today...it rained?

yes. today it rained. THANK GOD. now its nice and suzushi as opposed to atsui. (nice and cool, not hot)
i wore my hair down today, and normally this would not be a big deal. but seeing as no one at school had seen me with my hair down it was like the first day alllllll over again. awwwww kawaii!! (cute) uh. thanks? its not that big of a deal. or so i thought?

Today was fairly normal. tomorrow i have a kanji test though on providence names in kyushu. sort of a random topic for kanji
(by the way kanji are chinese characters mixed in with japanese hiragana and katakana)

oh! so, basiclly i love the crossgaurds here. LOVE them! they're always so nice!!! they dont even say much besides "good morning" and i know they're super nice. they stand there all morning making sure tiny japanese kids on bikes dont get run over by crazy japanese adults in cars..or bikes i guess too.

and another thing i've been meaning to mention. Japanese kids are not as bell-twitchy as americans. yes. bell-twitchy. everyone knows waht im talking about if you've been to an american high school. that 2 minuets the teacher is starting to pack up after a loooooooonnggggg lecture about protists and their eating habits and you hsve all you're stuff packed ready to dash out the door the second the bell rings.
not in japan. some teachers for starters think that the bell means "wrap it up in the next 3 min" which i KNOW would drive american students crazy. also even after the teachers wraps up, students take time to actually finish what they were working on! not just scribble something down for later. EVEN THE FINAL BELL where in american EVERYONE is dying just to get out of the classroom at least, even if they have clubs or sports after. Japanese students HANG OUT IN THE CLASSROOM (whaaaaatt?!) yes. they HANG OUT. they arn't hard wired to jump at every single bell.
and i think this is why:
1) Americans change classrooms (most of the time)--> Japanese stay in homeroom (again, most of the time)
2) Americans have and ANNOYING BELL-->Japan has nice bells that calmly let you know its time to change subjects
3) Americans have 5 min between classes-->Japan has 10

This, i think, explains why bells in japan ACTUALLY MAKE ME ANXIOUS. I have to stop and ask myself why am i getting stressed out that no one is moving?! 17 years in america will do that to you, no matter how calm you think you are.

Also, something surprising. Bible class. (weird enough that i have a bible class in a japanese school) (its protestant by the way) (Christianity is 1% in japan) Bible class happens to be one of my favorite classes too! which is also weird...because i never liked psr....at all...and i never really cared for church, except at christmas time...
maybe because I know the material (and its not english) and also the teacher...father...protentant...involves me in class! even though i take forever to read one sentence.
FINALLY-- I don't like the way they changed the alphabet. yes. they changed it. they separated lmnop. NOT. COOL. i like lmnop being one word! its not abcdefg, hijklmn, opqrstu... NO! its lmnop!!!!
or
abcdefghijkelephantpeeqrstuvwxyz
that's the preferred way.
get it right japan!!!
yes yes AFS says "its not right, its not wrong, its just different"
NOT IN THIS CASE!

＊おわり＊

japan...china...korea??

so, nothing too exciting today.
EXCEPT!

I go to japan...going to learn Japanese...alright sounds good.
get there
have a lesson in Korean
AND
am going to China for 5 days this fall.

Heck
Yes.

안녕하세요？ 저는赖诗婷입니다。很高兴见到你！

score.

oh right! pictures. lets seeeeee....
we've got....
a panoramic of the view outside after rain (hope it works) and a chalkboard full of cartoon characters including sponge bob and Patrick(?) and Ariel
(CLICK THE PICTURES TO SEE THEM BETTER)

Video time!

first video: bike ride home and vending machines its pretty short because 1) its hard to bike and video 2) standing in front of a vending machine with a camera is a bit abnormal (but hey, so am i)

9/3/10 because i cant think of a better title

soooooooooo
yeah. today i fell asleep.
often.
in class.
because im really really tired for some reason.
i go to bed at 9:30 basiclly and then get up around 7. leave for school at 7:45. school starts at 8:30 (sooooo much better than 7:30) and then depends on what day it is what time i leave. dinner. dishes. shower. blog/read/fb/whatever. sleep.

sure im probably missing some details...but no one will notice.

