eating traditional New years food! We had a big assortment from tofu, Miso soup,  and eggs covered with this kind of meat (I'm not sure of the name..) and much more. Unfortunately after dinner I was feeling very sick so I went to bed early, but by the next morning I was feeling much better and I was able to have lunch with more Church friends and go meet my host cousins and have dinner with them and their families!

I am really so grateful to everyone here and back home who are always taking care of me and wishing that I have an excellent time here in Japan. So here is a big thanks to all of you guys back at home and to The Rotary Youth exchange and St. Paul Rotary. You guys are the best!!!

I hope you guys all had a great new year and that all resolutions work out! 

Angela (Anjii) Schwartz