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
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Sea Paradise
Saki, Risako, Nozomi, Haruna, Abbey, Rina, and Nana
Today, I went to Sea Paradise with some of my friends from school. It is an amusement park/aquarium. It was a lot of fun. We spent the morning going on the various rides like the one big roller coaster and the big droppy tower thing. It was 107 meters high (351 ft.) and it was really fun! We also went on the spinny ride and the big boat that swung back and forth and some octopus ride that is mostly for little kids. It was still fun. One thing about the rides here is that they are made for Japanese size people. I barley fit! On the roller coaster, my knees were up against the seat in front of me and the harness thing was just a little too small. It worked just fine, but I was a little too tall for it to come down really comfortably. I couldn't sit up totally straight in it.
We went to the food court for lunch. I got Udon. It was really good. I wish food courts in America had that good of food. Then we went to the aquarium and saw all the different animals. I think my classmates set a record of how many times they can say the word "Kawaii" in one day. For those of you who don't know, kawaii means cute. Usually for the small fuzzy animal type of cute, but they call me kawaii when I try to speak Japanese and when they saw me this morning. (I was wearing something other than my school uniform for the first time in front of them. They also commented on how long my legs are. I guess they do look longer in jeans than in the skirt.) I'll take it as a compliment. The aquarium is really big and really nice. We even got to go to a show! We saw the dolphins and seals and walrus do tricks and stuff. It was really cool.
Another thing we did was pirikura. They are Japanese photobooths where you take the
pictures and then you get to decorate them on the computers. It prints out little stickers of the pictures and you can get them sent to your phone, too. It was really fun.
Today was a really fun day. I also have tomorrow off of school, so that's nice! I had school on Saturday for an open campus thing. We only had 2 hours of school, but it was so parents could come in and see how the classes are run here. It's a private school so they have to compete a little to get students. It was really short and we get the whole day off tomorrow, so I guess that's a pretty good deal. Okay, this was a lot of blogging tonight and I am all done! I'll be adding my pictures to these entries in the next couple of days.
Today, I went to Sea Paradise with some of my friends from school. It is an amusement park/aquarium. It was a lot of fun. We spent the morning going on the various rides like the one big roller coaster and the big droppy tower thing. It was 107 meters high (351 ft.) and it was really fun! We also went on the spinny ride and the big boat that swung back and forth and some octopus ride that is mostly for little kids. It was still fun. One thing about the rides here is that they are made for Japanese size people. I barley fit! On the roller coaster, my knees were up against the seat in front of me and the harness thing was just a little too small. It worked just fine, but I was a little too tall for it to come down really comfortably. I couldn't sit up totally straight in it.
We went to the food court for lunch. I got Udon. It was really good. I wish food courts in America had that good of food. Then we went to the aquarium and saw all the different animals. I think my classmates set a record of how many times they can say the word "Kawaii" in one day. For those of you who don't know, kawaii means cute. Usually for the small fuzzy animal type of cute, but they call me kawaii when I try to speak Japanese and when they saw me this morning. (I was wearing something other than my school uniform for the first time in front of them. They also commented on how long my legs are. I guess they do look longer in jeans than in the skirt.) I'll take it as a compliment. The aquarium is really big and really nice. We even got to go to a show! We saw the dolphins and seals and walrus do tricks and stuff. It was really cool.
Another thing we did was pirikura. They are Japanese photobooths where you take the
pictures and then you get to decorate them on the computers. It prints out little stickers of the pictures and you can get them sent to your phone, too. It was really fun.
Today was a really fun day. I also have tomorrow off of school, so that's nice! I had school on Saturday for an open campus thing. We only had 2 hours of school, but it was so parents could come in and see how the classes are run here. It's a private school so they have to compete a little to get students. It was really short and we get the whole day off tomorrow, so I guess that's a pretty good deal. Okay, this was a lot of blogging tonight and I am all done! I'll be adding my pictures to these entries in the next couple of days.
Karoke!
