1

            My neighbor and I were very close childhood friends. During the years that we played in my backyard, she would tell me about her extensive research and love of Japan. She spoke fluent Japanese and even had several authentic, traditional Japanese clothes that she showed me. By High School, she finally had the opportunity to visit the place of her dreams. It was an exchange program during the summer. By now, our families weren’t as close so we only heard bits and pieces, and all her Mother had said about her visit was that she loved it.

            She went back several times after that, and it was clear she wanted to stay. However, during her senior year, she was accepted to a great college in the south, and it seemed she was putting her Japanese dreams on hold. She was very excited to attend college. Her parents sent her off proudly in a car they gave her a car that she could travel home and back freely. At the beginning, she wrote back eagerly and often, telling of her friends and her classes. This didn’t last for long. Week after week fewer calls came, and finally she stopped calling altogether. Her parents tried to reach her desperately but she could not be contacted.

            Finally, after a month or so, my neighbors finally got ahold of their daughter’s roommate. “Your daughter has moved to Japan,” she told them flatly. Her parents were shocked as they had already paid for her books and college tuition for the year, and had also sent her off without a passport fearing she would flee the country for Japan. Victoria, the daughter, as an eighteen year old and a legal adult had gotten another passport, dropped out of college, and taken off for the country she loved. Her parents had to drive down and pick up her car and all the things she left in the States.

            Months later, her parents receive a Skype call from their other daughter visiting Victoria in Japan. This sister, Brittany Rose, is in her twenties and had recently married. On the call, her parents and Brittany talk about how her trip is going and ask how she is doing. Then Brittany picks up a Japanese baby and bounces it on her lap. “Oh, Brittany are you trying to tell us you’re pregnant?!” her parents ask excitedly. “No, this is Victoria’s baby.” This several month old baby had been hidden from Victoria’s parents for over a year.

            That wasn’t the only secret she had kept from them. It turns out she had found a boyfriend in Japan in high school and had moved to Japan to live with him. At age nineteen she had gotten married in a foreign country without informing her parents of the wedding or even the relationship. The marriage was a wreck. Her husband was abusive and had eventually tossed her out into the streets with the baby. She slept on a park bench for a month with her newborn child. Finally, she contacted her older sister for help. She immediately came to her aid and bought her a flight out of the country.

            Now she and her baby are safe and secure in the U.S. and living with her parents. Victoria, to catch up on her education, is now attending a small, local college. However, she could not have gotten in with a baby, so the baby is home while she is at school. Her younger brother, who is a reckless troublemaker, is now taking care of the baby with both the parents. I assure you this story is true. I heard it in full from the mother of Victoria and I have even held the baby myself. I look forward to years of babysitting my new Japanese neighbor.

2

            During my freshman year my brother hosted an Australian exchange student named Nick. To show him the full glory of America, we constantly took him on trips across our country. This particular trip was to New York. The whole drive there Nick was trying to act nonchalant, as though he wasn’t excited to see the splendor of the Big Apple, a city he had always heard about but never seen. When we arrived Nick’s eyes lit up. He stuck his head out of the window and looked up at the incredible skyscrapers and flashing lights of Times Square.

We first took a bus tour of the city to ensure that Nick saw every important part of it. Then we started to get hungry so we decided to go to a sandwich place nearby that our neighbor had told us about. Carnegie Deli, it was called. Our neighbor said they were the best sandwiches she had ever had. However, we did not have such a great experience. Our sandwiches were too big to finish and kind of gross tasting. The bread was hard and dry, and the meat was tough. Our next agenda on the trip was to walk in Times Square, but it was delayed by our inevitable food poisoning. All of us felt sick and queasy and needed a bathroom fast. After we had found one, we all sat on the curb for a while and regained our strength.

We decided we needed to get the taste out of our mouths, so we headed to a Starbucks. In Starbucks I learned the Australian slang of “as,” as in “that’s gross as,” or “I’m keen as.” I was about to pick up my cup when Nick says, “Watch out, that’s hot as.” We had a good laugh about this phrase and then left for Times Square. We had walked several blocks when Nick reached for his phone in his pocket and yelled, “Wait, I left my phone at Starbucks!” He immediately ran back the way we come not allowing time for pursuit. We walked towards his direction but figured, “He knows where he’s going.” However, we get back to the Starbucks and haven’t seen Nick along the way or in the coffee shop. We start to panic, thinking we lost our Australian. Together, my family and I walk up and down the streets looking for him in the stores and cafés along the way. Just when we were beginning to think the situation was hopeless, my brother spots Nick in a hat store called Lids.

Nick had run to the Starbucks, gotten his phone, and walked back towards us. However, along the way he spotted this hat store that he thought was “heaps cool.” Inside he found some “jumpers,” and hats that were his style. He had gone in without worrying about whether or not we would find him again in this crowded city. While waiting in line to purchase these items that captured his interest, Nick had coincidentally met two other Australians. They were a middle-aged couple visiting New York for a week.

When my family and I found him, he casually greeted us as though we had known his whereabouts the whole time and introduced us to the Australian couple. We all had a laugh at Nick’s eagerness to explore the city and buy New York merchandise.  Although he was almost abandoned in the city, Nick had a great time that day and still talks of the trip often.