Everything I have done in the last 2 weeks...

I have been here for almost 7 weeks now and the time has gone so fast. I was talking to Iliana about that tonight. It is so hard to explain. Every day feels so long. By the time I go to bed, I can barely remember what I did that morning. Even thinking back to things I've done like 2 weeks ago feels like months ago, but at the same time, I can't believe how fast the time is going. It's almost sad to think about it. Before we know it it will be Christmas and then New Year's and then everthing is going to go so fast and we'll be going home. I don't want it to go so fast. I can barely believe that I am even really here. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm in Japan. I am so used to hearing Japanese now (and not understanding it) that I don't even notice it.

Okay, well Dad sent me an email asking me to give you guys some more specific details about my school and stuff so here it goes.

I am in Class 2A as school. The 2 is for the year in highschool, and the A is for my class. There are 3 years of highschool in Japan so it is really the equivilant of being a junior in the states. There are two classes in every level in my school. Class A and Class B. In my class there are 40 girls. So there are about 80 in my grade. All 40 of us are together for most of the classes in our homeroom, but sometimes we split up and go to other classrooms. My Physics class, for instance, has 5 people. Including me.

So they have just started their 2nd semester of school and the school year ends in March. At that time I don't really know what I will do. I really want to stay with my class that I am in now and all my friends. However, that would put me in their 3rd year classes, which are all about doing well on their big test. The college entrance exam that they have one shot at. Well, techinically two, but that's only if they fail it completely I think. This test bascially defines the rest of their lives. If they do well, they go to a good university and get a good job, blah blah blah. If they don't do well, they don't get into a good university and they never ever will. I think the school board is thinking about keeping me at a level 2 because the girls in level 3 have to study so much more. I don't want to have to make all new friends for the last 3 months of exchange. Plus, I want to be on this classes team for sports day next spring! :D

My school has 6 periods and a lunch hour. Which is a whole 50 mintues! They couldn't believe we only have 22 minutes to eat lunch in America. I get to school at about 8:00 and homeroom is from 8:15 to 8:30. Then 1st period starts at 8:30. Each period is 50 minutes, then we have a 10 minute break before the next one. It is way easier than the class periods at school in the states! I ususally get hungry after 2nd period, but then I have to wait two more hours before lunch. Which is from 12:20 to 1:10, when our 5th period starts. At 3:15 we have homeroom again. Then we clean. I sweep the homeroom with about 5 other people so it's not bad at all. At about 3:30 we are done with that and we get to go home. Well, I get to go to volleyball. Which starts at 4:00.

Volleyball practices are pretty easy here. We just do drills. And not really hard ones, either. Practices are way more intense in America. But I think that that is just my school here. My school is very academically stressed and has a pretty weak sports program. Practice ends at about 5:15 and then there is this ridiculous rush to the locker room where everyone changes faster than I have ever seen girls change in my life! Then we all go home. I asked my friend about the whole rush at the end of practice and I guess all the student have to be out of the building by 5:30 or else they stop club activites for a week. And there is a school guard, so it's not like my school in the states where you can just leave whenever you feel like it. The school guard is very nice though. He always seems really happy to be there doing his job.

My school is a Catholic school so we have prayers 3 times a day, but we have only had mass once since I have come. And that is just fine with me.

So, that's about if for my school life. I've made lots friends and school has been getting better. I can kinda follow along in English class. Even some of the Japanese! Which is actually really exciting, because I have something to pay attention to. But the teacher for that class talks too fast. I can barley understand his english. So I only sometimes understand what is going on. School is still really exhausting and boring for the most part, but it is okay. It will be lots better when I can actually try to listen to the lesson and understand it.

Outside of school I have been so busy! Since I have last written, this has been my schedule of non-school related events:

Thursday Oct. 2: Iliana's Birtday Party! I left school (no volleyball on Thursday's), went home and changed really fast, and then turned around and went back to Yokohama station to get to El Torrito restaurant by 6:00. The dinner was really good and so much fun!

Friday, Oct. 3: I left school early to go to a Rotary lunch, where I had to give a speech that no body bothered to tell me about ahead of time, so my host dad wrote me one really fast, which I just read. I got my allowance there, though. Then I met Iliana and we hung out for the rest of the day. Okay, so we went to my house and wrote our speeches for Saturday, but we had fun doing it.

Saturday, Oct. 4: In the morning I went to Toru's (5 year old brother) sport day, which is like the biggest day of the year for grade schoolers. It was cute, and we had a really good picnic lunch. Then I went to my Rotary Orientation Meeting. It is the monthly meeting for exchange students. We all had to give our speeches and then the rotarians took us to Landmark Tower. Landmark Tower is the tallest building in Japan. I took the world's second fastest elevator to the very top, where you can look out and see the whole city! Well, okay. You can't see the whole thing. It's too big. But you could see a lot! Then all of the students went to Karoke! It was really fun.