This past Tuesday (September 23) I didn't have school! It's the fall equinox, which just happens to be a national holiday here. It was really nice to have an extra day off. So... I went to Karoke! My apartment complex has a karoke room that you can rent out for only 500 yen (about 5 USD) for 3 hours. That's so cheap! My host dad and little host brothers and Iliana and I all went together. Karoke is a little different here than in the states. You don't do it with a huge group of strangers. Just with a small group of your friends or family. The rooms here can fit about 8 people. And it really isn't as embarrassing as you would think.
My little host brothers got to sing all their pokemon songs and the "ponya" song. I guess Ponya is an anime movie that came out recently here and it's unbelievably popular. Everyone from my host brothers to my friends at school sing the Ponya song. Iliana and I got to choose from the foreign songs. There were a lot of them, actually. My first ever karoke song was "Umbrella" and I sang it with Iliana. haha. My host dad had never heard of it (see Daddy, your not the only one!) but now my little host brothers go around the house singing, "ella, ella, ella, ay, ay...". I also sang some oldies like Dancing Queen with my host dad. It was a lot of fun. I'm sure I'll be doing that again with other rotary kids and friends from school.
School this week went okay. I started Volleyball. Most of the other girls are a lot better than me, but that's okay. I'll get better with a little more practice. After school from 4 to 6 is practice. After volleyball, I go home. I get home at about 7:30 and then eat dinner alone. I wish I could eat dinner with my host family, but I think it is important to get involved with a club here. Then I hang out with my host family for a little bit and go to bed. I am so exhausted on nights with volleyball. I will just have to get used to it.
Volleyball is really the only new thing going on with school. I am back to my regular schedule now. Everything seems to be going pretty well. I've made a lot of friends and am starting, just a little tiny bit, to get a hold on the language. My English-speaking friends at school decided to stop speaking English to me. It's actually really good. They all slow down their Japanese and then explain the words that I don't know. Which is about half of them. And the other half is mostly made up of words like wa and desu. (Wa is a subject marker used in pretty much every sentence and desu is like the verb for "is, am, are" and is also used in almost every sentence.) But this Wednesday was the first day that I actually felt optimistic about Japanese. Maybe I really can learn it!
My little host brothers got to sing all their pokemon songs and the "ponya" song. I guess Ponya is an anime movie that came out recently here and it's unbelievably popular. Everyone from my host brothers to my friends at school sing the Ponya song. Iliana and I got to choose from the foreign songs. There were a lot of them, actually. My first ever karoke song was "Umbrella" and I sang it with Iliana. haha. My host dad had never heard of it (see Daddy, your not the only one!) but now my little host brothers go around the house singing, "ella, ella, ella, ay, ay...". I also sang some oldies like Dancing Queen with my host dad. It was a lot of fun. I'm sure I'll be doing that again with other rotary kids and friends from school.
School this week went okay. I started Volleyball. Most of the other girls are a lot better than me, but that's okay. I'll get better with a little more practice. After school from 4 to 6 is practice. After volleyball, I go home. I get home at about 7:30 and then eat dinner alone. I wish I could eat dinner with my host family, but I think it is important to get involved with a club here. Then I hang out with my host family for a little bit and go to bed. I am so exhausted on nights with volleyball. I will just have to get used to it.
Volleyball is really the only new thing going on with school. I am back to my regular schedule now. Everything seems to be going pretty well. I've made a lot of friends and am starting, just a little tiny bit, to get a hold on the language. My English-speaking friends at school decided to stop speaking English to me. It's actually really good. They all slow down their Japanese and then explain the words that I don't know. Which is about half of them. And the other half is mostly made up of words like wa and desu. (Wa is a subject marker used in pretty much every sentence and desu is like the verb for "is, am, are" and is also used in almost every sentence.) But this Wednesday was the first day that I actually felt optimistic about Japanese. Maybe I really can learn it!
Yacht Party!
I have once again failed to update my blog in more than a week, so now I have a few different posts to put up tonight and tomorrow. I just get so busy during the week with school and now volleyball. Anyway, more about that later. This post is about my yacht party which was last Saturday. September 20th, which happened to be the my one month mark. Yay for surviving my first month of exchange!
