Well, it's pretty much over now

I'm back in New Zealand now. Dead tired cos I only slept about 2 hours in the past 30 with major stress to the head. Probably gonna take tomorrow off school too cos otherwise I'll be double dead.


...

The end.

I may have had one of the best days of my life today.

Even though it was a Saturday, we had school (or more specifically, the big singing competition) today, so I still had to get up at 6. The morning was pretty norma routine (get up, have breakfast, get dressed etc), but when I got to school was when the good day started. We practiced hard-out in the morning for about an hour or two, then competed. We were going to wear matching hair ties, but one of the teachers stopped us at the last minute (probably breaking school regulations, even though they don't usually care about the hair ties), so we had to leave them behind. We competed. I can't remember how it was cos I blanked. After that we went back to our seats, and watched all the other performances. It wasn't too bad, but there are 12 classes, and they all sing two songs; 'his yoke is easy and his burthen is light' and one of their choice (we did Shinjiru). 'His yoke is easy and his burthen is light' isn't too bad, but the only words in it are those in the title. Repeated over and over again. With 12 classes doing it. I got a tad sleepy. The girl next to me was fun to watch cos she would fall asleep then shoot back up again (Vicky - never again will I be able to say I haven't seen people do this, the students at this school need more sleep). I had some nice weather/tiredness/musical awesomeness conversations with her in the intervals though. I nearly lost my hair tie cos I only found out at the last minute we weren't using them, so put it on a random chair, but I found it again ^^ (yes, I will go into this much detail :P). In the end, two senior teams won (not surprising).

At homeroom afterwards, I was presented with a book with individual messages from all 50 students in the class. That's a lot. It's so sweet!! If anyone from 1C is reading this, I love you guys so much!! I didn't cry, but I was shaking really badly the whole time. I had no clue what to say, so I said thank you and that I love them all (which is true). After that, a bunch of people came up and hugged me goodbye (long hugs, cos that's how we roll in Japan). A few gave me birthday/going-away presents too. 

After that, Risera, Leona, Yuuri, and Mipi helped me clear out my desk and return everything to Ms. Takamine. Risera, Leona, and I went to Kichijoji together after that. I bought a pair of pink nerd glasses (don't judge, they said everything I wore was cute, so it was disorientating), and then it was on to my goodbye/birthday party. 

We went to this place where you have big boiling pots, and assortments of raw meat and vegetables to put in them. It was so fun (but I ate WAY too much). At the start, there was a good 20 minutes of photo taking ^^ 'Twas heartwarming it was. Everyone had loads of food and talked lots. I was really tired, so I spaced out quite a bit though. I got some more presents there too. The most heartwarming ones were the ones from people I hadn't talked to that much, but still had the aura of 'we're gonna miss you' around them. That was two or three hours. At the end, when we were saying goodbye, Megu cried. It was the cutest thing ever. I think I didn't cry today because I found it a happy thing. It's not like we're never going to see each other again, and I felt really truly loved, I have no reason to cry. It is a time to be happy.  

Afterwards, Leona, Risera, and I went to take purikura. It was really humid, so my hair was a mess though. They put me middle centre for all of the purikura, so I felt a bit Gwen Stefani (not sure if it's in a good way or not). We didn't really have anything left to do after that, so we went to meet my host mother (to take me the rest of the way home cos it seems I'd get lost otherwise). Here's where it really gets lovely: Leona, Risera and I were doing our Ippatsu Gag rituals and having long hugs to say goodbye. I got on the train with my host mother. I waved to them from the train, they waved to me from the platform. We saluted each other. My train pulled away. They started running after it. They were running and waving until we were fully out of sight of each other. My heart is actually aching remembering this. Shit, I'm not going to see these people for a while, am I? NOW I'm sad. 

I walked to the Conbini with my host mother. We talked. Probably the best talk we've had. We continued talking until Haruna got back about an hour later. I gave the family their final omiyage. They liked them ^^ They also gave me a birthday present. It was indescribablubble, but awesome in it's own way. 

For dinner, we went out to an Italian restaurant. There was only a bit of chatter (I was tired, so I couldn't think of much to say), but it was comfortable. I didn't eat too much, but added to the lunch eaten not too long ago, I didn't feel particularly great afterwards. Especially when we returned to the house, and I had chocolate cake (with cream in it) for dessert. Cream doesn't do much good for a bad stomach, I must say. 

I know it doesn't sound that interesting here, but trust me when I say this day was truly awesome. 

Ok, so basically I have nothing to do right now, so...

I shall write a final list of things I miss and things I'm going to miss.
The teachers/family goodbye party was yesterday. So fun, but Sarah and I were shaking the whole way through, and at a party like this where you have to balance your eating utensils, food, presents, and programme all at once, shaking really doesn't help. I dropped one of my chopsticks and a piece of egg, and sarah got water on her shirt, dropped various utensils etc. It was wonderful though. We got the most beautiful (and expensive) music boxes as a going-away present. For some reason, only the bible studies teacher seemed to know what heads, shoulders, knees, and toes was though... In any case.

