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A week ago I got this message from my uncle. He asked if I could be a host family for 2 SEAYP members. SEAYP means South East Asian Youth Program btw. So anyway I agreed, I mean its just for the weekend right?

Thursday came and I found myself fixing the guest room which is infront of my room. I cleaned the whole house for my future guests from sweeping and mopping the floors to changing bed covers. As soon as I was done I got another message from my uncle. He said the guests were both girls, ages 18-30 mostlikely. I was like "Oh sh*t, 2 girls?" I started cleaning up again even more.

Friday night came and I was downstairs by the kitchen waiting for them to arrive. My uncle took them for dinner that night and it was around 10pm when they parked outside my house. I tidied up a bit and ran to the door. When I opened it, I saw 2 cute girls smiling at me. "This is a dream, it has to be." I kept telling myself that until my uncle gave me their bags. "Alright, you're incharge now Nick, goodnight." With that my uncle left me with 2 girls I dont even know.

When I took them in, one of the girls spoke with an excited tone. "Hi! You must be... Nick! They told me about you." That moment I hoped my uncle was telling good stuff about me. He has this tendency to joke about everything. The girl spoke again. "I'm Nguyen Anh or simply Annie. I'm from Vietnam." I just realized, she's the 1st Vietnamese person I've ever met. Annie was a bit short, long hard and she wore glasses. She's really cute and so energetic. Her people skills will take her places, I know. Then the girl beside Annie stepped forward but didn't say a word. Annie then introduced her. "This is Yuki Inakagi, my partner. She's from Japan." Yuki had snow white skin and was very attractive. Shy but still a good listener. I still cant believe I have a 22 year old Vietnamese and a 20 year old Japanese girl in my normally lonely house.

I took them upstairs to their rooms. "So uhm, this will be your room and uh.." They weren't listening. They were in my room looking through a window. My room has the best view of the village and the horizon. They both looked at me with a smile. I nearly tripped on Yuki's bag after that. I gave them a quick tour of the house and then waved goodnight.

A few minutes later, I was on the computer which is in between my room and the guest room. My excitement was unbearable. I was spinning around my chair chatting about what was going on over my place. "I have 2 foreign girls sleeping over!" and my friends were like "Yeah right." Luckily Annie came out of her room to look around. My webcam was on so my friends saw her. One of them said, "You lucky b*stard! Someone's gonna have fun tonight!" Before Annie got to read that message I closed my chat window. Those idiots.

Annie was wearing house clothes which was quite uhm.. how shall I say, slightly revealing. I shook my head and asked why she came out of her room. "I just wanted to look around Nick." She smiled again. Her english wasn't perfect but it was good. She asked me a ton of questions after that. We chatted for almost an hour. After that she asked if she could use my computer to e-mail her family. I agreed after I told my friends to knock it off with the perverted jokes. She e-mailed her older sister and her mom then left after saying goodnight. I swear I couldn't sleep after that. Oh and when Annie went back to the room, Yuki just got out of the bathroom so..

Saturday came and I woke up early. I went down to make breakfast. Annie and Yuki came to this homestay program to witness 1st hand Filipino culture. When they went down they greeted me goodmorning and sat beside me. It was quite hard to explain the food I cooked and my typical weekend to them. But it was a lot of fun trying.

We went to the mall after breakfast. They told me that most of the time they're stuck in the ship so they dont have fun as much. The SEAYP is like a huge floating Asian school. Imagine being confined to the ship for a month. I had to make them enjoy their stay here. We went to this shop which sells native stuff. To my surprise they showed me one popular wooden carving of a pen*s. We laughed so hard everyone looked at us on the shop. We then had lunch on a grill and bar. I showed them our "pulutan" dishes such as "sisig". They liked it so much we kept eating and eating.

Time flew by so fast. It was already dinner time and we went home. There we ate another popular Filipino dish known as "adobo". Annie seemed quite interested to know the reciepe. We hung out the living room and played party music while chatting in the balcony. We drained each other's camera spamming photos of each other and everything else. Around 10pm we decided to make cookies. It was messy but fun to do. Annie kept whacking my hand everytime I tried to take a chocolate chip from the dough. Yuki was playing with the dough and laughed at me. The cookies turned out great btw.

It was already 1am and we were still chatting at their room. We didn't wanna sleep because it was their last night here in the Philippines. I got depressed just thinking about it. It seems they do too. But everyone was tired. When they tucked themselves in I stayed in their room for a while till they fell asleep. I made them a little sketch of us 3 chibi versions tackling each other. I wrote a short message too. It was hard. The feeling of saying goodbye eventually was killing me. I left their room with a heavy heart.

Sunday, the day their ship leaves the Philippines. After breakfast we went to a studio to have our photos taken. They sure love posing a lot. It would be my remembrance for them, a small gift. They hugged me tightly after I gave them the photos. We drove towards Manila Bay to their ship and had lunch on the way. There, they gave me a tour of the ship they stay in for more than a month. It was huge, complete with a theatre, lounges and everything. After the tour they had a small program as a show of thanking us for taking them in. A military helicopter even flew by us dropping confetti. The event was a huge success. But nothing lasts forever..

..my last few minutes with them slowly runs out as I saw them walk slowly back to the ship. I couldn't stop myself from crying. I made my way through the hundreds of people waiting by the ship's entrance. When I saw them I dove through and hugged them so tight with tears running down our faces. Some people cheered, some cried. I didn't want to let them go. Annie and Yuki kept crying and said "We will miss you so much!" I had to let go eventually..

..as they went up to the 4th floor of the ship, I remembered Annie and Yuki left me a letter this morning. I read it and then it hit me like a bullet. Tears started flowing again, this time harder. I read the letter over and over again especially the last 3 words that made my heart beat so fast..

..up at the ship, Annie tossed a long roll of ribbon down to me. I picked up the other end and she held on the other tight. The ship lifted its anchor and slowly drifted away. I held on the ribbon for as long as I could until I ran out of rope.. Annie and Yuki cried even more and so did I..

that was goodbye..



"To Annie and Yuki,
I hope you two enjoyed your stay here in the Philippines. I will miss you both so much. Hope you two will come and visit me again! Have a safe trip!

With Love,
Nick"