Saturday morning, I met up with some of the kids from Rotary. There was me, Iliana (Mexico), Felipe (Equador), Shintarou (Japanese- went to Mexico last year), and Vincent (Ohio, USA), who had us all over. We went to one of his host parent's apartments first where we used the hot tub in the basement and then the pool on the roof. It was a little cold. I really didn't want to get in, but Shintarou didn't really give me any choice in the matter... thanks a lot.
Felipe, Iliana, Shintarou, Vincent, and me on the roof.
After we were done there, we went and bought our lunches at a convenience store and then brought them to the yacht at the Zushi Marina. We watched the get it all ready and then we took off! It was really fun. I even got to drive it! The boat wasn't too big, but it was really nice. The place we went sailing is on the southern side of the little peninsula I am on. The ocean that I usually see is Tokyo Bay, but this was actually the Pacific Ocean. We stopped the boat after a while and all of us jumped into the ocean off the end. It was really fun.
Driving the yacht!
Me and Iliana
Vincent, Me, Iliana, and Shintarou
We returned to the dock and then went to Vincent's host parent's other apartment. Yes, they have two apartments. And a yacht. And a house. All within a couple hours of the rest. At the apartment we showered and then we all went to Kamikura Station. We had dinner at a nice and cheap Italian restaurant. We had Italian because it won over McDonald's when we flipped a coin. Then, we went and got ice cream and went home. It was a really fun day.
Me, Shintarou, Iliana, and Felipe after getting ice cream.
Saturday morning, I met up with some of the kids from Rotary. There was me, Iliana (Mexico), Felipe (Equador), Shintarou (Japanese- went to Mexico last year), and Vincent (Ohio, USA), who had us all over. We went to one of his host parent's apartments first where we used the hot tub in the basement and then the pool on the roof. It was a little cold. I really didn't want to get in, but Shintarou didn't really give me any choice in the matter... thanks a lot.
Felipe, Iliana, Shintarou, Vincent, and me on the roof.
After we were done there, we went and bought our lunches at a convenience store and then brought them to the yacht at the Zushi Marina. We watched the get it all ready and then we took off! It was really fun. I even got to drive it! The boat wasn't too big, but it was really nice. The place we went sailing is on the southern side of the little peninsula I am on. The ocean that I usually see is Tokyo Bay, but this was actually the Pacific Ocean. We stopped the boat after a while and all of us jumped into the ocean off the end. It was really fun.
Driving the yacht!
Me and Iliana
Vincent, Me, Iliana, and Shintarou
We returned to the dock and then went to Vincent's host parent's other apartment. Yes, they have two apartments. And a yacht. And a house. All within a couple hours of the rest. At the apartment we showered and then we all went to Kamikura Station. We had dinner at a nice and cheap Italian restaurant. We had Italian because it won over McDonald's when we flipped a coin. Then, we went and got ice cream and went home. It was a really fun day.
Me, Shintarou, Iliana, and Felipe after getting ice cream.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Grade School
School has been wonderful so far this week. As I said before, the high school students are taking their exams so I am going to the grade school that is connected with St. Joseph's High School. And, I get done with school at 11:15! Unlike the high school, the grade school is co-ed. On Tuesday I met the grade school's English teacher, Sean Hashi. He is Canadian, so I am kind of following him around this week and helping teach his classes a little. We went to the 2nd grade classes and then a 1st grade class. The kids were so fun and cute! Here are some pictures.
Second Grade
First Grade
These kids were just awesome. At first they seemed a little intimidated, but once I was introduced and they got to ask me questions they were okay. They all had to say "Good Morning Abbey. How are you?" as a class. It was really cute. Then there was a question and answer session. They asked me questions like "What's your favorite color?" and "What is your favorite animal?". And then subject and food and so on. One girl asked me where I was from and the teacher had them guess. She guessed France. The next girl got it right. I answered them in English and they had to see if they knew what it was in Japanese. They were pretty good at it.
