Sushi, Ice Skating, and other news

Sushi!

Last Saturday was my monthly Rotary meeting with all the other exchange students. We all gave our speeches and got to visit for a while. My speech went well. It was really long though and I still feel stupid reading it. I can't even read japanese words written out in with english letters! I read it like a third grader. haha. But next month, I am going to do it in Hiragana! I am going to practice on my speed first. Yay for flashcards!

Anyway, after that meeting all the students went bowling, but my club took me to sushi. Bowling would have been fun, but the Sushi was so good! They took me to a really traditional sushi bar. And really expensive one too. I am sure I ate at least 150 USD worth of food. And I ate a lot of it! The chef just keeps putting it on your plate, one or two at a time, and the rotarians kept ordering more and more for me. The best ones were the california rolls, the tamago (sweet egg), and the ebi (Shrimp). The tuna was pretty good, too. The only one I didn't really like was the sea urchin. It was just a little too slimy for me. They all had a good time seeing what I was willing to try. I tried anything they offered! Some of the other ones I had (that I remember what they were) were mackerel, squid, and two different kinds of tuna. The less expensive tuna one, from the side of the fish, and the more expensive tuna one, from the belly of the fish. That is pretty much the most expensive fish you can buy. It was pretty good though. In addition to all that sushi, I had some sort of baked sea shell. Well it was the muscle, baked in its shell. It was really good! And my host dad said it costs about 50 USD per shell. Yikes! Pictures of all this will be coming eventually.

Ice Skating

Monday was a holiday, so Sunday night I had a sleepover with Iliana! It was really fun. We made tacos for my host family for dinner, and then we had fun making our own breakfast in the morning. Monday, we met up with a few of the other exchange students and went ice skating! It was so fun! It was the first time for a few of the students, so that's always fun to watch. But there were tons of people! Like everywhere we go here. After that we went to TGI Friday for dinner. I probably would have just picked McDonald's because I have coupons, but they wanted Fridays. It was good, but too expensive. I have to stop eating out with them when they choose the restaurant. Come to think of it, I should just stop eating out. I am gaining weight and I don't like it!

In other news, my host dad got a new job! That's really good for him and the family, but that is also really good for me. I like my host dad just fine, but he always speaks to me in English, and that's not good. But now, he is going to be gone a lot for his job, so I won't talk to him as much, which means I won't use English as much, which means I'll use Japanese more and hopefully start learning faster! Also, his new job has him flying overseas every once in a while, so he will be gone for those trips too. I guess that is sad for my host mom and my little brothers though. I will have to try to be a better helper for my host mom.

I guess that's about it for now. This weekend is my school festival, so that should be fun. After it is over, I am planning on having a party in one of the party rooms you can rent out at my apartment complex. It's really cheap, too! I am planning on paying for the room myself, and then having everyone who comes bring something to share. Hopefully it works out okay.