So close..

Ah, the final week of school before natsuyatsumi (Summer vacation). The most memorable moment was what happened today, but of course, everything that happens here is memorable. My class threw me a surprise farewell party. I sort of knew it was coming, but to see them start writing “Farewell Party for Anna” up on the blackboard.. it still hit me as hard as it would have if it was a surprise, even more so because I knew it was going to come.. I cried on Mai’s shoulder who was on my left.. And then Wakana called me over, and told me “ないていいよ。” So, lawl, what did I do? I cried of course.

And then everyone asked what was wrong, and I could help but half laugh and half cry at Wakana’s answer. I gunna really miss everyone..

Drinks were passed around, and so were snacks and then after that, we all “かんぱい！-ed.” And drank our drinks and ate our snacks. I didn’t eat mines because we had lunch just before, so I was still full.

After that, we played a game of Musical Chairs, but of course, they have a different name for it.. We got five girls, three guys, and my homeroom teacher to play, I was included in one of the five girls. And as we played, we walked around the circle of chairs, and when the music stopped, of course we all scrambled to sit down. I won in the end, but I had a feeling that Hirono, the person who was controlling the music, was timing it so that the music stopped when I was near the chair, so I didn’t really win..

Haha, after that, I got messages from my classmates, sort of. So, Tomohito was the “representative” of the boys, and since everyone was sitting in a circle, me and him were facing each other right in the middle of the circle. It took him a while to start talking, and it was super embarrassing just standing there waiting for his message, which was supposed to be from the boys of the class. Lawl, Hirono started counting down from ten and then everyone got quiet and then he started with.. “はじめて。。” and then everyone started cracking up, ‘cause it was reeeaaalllyyy quiet.. “わたしは好きでした！” LOLWHUT? The whole class started cracking up, and even I couldn’t help but laugh, and then after that, he bowed, with his hand extended and was like.. “おねがいします！” and so of course I shook his hand.. lawl, that was really awkward..

After that, Hirono was the representative of the girls and she gave me her message. It seems everyone is really embarrassed to talk to me or something.. but when it’s just friends around and not classmates, they talk really freely, maybe it’s just that the whole class’s attention was on them or something.. After that, I gave them my message, in English, and I just.. started crying, like a baby.. .-. How embarrassing.. After that, Morikyo-sensei translated, and after THAT, Izumi was to give me my present, which happened to be a t-shirt and two paper things that had everyone’s message for me.

I don’t know how they planned this without me knowing.. and passing it around without me seeing.. I must be either totally oblivious to what’s happening behind me or they’re really good at being sneaky with surprises..

After that one hour period of homeroom, we had two hours of like.. food/baby development kind of thing but they had a test, so it was kind of boring. I swear, one of the teachers there hate me. She like.. gives me this really weird look every time I pass her, and even if I smile.. she just gives me a blank face.. Ahhhhhh, I don’t know, she just gives me this bad feeling.. Uh, after that, we had cleaning to do, where, as usual, I goofed around. I was like.. “ゆい！好きです！” “ひろの！好きです！” and all my other friend’s names.. lawl, wonder where I got that from? Haha, it was all in good fun, and at the end, even Takeru was like.. “Tomohito, gambatte!”

Ah, I can’t wait for tomorrow! It seems that me and my friends will be going to the park that we can see from the school. Ah, it’s so exciting! So, we’ll be going there after school.

Ah yes, I also found out that my classmates had planned out a barbeque for the 18th or 19th, but guess what? I WON’T BE HERE. WHERE OH WHERE WILL I BE? I’ll be in stupid Naha, doing some stupid YFU thing, where we are “obliged” to go. WHAT THE HECK? It’s my last week here, and I don’t even get to spend it in Miyako, no, I have to spend my weekend doing some stupid YFU thing that’s probably supposed to be “fun” but is just a big hassle to gather all the Okinawa YFU students.. like.. what the heck? ._. Seriously now?

