Thanks Baglady… At least I know there’s someone out there that doesn’t think I’ve scarred her for life! 
But she’ll still be dependent on Daddy, I think, since he buys her everything she says “ga hoshii” about… Obaachan does too, come to think of it. (I sent her to live with the rich side of her family, see… haha! The only reason she wants to come back to America is no more Saturday school! :))
A girl
Thanks everybody, we are really looking forward to this. It’s going to be a great experience for both of us. They have a handful of foreign students, including French, Italian, British and Turkish, so I think Nicholas will get a wonderful opportunity to meet people from many cultures. And it only costs about $100 a month! If we wanted to do this in the States, we’d probably have to go to a mondo expensive private school. What a lucky kid!
A girl, don’t worry a bit what other people say. Ask yourself, would they say the same thing about your husband, if he left her to live with you? Probably not. And definately offer postcards. Pretty please? I’ve only been to Japan once, and that was when I was a toddler so I don’t remember it.
Thanks Tatertot, and you’re exactly right. She lived with me after the divorce from two years old to eight years old, and did anyone bother her father about that?? Nope! My own mom had the nerve to say what a great dad he is because he’d been taking care of her for a whole year! Ain’t he special?? His mom is actually the one doing all the dirty work. Anyway, sorry, another mini-rant, I should be thinking good thoughts.
And as for postcards, I’ve been meaning to make a post about that, so I’ll do that soon. My writing is really, really bad, and I’ve been kinda embarrassed to offer, haha!
A girl
I have lived for 48 years in Southern California, where it’s just about impossible (unless you are arch-conservative “Anglo”) not to pick up some Spanish. We learned some vocabulary and grammar in grade school in the late 50s; but in the last two years, at the urging of a vocational conselor in the California Department of Rehabilitation, I took college courses in Spanish. In high school I took four years of French–I had to choose French or something else when a school counselor told me I couldn’t get into the school band. (Oddly enough, the only French-speakers I had any regular contact with were a couple in Redondo Beach with three kids: the parents were from Montreal and spoke English with a Canadian French accent. Their kids grew up in Southern California and not only spoke English without a French accent, but–unlike the parents–the kids couldn’t understand me when I spoke French to them.)
I worked for 10 years with a German-born carpenter; he filled me in on some German vocabulary and grammar, and I assisted him with some American English pronunciation and usage. He knew a German couple in Santa Monica with two small children, and the mother’s mother (spoke only German) and a Mexican maid (spoke only Spanish). I bet those two little kids grew up in Santa Monica learning fluent English, fluent German and fluent Spanish!
I learned Esperanto on my own, and even have a Bible in Esperanto. Unfortunately, contact with other Esperantists–like social contact for me in general–is rare. 
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Yo hablo español tambien, pero es no bién; yo tengo el clase de español por un año en mi escuela (yo tengo quince años.) Es por qué yo hablo español divertido.
¿Dónde están mis pantalones? Hay un pez grande en mi cabeza.
Beau pantalon!
Filipinos (and Indonesians, etc) share a lot of things with Polynesians. Language of course being the biggie:
Coconut: Tagalog: niyug (niyog), Hawaiian: niu
Bow and Arrow: Tagalog: pana, Hawaiian: pana
eight: Tagalog: walo, Hawaiian: walu
And yep, we Filipinos also eat Taro too. Except we dont pound it to death and eat it with our fingers :). In My grandfather’s home province there’s several varieties. Gutaw is used for its leaves, which are eaten (boiled in coconut milk, or used as a wrap, kind of like the grape leaves in dolmas). Wahig is used for its roots which is usually cooked for desserts or snacks. The tuber of gutaw is used as a veggie. Tagalogs call taro gabi.
go here:http://www.tribo.org/vegetables/gabi.html to read more.
Oh, I live near Monterey in California.I remember in HS we had enough Hawaiians and Samoans, that in cultural presentations there would be Hula dances. Also, my friend Ann was in a Hula dance troupe (i’m forgetting the proper name for it). Hawaiians arent as numerous as Samoans are, but well, there’s enough here to make enough of a presence ;).