The first grade also got to teach me all the English they knew backwards. I learned how to say can I please sharpen my pencil in Japanese! That's real useful. I knew most of the phrases already, but it was fun to see what they thought I needed to know and I did learn a few new ones.
After all of that I went and sat in one of the empty desks and they all thought it was hilarious. The desk was a little small. I sat next to a boy and this girl up front turned around and made a little heart with her hands and laughed.
After class they all swarmed over to see me. Mostly to stare at me, but one girl tried to say something to me in Japanese. Realizing that I didn't know what she was saying she ran over to the teacher and then came back and said, "You're beautiful!" Ahhh, it was so sweet! And another little girl made me a paper airplane as a gift.
The whole experience made me think that I might like to be a grade school teacher. I really liked working with all the little kids.
Today was fun too, but not quite as much fun. I went to the 6th grade classes. They were a little more, well they're 11 and 12-year-olds. No offense Christy. :D The question and answer session was a little more interesting though. I got the usual "Where are you from?" and "What kind of food do you like?", but I also got "Who do you support for president, Obama or McCain?". Come on! This kid is 11 and trying to talk to me about politics! To be honest, he probably knows more about what is going on with this election than I do at this point. The only news that I have heard is on the Japanese news channel. In Japanese. I was also asked "Do you like Sean?" These 11 year old boys are pretty creative, right? Sean is twice as old as me! I said he was a good teacher. haha. Then another smarty-pants asked me if I like Jonny, an American English teacher at the high school. I said he was very kind. Then the first one asked me who I liked better! I told them I don't pick favorites. To make all this even better, Sean had to translate the questions for me.
So, that's all so far. I'll also be in the grade schools Thursday and Friday, so maybe I'll have some more stories in a few days.
Second Grade
First Grade
These kids were just awesome. At first they seemed a little intimidated, but once I was introduced and they got to ask me questions they were okay. They all had to say "Good Morning Abbey. How are you?" as a class. It was really cute. Then there was a question and answer session. They asked me questions like "What's your favorite color?" and "What is your favorite animal?". And then subject and food and so on. One girl asked me where I was from and the teacher had them guess. She guessed France. The next girl got it right. I answered them in English and they had to see if they knew what it was in Japanese. They were pretty good at it.
The first grade also got to teach me all the English they knew backwards. I learned how to say can I please sharpen my pencil in Japanese! That's real useful. I knew most of the phrases already, but it was fun to see what they thought I needed to know and I did learn a few new ones.
After all of that I went and sat in one of the empty desks and they all thought it was hilarious. The desk was a little small. I sat next to a boy and this girl up front turned around and made a little heart with her hands and laughed.
After class they all swarmed over to see me. Mostly to stare at me, but one girl tried to say something to me in Japanese. Realizing that I didn't know what she was saying she ran over to the teacher and then came back and said, "You're beautiful!" Ahhh, it was so sweet! And another little girl made me a paper airplane as a gift.
The whole experience made me think that I might like to be a grade school teacher. I really liked working with all the little kids.
Today was fun too, but not quite as much fun. I went to the 6th grade classes. They were a little more, well they're 11 and 12-year-olds. No offense Christy. :D The question and answer session was a little more interesting though. I got the usual "Where are you from?" and "What kind of food do you like?", but I also got "Who do you support for president, Obama or McCain?". Come on! This kid is 11 and trying to talk to me about politics! To be honest, he probably knows more about what is going on with this election than I do at this point. The only news that I have heard is on the Japanese news channel. In Japanese. I was also asked "Do you like Sean?" These 11 year old boys are pretty creative, right? Sean is twice as old as me! I said he was a good teacher. haha. Then another smarty-pants asked me if I like Jonny, an American English teacher at the high school. I said he was very kind. Then the first one asked me who I liked better! I told them I don't pick favorites. To make all this even better, Sean had to translate the questions for me.
So, that's all so far. I'll also be in the grade schools Thursday and Friday, so maybe I'll have some more stories in a few days.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Long Weekend!
