Taira Middle School

So, yesterday.. I went to 平良中学 and was placed in the third year, third class. In that class was Ogawa Moe, who I had already met before, so it wasn’t that weird for me to be all alone in that class. I had a lot of fun! First was a suuppeerr long assembly in the morning, where most of the time.. I just sat there, doing nothing.. After a while, I was called up in front of the whole school, to make a speech.. like a self introduction. Haha, it was Jitsugyo-koko all over again. The introduction was short and then I sat back down.

After that, I saw Moe going back to class, and the English teacher I was with told me that she would be leading me to my classroom. Score! So, I was totally happy that I could hang with Moe, because she’s just an awesome kid.. and she totally kicks butt at violin. Super prooo. Well, first period was math, and I had already learned it and so I just filled out the rest of the paper and I talked to Moe and Hikari, another girl for most of first period, but then, there were self introductions because the homeroom teacher wanted everyone to practice their English. The kids were so adorable, they stumbled over “Hi, my name is ____. I like ___” It was so cute. xD

Well, after math was a two hour long period of English, and between math and English was a fifteen minute break. Some girls came over and we talked about some things, and I showed them where California was in America. English started and Jeff, the ALT who was working at the school was actually running the lesson, so there was no confusion in communication at all.

The first part we passed around a basketball when music was playing, and after the music stopped, whoever had the ball was supposed to do a self introduction. So, it actually landed on me the last time the ball went around.. which was funny, but anyways, I introduced myself again, in English, told them my name, my favorite food, and my favorite band, -coughTohoshinkicough-. XD Then, we played battle ships with English.. the A,B,C part was the first part of the sentence and then the 1,2,3 was the second part, and you would read a whole sentence to try to hit the other side’s ship. I played with Hikari and won.

After the first hour, we had a short break and Jeff stepped outside along with the English teacher for about ten minutes. When they came back, we all formed five groups and then we started playing Jeopardy. The categories were.. Food, People, Musicians, America, and Japan. Guess which category my group chose? America of course. XD The questions were pretty easy too, so when we got to the twenty-five point question, Jeff wouldn’t let the kids choose it, he told us to pick another category. Our group still won in the end because we stole a couple questions from the other groups.

After English.. we had lunch. Oh yes, lunch was quite.. different. We actually all ate food together. Like.. the school provided lunch, and the kids would bring the lunch to the class and start serving it out. That day was chicken with this daikon stir fry and milk and lychee jelly, topping it all off with a plate of rice. There was natto miso but I opted not to eat that because I hate natto.. Ugh, worse thing on earth next to gyoya. XD

After lunch, we had shouji.. and I helped Moe clean the hall. After we were done cleaning, we stood outside on this short open hall where the breeze felt reaaally nice. And then we saw Jeff come and he started talking to me. It was really funny cause all the kids just sat on the side gaping at our conversation, amazed that we were super fluent in English. Of course! Jeff was from Oregon and he had done a homestay in Tokyo for about a year when he was in college, he also hasn’t been back to the states in three years. We talked about a ton of things like studying abroad and what it’s like.. what Miyako was like, and how it was for me so far. When the short period for shouji was over, I headed back to class and did.. nothing. Haha, I went to sleep, sorta, but I didn’t really because that would have been rude to the teacher, so I nodded off in my seat.

At three-fifty, the English teacher came back and took the class picture with me in it, and I will upload it as soon as I can. At around four, we walked down into the teachers room to meet the principal who wasn’t there at the assembly that morning and then went outside where my dad was waiting for me. We drove back home and there, I waited for Shimoji-san, Karen’s host mom to pick me up. My host family would be going to Naha for the weekend for Kaho’s piano competition, so during that time I would be staying with the Shimojis.

She came to pick me up, I said goodbye and soon after, I arrived at Karen’s house. We hung out for a bit and then went to Max-Valu.. the huge one, where I saw my classmate Takeru at Mister Donuts. We went to Max-Valu to shop for groceries and also to fill up on water. After that, we came back home and ate and then I took a shower and then did Sudoku until I fell asleep. That was my Saturday. Oh yes, I also learned that Michael Jackson passed away that morning.. I was hearing Michael Jackson all day at school, but I had no idea what they were talking about, and it wasn’t until Karen told me that I understood. I think that was the first time I actually learned something that had happened on that same day..

Today, I woke up at about nine and then ate breakfast, watched some t.v. and then got ready to go to the beach. We went.. EVERYWHERE today. Shimoji-san drove us to like.. all the beaches on the east side of the island. I only knew like three of the beaches names though. My favorite would have to be Sunayama beach, Or Sand Mountain.. Omg. It has a little cave thingy.. well, I have pictures I’ll share later, but it’s a beautiful beach, it’s small, but not too small, and the water is so clear and blue.. Just gorgeous.

At three, we headed to the Miyako airport where we would be welcoming a new YFU student who would be staying in Miyako for six weeks. No fair, she gets to experience Natsumatsuri.. Which happens the day after me and Karen leave. Ugh, I haattee that. I totally want to go with my new friends from school.. and I’m sad that I can’t go to school on Monday because they have testing the whole day, so I can’t wait until Tuesday, so that I can go back to school. After we got home from welcoming the new student, Me and Minami, Karen’s host sister, slept in the tatami room, with the cooler and fan going. I woke up like.. half an hour later because it was so cold! And then turned both off. I woke up again when Minami’s mom came in to turn the cooler back on, and then went back to sleep. And then woke up ‘cause it was cold, and threw a sitting pillow over my legs and one over my arms.. and then I saw Minami wake up and grab some blankets. She threw one over me and then had one for herself. After that.. I slept pretty good. We didn’t wake up until about nine, and we went to sleep around.. five I think. It was a reaaallly good nap. After we woke up, it was time to get ready for dinner, and after that, we just watched tv. Nothing much.

Alright, well, I have tons of pictures of beautiful beaches and clear blue water, but I can’t post them up.. When I have time, I’ll definitely try to blog more though. I feel bad for using their electricity as it is to juice my laptop.. I go back to my host family tomorrow night at eight, so we’ll probably have time to go to Max-Valu to see Takeru at Mister Donuts again.. Like I mentioned earlier, he works there part-time, and so I hope to wish him good luck on the test on Monday, which would be from morning until afternoon.. I don’t think I could take that.. so much testing.. Anyways, good night everyone! Oh lol, I thought this post would be so much longer than the rest.. but I guess not. Oh well. Goodnight. :<