Our Welcome Party!

Our Welcome Party

Our neighbors threw us a welcome party this past Sunday.  In the morning we heard our mailbox make noise, so we knew to check it.  Inside were two envelopes from the kids (Rinne and Sena) down the street. 

I love how they spelled Chloe's name "Crawley".  On the envelope to the left, there is a quote "Midnight Parade, Here is the world that you know.  And, here is the world that you don't know."  I thought that was an appropriate quote given our situation.  They also included a map of the houses on the street along with the family last name, so I know who lives where.  How sweet!

Around noon some of them came to take us to the party, which was really nice, since I wasn't too sure what house the party was at.  When we entered the house, we had to take off our shoes.  Everyone's shoes were pointed towards the door, so when it was time to leave, it's easy just to slip your shoes on and go.  Crocs are really popular over here by the way.  Katherine has the same shoes as some of the other girls in the neighborhood!

We went upstairs to the party.  There were low tables set up on the floor and mats for us to sit on.  On the table there was a ton of food and two portable burners that the women were making soup in.  I am not sure of all the ingredients, but I saw them put in chicken, beef, cabbage, acorn squash, flour balls, octopus, and pork.  We told them about Killian's food allergies and it turned out he couldn't have the soup because there was something with egg in it.  A few minutes later, Killian had his own special pot of soup, with no eggs!  It was so thoughtful of them!  We didn't ask them to make him some, but they did!

The women and children sat at these tables and the men sat at a table higher up.  When the food was done, the women served the food to the men.

Everyone (adults and kids) is so interested in the kids.  They like to feel their hair and like touching Chloe's cheeks!  They also like to pick Chloe up, she's not a big fan of that and usually starts crying until they put her down or give her to me. 

After we were done eating, one of the girls used her cell phone and a translation app to ask Katherine if she wanted to go play.  So off we went outside to play!  I am amazed at how well the kids play without being able to speak the same language!  They had fun playing catch, finding a tiny frog (she's holding it in her hand in the picture below), and playing on the playground. 

I passed out suckers to all the kids, but they didn't know what any of the flavors were.  The only flavor they recognized me saying was mango, so they all had a mango sucker!  After the mango suckers, it was time to play some more at the party.  Everyone was sitting around talking when two of the kids started to arm wrestle.  Everyone started to watch and really got into it.  Katherine, Killian and Jeff all arm wrestled and did very well.  One of the girls (the one holding the frog above) let Killian win everytime!  It was so nice for everyone to get excited about it and pay attention, they weren't distracted by anything else.

They were very curious about what we like when it comes to entertainment.  One of the guys was so happy to hear we like Harry Potter.  He read all of the books and loved them, just like us.  He is also a huge fan of Johnny Depp, Spiderman, Superman and Batman.  He was asking the kids if they liked Spiderman, I think that one was his favorite.  At lunch the girls were asking us if we liked Lady Gaga and Avril Lavigne.  They had never heard of Taylor Swift though.  We had shown the kids some Japanese cartoon movies, "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Ponyo" directed by the famous Hayao Miyazaki, before we came, and the everyone was thrilled we had seen them!  

During the party Katherine asked if she could go out on the balcony.  I told her it was alright and somehow she got all of the other kids out there with her!  She's a natural born leader!!

They are also very interested in our ages.  The lady above is the same age as my mom and she was very excited about it! 

It was also quite toasty there.  They don't run the air conditioner like we do at home, that's for sure!  As you can see in the picture above, the lady has a towel wrapped around her head to catch the sweat!  In some of the other pictures above, you can see towels draped around their necks and they use them to wipe off their faces.

We had some ice cream for dessert while at the party.  The ladies knew Killian couldn't have ice cream (because of his milk allergy), so they sent some of the kids out to get popsicles for him!  Jeff has been looking for popsicles, but everything he found had milk in it, which is no good for Killian.  Now we know what store to go to!  It made Killian's day to have a popsicle and once again, it was so kind of them to go out of their way for us!

It was a lovely party and we are so lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful, thoughtful people!