Iliana

Iliana is pretty much my best friend in the whole world. We have had a lot of good times together. We have also helped each other through a lot of hard, stressful times, too. We have talked a lot about everything and I think she knows me better than most of my friends that I have been in school with since I was 5 do. It's really hard to realize that we have only known each other for a little more than 8 months. And it is even harder for me to realize that she is gone... I just don't believe it.

Today at a little after 1 o'clock I watched her being driven away from the Breezebay Hotel in Minatomirai. But, I guess I should go back and blog about yesterday.

Yesterday (Friday, the 8th) I had school in the morning. We didn't really even have school. The other girls just had physicals at school. I didn't take the physical because I told them I didn't want to and my teacher said that it was okay for me not to take it. School started at 9:50, so I got to school at 8:30. We had sport's festival practice in the morning. Then at 10, all the girls go to take their physical. I go to study on my own for an hour. At about 11 I told my teacher I had to leave to go to my Rotary Club lunch. (I usually leave at 11:30 for it, but I had extra stuff to do yesterday so I told them I was going at 11.) I walk home and drop off my school bag and my host mom took me to a picture shop where I dropped off a picture for them to print out for a gift to give to Iliana. Then I went to my Rotary lunch in Yokohama, which went fine.

My rotary lunches are all pretty much the same. Yesterday I wasn't asked to give a speech, so that was nice. I got my allowance and ate my obento. The obento was pretty good this time, too. Then after the meeting I got to meet and talk with my 3rd host father (Mr. Tateno) for a little bit. I was actually surprised because he is really young. We discussed the day I will change to their house, but that is about it. I guess they have a middle school aged child (boy?), so it will be interesting to live in a family with that age kids.

Anyway, more on host family number three once I actually know something about them. I went home from the meeting, changed out of my school uniform, finished packing my bag, and left to meet Iliana at Yokohama. When I got there she was in the T.G.I. Fridays with Ruan and Felipe so I went there to meet them. Then after a little bit the guys left and Iliana and I got to have some time with just the two of us. She wanted to go shopping in Yokohama, so we did. After she was done with that we went to her house.

I stayed the night there for her last night in Japan. I watched (I tried helping, but I didn't know how to do it the way she wanted it done) her pack up her bags and helped her go over everything that she needed for today. We had a nice dinner of yakitori, koroke, and sushi with her family. Then once everything was set for the morning we just talked. We finally went to sleep around 3 in the morning, but it was so fun to talk.

We thought about all the good times and hard times we have had and about how much we have learned here. We remembered our first weeks and the stupid, embarrassing things we did because we didn't know how to do it correctly. And we talked about how it will be to go home and plans to see each other again. But I still couldn't believe she was going to leave.

I remember the first time I saw her after our language classes were over in that first week we were here. It was on September 12. I was on my second week of school and as I was riding the train home I was thinking about how I wanted to do something that weekend. But the only people I knew at all were the other rotary students. We didn't have cell phones yet and I didn't know how to get a hold of any of them. Then as I am spacing out Iliana pops up out of no where and is like, "Abbey?!" What are the odds that she was in the same car of the same train as me? It was meant to be. Anyway, from there we made plans to meet on msn and hang out that weekend. It was funny because I didn't even talk to her that much at the first week of Japanese classes. From then on we have hung out almost every week. Or at least talked. Once we both had cell phones we text messaged almost every single day. I love that girl! We got to be really close friends, and we knew that if we ever needed anything here the other one was there for us.

This morning we got up at 8 and had omelet rice (Iliana's request) for breakfast. Then we made sure everything was ready to go and left for Sakuragichou Station to meet other people. Iliana had invited all the exchange students and some adults she knows here to meet her there to say goodbye. We (the exchange students apart from Iliana) had our rotary orientation meeting starting at 2 in the Breezebay Hotel anyway. We got to talk and take pictures and hang out for a couple hours before her host parents came to the hotel (which we walked to once everyone met up with us) to pick her up. We got to take pictures with all 8 of the inbounds of District 1590 for the year 2008-2009 for the last time.

Camille, Katja, Vincent, Ruan, Iliana, Abbey, Felipe, and Korn.

(From top to bottom) Ruan, Abbey, Vincent, Iliana

When her host brother came in to tell her it was time to go we all said goodbye. Some people cried a little, but I didn't. She got in the car and drove off. And then she messaged my phone like 15 minutes later.

Me giving my speech with no notes!

The meeting went well, and then I hung around Minatomirai with some of the other rotary students. Finally, as we were sitting on steps by the bay eating our combini food for dinner I started to cry. I know I will see her again. I know it's not good-bye for ever; just see you later. But it still sucks that my best friend is going back to Mexico. And I won't see her for at least a year. (Hopefully she will come up to Ironwood for my graduation next year.) And I will be the last exchange student to leave Japan from my group. I get to watch everyone leave, one by one, before I actually leave myself.

Needless to say, I am very tired now. Today was very emotional and I didn't get enough sleep last night. I miss Iliana already! And she is still in the airplane. It's time for me to take a hot bath and go to bed.

