10 on 10 Photography Circle - August

For the past two and a half weeks we have been hosting a Japanese exchange student....hence the reason there have been no blog posts for the past few weeks....busy, busy!!!

So this months 10 on 10 Photography Circle is dedicated to our exchange student!!

Make sure you follow the link at the end to pop over to Steph's blog and follow the circle around until you are back to me!!

Through our local council there is a program where students from our sister city of Fujieda, Japan, come out here for three weeks....we host a student and then in September/October Miss 16 travels to Fujieda to spend three weeks with our exchange student and her family.

So for the weeks prior to our students arrival there were council meetings to attend and a whole lot of cleaning to be done!  Negotiations had to be made with Miss 14 to vacate her room and everyone was reminded to be on their best behaviour (that translates to hubby had to curb his swearing!!) 

Finally the day came and she arrived!!!

  Despite being an only child she has been fantastic with all the siblings, 
especially Miss 6!!  Origami lessons in full swing!

Breakfast on day one we introduced her to Vegemite!  She very politely said that 
it was delicious...but she is yet to ask for more!!!

There are a few functions we get to attend through the local council....welcome morning teas, dinner with the mayor.....and none other than a bush dance....yeehah!!

Showing them some local fun!

A spot of sightseeing....they were amazed by the views.....and I was freaking out that they were too close to the edge!!!!

We walked across the Harbour Bridge, did the pylon tour and then walked under
the bridge for some lunch!

The Blue Mountains blew their mind!  They loved the views despite the fact that it was 
still only about 2 degrees at 10am!!

She has loved learning to cook in the Thermomix....Anzac biscuits one day, 
beef stroganoff the next!!

She said that onesies were not a big thing in Japan so a trip to the onesie store was in order....as was a sleepover with miss 16's friend and her exchange student all in their onesies!!

She turned sweet 16 while staying with us so a cupcake for breakfast to celebrate!!

I'll admit that I was really unsure about the whole exchange student thing.....for starters there are already seven of us in a tiny three bedroom house, then there were the potential language barriers and the fact that I love to put my pyjamas on at 4pm in winter!!

Our home is where we retreat after busy days and long hours of work for hubby.  It is where nobody seems to be able to put the toothpaste away or change a toilet roll, dishes never make it to the dishwasher without constant reminding and washing the sheets is not as regular as it should be!!  So yeah I was definitely a bit apprehensive about the whole thing.

But I'd have to say now that the whole experience has been totally amazing for our whole family.  We may have hit the jackpot because her English is brilliant and she fits in so well with the whole family so there are no awkward moments if Miss 16 is not around.  She laughs at hubby's lame jokes and she has graciously eaten every meal given to her.....in actual fact I am thinking of keeping her!!!

It has only been two and a half weeks but it is going to be hard to say goodbye to her at the end of this week!


And here's a sneaky 11th photo!!!

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Make sure you check out Stephs photos of the beautiful Botanic Gardens by visiting her blog here and keep following your way around the circle!