Ugh. And then, my friends moved the barbeque to the 20th, and then I told my host parents and they were like.. Oh, no, we can’t do that! We planned snorkeling and jet skiing for you. Uh. .-. Okay. Seriously, I think I spend enough time with my host family as is. I go with Kaho to her English lessons, her violin lessons, her violin lessons.. I go with Kaito to his baby swimming lesson where I don’t even DO anything. I just sit there and watch him splash around with my host mom or dad.. and then I help my host mom with dinner.. I help my host parents with laundry, I hang the laundry I fold the laundry. Every. Single. Night. TOGETHER. WHY OH WHY can I not spend time with my friends?

Ugh. I think this is more of a rant post than anything.. So, I’m supposed to tell everyone that the 20th is impossible, even though they went through all the trouble to change it. WHAT THE HECK. ._. Ugh. I’m just having a badddd day today. Kaho’s acting up again, she won’t listen to her mom.. it’s ridiculous how that girl can treat her parents. She gives them attitude, talks to them in a voice that.. is not a voice you should talk to your parents at all.. and she even screams “いいえ！” at them.. .____.

Oh well, last week here. Trying to make the best out of it, but it’s not looking too good with two days knocked out because of stupid YFU orientation. Seriously.

Let's Play!

Ahhh, it’s been a while.. I’m quite sorry! Let’s see.. Thursday. Well, on Thursday.. let’s see.. Ah yes! I had taiku (P.E.) on Thursday. It was super fun! Guess what we played? :3 We played dodgeball! Haha, lots of shouting and shrieks and close encounters with the ball. At one point in the game.. Wakana and Misaki started aiming the ball at Shouko. She was right in the middle, Misaki was on our side of the court and Wakana was on the other side. Lawl, it was amusing to see Shouko run left and right to avoid their throws. Let me tell you, it was super hilarious, I couldn’t stop laughing after, which made me quite a target for the other girls..

Well, after that was lunch, so we went to buy our lunch and ate in our regular lunch spot, which, as always, was the classroom right next door to our homeroom class. After school, I went to watch Nanami finish her yukata. She got close, but she didn’t finish, but that day, we were joined by Akane, Jun, Takeru, Hirono, Natsumi, Miharu, and Shouta. There were a lot of people that day, but they were all there really just to hang out and talk. It was really fun on Thursday, and I started on making a bag.

Friday, we had a two hour period where we were sewing, so I finished the bag, reversible by the way, and gave it to Nanami as a birthday present! Nanami finished her yukata, and.. yeah, that was about it.. The most fun thing on Friday was making cookies, which was period five and six.

We went into a building where it was super hot, and there was like.. no air conditioning. I felt like I was in a super hot oven.. Me and Misaki paired up to make our cookies, which turned out delicious, but.. not so delicious looking. The “in the making” pictures I have, but none with me because.. lawl, who wants to see me anyways? :D Well, while we were mixing the butter into the sugar into the flour, we would trade off every three minutes.. we were beating that thing REAL good. Lawl, it would be like this.. “Misaki! スウィチ！” and then three minute later, Misaki would be “Anna, スウィチ！スウィチ！” Haha, really fun.

When we got back to class, I shared my cookies with everyone, because I wasn’t really hungry.. the sensei gave each of us two pieces of round bread, which was regular bread, and I ate one, and gave the other to my sensei who I ran into going to the school gate. Turns out, my host mom wouldn’t be coming until about six, so I had to go back to the sewing room where Nina and Misaki and Miharu were. They were “working” on their yukatas.. in truth, we were playing around with the extra felt lying around.

So, after it was like.. six, I went to the school gate where my mom came to pick me up.

Saturday.. we.. well.. let’s see.. we went shopping for Kaito’s birthday party, which was going to be a barbeque. And let’s see.. after we went shopping for his birthday party food.. Me and my host mom went obi shopping. Who knew a pretty yellow obi was so hard to find? UGH. You seriously can’t find a pre-made yellow obi unless it isn’t part of a set.. We also looked for geta, but the only pretty geta was at マルエー and it was too small for me. XD Like.. I think all Japanese women have small feet.. or all the big feet people buy the shoes when they first come out.. you can only find like.. twenty three centimeter shoes.. I’m twenty four point five centimeters, by the way.. Lawl. .-. Epic fail right there.

