As of Monday, April 20th, I have officially been in Japan for 8 months. So that's exciting. Definitely the longest I have ever been away from home... by like 7 and a half months. Everything is still going well. I can tell that my Japanese has been improving, especially in the past couple months. My host mom gives me Japanese/Kanji lessons every night and they have done wonders. Last night, for example, she tested me on all the kanji I have studied up until then. All 300! And I only got 3 wrong. 99 percent!! whoo hoo! She has me studying like crazy. I am learning 10 new kanji every day and she tests me on them. We also write a little journal each day in Japanese and combine kanji I know to make words. It's all quite exciting. I really appreciate all the time my host mom takes to teach me each night. My goal is to know 500 kanji before I change families in a month. Which I should be doing with 10 a day anyway...
In other exciting news, I will have a host sister when I get back home! We are going to be hosting a Rotary student at our house starting in August and this week we found out who! She is a Japanese girl, from somewhere around Hiroshima, named Hikaru. I even emailed her in Japanese. All by myself!! :) So this is very exciting. I will get home August 1st and later in the month she will come! I hope I make a good host sister for her and I hope I don't speak Japanese with her. I want to help her learn English.
Speaking of host families, I have information about my third one now! Well, not really information about the family. I just know when I will be changing. May 24th. The day after my sports festival. It's going to be a crazy busy time then. May 23rd is my sports festival. That will go into the early evening. At some point that day (Saturday) my stuff will be sent to my third host family's house, but I will still be staying the night at my current house. The 24th is a family rotary dinner. I will go to that with the Umezaki's and go home with my next family. Around lunch that day my school friends want me to go to a party that they are having to celebrate the sports festival (?). Hopefully I will be able to go to that too, but we will see.
Preparation for the Taiikusai (sports festival) is really starting up now. My whole class is just so excited about it. You can feel it in the air. And we are still a month away. I have a feeling that this is a bigger deal here than anything we have in America for schools. This is bigger than Homecoming, which is the only thing that I can think of to compare it to. They are talking about strategies for the races, discussing the opening skit thing we will do, brainstorming ideas for t-shirts and costumes, and talking about the competition in every spare moment they have. Japanese girls hardly ever run, and more than one girl was telling me that they started running to train for this. We are going to have practices before and after school for the team events. I am starting to feel the pressure. I found out today that I am in the first heat, lane one of the 400m dash.
Oh, and going back to the opening skit... I saw the one from last year and it is more like a dance or show than a skit. There is no speaking in it. I guess the theme we picked for it this year is like time travel or something along those lines. Because this year is the 150th anniversary of Japan opening trade. Thanks to Commodore Matthew Perry. Guess who is going to be playing Commodore Perry in the skit? Yep, the American. They almost cried with happiness when I agreed to do it. For this whole taiikusai I have just decided that I will do anything they want me to do. I am going to have so much fun with this even if I have to dress up as a man and dance in front of a huge crowd.
I mentioned before that my Japanese has gotten better recently. Well, lately I have been understanding more of what goes on around me because of it. This has resulted in me finally being able to understand what people say about me, which is quite amusing to listen to. I always try to listen for comments when I walk to or from school now because I pass a lot of other students, most of whom are younger than me, on my walk to school. I hear lots of people I pass whisper dekai!(huge!) or sugoi!(wow) as I pass, but a few cuter ones happened today. I was leaving the school and there were three middle school girls sitting on a bench. One calls my name (maybe to see if it was my name) so I look back and smile. They all go "kawaii, ne?" Then as I was walking down the street there was a group of maybe 7 middle school girls walking a ways in front of me. One of them saw me and whispered, but I could hear, that I was behind them. Some of them turn around so I smile and wave at them. They all say, "Abbey wa kawaii, ne?" (Abbey's cute, huh.) and "amakunai?" (Isn't she sweet?) That made me laugh. Apparently middle school girls think I am cute and sweet.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
RYLA... and stuff
Saturday (April 18) I went to RYLA. RYLA stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. We were told about it in our district meetings at the beginning of the months. Each of the exchange students had to pick a food from their country and we were told we would be teaching a group how to make that food. It didn't really sound too fun, to be honest. Even the rotex people said they didn't think it was going to be very fun.
