I recently interviewed sophomore Elly Guzikowkl on her experiences hosting a Japanese exchange student from our sister school in Nichinan, Japan. This is the verbatim transcript from the interview:

Q: What was it like hosting the exchange student? What did you enjoy about hosting?

A: It was a really good time. She was really friendly and we got along fine. It was really interesting to see her reactions to new things that she hadn’t done before in Japan, and also to sort of, observe the different habits she had.

Q: You said “reactions to new things”, can you give an example?

A: Pumpkin carving. In Japan they don’t have Halloween, so while she was staying in our house we carved pumpkins together, and she made a jack o’lantern for the first time. That was cool.

Q: What were some of the similarities and differences between you guys?

A: We had a similar taste in music. We listened to a lot of music, because we couldn’t really communicate, there was a language barrier – google translate worked fine, but still. So we listened to a lot of music together.

Q: Rad. Were there any significant downsides to hosting her?

A: No, none at all.

Q: So you would recommend the experience?

A: Yeah, it was a good time.