Sorry! I can’t believe it’s been 21 days since my last update!! I’ve been so busy here, I’m finally settling into a nice rhythm. When I first got here my world flipped upside down, but it looks like I’m finally starting to flip upside down to match it; I am really starting to get a hang of things!
So here is an update of the past month:
I went to Tochigi’s Cultural Festival! It was on October 9th. There were a whole bunch of booths set up with food and other items from different countries all around the world. I had so much fun! I got to wear a traditional Indian sari, which is that blue dress wrap I have on in this picture. Everything there was very low-priced, and most of the proceeds went to charities to help build wells and diffuse landmines. So I bought a lot of stuff!
I met some really interesting people there, too. There was one lady, from the Congo, who was not only a doctor but also spoke fluent French, Japanese, and English! Impressive, huh?! And I met a JET, (Japanese English Teacher,) who used to work at Seirantaito, (my high school.) His name is Don and he has a little half Japanese son named Billy who was so cute!
This is a traditional (either Taiwanese or Thai,) warrior outfit! They had me put on little bracelets with jingle bells on them, and taught me how to do the warrior dance! I have some footage of my dancing that I will put up on my next video blog. J
Oh but it was just terrible: there was a boy at the festival that was from North Dakota, and he was on an exchange program too, but had just arrived three days ago. You’d think that I, being a girl from Minnesota; (North Dakota’s eastward neighbor) and having arrived a month earlier would have a lot to talk about with this guy.
Not in English, anyway:
In the days and weeks preceding the festival, I had been really getting into the Japanese psyche and using consistent Japanese, and finding myself understanding conversations about 70%. So when I was abruptly confronted with breaking that cycle and talking to this guy in English, my brain did a flippy-flip and I couldn’t get my English to trigger. I couldn’t have a natural conversation with him. I kept unconsciously switching words into Japanese!
I haven’t forgotten English by any means at all. I can type this perfectly without having to think twice about it. It’s only that in order to switch between English and my broken-Japanese I have to make a conscious decision to change and it has to be premeditated by at least two minutes!
Oh crumb.
This picture is of me pounding the sticky rice! That mallet must have weighed thirty five pounds. Lol everyone in the background is so excited!
In other news, I have a cell phone thanks to Mr. Yoshizawa, my Rotary counselor. It’s such a fun time! I have the best time sending Japanese emails to my friends! So far, they haven’t been very deep or insightful, but hey; I’m a beginner.
“Fuyuchan! Genki? Ikebana wa tanoshii ne?”
“Matsujun wa Ohnokun yori kakoii desu!”
“Kiotsukete ne, Midorichan?”
I did actually have a decent sized email conversation with Miyuki the other day! We wrote about karaoke, Matsumoto Jun, Arashi, and going to karaoke together soon.
In Japan, text messages are called emails. Or, “e me-ru”. So far, I can’t seem to send emails to my American friends’ cell phones. It won’t let me, but I can’t understand why it won’t let me because the message telling me it won’t let me is in Japanese. LOL
If anyone reading this knows how to send an email/text message from a Japanese AU phone to an American cell phone number, I’d be extremely grateful.
Oh it’s so funny; every day when I walk through the front courtyard thing to get from the building with 2L1’s class to 2K1’s shodo class; like ten or eleven boys will lean out the window and get my attention and yell, “I LOVE YOU!” or something I think sounds like, “Ai shiteru yo,” to me and then run back in the class room.
WHY???
Baseball season’s over now, so I realized that I can’t refer to the guys in my 2K1 class by their baseball positions anymore!!!! J So I’ve been trying to learn names. The guy that sits directly in front of me’s name is either Owata or Outa. I’ve asked him already but he talks really fast, and if spoken quickly Owata and Outa have almost the same pronunciation!! Anyway, the guy that sits in front of him’s name is Kento. They used to be Seirantaito’s first baseman and Seirantaito’s pitcher. Lol.
But they’re all really nice.
Speaking of sports, I traded in volleyball for badminton! I actually stopped volleyball a while ago. It was really fun but the timing wasn’t right. I had only been in a Japan for a few days, still had jetlag, and needed all my energy for speaking Japanese and working out the new school. My arms being black and blue from wrist to elbow and so stiff I couldn’t write was just not in the cards at the moment! Practice was from 3:00 to 6:00! But now I’ve got energy to spare I’m not going to waste it! Badminton starts on Monday!
Today, in home ec., this girl fainted! It wasn’t that hot, around the low 70’s, so no one knows why she did, which is scary. But we ran and got the school nurse and gave them space, but still the girl was out for almost ten minutes. When she came to, she wouldn’t stand up or drink any water. But I don’t know what happened after that because we all had to go to the next class. I hope she’s okay!
Well, now you are pretty much caught up.
One last thing:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTIN BUNDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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