I wrote a really long letter today, so instead of starting from scratch, I'll modify it and put it here ^^ That might be why it seems jumpy at times...
Last week it was the first Spring snow in Tokyo for forty years. Today, the rain was super heavy, but next week, the weather is meant to get better, I don't know which I'd prefer...
It's Golden Week as of tomorrow! Yippee! But we still have to go to school on Friday for a health check-up. There are three parts to the check-up, but we're only doing one. One part is x-rays (not doing that), another is a heart check up for a specific thing (can't remember what that thing is.../not doing that), the other is a general health one, like testing strength and reaction times etc (i think...), which we are doing. We go home early though.
English is once a week and I've only had it once, but it's really fun. It's with a Hawaiian lady as the teacher. They're practicing for a skit, so what I have to do to help them is sit there and draw a car... yup.
Science is good. The science teacher is also my homeroom teacher. When he helps me with my work, he sometimes speaks a bit of English. It sounds like he has a German accent ^^ I feel very advanced and Megu says she's jealous of my science skills ^^
Math, the teacher pretty much ignores us (Sarah and I are in the same math class), so today at advisory, we asked our 'guidance councellor' type person if we could do our math homework during that period instead at least until we start a new topic. She said OK, but I'm never 100% that she knows what we're saying... I think our math teacher would be a really good teacher if we could understand him though... He looks kind of like an ex-yankee ^^; Except short...
Shodo is fun. The students don't really speak to us (Sarah and I have shodo together too). It's two periods in a row once a week. There are two different classes for the two different periods, and they get taught the same thing, so for the first lesson, we go with the class, then the next, get shown how to write words we want to write (i did 'fun' last week), The students in Shodo don't seem to pay attention to us though, so Sarah and I just go by ourselves ^^
Cooking is fun. Sarah and I are in different groups, but in the same class (two periods in a row, once a week). My group gives me little jobs to do, so I can help out ^^ They're really nice (seniors).
Bible studies is boring. I think I'll start doing other homework during that period... The teacher doesn't pay any attention to me anyway.
Music is last period on a Friday, so everyone is always quite hyper. It's nice, but it's hymns, so I don't really enjoy it... But everyone is really friendly during that period, so I still kinda like it ^^
Self study is at least once a day (we get one alone self study day a week, so on that day, there are two self study periods). It's fun cos Sarah and I chat. It's like our lunch time back home. The chance to get everything we want to say in English out. That feeling of being able to say anything you want to anyone with ease, i miss it...
I think I'll type up my schedule ^^ Unless I say otherwise, you can assume the class is with Sarah.
Monday:
Japanese
Japanese
Math
Self Study
Chem (With Sarah's class, with Sarah)
PE (with the seniors, by myself (Sarah has self study at that time))
Tuesday:
Chem (With my class, with Sarah)
Japanese
Japanese
Math
Self study (without Sarah (she does PE at that time))
Self study (together)
Wednesday:
Japanese
Japanese
PE (by myself, with my class (Sarah has music))
Chem (by myself with my class, Sarah has bible)
Self study
Advisory
Self study/long homeroom (if long homeroom doesn't concern us, we study in the library instead)
Thursday:
Self study
Math
Shodo
Shodo
Cooking
Cooking
Friday:
Japanese
Japanese
Oral communications
Bible (Sarah has chem with her class, but still the same teacher at this time)
Self study
Music (Sarah has PE with her class at this time)
OK, my day:
The day starts with Homeroom. Normal stuff. I have to be really concentrated though, cos everyone is really loud, and he goes through the roll, going "mumble mumble saaaaaaaaaaan" to which "mumble mumble san" must respond 'hai'. To understand which "mumble mumble saaaaan" is me, I have to concentrate very hard, even though the teacher looks at me when he calls my name, cos he knows I'm lost ^^;;;;;;;;
After that is morning worship. We have to kneel at points for it, and I can never tell during the kneeling whether or not we're meant to have our eyes closed... I also worry about falling asleep during it, but I've managed not to as of yet. I feel sorry for the girl next to me (she sits in front of me in class and seems to be one of the quieter ones). I'm ok with finding the pages for the hymns, but in the actual bible I'm lost, so every day, she has to find the page for me ^^;; We have to sing two hymns every worship. It helps with my speed reading though...
After that is Japanese. I kind of sleep walk through Japanese now... Have I mentioned we have ten minutes between each class for getting to the next one etc?? It's such a good system!
In PE, we did more rhythm dancing, building up on the dance we began last lesson. We also presented them to the class. I don't think I messed up too much, and apparently some people told Haruna I was really good... I haven't gotten the PE uniform yet, so I'm using my black leggings and my school jersey as a temp uniform. I always forget that's a bad idea though, cos their uniform is white top and blue short shorts, so my dark, full body uniform sticks out like a sore thumb.
