More School

Well, today was my fourth day of school. It seems to be going pretty well. Yesterday I took a caligraphy class. That was pretty fun. I was assigned to write letters in Japanese to my host family and to AnnaMarie. I don't know what they are going to do with them. All the girls in my class came over and helped me translate and write them out. It seems like I am making friends, but it may just be because I am interesting and new.

Today I had some private Japanese lessons. It was good, I guess. I am getting a little frustrated because it doesn't seem like I am picking much up at all! Then again, I have only been here for like two weeks. It feels like much longer than that.

My actual classes are all pretty boring. I try to fill my time reading the Japanese history book my history teacher gave me or studying my grammer book. School feels infinatley longer when you can't even understand the teacher.

So, this has been and will be my schedule for week days. I wake up at 5:45. In the morning. It doesn't really seem that early though, because they don't have daylight savings here so the sun comes up at like 5:15. I make myself toast for breakfast and my peanutbutter and jelly sandwich for lunch. I eat my breakfast, get on my school uniform, and brush my teeth and do my hair. I don't do my makeup because it isn't allowed at school.




I leave my house a 6:45 to catch the 6:50 bus outside. That bus takes me to the station, where I get on the express train to the Yokohama Station. At Yokohama, I switch to a different train line and get on the local train that takes me to Tsurumi Station. From there I get on another bus that takes me to a block away from the school. I walk to the school, change my shoes, and go to my classes. I ususally arrive at school at about 8:05. School starts at 8:15. Well that is when the morning prayers are anyway. It's pretty wierd doing the prayers. I don't know them anyway because they are in Japanese, but still.

I leave school at like 3:30 and by 4:30 or so I arrive home. At home I help with dinner or play with my little host brothers. I eat dinner, shower, and then get to bed around 9:00.

Oh, and did I tell you that I got my phone now? It's pretty exciting.

School

Well, yesterday was my first day of school here in Japan. I can now sympathize with anyone who has ever been the "new kid". I guess it went okay. It was pretty tough though. My teachers and classmates are all very nice, and I have two teachers that are pretty much assigned to help me out if I ever need anything. They have been really helpful in getting my schedule settled. It was just really hard going to a school for the first time with all girls, in Japanese, and not knowing what was going on... at all.

People would ask how my classes were and to be perfectly honest, they are all pretty much the same to me. I don't know what the teacher is saying anyway. The only one that was different was math. The teacher gave me a worksheet that was in Japanese going over something with circles that we never got to in my Algebra II class. Luckily, the girl in front of me spoke decent English and she helped explain it to me. Like I said, everyone is so nice at school.

Today was my second day and I had to give a speech at the school assembly this morning. It went pretty well. I just read it off of my paper. Everyone clapped when I was done. Today was definatly better than yesterday. My schedule is different everyday, so today I had Japanese History, English, Japanese, and P.E. In Japanese History, my teacher gave me a book about Japan's history that was in english and japanese. That was very nice of her. I spent the morning reading that and actually learning something. P.E. was fun too.

I got my school P.E. uniform and I went to the volleyball class. All the girls were very impressed with my rusty volleyball skills. I haven't actually played for almost 2 years, but they thought I was amazing! When I spiked the ball they were all like "Oh! Sugoii!" (Wow/Amazing!) haha. And then at the water break one of the girls was like you are so skinny and poked my stomach, then yelled something to the other girls and asked me if I did sit-ups. I told them I didn't. It was kind of embarassing, but really funny. When the teacher announced that we were going to play a game of volleyball (rather than just drills) a lot of the girls were like I get Abbey!!!

So, that is school for now. I hope it continues to get better. I also hope that I really start to pick up some Japanese from my classmates.