Golden Week

Golden Week is a 5 day holiday (From May 2 through May 6 this year) in Japan that includes the Showa Day, Constitutional Memorial day, Greenery Day, and Children's Day. I actually didn't hear of any of them besides Children's Day before I looked it up on wikipedia. They only one anyone actually celebrates is Children's Day. The government kind of made up holidays to put around it to make it a long break to encourage travelling and help the economy. Smart, huh? And I didn't have school! Which was the best part.

My Golden Week was really, really busy. On May 2 (Saturday) I hung out with my host sister for the day. We went to Rippongi Hills in Tokyo. It's a pretty cool place, but I hadn't been there before as it is most famous for the clubbing. And that's not really my thing. Besides, even if it was, I am underage. Anyway, she wanted to go to this flea market that was being set up by a radio station she listens to every morning. There were supposed to be some singers or someone famous there, but I guess they were coming later.

So we wandered around the flea market for a little bit, not wanting to buy anything. Then we decided to go to lunch. Rika suggested that we go to Hard Rock Cafe. That was really nice of her to treat me to that. I would never go there if I had to pay for it myself. Neither of us could decide what to eat so I ordered the pulled pork sandwich and she got the beef brisket, then we split half and half. It was so good! I don't get real American food like that too often here. And we both ate almost all of it!

Before:

After:

Then we went up in the Sky Building. We just wanted to see the view from the top, but you had to buy a ticket to the art exhibit to go to the top. Dumb rule if you ask me. So, we ended up going to a stupid modern art exhibit. It was fun though. I just don't understand modern art. Luckily, Rika feels the same way as me so we just made fun of stuff as we went through.

The view from the top was really pretty. It was a nice, clear day so we could see a lot.
After that we managed to find enough room in our stomachs to eat crepes. I LOVE crepes. I wish they sold them like this in America... They have pretty much whatever you want inside and are wrapped into a cone shape so you eat them with your hands. They are so good! I am going to make them someday when I get home.

We finally got home at about 5. We were too full to eat dinner that night. But it was a really fun day. My host mom left that night with my host dad for a trip to Niigata prefecture.

The next day I got to go to church for the first time in almost a month. That was really nice. Since I am moving families and will go to a closer church soon it was probably the last time I will see some of these people.

After church I went to Kawasaki to meet my host sister. We had plans to go to the movies. We saw Goemon. It's a Japanese movie. I actually really enjoyed it, but I don't think it was actually supposed to be funny. My favorite thing about the movie is the fact that there are only like 5 people still alive at the end of it. Goemon 2 is pretty much impossible. No, for real, it was fun. I really liked seeing a Japanese movie. I was the only foreigner in the entire theatre.

After the movie we went to a Korean barbecue for dinner. Then we went and got crepes again! Two days in a row... that was bad. These crepes were also good, but not quite as good as the ones from the day before.

On Monday I went to Lena's (a girl from Russia) going away party. We all went to the beach in Hiratsuka. It was really fun. We played beach volleyball and didn't use sunscreen. I only got a little burned. I really should buy sunscreen, but it is so dang expensive! The cheapest I can find is like 8 dollars for a tiny 3 ounce bottle. I think I will have to buy some at some point though.

Rina, Lena, Abbey, Annie, Slyvana, and Katja

On the 5th my rotary club president, Mr. Inukai invited me, my host families, and a couple of my friends to go cruising with him on his boat. My host sister and I woke up early to meet him at KeiKyu Shin-Koyasu station at 8:30. I invited Iliana ad Felipe to go too because they don't have a lot of time left in Japan. My host parents were still on their trip, so they couldn't come.

Felipe, Iliana, Abbey, Rika, and Rotarians in the back.

From that station we walked into the most run-down part of the city I have ever seen. This sketchy-looking harbor was not quite what I expected for my rotary club's president. We all followed him until he met up with another man none of us knew and then got onto the boat. It was a pretty small boat. We put our life jackets on and set off.

Nice harbor, huh?

Iliana, Abbey, Felipe

I did get to drive it though! That was really fun. We went right down the middle of Tokyo Bay, past the Minatomirai area, and to the open ocean. It was really really cool to see the city from this new angel. And Iliana, Felipe, and I had a good time talking. I can't believe they are leaving so soon.

Well, it turns out that that boat was not President Inukai's boat. It was his friend's boat and we were just going by boat to the other, much nicer-looking harbor. At this harbor we met my first host family. I was pretty excited to see them again. Mr. Nakano and Toru came, but of turns out that Wataru had the chicken pox so he and Mie (my host mom) stayed home. On the boat there were a couple other rotarians too. This boat was pretty nice. It could probably fit 15 people pretty comfortably. They had sandwiches, chips, little pieces of steak, and onigiri for us there for lunch.

Minatomirai

I think that the original itinerary had a destination, but Toru got sea sick so we ended up turning around and going back early. The day was still pretty fun, though.

We got back to the harbor by about 12:30 and from there Mr. Nakano drove us to the station. But first we got to stop by good old Radiant City to see Mie. Iliana wanted to say goodbye to her before she leaves Japan. So It was nice to see her again. Then Mr. Nakano drove us to Kanazawa Bunko station.

Wednesday, the 6th was my last day of break. I just took it easy, slept in, and relaxed. My host parents got back from their trip that morning so I talked to my host mom about that.

Golden week was really fun. And it's always nice to have a break from school.