Greetings from Seattle

Greetings from Seattle…
We are off to an exciting start in Seattle!

The students are adjusting well to their home stay life and school life.

They are making new friends in HTC, at Edmonds and Shoreline Community Colleges,

and in the Talk Time conversation circle at church.

On field trips the students have toured Seattle,

visited Safeco Field and watched Ichiro hit a homerun in a Mariners baseball game.

The Edmonds students will also visit University of Washington later in May.

Many students visited the amazing tulip fields,

and some watched the American Indian powwow at Edmonds.

The Japan Culture Club at Shoreline gave a nice welcome party for the HTC students.
The weather has been cool, so the flowers of April – cherry blossoms, tulips, and azaleas have lasted into May, and now rhododendrons are also in full bloom, so both campuses are now very beautiful. The weather will be getting warmer this week – mid-May – just on time for the start of the festival season. This weekend many students will check out the University District Street Fair.

We had a joint Edmonds-Shoreline bowling tournament on May 1, which was a lot of fun.

Taihei Shimizu of Japan Hotel School had the best score.

A lot of students have begun doing sports in their free time – badminton, basketball, baseball, aerobics and running. About 30 students are taking a scuba diving class, and they will begin diving in June.
Classes and English study are a challenge and of course take a lot of time, but the students seem to be enjoying learning new words and expressions, and trying to use their new skills outside of the classroom.

- Neal Colodner, Program Director, Trajal Hospitality & Tourism College, Seattle USA