(JULIE. WHAT’S JOOR SHOE SIZE? :D In cm btw please! :3)

Well, after that, we went to go pick Kaho up from her ballet class and then we went to buy my seifuku ribbon, ‘cause I wanted one. The one I have now is so thin! D: I’m totally not liking it at all. So I bought myself one. :D And after that, we went back home, and we cleaned up the house to get ready for the barbeque later that night.

After that, I started working on my goodbye speech to the school ‘cause I knew I’d have to give one.. and as I was writing it in English.. I swear I started to cry. It’s so sad, I can’t believe I only have one more week of school, and two more weeks left here on this beautiful island..

So.. Sunday, I woke up at like.. nine thirty, ate breakfast and then me and my host dad went snorkeling! Kaho couldn’t go ‘cause she had some ballet or piano thing to go to, and so my host mom didn’t come either, but OMG. Snorkeling was super fun!

Before we actually went into the deep end of the water, my host dad gave me some snorkeling “lessons” and after I showed him my breathing and my “Pfft” to clear the snorkel tube of water.. I took a good look down at my feet and.. I nearly screamed. FISH. TINY LITTLE CUTE FISH. O_O OMG. Why did I not notice them at first? They were swimming freely in the water and we started swimming more and more towards the corals.. and goodness, if only it was a bit more sunny, but it was beautiful!

The water was a sea green, the fishes were colorful.. I saw Nemo and Marlin swimming happily in their anemone home.. So adorable! And the bright blue fish.. They really are blue, and the other fishes were just as colorful.. Ah, so cute! I’d do anything to snorkel again! The ocean is just so beautiful.. I’d love to snorkel when the weather is more favorable though.. I’m going jet skiing on the twentieth I think..

The twenty first is when I hang out with friends, so.. Yeah, ugh, WHY DO I ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT? I keep thinking what the heck did I do all this time while I was here in Miyakojima? It’s such a short stay and.. I wish I did more things, talked to more people.. this feeling of not making the best of my experience is coming out and I can’t help but feel I didn’t do all that I could.. It’s such a helpless feeling..

Anyways, to end this on a good note, today, I’m going to Aya’s concert tonight, Miyako High School’s brass band concert. Aya is my neighbor, her brother is Ryouya, and they sometimes come over to play. I can’t wait to hear them play! Alright, so now everybody’s getting ready to go, so I gotta go too!~

かにさん！

So, lets see… Nothing much happened on Monday, I went to school like usual, and after school, I went to the sewing room with my friend Misaki to finish our yukatas together. I actually didn’t finish, and Misaki had to go to her swim class because she had missed too many days. Near the end, six o’clock, Misaki came back along with Nanami and Jun, who also swam on that day.

Tuesday! This is where things get a little more interesting.. On Tuesday, I went to school, and after school, I went to finish my yukata.. yeah, again. At around six o’clock, sensei had to head home.. and ugh, how frustrating! Only after a little bit more, and I would have been done.. Tuesday, Nanami and Jun were the only ones there to finish their yukata, and they didn’t really finish either. When I was waiting for my host mother to come pick me up, I talked with them, and then, when six twenty came rolling around (the time my host mother said she’d be there) I said my goodbyes and headed out towards the school gate to wait for her.

Today would be the day we would go to see kani-san, or crabs. Once every year, the crabs that live on the land cross the road to lay their eggs in the ocean. Sounds cool right? Well, it sounded cool to me. XD Like something from a story book. We were going to watch that! Yay. My host mom told me we’d be leaving at eight and so I had to finish eating and taking my shower by then, and when my dad came home from his cello lesson, we would go to watch the crabs lay their eggs.. or well, release their eggs into the sea.

