By Margarita Muñoz-Salazar

Every time I meet a new group of Japanese students I am excited to test my Japanese language skills and meet new friends. While talking with Japanese students, I felt thrilled that I was able to practice my Japanese and that they could understand what I wanted to say. While speaking with them, I got excited to see my own progress.

Due to the scheduling we got to meet two different groups of Japanese students in one week. With the KAKEHASHI group I was able to see their presentations on さくら (sakura), しろ (castles), and おりがみ (origami). It was also very fun with this group because they were able to spend a day at my school, DC International. I’m glad that they got to see the difference between American and Japanese schools. For example, in Japan the students stay in one class the whole day while the teachers are the ones to move around. Here in the US it is the opposite. The next day with the group we got to play soccer on the National Mall.

That same Saturday I was able to meet with students from the TOMODACHI group. While exploring the city and eating lunch with them, something that stood out to me was conversing with girls my age from a different country. From talking about things about school and food to TV shows and boyfriends, these are conversations I will remember and look back on happily. Seeing the students’ perspective on my city and how they would take pictures of things that I considered normal (one student actually said that squirrels aren’t common in Japan) made me view DC in a different light and be thankful that I am here. I hope to meet all the new friends I made again.