I'm almost all packed now, and I've been given about thirty Japanese and Korean CDs to download onto my computer, so I'll write this list while downloading them.. all thirty.

Things I miss:

• The ability to sing without worrying about people hearing or caring (I'm unable to do this anywhere. House, you can hear every little sound. School, people everywhere).
• My guitar
• Friends who I'm able to talk with without translating it in my head first
• My mum and her awesomeness
• My cats (shocking)
• Being able to understand what's going on in a conversation without having to focus all energy towards that understanding (if I space out when they're talking, then stop spacing out again, even if it was only a few seconds, I'll be completely lost)
• Not having to be smiley and 'first-impressiony' all the time
• My mum's cooking
• Non-bipolarity
• My room!!! (rather than sharing with others)
• Not feeling like I'm in the way all the time
• Taking five minutes at a slow-paced walk to get to school
• Having none of a specific teacher.

Things I'm gonna miss:

• That sense of overwhelming friendship every time someone talks to you
• Long hugs (they hug for longer in this country it seems)
• Being overwhelmingly 'odd one out'
• The fast-paced Japanese classes (they're annoying when you're doing them, but you learn so much more, so it's worth it)
• Everything being new and interesting
• The ability to so easily walk down the street and buy so many awesomely cute books for shockingly low prices
• The ability to so easily walk down the street and buy so many awesome manga volumes for shockingly low prices (about five bucks per)
• The knowledge that there's a Vivienne Westwood store in the same city
• Bentou + moving desks together to have lunch (just gives a strong sense of family)
• My new Japan friends!!! 
• The possibility of making new Japan friends
• The having to squat and call out your name for roll-call at PE (don't know why though...)
• Being allowed to wear mufti to school
• Writing letters instead of emails
• Being called skillful if you do something well, and being called cute if you don't
• The feeling of absolute improvement at any moment.

There's more, but I'm nearly out of battery, so that's all for now. And I'm not even through all the Arashi CDs yet. 

So...

My exchange has less than a week 'till it comes to the end. Wow. I quite honestly can't remember what life is New Zealand is meant to be lived like. It'll be interesting...

Today I went with two of my classmates (Nozomi (who is going on an exchange in the Summer to Oxford), and Yuuri (who used to sit behind me)) and Haruna to Aoyama and Kichijouji. We went to Aoyama specifically to go to a shop I wanted to go to, namely VIVIENNE WESTWOOD!

Ok, so her stuff is bloody expensive, but I love it to bits, so I had to buy, even if it was the cheapest necklace in the shop (すみません、どれネクレスがいちばんやすいですか). So happy! So no one ask about the specific price >: |

It was this one though:




Not quite, but something quite similar.







...

I'm sorry Mum!! Your darling daughter has become someone who frugally spends money on brand items!!! > <

In any case. Next week is my birthday!! YAY!! Because the singing competition is then too, next week every day we are having practices after school. It sounds ok though. Last week was my last week of art club (because of next week's practices). I'm not really sad to say goodbye to art club. You ever get that feeling where you've been doing something for a long time, then suddenly realize you haven't talked or been talked to for two hours? Twice a week, art club. I'm not upset about it, but a tad confused, cos the first time I went, they wouldn't stop talking to me, but the next time, nothing. Some people's interest is the foreigners (Sarah and I) have petered out, but I'm shocked how nosedive that particular relationship was.

I gave out souvenirs (NZ) last week, well, started. I know people are going to compare each other's, but only a small part of my mind cares any more. If they judge theirs against each others, then I really don't care about having anything to do with them after next week anyway. But there were these two uberly sweet girls (the ones who I first gave souvenirs to). I gave them them as thank you, because they sit next to me in chapel, and always help me find my page, and also are altos with me and are always lovely to me etc etc. Anyway, that afternoon at music class, they turned around (I sit behind them) and said to me in English (simultaneously) 'we will give you something also'. Warm fuzzy feeling to the max. But (back to the negative) the two girls who I know will judge their presents badly, were actually pretty much ignoring me in the last few weeks, but the moment I gave them the presents, they started talking to me like they did at the very beginning again -.-; whatever, I won't think too hard about it.

At this point though, I can't wait to get home and hug my cats (it must be dire if I miss THEM), play guitar, sing offtune loudly as much as I want (sorry mum!), and be able to say anything I want, but not having the expectation to say anything.

What else is there to say? Sarah beat my butt in the Chem exam, but I got one point higher than her in both the Japanese exams we've done so far, so whatevs :P Shame Sarah.

I'm planning to do a mad NZ homework rush on the plane back to New Zealand. There's 10 hours and not much else to do anyway. Good idea? I probably actually have to much to fit into only 10 hours though.

Is there anything else to say right now? I dunno. I lost 20 000 yen. Hoping I left it at school, but apparently, a lot of money tends to get stolen from students' bags at Rikkyo. Shitzu.

I think that's it.