Soccer and Kyoto

So! This past Saturday, I got to play soccer!..but not normal soccer. My friend, and fellow exchange student, Marie has a host father who love to play soccer. He's about 50 or so. He plays every Saturday with a group of men in ages ranging from 21 to 60 I think. This past Saturday I got to join them and play goalie. It. was. GREAT! I hadn't played soccer in sooo long. It was funny because I could feel my confidence change going on the field and stepping off. Off the field I have to focus on my Japanese and not sounding like a total foreigner in another country, but on the field everything is so familiar so my confidence is up. Funny how that works. Anyways, Japan has some pretty lively old men! They could keep up with the 21 year old's for sure. And what is also amusing is that most of them smoke during the breaks!
Well, I know my knees don't approve but I think I'll be going back to play with them at least once more. Marie had said that her host dad said everyone was impressed with my performance :D

That very same day, I went to Kyoto with the AFS staff an exchange student from Canada and a former AFS student who is now teaching kindergartners English. It was a lot of fun. It was a perfect night and the trees were all changing color. Dinner was good too, I had a tiny thing of soba and a tiny thing of tempura over rice.
It wasn't very fun carrying my soccer stuff all over Kyoto though. I didn't have time to go back home after soccer that day.

CHINA!

yes. I went to China. As a school trip. (How awesome is that?! why don't we have school trips to Asia in America?!)We went to Shanghai and Suzhou. It was interesting, scary, fun, and tiring.

So, the first day we all met up at Kyoto station and from there went to the Kansai airport. I had forgotten that just because I'm used to being on airplanes doesn't mean everyone else is. The plane takes off and I hear all this excited loud chatter from the general direction of my group. Also, when we got to Shanghai airport in the baggage area my friend asked if it was ok to take her bag from the carousel hahahaha
From Shanghai we took a bus to Suzhou...and it broke down half way though...
so after waiting an hour or so a new bus finally came and we went to a five star hotel in Suzhou!!! Seriously, why not in America?!
The main scary part occurred right when we got to the level our rooms were on. Everyone had just gotten off the elevator and there were 3 huge probably drunk Chinese guys yelling at my Japanese classmates for no apparent reason. They had no idea what to do, seeing as they couldn't understand a word the Chinese guys were saying (Actually, I couldn't understand them either. And I've at least studied a little Chinese) So, I had to step in and say "they speak Japanese" in Chinese.
Well, at least they stopped yelling.
But now their focus was on me..

The moment they started trying to talk to me in Chinese was the moment all my Chinese education somehow disappeared.

Wonderful.

so the conversation went a little like this:
"nhjkdfhsfjld hlskfhc speak Chinese"
"uhhhhh i speak a little Chinese" (wo hui shuo yi dian zhong wen)
"what nationality?" (ni shi na guo ren?)
"...American" (...mei guo ren..)
"ohh America. beautiful" (in English)
"uhh..."

It was not fun. It was scary. He was three inches away and smelled like cigarettes.
fgvgd,hn\hgfcj khl hgdschdlshvgf sdlcf

The rest of the trip was good though!

We saw a lot of really old buildings and visited my Japanese school's sister school in Suzhou. The school just celebrated it's 1003 year old "birthday". That's. INSANE.

I got to tour the school with one of the Chinese students whose English name is Away. I don't think this is an actual name, but hey, why not. (I decided her Japanese name is あそ子)
She talked about how she wants to go to American and wants to go to Princeton. She thinks American guys and cool especially bald black guys. Her mom is really strict but she likes to get even by saying shes going to marry an American man.

She's an interesting person.

Although, it was really starting to bug me, every time I would try and speak to her in Chinese, she would obviously understand and then answer back in English. I didn't come on this trip so you could practice you're English!! Give me a chance to practice too! If I really wanted to speak English I would be back home by now!

We also went to several market type areas and an old city similar to Venice with the rivers and boats weaving throughout the city. The shop owners are very...aggressive. I heard a lot of "Hallo! Miss! You look!" I tend to just ignore them but my classmates had little to NO idea of what to do. They would smile and nod and try and get away but they would be followed. So I would occasionally have to drag them away from whoever was following them.

People took a LOT of picture of me. They would mysteriously gather in front of me when I would be looking at something in a shop and attempt to take a picture...until I move and then they have to actually ASK to take my picture. People also liked practicing whatever English they could conjure up at the moment like "Hello! Beautiful girl!"
I basically had to repeat over and over in my head "I'm from Sweden and I don't speak a word of English" like a mantra.

The food was awesome! We would all sit at a huge round table with a lazy susan in the middle and it would be filled with dishes and dishes of food! like magic!!!!!
It was interesting how Japanese people couldn't handle the spicy food though. Now that I think about it the Japanese only really have wasabi. They were all surprised at the fact I could use chopsticks (how long have I been here?!?!) and I could/ like to eat spicy food.

Pictures include: A bridge in one of the gardens, on the boats, Chinese circus we went to, and two of the guys messing around at the Pearl Tower because they were scared of the see-through floor.

ひさしぶり

so its been a looooong time since i last updated with blog thingy. Sorry about that.

...

now I forget what I was going to write about...

to do list:
-AFS day
-osaka people
-yakimono
-pumpkin
-Kyudo

ALRIGHT!
so first, Kyudo tournament: it was LONG. and not horribly exciting but still interesting. We traveled to Zeze to a huge Japanese sports facility. They had rooms for things like kyudo, kendo, sumo and such. I didn't realize the people from our school were that good! We got a lot of rewards :D Anyways, everyone squeezed into the tiny hallway to look out the windows and see the actual competition. Every time someone from their school would hit the target everyone yells "YOSH!" really REALLY loudly. It's quite scary the first time.
Afterwards, at the end of the 6 or so hour competition all the schools line up and have to sit formally for an hour or so. that is NOT FUN. and very very painful, even if you don't have bad knees like I do. (sitting formally is sitting on your knees) I think it was around minuet 45 where I could reach back to touch my foot and think it was someone else's because it was so numb. Don't even bother trying to stand up after an hour of sitting like that by the way. You just fall back down. It takes a good 15min to work you way passed the prickling and stand. another 5min or so to actually walk.

PUMPKIN: actually, jack-o-lantern. Halloween being one of my favorite holidays means I could not simply leave this tradition behind in America. Although I couldn't find an orange pumpkin, there are plenty of green ones around. Another difference is that we actually ate this one after Halloween (but then again I carved it the day before Halloween, not 2 weeks before)

Yakimono: On Wednesday, we went and made pottery. I think the Japanese just really likes plates and cups and such...I don't really know why though. Afterwards we went to another famous otera (temple). I was really high up in the mountains and had a good view of lake biwa and the cities...but its still on my camera so I'll post it later I guess :D

Osaka People: They deserve a post of their own. They are NOT normal Japanese people. Normal Japanese people stare from afar but Osaka people will come up to you at the crosswalk, shake your hand and say "goodo morningu" as best they can. It's...entertaining. It's also entertaining when at that same crosswalk with Sari and Emilie, the old lady decided to tell her old man friend that he should take us to dinner..and we could understand.
oh osaka people...

Finaly AFS day: It was fun! Actually, it was really really boring, but seeing and talking to everyone was fun! Everyone introduced themselves and had pictures and clothes from their country. And then we all had to listen to the guest speakers speak for and hour or so...AKA exchange yo mama jokes and take pictures. ALSO MET SOMEONE FROM NORTHERN OHIO THERE!!!! <3
small world.