Today was the last day of my long weekend. Today is Elder's Day, so I didn't have school. This weekend was really fun. Yesterday (Sunday) was pretty nice. I got to go to church again here. I really love that I get to go almost every week. It's really nice to do something so familiar and the members are so nice to me. I got to practice my Japanese talking to a lady there. She was very sweet and patient with my poor language skills. Then another lady sat by me and translated for me again.
Anyway, after church I went to my friend Ilianaa's house. She is a girl that I met at Rotary from Mexico. We went for a walk to see all the stores around her house and I had lunch then dinner with her and her host family. It was so nice to talk to have someone to just hang out and talk with.
Today, I met up with Ilianaa again. This time we went to Yokohama Station and Kamiooka Station. All the major train stations here are connected to huge department stores, so we wandered around the different shops and looked at all the ridiculously expensive brand name clothes. I would never be able to afford anything at those stores, and I honestly can't see why people would ever pay that much. Anyway, then we had lunch at this little Italian restaurant. It was really good, but I think the waiter misunderstood us when we were ordering. Go figure, right. We tried to order one spaghetti type pasta and then one pizza, and we were going to share. When the salads came, they brought 3 of them. Then, when the pasta came they brought two big plates out, and then they brought a pizza out. It was really good, but we couldn't eat it all.
After lunch, we went back to my apartment. We hung out and talked here. It is so nice to have a good friend here to talk to. I brought her back to the station at about 5 so she could go home for dinner. Once I got back, I helped finish setting the table and ate. We had this really good hot pot type thing with some little clear noodles, meat, tofu, mushrooms, and various vegetables in a broth. It was so yummy! I love my host mom's cooking. Then I helped with the dishes and took my shower.
Today I finally told my host dad that I want him to stop speaking English to me. I'm really starting to feel like I should know more Japanese because I have almost been here for a whole month. I really hope that I will start learning faster now that I will be hearing less English at home and taking Japanese lessons at school. My school even got me a really nice Japanese textbook in English to help me learn.
In school this week all the high school girls will have exams, so they won't be in class. Then what will I be doing, you ask. Well, they couldn't just give me a whole week off of school, so they have me go to the only classes that are going on. That's right, I get to go to grade school this week! I get recess and everything! I was told that I can either observe or participate. I plan on participating as much as my Japanese skills allow. I am so excited for this. I just hope they get me a little bigger desk than the ones the little kids are using... But seriously, I'm excited to go. Hopefully the kids won't be too scared of me or anything. I do have, I mean get to give a presentation to the class about Halloween. I wish I would have known that earlier so I could have gotten some American candy or something. Then the kids would love me for sure!
Sorry there aren't any pictures for this entry. I'll be sure to take some this week at school though.
Anyway, after church I went to my friend Ilianaa's house. She is a girl that I met at Rotary from Mexico. We went for a walk to see all the stores around her house and I had lunch then dinner with her and her host family. It was so nice to talk to have someone to just hang out and talk with.
Today, I met up with Ilianaa again. This time we went to Yokohama Station and Kamiooka Station. All the major train stations here are connected to huge department stores, so we wandered around the different shops and looked at all the ridiculously expensive brand name clothes. I would never be able to afford anything at those stores, and I honestly can't see why people would ever pay that much. Anyway, then we had lunch at this little Italian restaurant. It was really good, but I think the waiter misunderstood us when we were ordering. Go figure, right. We tried to order one spaghetti type pasta and then one pizza, and we were going to share. When the salads came, they brought 3 of them. Then, when the pasta came they brought two big plates out, and then they brought a pizza out. It was really good, but we couldn't eat it all.
After lunch, we went back to my apartment. We hung out and talked here. It is so nice to have a good friend here to talk to. I brought her back to the station at about 5 so she could go home for dinner. Once I got back, I helped finish setting the table and ate. We had this really good hot pot type thing with some little clear noodles, meat, tofu, mushrooms, and various vegetables in a broth. It was so yummy! I love my host mom's cooking. Then I helped with the dishes and took my shower.
