Maria Rydberg

Charles Haga

COMM 200

May 4, 2023

Adopt an Exchange Student

Nonoka Itabashi. She hates anything with cinnamon and mint chocolate. She loves bitter

coffee and milk tea. She loves teaching me Japanese. She loves me being her English teacher.

Although, I would not say that I excel at teaching. After many attempts, Nonoka still cannot say

“girl” without it sounding like “gull.” However, she now understands that when I say something

“sounds fun” it is sarcasm. I did not, in fact, mean that her breaking both ankles in track and

field and being stuck in a wheelchair “sounds fun.”

She dislikes most of Wilkerson’s food because it is too salty. Her favorite food from the

dining center is chicken nuggets. She loves wearing sweatshirts and the color black. Although

she must get rid of most of the sweatshirts she bought here in America because they are

considered pajamas in Japan.

She loved getting stranded in a random field trying to experience the northern lights.

She loved getting hot chocolate and going stargazing. She had never seen that many stars in the

night sky or even been in that dark of an area before without light pollution. Although through

this stargazing experience, she discovered that she hates geese. I will not go into detail.
 She loved learning to ice skate for the first time. Nonoka was surprisingly good for being

new to the whole concept. Although, I will say my arm was sore for 2 weeks after that event

from pulling her around on the ice. She was also confused as to why Americans bought Dairy

Queen Blizzards in the winter and why some people would wear shorts. Overall, I think she

enjoyed her first winter here. She had never seen so much snow in her life before coming to

Grand Forks, North Dakota. Nonoka built her very first snowman standing at 6’3’’ and made her

first snow angel. She really enjoyed me pushing her off the top of a snow pile and getting hit in

the face with a block of ice. I really think it’s the highlight of her whole exchange experience.

She especially loved coming to my home for an American Thanksgiving in November of

2022. She finally saw the famous cat with which I spammed her with photos of every day. She

discovered her love of green bean casserole and caramel monkey bread. Nonoka loved being

forced to watch popular American movies. She also loved being in a chaotic household of 8

people since it was different from her house of 2 people. She said she thought it was fun, but I

think she’s just being nice- My family can be pretty rambunctious.

Nonoka loved going to an American football game where I spent the whole 4 hours

explaining the rules. If I’m being honest, I don’t really know them either. She also was able to go

to a UND hockey game. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to stand for the national anthem,

but I told her it was fine since she was an honorary American. She thought it was fun when the

crowd kept chanting phrases together when the home team scored. She had never experienced

anything like American sports games.

 Nonoka seems to have a lucky streak when it comes to playing UNO. She never lost a

game much to my frustration. After spending a year with her, she seems to have picked up on

my vocabulary because now she says, “Oh shoot”. When I first said that in front of her, she

thought I was sneezing.

Over the course of the year, I tricked her into eating foods with cinnamon in hopes of

her acquiring a love for it- But no. She still hates cinnamon and mint chocolate. She has grown a

love for ice skating and building snowmen. She now loves hockey games and Chick-fil-A sauce.

She loves cookies from the Dakota Deli. She loves playing card games and watching movies until

3 a.m. every weekend. She loves the memories that she made in Grand Forks.