Ugh, as usual, my host sister dragged. We didn’t actually leave the house until about eight thirty. We went to the golf course to pick up Kaho’s friend, Motoko, and then we were off, to the north point of Miyako. Since it was really dark and late, there were no cars around, and so to get there faster, my dad started driving reaaaalllyyy fast. It was really fun, but a bit scary, seeing as how roads here are so narrow.. the speed limit is forty km/h in many places on the island, but my host dad drove.. on average at about 80 km/h, we even hit 103 km/h at one point on our trip to the north point of the island!

When we got there, I made sure to spray myself with bug repellent stuff so that I wouldn’t get any new bug bites.. ugh I’m sick of it, I got three new ones the other day.. it’s terrible, but I guess I’m learning to live with it.. but I’m thinking these will scar.. D:

When we got out, I held onto Motoko’s hand because she was deathly afraid of the crabs. LAWL, did I mention, when we got there, there were crabs crossing the road? And at like.. 60 km/h my host dad managed to avoid three crabs, and then he started to slow down. They were crossing the road either to get to the ocean or to come back because they were done. Turns out, they were returning because they were done. We came late. Why? Because Kaho was being really slow. Ugh.

We went a little bit further down the road and turns out, there was a stretch of beach where there were still crabs that had not released their eggs into the sea yet, and so we stayed there. The trip down to the beach was a bit tricky, a rope was tied to a tree because it was a steep incline and the place was pretty rocky. Kind of like a small cliff? I don’t know how to describe it.. I should have taken a picture.. .-.

Well, it was easy for me, but for Kaho and Moto, the younger kids, it was quite difficult for them. So we got down there, and I managed to take a lot of pictures of crabs and I managed to get a few videos of the crabs doing their little “dance.” It’s quite interesting that they do it, but I guess it is necessary in order to release their eggs into the sea.

We stayed on the small stretch of beach for about an hour and then we returned back home. Tanabata was also on the same day, but because of the mangetsu, full moon, we couldn’t see the stars.. what a waste, will my wish of.. “東方神起に会えますように。” ever come true? Well, what a shame, it would’ve been really pretty to see the stars form a “bridge”, I’m actually referring to the story that goes along with Tanabata. I’m not too sure of the story, but when I have time to research it, I will put it up.

So, Tuesday was pretty interesting. I got to see something that only happened once every year, and so it was fun. It was also pretty cool to see my host dad going 80 km/h on a 40 km/h road.. Oh yes, did I mention? I almost stepped on a crab. It was super dark, and so Kaho and my host dad had the flash lights, and I was just wandering around, and it was pretty rocky, so I was concentrating on where Kaho was walking, and all of a sudden, Moto, who was holding my hand.. went.. “Woaaahhh!” and so I looked at my feet, saw two claws and started hopping around trying to avoid whatever was at my feet. As soon as that happened, my host dad shined the light at my feet and the large shadow of the crab appeared, confirming my fears. Lawl. That would have been bad.. stepping on a crab that could easily.. clamp me with it’s claws.. Yeah, don’t really want to think about that..

Today.. I didn’t do anything much really.. we watched Edward Scissorhands in English class, the first half of the movie anyways. I forgot, but someone told me it was a really good movie, so I guess I will see and find out if that holds true.. After school, I went to finish my yukata.. after about pinning fifteen pins in and sewing two lines on the machine.. I was done. Lawl, so I spent the rest of the time watching Nanami do her yukata, and near the end, one of my classmates, Akane, came in and started working on her yukata too.

Came home around six forty-five.. and what did I do.. eh, nothing really, ate dinner, took a shower. Got to use the internet for about twenty minutes, but I didn’t really accomplish anything.. Yeah, and now I’m about to go to bed, but blogging before I sleep so that everyone at home will be updated on my current status and what I’ve been doing for the past couple days. G’night everybody~

P.S. Shout out to Julie. Because I know she wants me to. :D

ように。。

So.. Friday. Lets start then. I woke up quite late for a school day.. and then ate breakfast with Kaho, my mother, and father, and then after that, my host dad got ready to leave for work. That morning, I would be meeting with the mayor, but the meeting time was.. nine forty-five.. I believe? So, I still had quite some time before then. I slowly ate breakfast, and after breakfast, I asked for permission to use the internet, and I got permission, so it was all good, but nobody was on! It was probably.. four in the morning in the states.. which is understandable.. I guess. Anyways..