Today I finally told my host dad that I want him to stop speaking English to me. I'm really starting to feel like I should know more Japanese because I have almost been here for a whole month. I really hope that I will start learning faster now that I will be hearing less English at home and taking Japanese lessons at school. My school even got me a really nice Japanese textbook in English to help me learn.
In school this week all the high school girls will have exams, so they won't be in class. Then what will I be doing, you ask. Well, they couldn't just give me a whole week off of school, so they have me go to the only classes that are going on. That's right, I get to go to grade school this week! I get recess and everything! I was told that I can either observe or participate. I plan on participating as much as my Japanese skills allow. I am so excited for this. I just hope they get me a little bigger desk than the ones the little kids are using... But seriously, I'm excited to go. Hopefully the kids won't be too scared of me or anything. I do have, I mean get to give a presentation to the class about Halloween. I wish I would have known that earlier so I could have gotten some American candy or something. Then the kids would love me for sure!
Sorry there aren't any pictures for this entry. I'll be sure to take some this week at school though.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Update
Sorry it's been so long since I have written anything. I've been pretty busy. I made it through my first two weeks of school! The second one was definitely better than my first. I have set my schedule now, so hopefully I'll be getting textbooks soon. Here, they don't borrow them from the school, they buy them every year. However, the textbooks are much smaller and they are paperback. They're about 6 by 9 inches or so and only a couple hundred pages.
My classes are the following:
Geography, Math, Chemistry, Religion, English Writing, Physics, English, Japanese, P.E. (Volleyball), Health, Computers, Calligraphy, and my personal Japanese Lessons on Thursday mornings and Friday afternoons. I take those during the Spoken English class and the Japanese Writing class, because I already speak English, and Japanese Writing is too hard for me. As if I can understand any of my other classes anyway.
They use a rotating schedule here, so it's a little different each day of the week. My favorite classes are P.E. and Calligraphy (Shodou). I can actually participate in them. Well I try to participate in math too, but it just makes me feel dumb. I'd be doing fine if I could read the directions, had a textbook, or understood the teacher, but I don't have those advantages. I failed the test my teacher had me take and when I got it back I wanted to cry. I was good at math in America!
This week in Calligraphy we did this thing called "takuhon". First we made these stamps out of cotton wrapped up really tightly in plastic, then cloth. We took this stone slab with kanji (chinese characters) carved into it and covered it with special paper. We got the paper wet with a brush and then soaked up the extra water with a towel. Then we used our fingers to push the paper down into all the carved out areas. Once it dried, we used the stamps we had made to stamp ink over it. The ink doesn't go into the carved out areas, so the whole thing is black except for the kanji. It was really awesome. Maybe I'll take a picture of it if I am allowed to take my camera to class.
On Tuesday, I went to the flower arranging club after school. It was really nice. One of the english teachers from school went with me. She's from Canada, so she could help explain what was going on. She said I was a natural at it and couldn't believe it was my first time. I just copied the teacher, but okay. This is my arrangement:
Last Saturday was the Rotary welcome party for the inbounds (foreign students in Japan this year) here. We all gave our speeches and watched the rebounds (Japanese students that went somewhere last year) give their presentations. After that we had a little social time. It was really good seeing all my rotary friends again.
Not too much else has happened. I just have school. After school I help clean the school. I helped sweep in the homeroom this week, but I think our jobs change every week. It's actually really fun. We have 6-8 girls cleaning one room, so it's not a lot of work and everyone just gets to talk and visit during it. After that I go home. Usually I get there around 5. That's just enough time to change out of my uniform, check my email really fast, and help set the table for dinner.
Dinner is always really good. My host mom is an awesome cook. I usually don't know, okay, I never know what the dishes are called, but they taste really good. My host dad will usually tell me what they're called but I always forget before I write it down in my journal or something. One really weird thing I had this week was my yogurt after dinner. It was Aloe flavored. Like the plant you use for burns. It tasted okay, but I didn't even know you could eat aloe. The after taste was a little weird.
