They wandered down the halls of Ellis Middle School at 11 a.

Sunday, October 31, 1999

They wandered down the halls of Ellis Middle School at 11 a.m. Saturday, hair mussed, eyes only half open – speaking Japanese, Spanish, English and many other languages – destined for the gym.

Austin Rotary members and their pumpkins waited there, ready to meet up with the 70-plus exchange students from around Minnesota. Together they would take a trip to a local nursing home followed by lunch.

The pumpkins would remain at the nursing homes, a bright splash of orange for the Halloween weekend.

For the first time ever, the Austin Rotary Club hosted the fall get-together for central and southern Minnesota Rotary Exchange students. Approximately 80 students – from places as diverse as India, Ecuador, Bulgaria, Albania and Germany – descended on Austin at 4 p.m. Friday. While many of the students’ activities were with each other as a group, Saturday afternoon they broke up to tour Austin with different local Rotary members.

Dan and Marsha Wilson were paired with Yuka Asami, 17, and Ami Hayano, 18, both of Japan. It was a fortuitous pairing, as Marsha was an exchange student to Japan when she was in high school. Hayano even knew some people from the city where Marsha stayed while she was there, Hinoshi, which is a suburb of Tokyo.

Both Hayano and Asami speak English fluently, but were surprised when Marsha said hello in Japanese.

"Do you speak Japanese?" one asked.

"Sukoshi," Marsha replied. "A little."

Dan also had something special to offer the exchange students, as he thought he might be able to arrange a ride in a fire truck. Dan is Austin’s fire chief.

The weekend, so far, had gone well, Rotary member Jeanne Sheehan reported. The rains had only shortened Friday night’s weenie roast and hayride by a few minutes, and the pumpkin carving – which took place at Ellis after 10:30 p.m. – had produced some remarkable vegetable art.

"Some of these look like origami," she said, picking one up. "Isn’t this incredible?"

Asami said it was her first attempt at pumpkin carving, Hayano her second.

Saturday night was going to be another first for many of the Rotary exchange students – a Halloween dance. Asami was going as a clown, Hayano and another Japanese student named Ayu Amagasa were both going as witches.

"It’s not really common in Japan, to celebrate Halloween," Hayano said. "Tonight will be fun I think."

This morning the buses rolled off, headed back to a more central location, where the exchange students would separate, headed back to their different host families and cities.