Yuki is from Nitta, near an industrial city, but her father is a farmer. I met a very quiet Yuki in 1997 when she and Chihiro came to Rosehill College for a year to improve their English.
They would come after school to use the computers and I ended up helping them with their English in the monthly reports they had to email to Japan.
When I found out that they had never been to the ocean we brought them out for a surf. We had to force them to cross the black sand beach in bare-feet, since they thought it was mud.
They spent 10 minutes screaming because the ankle-deep water was so COLD before making the plunge and then we couldn't get them to come out. Instead of saying "hello" I insisted that they would greet me by saying "Third Rock From The Sun", the "r's" posing a real struggle for them.
I hugged them and Yuki shied away. But 6 months later when I reurned from 3 months away, she gave me the biggest hug I have ever had.
They travelled down to Rotorua and survived, so they then tackled Australia on their own and came back with hair-raising stories.
For the past two years Yuki has been at university in Kyoto studying English and living on her own. She takes 20 subjects and says that she likes
linguistics best. She loves to drive whenever she can get the chance. We taught her Chinese Checkers and she brought a game back for her brother and taught the whole family how to play.
I was surprized when she asked me to help organize a trip to the States, which she will be doing this month and is why I am making her August's Malley-Mate. Going to be spending at least one week in Minnesota
with my family and friends.
Update 2008:Yuki did make the trip to Minnesota and a few years back she came back to New Zealand in 2004 to visit. She learnt sign language. She currently is teaching in Japan. |
