Party Time

Okay, so… so many things have happened over the past week, and I’ve just been too tired to blog about it. Sorry guys! Well, on Monday, when I went to the farm, I actually got a couple of bug bites.. that got worse as the week went on. My host dad wanted me to go to the hospital and talked to me about it on Thursday, but we talked it over and decided to head to Shogoro’s house, my area representative. His wife gave my host dad aloe, and we started applying it on my bug bites, and the redness is almost gone now. So, no need to go to the hospital at all! Hurrah. Ugh, but I keep getting new bug bites and it really sucks.

Well, in other news.. after the first day of school, I made friends quickly, and now I know a lot of my classmates names. It’s a lot easier to remember than I thought. My schedule is pretty fun, and I’m excited I have cool classmates wherever I go. I’ve taken some pretty interesting classes, including a nursing/development kind of class, where we took turns holding a baby doll.. that weighed as much as a baby did.. and we also put on this thing that made us look pregnant. Haha, a lot of my classmates complained that it was heavy.. but.. it was only like eight kilograms. Not that bad. I was jumping around with it on until the teacher yelled at another kid. So I stopped. Haha. XD I’m also sewing a yukata in class, and so I totally want to get it finished by the end of next week. I’m super excited and can’t wait for school tomorrow!

On Wednesday.. one of my host parents friends happened to find a uniform I could borrow, and so now, I have a seifuku! It’s so cute! I just wish my hair was shorter.. it’s so hard to manage.. but I must persevere for the sake of cancer patients everywhere! And it would symbolize four years of my life/high school, and would be persevere for the sake of cancer patients everywhere! And it would symbolize four years of my life/high school, and would be pretty cool just to see it cut off.. Yeah..

Anyways, the weekend was actually really fun! Friday started off with school, where I started making my seifuku, it was a pretty chill day at school, but one of my friends Hirono wasn’t there because she was getting ready for a volleyball tournament for after school that day. She came to eat lunch with us but then she had to go back afterwards. After school, I went home around four forty-five and started practicing violin. My host dad had suggested a small ensemble for Friday night because some friends of his were coming over for a small party. I practiced Eine Kleine and Kanon in D and then my host sister was off to her violin lesson. After about half an hour, my host dad had a cello lesson at our house and more people joined in. After the lesson, more people came.. and we set up the house so that there was a large table for food. The kids were in one corner while the adults were eating, etc. We played Jenga, Trump, and ate lots of snacks.

I learned how to play Edelwiess on the cello Friday night, so I can’t wait to get back and impress everyone with my mad cello skills! XD Cello is actually pretty hard though, because my pinky finger really isn’t used to such thick strings, and the cello string is extremely thick and it hurt pushing it down.. But I must endure! I went to sleep pretty late Friday night, but it was alright because everyone woke up late.. sort of. On Saturday, by the time I woke up, my host dad had already left for work and Kaho and Motoko, Kaho’s friend was already playing MarioKart on the Wii. Everyone had also eaten breakfast. It was alright though, I didn’t miss much.

So.. On Saturday.. Oh yes, we drove Kaho to her ballet lesson and then we went for Kaito’s baby swimming thing. It was for an hour, but during that time, I was talking to my host mom’s friend, who actually did an exchange in Seattle for a year, so her English was good enough that I could understand what she wanted to talk about. She also had a three month old baby that was just adorable! His name is Jin, and he’s just.. so cute. I wish I had taken I picture of him.. sadly I didn’t. Well, after the hour was over, we went to pick Kaho up from her ballet lessons and then we went to meet up with my host grandma. We ate lunch together at a restaurant named “Joyfull”.. notice the typo. :< Lawl, I was secretly laughing in my head. Well, after lunch, we came back home and.. I fell asleep.. I didn’t wake up until like.. six, and at seven, we were having a barbeque at the Ogawa’s house, a family that was over for Friday night.

I got ready for the barbeque and I had promised the night before that I would play with Ogawa-san’s daughters on the violin, because all four of them play violin. So, we got to his house and my host dad started barbequing the steak and vegetables and it was all very delicious. Especially the mushrooms, they were so good! I especially loved Miyako’s beef because it was super tender.. And I’ve also grown to love the Japanese drink Calpis. Lawl, it sounds like something else when they read the name.. but, it’s delicious none the less. I met Ogawa san’s daughters, but I only remember like.. two names.. Ayane and Moe.. I think.. Ayane is the oldest, and her birthday is actually tomorrow! She’s turning sixteen tomorrow, so she’s about a year younger than me. His other daughters were 13, 10, and 8 I think.. I don’t really remember..

After we ate and drank a couple things, I went inside and started playing Othello, which is super easy on a board game because it actually makes sense. On Brandon’s iPhone.. I didn’t understand how the chips were being flipped at all.. Lawl, I think I lost too.. Oh well. After the game, my host mom ask everyone to set up and so we did, and it turned out.. there were seven violins out! Haha, there were like.. three or four stands, seven violins, one piano, and one cello, and we busted out playing Kanon. I wish I had it recorded, but sadly, my host dad only took pictures of us playing, and didn’t record us.

After that, I played Spring, Summer, and Autumn with Ayane and Moe on the violin. It sounded really nice, but I got lost on some parts because I had never seen the music before, but man, they were really good! I’m so jealous, I wish I had taken violin lessons before, but oh well, I just gotta practice harder! I asked for the sheet music and we went to go get the music printed for me, so I could try to practice the songs..

Yeah, and then I got home around midnight, or well, I got home exactly at midnight, so I went to sleep right away and then in the morning I got a phone call from my parents, and then we were off to Kaho’s piano competition sorta thing. We left the house at ten thirty and signed in and Kaho changed. When I went to sit down to watch Kaho’s duet, I saw Irin, the other transfer student who came to Miyako about three months ago, and we sat down together and talked about how school was like for us so far, and what we had planned. After her duet with another girl, we went back home to eat lunch and then headed back to the music building around one fifteen. Motoko was there, she’s just such an adorable kid.. Well, I sat next to Motoko until she was called up to accept an award. After that, I watched kids go up to the piano and play.. Kaho was the last of her group.. but the tempo she took for her song.. way too slow in my opinion.. the other kids were playing it really fast, but the tempo she took it at.. made it sound like she didn’t really practice or know what she was doing..

Well, whatever, after that, we went back home and got ready to go to the beach! We went to Maeyama beach.. I think.. and we swam in the ocean for two hours and then when we got back, it was about seven. I took a shower with my host sister, got out and watched a little tv and then it was about eight, so we ate dinner together as a family. After dinner, I played with Kaito for a little bit and then started getting ready for bed. At around nine, I went up to my room, and here I am, typing out this blog of my weekend! I’m super pumped to finish my yukata tomorrow!

Alright, well, here’s to hoping no more bugs think I smell yummy and that tomorrow comes here quicker. Good night everyone~