Rintaro

After having a great experience last summer with our foreign exchange student, Hidetoshi, Brian and I signed up to host another student! Two weeks ago, we hosted a 16-year-old Japanese foreign exchange student named Rintaro for twelve days. While he was here, Rintaro attended English immersion classes and field trips during the days and spent weeknights and weekends with us. We did lots of activities with Rintaro--everything from playing basketball at the park to seeing the Rivercats play baseball to visiting Lake Tahoe. One of Rintaro's favorite parts of the trip was hiking up to Eagle Lake in Desolation Wilderness. After we hiked up to the lake and back down again, we drove a few minutes to Meek's Bay to kayak. Rintaro had never been kayaking before and seemed to really enjoy it! That is, until we hit fierce winds on our return back to the beach. I don't know about Brian and Rintaro, but I was seriously regretting having paddled so far out! Rintaro even remarked that his arms were sore from paddling! Here are a few pictures from Rintaro's visit.

Rintaro and the firefighters at Station #41

Rintaro--"firefighter in training"

Playing Wii

Sunday chores: Mowing and edging the lawns!

Brian, Jennie & Rintaro at Eagle Lake

Kayaking in Meek's Bay

Playing basketball at a local park

Enjoying the Rivercats game