Today, I went to my host grandparent's house for the first time. They were very nice. I also met my host Dad's sister. They live about 40 minutes away by car, but there was bad traffic today because it is a long weekend. (Monday is Elder's Day. No School! yay!) It took an hour and a half to get there. It wasn't too bad though. Lunch was really good. It was actually a hot pot type thing with Udon and Hama fish sent from a restaurant in Osaka. I guess hama is like the one of the most expensive fish to buy in Japan. A very nice rotarian had it sent to my host family. There was also this rice with sashimi and caviar on it. It was really good.
So, I think that's about it for now. I'll try not to wait as long to blog again, but you never know. I'll also try to get more pictures up soon. You can see the ones I already have up at Michael's website. If you don't know his website, just send me an email and I'll send you the link.
My classes are the following:
Geography, Math, Chemistry, Religion, English Writing, Physics, English, Japanese, P.E. (Volleyball), Health, Computers, Calligraphy, and my personal Japanese Lessons on Thursday mornings and Friday afternoons. I take those during the Spoken English class and the Japanese Writing class, because I already speak English, and Japanese Writing is too hard for me. As if I can understand any of my other classes anyway.
They use a rotating schedule here, so it's a little different each day of the week. My favorite classes are P.E. and Calligraphy (Shodou). I can actually participate in them. Well I try to participate in math too, but it just makes me feel dumb. I'd be doing fine if I could read the directions, had a textbook, or understood the teacher, but I don't have those advantages. I failed the test my teacher had me take and when I got it back I wanted to cry. I was good at math in America!
This week in Calligraphy we did this thing called "takuhon". First we made these stamps out of cotton wrapped up really tightly in plastic, then cloth. We took this stone slab with kanji (chinese characters) carved into it and covered it with special paper. We got the paper wet with a brush and then soaked up the extra water with a towel. Then we used our fingers to push the paper down into all the carved out areas. Once it dried, we used the stamps we had made to stamp ink over it. The ink doesn't go into the carved out areas, so the whole thing is black except for the kanji. It was really awesome. Maybe I'll take a picture of it if I am allowed to take my camera to class.
On Tuesday, I went to the flower arranging club after school. It was really nice. One of the english teachers from school went with me. She's from Canada, so she could help explain what was going on. She said I was a natural at it and couldn't believe it was my first time. I just copied the teacher, but okay. This is my arrangement:
Last Saturday was the Rotary welcome party for the inbounds (foreign students in Japan this year) here. We all gave our speeches and watched the rebounds (Japanese students that went somewhere last year) give their presentations. After that we had a little social time. It was really good seeing all my rotary friends again.
Not too much else has happened. I just have school. After school I help clean the school. I helped sweep in the homeroom this week, but I think our jobs change every week. It's actually really fun. We have 6-8 girls cleaning one room, so it's not a lot of work and everyone just gets to talk and visit during it. After that I go home. Usually I get there around 5. That's just enough time to change out of my uniform, check my email really fast, and help set the table for dinner.
Dinner is always really good. My host mom is an awesome cook. I usually don't know, okay, I never know what the dishes are called, but they taste really good. My host dad will usually tell me what they're called but I always forget before I write it down in my journal or something. One really weird thing I had this week was my yogurt after dinner. It was Aloe flavored. Like the plant you use for burns. It tasted okay, but I didn't even know you could eat aloe. The after taste was a little weird.
Today, I went to my host grandparent's house for the first time. They were very nice. I also met my host Dad's sister. They live about 40 minutes away by car, but there was bad traffic today because it is a long weekend. (Monday is Elder's Day. No School! yay!) It took an hour and a half to get there. It wasn't too bad though. Lunch was really good. It was actually a hot pot type thing with Udon and Hama fish sent from a restaurant in Osaka. I guess hama is like the one of the most expensive fish to buy in Japan. A very nice rotarian had it sent to my host family. There was also this rice with sashimi and caviar on it. It was really good.
So, I think that's about it for now. I'll try not to wait as long to blog again, but you never know. I'll also try to get more pictures up soon. You can see the ones I already have up at Michael's website. If you don't know his website, just send me an email and I'll send you the link.
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