Today, I had a dinner with my host family. Since September the time when we had met for the first time, we have exchanged many times and had dinner together several times. This time would be the last time to see at least in the States. Maybe they will visit Japan in the future since they have never been there even though they have hosted several Japanese students, my host mother Carolyn said.

They have had me taken to various restaurants such as a Japanese restaurant or Texas style restaurant. Sometimes it was with their friends. I recall that most of the dinners were steak. In addition, each of them was not inexpensive; these are not the restaurant where the students could go. Every time it was so tasty, and sometimes I had some drinks (today was the fine wine). I窶冦 just grateful for it.

Not only the dinners, but also we have enjoyed some political conversation. Since we share the same interests such as the President Bush, presidential election, foreign policy, social security and so on, we discussed these things a lot. It sounds difficult and just hard to keep the conversation, but it窶冱 not really true.

I asked them a question; why did they decide to host Japanese students? Since I have had a great experience here with them, I am very interested in hosting some international students in the future in Japan. My host father, John, said that they just wanted to help the students out, especially who might have some problems or difficulties to stay or get along with the study here. They have hosted many Japanese students for 15 or 20 years, and some of them are still keeping in touch with them. I thought it is a quite wonderful and respectful idea. I would definitely like to host some international student in the future as they did.

Since today is going to be the last meeting, we talked about my experience this year here. Needless to say, I have experienced a big political event: presidential election. I think I came to the United States at very good timing. A series of events were just interesting. Also, in the academic arena, I got interested in religion. This is kind of connected to the politics, especially the class that I took during the Spring Term. To attend worship with them was also a good experience in terms of the religious practice. In addition to these topics, we talked about our daily stuff. The first time we met, I remember that we were not really able to have a conversation smoothly, but today, I still made some grammatical mistakes, I didn窶冲 really feel any obstacles to talk or state my opinion. It is partly because we have been getting to know each other well, so that relationship makes us much easier to talk. In addition, I would like to affirm that this is also the outcome of this year窶冱 stay; speaking skill has also very much improved, especially compared to the first several month. Thanks to all those who have spoken to me.

When we arrived at the college, Carolyn gave me a hug. I was about to cry. We promised to keep in touch in the future. It was so nice to be given an opportunity to get to know each other during this study, and it is also nice to have kept a relationship until now considering that some of the students didn窶冲 really meet with their host families. Host family and home staying were the one of the necessary elements for me. I look forward to getting the letters from them and sending to them, and hopefully, if possible, I would like to see them again in Japan.