Scoobies: introducing RSI to the young...

I've just completed 14 scoobies for Bonnie's exchange student, Eri, and the other Japanese girls who also came to Australia. I know it wasn't necessary, but I thought it'd be nice if they all had some sort of unique momento for each member of the entire group to remember their trip by. I would've done one for each of the two accompanying teachers but I'm fresh out of plastic strings to make them out of. [Edit: ended up rushing to buy a packet from Broadway and speedily completed two for the teachers on the bus and on a park bench before heading to the party, albeit a tad late] And I don't plan to replenish my stocks nor in actual fact make one for quite a long while.

14 scoobies over 2 days, my fingers are stiff and my wrists really ache. I just thought it was an astonishing enough achievement to blog about.


Eri will be going tomorrow, she's spending her last night in Sydney with the rest of her group at a hotel. I feel terrible for saying so, but I'm really looking forward to some quality 'me time' and genuine peace and quiet. We've been hosting people at our house for just over a month and I can't remember what it's like anymore to flounce around the house in my pjs at 2 in the afternoon or watch episode after episode of anime/drama on days/nights off or repeatedly reorganise my bookshelf into alphabetical and categorical order. *Cough* not that I do those sorts of things...normally...

I made a Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake as part of Eri's Last Supper with us but I used spreadable cream cheese instead of the solid cooking blocks and the fridge wasn't powerful enough when I set it to chill so we ended up having to spoon out blobs of the stuff since it was still really runny and wouldn't stand still as a cake by itself. I would've taken pictures of it (since it looked really good in the tin before we realised that you couldn't really take it OUT of the tin without its shape disintegrating in your hands) but I was too embarrassed about how much of a disaster it turned out to be.

Ah well, better luck next time I suppose!

Now if you'll excuse me, I would like to go and rest my fingers/hands/wrists/arms/whatever else I strained trying to make these damn scoobies.

I'm going to miss you, Eri-chan. 日本で会おうね、えりちゃん。いっしょに大阪のユニバーサルスタジオに行こうね！


[Edit: Bon's school hosted a farewell party for all the exchange students. All the Japanese students dressed up in colourful yukatas (summer cotton kimonos, cheaper and more comfortable to wear than the silk ones you see on travel brochures) and sang two songs for their host families (conducted by our own Eri-chan! :D) There was a bit of confusion after Eri changed back to her school uniform when she tried to give her yukata to Bon as a present since she said, "I do not wish to take this back to Japan. Please take this home for me" and so I immediately replied: "Ok! We'll have it cleaned and ready to return to you when we come visit next year!" To which softly spoken Eri-chan adamently kept replying "no, no, no please!" (She's very shy and indirect, our Eri-chan). It was only when Bon and I spied other students presenting similar packaged yukatas to their host sisters and saying in their halting English: "I give this to you as last present from me" that we clued in and promptly grabbed a hold of Eri so that we could apologise for the misunderstanding and thank her profusely.

There was much crying, hugging and random language switches and mixes between Japanese and English amongst the students and family and although everyone (Bon's friends and exchange students alike) at first felt a little strange around Bonnie's onee-san (sister) we quickly warmed to one another as the night wore on and we had one last round of Gelatissimo. I even gave Sayaka and Eri rsi! :D *cough* I mean...taught them how to make a scoobie whilst waiting for Chris to come pick us up from their hotel.