... but it was awesome!
We all met up at Kanazawa-hakke station. Well, that was the plan. A few of the other exchangers were late and met up with us a bit later. From there we went to the center RYLA was being held in. It was pretty much a big cafeteria with a huge kitchen. The ingredients for each meal were out on tables. Each of us had been assigned to a group of about 12 people plus an outbound to our country. Vincent and I had been told that we would be working together because we were both from America, but they ended up splitting us up. We just combined our groups. Let's be honest, hamburgers and cheeseburgers are practically the same thing. We had planned on doing them together anyway.
Eventually all the RYLA participants show up. This RYLA was for 17 to 30 year olds (as opposed to the RYLA I went to in America that was for high school students). Perfect. I get to teach a group of 24 people, all of whom are older than me, how to make hamburgers (which I have never actually made myself before) in Japanese. ...all right. The groups were seated by tables and they introduced us to our tables one at a time. When I was going over to my table I heard a couple of the girls at it say "oh, kawaii!". That kind of made me laugh...
My table with our food. That is Maki across from me.
Anyway, the guy in charge kind of babbled on for a really long time explaining each of our meals. He took like 3 minutes to explain what a hamburger is. Then another 3 to explain the cheeseburger. Just in case someone didn't know... Finally we all get into the kitchen. Vincent, Kouhe, Maki, (Kouhe and Maki are both going to America this year) and I look at each other. Now what? ...
Vincent, Kouhe, and me. I'm not sure where Maki was...
After a slightly awkward pause with everyone staring at us, I go... "Okay, we are going to need people to cut vegetables, people cut the buns, and people to make patties..." I was mostly just thinking out loud in Japanese, but people started doing what I said. It was amazing. I was totally in charge! haha! After some group effort to find all the knives and cutting boards and things they just got to work. They would ask me how I wanted the various veggies cut and then they did it. Wow, I love being in charge of big groups.
Don't get me wrong, this was a team effort. Technically, Vincent was just as much in charge as me. But he has this idea that he can't speak Japanese so I was the one talking to the group. Kouhe and Maki were really good for helping translate or explaining what I was trying to say. Vincent did an awesome job of giving them examples of how to cut stuff and how to make the patties. I really didn't do much at all. There was just nothing else to help with so I supervised.
French Fries!
And the burgers.
In the end we made some delicious hamburgers and french fries. Seriously, they were good. The other inbound's meals were all good too. I tried them all! And ate way too much. I got to try ceviche for the first time. Iliana (Mexico) and Felipe (Ecuador) both made it. Iliana also made tacos. It was really good! I really love my rotary group here. I can't believe that this was our last activity all together. Iliana and Felipe will both leave early next month.
What a fun group
The camera man got to have one too. Well, there is a reason the camera man is eating our burgers. Vincent stole one before we were done. It was a doulbe decker. He tried it and said it was really really good, and that I had to try it. The camera man sees Vincent trying to stuff this huge burger in my face and comes over to take a picture. Next, Kouhe got to have some. Then we asked the camera man if he wanted to try it. He ate the rest. hahaha
I hope we get copies of his pictures...
Because Iliana is leaving so soon we decided we needed to have one last sleepover before she goes. Saturday night I stayed at her house. It was really nice. We got to talk a lot and I had the best night sleep I have had in a long time. Her bed has a real mattress and we slept in until 8:30!
On Sunday we went to an Odori at the National Theatre of Japan in Tokyo. My rotarian, Mr. Yoshida, invited me to go see it because his wife was in it. He gave me 3 tickets and told me to bring 2 friends along. I brought Iliana and Katja with me. It was really pretty cool. I am glad I got to have that experience. The dancing is very slow and the music is very traditional, but it was a really good cultural thing to see. The kimonos and costumes were beautiful! I enjoyed it. His wife was in two of the songs, including one with the huge wigs like in the picture below. I couldn't take pictures of the actual performance, for obvious reasons, so I found this online.
This dance is called the Renjishi. They are playing lions.
From there Mr. Yoshida and his daughter took us to Kaiten-zushi!! (conveyor belt sushi, which is pretty much the best invention ever.) Katja had to go home early so she couldn't join us there, but it was fun to see her during the day. I had a very busy, fun weekend.
