"Marchel Bouchez was nestled at home watching a favorite TV show about the movies that April evening. It was on Channel 5. It was in French - except for a word that struck her ear with a rare dissonance. It made her pay attention. The word was Seattle.She listened intently. There was a contest. The prize was a trip for two to Seattle - airfare, hotel, a rental car, and special tours! Virginie, come quick! she shouted, and grabbed a pencil.Her daughter Virginie was studying in the next room. She had been a Rotary International exchange student to Port Angeles High School in Washington state less than two years earlier. The family lives on the outskirts of Mons, Belgium, about an hour's drive south of Brussels, and about 5 kilometers by narrow old streets from the quite small center of the city of 60,000.The TV announcer in Brussels asked, In which of the following films has Ethan Hawke starred...? Bouchez jotted down the contest phone number and gave it to her daughter who was pondering the question. Virginie dialed and told the operator, ...Snow Falling on Cedars! Fifteen days later, a letter arrived at their home, announcing that Virginie was going to Seattle. Virginie Bouchez, who hopes to be an interpreter, is studying German, English, international law and economics. She invited her linguist colleague, Lorena Grosso, from the Escole de Interpretive International in Mons - the second best interpreter school in Europe - to join her. They flew 13 hours via London and Washington, D. C., and when they arrived in Seattle on Sept. 16, they were hosted by the classy Edgewater Hotel. But... Lorena and I were very nervous driving on Seattle's freeways! she said this week. We returned the rental car!Instead, they toured the city on foot - Pike Place Market, Pioneer Square, Space Needle, downtown stores - and took a city-wide bus tour. Thursday morning, accompanied by a Snow Falling On Cedars film historian, they toured sites around Bainbridge Island that inspired the film, including the famous cedar on the Fairy Dell Trail at Battle Point.Other highlights of the week including trips to historical sites around North Kitsap, and a reunion with Virginie's Rotary host family in Port Angeles.They return to Belgium a week later, just in time for the beginning of school and 40 hours of classes each week, including Saturdays.And somewhere in their busy schedules, they said, they now hope to read or see Snow Falling on Cedars itself. "

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