Youth Exchange report from Japan.
Posted by Zoe Taber on Feb 04, 2017
The following is a letter from Zoe Taber, our Youth Exchange student in Japan, sent just after the New Year's holiday...

Happy New Years from Japan! It has been a great start to 2017. As Japan's biggest holiday, New Year's greetings and celebrations have lasted through this whole month. I started 2017 with my host family on a trip to a small and rural island off the coast of Osaka.
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New Years vacation lasted until January 9th, so I had plenty of time off school to check some items off my bucket list. I visited some art museums with my host family and friends, I got to see and participate in "awaodori" (a traditional Japanese dance), and I went to the hot springs many times with my 2nd and 3rd host mothers.
In school I have been working hard to learn Japanese, and although reading and writing are still very difficult for me, I feel like I am making quick progress. After school I am still learning calligraphy on Mondays, tea ceremony on Thursdays, and oil painting techniques in art club on the other week days. I recently finished a painting of my little sister.
I also participated in a Japanese speech competition with many other exchange students, I did not win anything, but even so I feel proud of myself for being one of the only people who recited their speech from memory, something I never would have thought possible a few months ago.

Five months have already gone which brings me about half way through my exchange! I have to admit it is a little scary how fast time is going by, I hope to make the most of the remainder of this amazing opportunity that has been given to me.
Zoe Taber