At nine forty-five, we left the house and drove down to where the mayor was, and there was everyone else (Karen, Yeelin, and Andrea) waiting for us. They didn’t wait long, but still.. so we went up and sat in one room, and me and Andrea started talking about some things along with Karen, and then after that, we relocated to another room, where we met with the mayor and some newscast people.. and then we were asked to do a small self-introduction.. Now.. wait a minute.. LAWL This is Friday is it..? WAIT A SECOND. D: I don’t know which day is which… Friday.. I remember a big thunderstorm happening.. and then we saw a fire from the roof of the school, and black smoke was billowing everywhere.. and then.. what else.. the rain was really heavy on Friday.

Hmm.. Okay, nothing much. Saturday.. The day of the barbeque! Yay! Omgoodness, my dad brought out the and it looked so fun! BUT, why, oh why do I have to be a girl? Turns out.. THAT started on Saturday, and so I was just like.. moaning and groaning inside my head. Why did life have to be so unfair? So at around eleven o’clock, Kaito and my dad and I went to Kaito’s baby swimming session, and about halfway through, Yeelin came and we talked lots. After that, my dad drove both of us back to my house to start packing the jetski and other stuff, and me and Yeelin watched Smiling Pasta on my zune.

As we were talking, turns out, Yeelin also has THAT too, so today she wouldn’t be getting in the water. Man. What a way to start off a day, right? After we were all packed up, we headed to the beach, where me and Yeelin started to make a tower together.. which started to expand to four sand towers, and then to something connecting the towers together. It was really fun, and by ten minutes into the second tower, my legs couldn’t take it anymore, so I just sat down on the sand as I as. The sand was a bit wet, and so some water got into my pants, but all in all, it was okay. As Andrea and Karen started to arrive, we stopped building our castle thing.. and started talking to them and other stuff, but all of a sudden.. it started to rain! Oh no, it was raining! So we decided to move locations and we moved to another place, where I sat in the same car as Yeelin, and Yeelin’s host mom drove us to the other location. We got there, got out of the car.. and then ran underneath the place where there was a roof over it.

It didn’t help, it started raining here too, and so instead, Shimoji-san, Karen’s host parents, decided that it would be okay for everyone to come over, so we did, and we started the barbeque, and it was super fun. There were a lot of bugs though.. and bugs really give me a disgusting feeling.. like.. I really don’t like th bugs here on this island, maybe it’s just because I’ve gotten quite a couple bites from them, and I can’t stand them either.. Karen was my hero. She stepped in and started winding a small piece of tap around two fingers and started slapping the bugs and sticking them onto the tape. She and Minami, her host sister, happened to collect a lot of bugs. Ugh. Let me tell you.. there were a lot of bugs.

Afterwards, Yeelin’s host sisters wanted to play with my hair, so I let them, and the very end, I asked Yeelin to make my hair into a dango, and she makes it so pretty! I’m so glad she made my hair into a bun last because it was really neat and my hair didn’t get into my face that much anymore..

So we ended the barbeque and then Karen suggested we hang out tomorrow, which would now be today. I said it was fine, and then Karen told me she’d call later about the details. I went back home and then took a shower and then fell asleep.

Sunday, I woke up, helped make breakfast (pancakes), and then Kaho left for ballet school. I finished my designed for the shirt my dad asked me to make and then afterwards, my host dad, host mom, and host brother Kaito, and I went to Shima-T to get my picture of the design printed on the shirt. Turns out, color is okay and that the shop owner would be doing the color for me. I hope it turns out okay.. It’s a pretty nice design, so I hope he doesn’t screw anything up..