... but it was awesome!
We all met up at Kanazawa-hakke station. Well, that was the plan. A few of the other exchangers were late and met up with us a bit later. From there we went to the center RYLA was being held in. It was pretty much a big cafeteria with a huge kitchen. The ingredients for each meal were out on tables. Each of us had been assigned to a group of about 12 people plus an outbound to our country. Vincent and I had been told that we would be working together because we were both from America, but they ended up splitting us up. We just combined our groups. Let's be honest, hamburgers and cheeseburgers are practically the same thing. We had planned on doing them together anyway.
Eventually all the RYLA participants show up. This RYLA was for 17 to 30 year olds (as opposed to the RYLA I went to in America that was for high school students). Perfect. I get to teach a group of 24 people, all of whom are older than me, how to make hamburgers (which I have never actually made myself before) in Japanese. ...all right. The groups were seated by tables and they introduced us to our tables one at a time. When I was going over to my table I heard a couple of the girls at it say "oh, kawaii!". That kind of made me laugh...
My table with our food. That is Maki across from me.
Anyway, the guy in charge kind of babbled on for a really long time explaining each of our meals. He took like 3 minutes to explain what a hamburger is. Then another 3 to explain the cheeseburger. Just in case someone didn't know... Finally we all get into the kitchen. Vincent, Kouhe, Maki, (Kouhe and Maki are both going to America this year) and I look at each other. Now what? ...
Vincent, Kouhe, and me. I'm not sure where Maki was...
After a slightly awkward pause with everyone staring at us, I go... "Okay, we are going to need people to cut vegetables, people cut the buns, and people to make patties..." I was mostly just thinking out loud in Japanese, but people started doing what I said. It was amazing. I was totally in charge! haha! After some group effort to find all the knives and cutting boards and things they just got to work. They would ask me how I wanted the various veggies cut and then they did it. Wow, I love being in charge of big groups.
Don't get me wrong, this was a team effort. Technically, Vincent was just as much in charge as me. But he has this idea that he can't speak Japanese so I was the one talking to the group. Kouhe and Maki were really good for helping translate or explaining what I was trying to say. Vincent did an awesome job of giving them examples of how to cut stuff and how to make the patties. I really didn't do much at all. There was just nothing else to help with so I supervised.
French Fries!
And the burgers.
In the end we made some delicious hamburgers and french fries. Seriously, they were good. The other inbound's meals were all good too. I tried them all! And ate way too much. I got to try ceviche for the first time. Iliana (Mexico) and Felipe (Ecuador) both made it. Iliana also made tacos. It was really good! I really love my rotary group here. I can't believe that this was our last activity all together. Iliana and Felipe will both leave early next month.
What a fun group
The camera man got to have one too. Well, there is a reason the camera man is eating our burgers. Vincent stole one before we were done. It was a doulbe decker. He tried it and said it was really really good, and that I had to try it. The camera man sees Vincent trying to stuff this huge burger in my face and comes over to take a picture. Next, Kouhe got to have some. Then we asked the camera man if he wanted to try it. He ate the rest. hahaha
I hope we get copies of his pictures...Because Iliana is leaving so soon we decided we needed to have one last sleepover before she goes. Saturday night I stayed at her house. It was really nice. We got to talk a lot and I had the best night sleep I have had in a long time. Her bed has a real mattress and we slept in until 8:30!
On Sunday we went to an Odori at the National Theatre of Japan in Tokyo. My rotarian, Mr. Yoshida, invited me to go see it because his wife was in it. He gave me 3 tickets and told me to bring 2 friends along. I brought Iliana and Katja with me. It was really pretty cool. I am glad I got to have that experience. The dancing is very slow and the music is very traditional, but it was a really good cultural thing to see. The kimonos and costumes were beautiful! I enjoyed it. His wife was in two of the songs, including one with the huge wigs like in the picture below. I couldn't take pictures of the actual performance, for obvious reasons, so I found this online.
This dance is called the Renjishi. They are playing lions.
From there Mr. Yoshida and his daughter took us to Kaiten-zushi!! (conveyor belt sushi, which is pretty much the best invention ever.) Katja had to go home early so she couldn't join us there, but it was fun to see her during the day. I had a very busy, fun weekend.
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