Sunday, Oct. 5: A rotarian bought my family and I tickets to the premire of a movie about a Japanese lady who learns the secrets of cooking great Chinese food. Or something like that. I only followed the basic plot. It was in Japanese. The we went to a really fancy Chinese dinner, where they served some of the same things from the movie. It was a 9 course meal. I ate so much food! I did get to try quite a few new things. Including jellyfish and sharkfin. They were actually pretty good. It was a very fancy dinner. I wanted to take pictures, but I didn't because it was so formal. I wish I had.

Wednesday, Oct. 8: This day was not a good day in school. Or volleyball. BUT, I got home and saw a package sitting in my room! I decided to eat dinner before I opened it. After dinner I went into my room to open it alone. I opened the box and it was filled to the top with random candies. Mostly candy corn and pop rocks. I was so happy! Then, I found deoderant! That's actually exciting when you can't find it in any stores here. THEN, I found the little box. I opened it, screamed, then shut it really fast! Then I opened it again. haha. Inside was an iPod Touch! I love you Daddy! I was so happy I wanted to cry! And THEN, I turned the iPod on and it was already filled with my music from home, pictures, movie, and applications! Including a really awesome Japanese dictionary program. The timing for this package could not have been better. Thanks Dad!

Friday, Oct. 10: I got to skip volleyball to go to a dinner with some rotarians. I went straight home after school and changed out of my school uniform, and then left right away. I met my host dad at Yokohama Station and from there we went to the restaurant the dinner was at. I don't know what it was called, but it was really good Japanese food. There was my rotary club's president, secretary, treasurer and the next president there with my host dad and me. For dinner we had a big bowl of broth in the middle of the table on a hotplate. We cooked our own vegetables and meat and then Udon noodles in it. It was really really good. The meat, well beef, was cut really thin and rolled up. You put it in the boiling broth and unroll it. It cooks in like 20 seconds. Then you put it into one of the sauces. There was a vinegar sauce and a sesamie sauce. The beef was Kobe beef. And it was really really good. Then the president of my rotary club got me a cake. It was really good. He also bought a whole cake of it for me to take home to share with my host family. That was very nice of him.

Saturday, Oct. 11: Today I went to Tokyo! There was a really big group of exchange students and some of Iliana's school friends, who were nice enough to be our guides for the day. We went to Asakusa, where there is a really big shrine. Maybe it was a temple. Anyway, that turned out to be a really good place to get traditional japanese thing. Also known as Christmas presents. I'm definitely going to have to go back there in early December... Then we went to Tokyo Tower! Which was kind of cool. It was a little cloudy so I decided to save my 850 yen and not go to the top. I'll go up there another day when I'll actually be able to see something. Tokyo is really close. It only takes me about an hour to get there. And I live at the southern part of my city. (Tokyo is north of me) It was a really fun day.

Sunday, Oct. 12: I went to a big festival that was near and "worked" at my rotary club's booth. They were selling random donated food items to raise money to build wells in Sri Lanka. I helped sell stuff for about an hour, but people can tell I don't speak Japanese, so I only actually sold one box of Mr. Donuts donuts. Which were very popluar. One of the rotarians in my club owns all the of the Mr. Donuts shops in this and one other prefecture! And all the McDonald's and the Baskin Robins and the Ootoya (casual japanese restaurant chain) in this area, but that's beside the point. For the other 3 hours I was there, I just talked with all the rotarians. it's good to make friends with them. We did end up raising enough money to make 6 to 7 wells, so that's good! Then we went to a dinner party. Then home.

Monday, Oct. 13: No school! It's sport's day. Which, apparently, is a national holiday worthy of missing school for here. I love Japan. We get days off of school to celebrate the elderly people and sports! I was invited to lunch at Ootoya by the rotarian (Sammy) who own them. My family and I went there together. It was pretty good food. Then I went to Yokohama to meet up with some other exchange students. Sammy gave me a ride there in his brand new mercedes benz. It was pretty sweet. haha. Once I met up with my friends, after getting slightly lost in Yokohama Station, which is gigantic, we went to Karoke.

Tuesday, Oct. 14: Yay! This is today! I just had school and volleyball. It went all right. I was pretty tired though. Tomorrow I won't have volleyball because Thursday I leave for my school trip! The 2nd year high school class takes a trip every year. This year we are going to Nagasaki! I leave Thursday morning... really... really early. I have to be at the airport at 6:45. The airport will take like an hour to get to. Maybe more. But it's okay. We fly to Nagasaki (about 2 hours, I think) and then we are staying there until next Monday. We fly back in at like 5:30 Monday night. I am really excited for it. Because my school is Catholic, we are going to a lot of old christian sites. And we are also going to go to the a-bomb memorial. I'm not sure exactly what is going on with it. Okay, I have no clue what is going on. I just know I have to go to the airport with the stuff they told me to pack. The itinerary is in Japanese. I'll write about it after I get back. I will also post all my pictures at that time... here or on Michael's website.

I hope you had fun reading all that. I'm going to sleep now. :D