After that, I went to go buy some Takoyaki, but the store was closed, so we headed to the Jinja, or shrine. There, I rang the bell, bowed twice, clapped my hands twice and then bowed again making me wish. It was actually pretty fun, especially tossing the ten yen into the small place. My host dad got change for his five hundred yen and then we each put one hundred yen into the omikuji place. I got mine, and turns out, I got the best fortune. My omikuji I wil keep with me and use it to study! Afterwards, my host parents drove to Max-Valu, the big one, and then we ate food at Mister Donuts.

There, I met up with Karen, Yeelin, and Andrea and then we walked first, to the hyaku yen store, and I bought some things. After that, we dropped by gameland to take some purikura, and then after that, I went to the bookstore while Minami and Misato, Karen’s host sisters, were decorating or purikura pictures. Yeeling and Karen and Andrea came along with me, and I decided to buy a haircut magazine for my brother. For myself, I bought myself volume twenty-four of Hitman Reborn, and I will also use that to study Japanese. Turns out, twenty-four is the chapter I left off on when I was back in the states too, so yeah! But it isn’t the latest book out.. Oh well.

After the book store, we walked into the video/music store where me and Andrea fangirled over the 東方神起 CDs, especially the new single “Stand by U” I took a picture with the CDs.. which I will post up later. XD We looked at some movies and some dramas and some anime. We talked a lot about anime that we watched and how graphic some of them got in regards to violence.. like Claymore.. :<

After we were done with that, Karen’s mom drove all of us back to Karen’s house and then I got to write my wish and hang it on their tree sort of thing! My wish was.. “東方神起に会えますように。” Yeah.. Andrea’s wish was that she would get into NYU and Karen’s wish would be that her Japanese improved.

After writing our wishes down, we watched Ponyo. Omgosh, cutest movie ever! I just LOVE Ponyo. By the time we finished the movie, it was about.. six thirty.. or.. wait, it was about.. seven? I don’t remember.. and then my mom drove us back home. On the way back, I remembered my forgotten magazine, manga, and hyaku yen items, and called Karen’s house so that she would bring the items tomorrow. Hopefully she won’t forget, but I don’t think she will, Karen’s quite responsible.

Anyways, we got back, I helped with dinner and after that, we hung our own bamboo tree up and I got to write my wish.. I got two wishes this time, so I again, wished.. “東方神起に会えますように。” and I also wished.. “ファすとチェあーをゲットする！” My host dad’s diving friends came over and we talked and they also made wishes and we hung them up on the tree. After they went back home, I went to go take my shower and then get ready for school tomorrow. So that was my weekend. I’m kind of sad that the rain ruined the barbeque, but it was fun nonetheless. The food was great, but there were a lot of flies around..

Anyways, tomorrow I’m going to finish making my yukata! Yay! Well, goodnight everybody. :3

かみなり

Yes, yes, you guys get to see my now fat and ugly face talk to you. D: I swear, I seriously got fatter. .-. And to be honest.. my host mom's cooking.. isn't that good. ;_; Or maybe it's just the food here. I dunno.. D:

Oh yes, I forgot to add.. During Shouji, or cleaning, we saw black smoke, and since we clean on the top floor of the school, we ran out to the fenced roof thing and watched as fire came out of something.. it was quite far away, but the black smoke was billowing and it was obviously caught on fire. Really scary thunder and lightening.. SUPER loud. Omg, you guys won't believe how loud the thunder can get there..

The Inevitable Mistake

So, today, I went to meet the mayor in the morning.. I also got a chance to talk to the new student who would be studying abroad also. Lawl, I think she gets to experience natsumatsuri.. which is the day after I leave. D: WTH. Anways.. back to the mayor thing.. Well, basically, what we had to do was do a self-introduction, in Japanese of course. Lets just say.. everyone’s Japanese is way better than mine. They actually had classes where they learned the language, unlike me where I am only self-taught sort of..