After that was chem. Not much to report there, I finished another couple of pages, but I don't know if it's right... All I really care about at the moment is keeping up with Sarah.
Self study and advisory, not really much to report.
During long homeroom today, we had a dodgeball tournament within the year. Haruna was dreading it cos her class last year was really aggressive. In the end I think it was a really good teambuilding exercise though. It's quite funny with Japanese culture. Apologetic nature of many Japanese women + the country's competitiveness = interesting dodgeball, you know what I mean?
Basically, people would go hard out aggro on anyone the could hit, but then bow their heads violently in apology for many minutes afterwards. I was specifically aimed away from cos I'm the foreign kid who it's uncool to pick on, but in the end, for all three games I played, I got out. The first time, I was hit out by Sarah's host sister. Uncool. roru, just joking, she's lovely. The other times too, the person who got me out apologized a lot after...
I think the dodgeball was really good for me to make friends though ^^ it was fun and everyone gave me high fives after. Basically they say stuff, i repeat it, they find it cute ^^ I love this place.
Afterwards, the girl who usually goes home the same was as us was going to a concert so we went home without her. She is really shy. The first time we met, she (obviously) hid behind and clung to Haruna the whole time. She's opened up now though, and gives me sweets ^^ Apparently she's an otaku. Awesome ^^ I seem kind of otaku-ish too probably, cos I come home, email people, have dinner, do my homework, then read manga till i go to sleep ^^;;;;;
Today we went out for sushi for dinner. We went to a place with one of those turning conveyor belts for the sushi. It was really yummy. I had crab, tuna, gratin, takoyaki, that tofu thing I like, and other stuff. I basically ate whatever they decided to give me ^^ It was all really good though. The booth also had these games, where you order a certain amount of food, then a game of chance appears on the little screen (like slots or a wheel of chance) and if you win at it, you get a capsule toy that is sushi themed. We won two and they gave both to me ^^ On the way home we stopped at a conbini for dessert. I got pudding and a milk tea (cold). When we got home, the most amazing thing happened, the brother gave me my dessert!!!!!!! Gasp! I said arigatou and he mumbled something in response! Progress!!
Later (while I was writing this (I think it's been two hours...) The mother gave me two pooh bear charms (you know the ones I used to get?) and three more of the fish charms ^^ :D She's soooo lovely ^^
And that was my day ^^
I think I'm making lots of friends, but what would you define as friends? Cos Sarah's about the same as me but doesn't think she has any friends. I don't know. I think my friends are friends.
Haruna's really lovely, but I'm starting to occasionally sense my burdensomeness ^^; I don't need Haruna's help to talk to people SO much, pretty much the only thing I socially rely on her for is someone to sit with at lunch. And even then, if I had to, I could get up the courage to ask to sit with a random group if i needed. This whole 'exotic foreigner' status makes me very welcome with most people at the school.
I think of home and school as places of equal happiness, so I don't really mind about that 'yay, it's the weekend' stuff. Except for the fact that I don't have Japanese on the weekend. Plus it's golden week, so I have a week-long break (if you count friday).
My piercings are going OK, I'm getting better at taking them in and out. Today though, my right ear piercing won't go in, even though I tried to get it in for like ten minutes. I tried to force it, but not to the point of breaking skin. Finally I gave up and tried the slightly more painful way (from the back) and it went in. I'm going to make when I have them in as long as possible now. The ears still sting a bit. The left ear (it seems to deal better) didn't have TOO much trouble getting in, but it still hurt more than usual. I blame the fact that i didn't put them back in until after dinner (around twelve hours out). They always seem to break a bit of skin when I put them back in, but today by far was the worst. Second worst may have possibly been the day where I wore the disney earrings. It didn't hurt very much, but when I took the left one out, it started bleeding. Those earrings hurt more to take out cos they were butterfly backs, which meant the bit that goes through the ear had bumps.
And that was my day!
I definitely don't regret going on this exchange. If anything I wish it were longer. In terms of New Zealand, it's really long, but in terms of Japan, it's far too short, if you understand what I mean.
The exchange is also making me far more aware of the fact that my youth is fleeting. It feels like sand through my fingers. I know it sounds cliche, but that's how I feel. Do you get what I'm saying? I just think there are so many experiences that I'll never be able to experience past a certain age that I know I'm going to miss out on. Like participating in a Japanese high school cultural festival. By the time I come back to Japan, if I come back, I'll be too old. I just feel like I'm slipping...
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