So, Shogoro-sensei asked us to introduce ourselves giving our name, where we were from, and the reason for why we were here in Miyako as students studying abroad. Yeeling went first, and was flawless, what do you expect from someone who had been here three months? Nothing less of course. She’s an awesome person to talk to. Anyways, next came Andrew, the new transfer student, went by flawless as well, then Karen, then finally… me. It.. went something like this.. :

“ 私のなまえはアンナです。
カルフォルニアからきました。
にほんのぶんかを…”

So, at this point.. I was like.. oh crap. And then I remembered my speech that I made.. so I was like.. “お…おしえたい…?” and then.. lawl, the mayor looked at me a bit funny and confused and a little amused all at the same time. And then Yeeling and Andrew and my host mom corrected me, telling me it was “なりたい” Ahhh, how embarrassing. After that, every time someone said something, Shogoro-sensei offered to translate.. it was so embarrassinggg… ahhh

Well, anyways, after that, I went to school, where I found my class deserted.. so I decided to take pictures.. of myself being bored. XD And my class too. I found out that they were at the sea.. and so when Morikyou-sensei (my homeroom teacher) came back with Hirono and Misaki, we drove back to the ocean, where we were to cheer our school on for a rowboat competition sort of thing. We won second, and started walking back to the school. Goodness gracious. Miyako citizens really judge distance by how far it walks.. because I asked Misaki how far the beach was and she told me it was sort of far. We drove there in three minutes. Lawl, walking back though, was an entirely different story. Took about fifteen to twenty minutes of straight walking. Maybe a little bit more. It was hot. D:

After that, we arrived at school,, ate our lunch. Oh. Yes. Did I forget to tell you? I forgot my camera. D: So I have no pictures from the rowboat competition thing.. Anyways, we got back, and then went to class. I did nothing really.. just sat there and stared off into space. Shouji, or clean up time started, and I headed to where I usually headed, with Hirono to the bathrooms where we messed around. I snapped a picture of myself in the boy’s bathroom, which gave my friends a laugh.

And lawl, I had a small water fight kind of thing with my shouji friends. Hirono and Jun have a small water squirter, that holds about.. less than a handful of water, but it squirts pretty far. So we were battling it out and Hirono gave me her squirter and guess what I did with it? Squirted it at her when she least expected it. XD All the guys got a laugh out of it, but I was so scared of Hirono’s revenge plan. Turns out.. she didn’t have one. it was all okay! Hurrah! And then Takeru squirted me while I was rejoicing in her sportsmanship. D:< So after that, when we were walking back to class, Takeru handed me his small squirter.. or well, Jun’s, while we were walking back, I looked straight ahead while he was talking with me, and lawl, squirted him. HAHA. REVENGE TIIMMEEE. :D

Anyways, it was all fun today during school, especially the small water fights we get into at times. So childish, but trust me, it’s very fun.

Lately, I’ve been coming home and swinging my small host brother to sleep. I swing for a while and then sing him the only Vietnamese song I know.. and apparently, it makes him really sleepy. So at like.. eight, before dinner, I’m swinging away and he’s right up against my chest, and I hold him so he doesn’t fall off, and sing. :> The tricky part is getting him into my parent’s room so that he can sleep for a long time. I have to get up, hold him in a position where he won’t wake up, open the door, tell my parents he’s asleep and then head towards my parent’s room, where I put him down on the bed..

Oh yes, yesterday, after school, I went to Basketball club, and from four-thirty to seven o’clock, we had practice. Today, I went to brass band, where I practiced on the violin that Kudaka-sensei borrowed from Miyako-koko. So, as you can probably guess, I switch clubs, so Basketball and Brass Band is every other day.

Oh yes. Someone. Please tell me.. How many kilograms is equal to one pound? I think I totally gained some weight.. ugh.. as if I weren’t already fat enough.

Anyways, Saturday is the barbeque thing, so I can’t wait to jetski and.. snorkel, and do lots of other fun things with my host family and the other YFU studentttss. I’m totally excited, and oh, have I mentioned? Bugs don’t bite me anymore. Hurrah. I have become immune to them, just like you said, Jimmy.

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. :<