Ah! i also met the new exchange student from Belgium.

oh yeah. I forgot to mention the french guy first. right?
whatever. I DONT LIKE HIM. he dosnt shut up! and hes twichy! and wosrt of all hes good at japanese! so hes loud, talks a lot, in japanese, while twitching.
hnufdjlvgslgtfinglfd
that was my frustration in words
so of course hes going to be bad at caligraphy! (yes, i have a caligraphy class every friday) caligraphy requires relitive scilence and no twitching.
it WAS my favorite class because it required the least amount of talking. but nooooooo french guy has to be all...FRENCH GUY!
but anyways, just so everyone knows, its not that I dislike french guyS. just french GUY.

so, there is a new student from Belgium who speaks french so now french guy has even MORE of a reason to run his mouth off.
but she seems nice. her name is Marie. (french guy will remain french guy)I hope I can somehow talk to her (without consulting french guy). her japanese is limited (much like mine) and her english even more so. not to mention my french is limited to `potatoe` (pomme de terre) and some other random food.

I also attempted to take more pictures today and some video while just riding my bike so I`ll try and put that up tomorrow when i`m not falling asleep on the keyboard.

alright thats all.
Oyasumi!

book stores, kyudo and stuff

alright. so.
...i forget what i was going to say...
ah! book stores. so basically my host mom trusted me with going to the bookstore by myself and making it back in time for dinner. I thought it was going to be a tiny hole-in-the-wall store but nooooooooo it was huge! the bottom floor was books and magazines and office supplies? and such and the top floor was movies and cds. it was AWESOME. I got stationary, a pen, and yotsubato (i have the english version back home).
today, school was much better. I showed people pictures and ate lunch in the cafeteria (usually eat in homeroom) and ran around school with people. AND we had kyudo today. kyudo is japanese archery where they have tall tall tall bows and a whole preparation ritual almost. its pretty serious stuff. and its also really hard. because the bow is pretty heavy and then the string is really tight and they hold it up pretty high...that combo is purty harsh.
i had a total "when in Rome" moment today too. during the beginning of kyudo club everyone lined up. and then all of a sudden someone said something (no. i don't know what) and everyone kneeled down all at once. so i basically faked my way through some ancient japanese starting-kyudo-club ritual i think. something like kneel with your left foot forward, sit on your knees, hands sorta by your hips, bow, yell something, roll call, yell something again, pray?, yell, bow, stand up.

yeah. faked it all. stood up confused.

kyudo is pretty interesting though. I didn't get to try it yet but i tried "air" kyudo hahaha. I also got to watch everyone. and I had to introduce myself in front of everyone. and then they all bowed in unison...and it scared me. HOW DO THEY KNOW TO DO IT?!

anyways. that's about it. kyudo goes until 6:30pm and then it takes 15min to get home via bike. and its already dark by then.
so I'm obviously tired.
in fact.
so tired I'm not going to reread this or spell check.
you all know what i mean anyways!
(sorry. no pics)

its...HOT

alright. its...HOT i mean really REALLY hot here. and i have no idea why. it's about 30-35 degrees C. which i think is about 95F. either way. its too hot for an ill fitting uniform. or uniform at all! i mean ahhhh!! the uniform pieces they gave me include a mid length skirt, long sleeved blouse, vest, jacket, sweater annnnnnd tie. NONE OF THIS WORKS IN 95 DEGREE WEATHER!

I cant think of writing anything else except the weather...kinda sad really.

*the pictures are sunset from the balcony, nagomi with my coin purse, and dora the explorer except in japanese and english. not a word of spanish?!*

i actually did this yesterday

So, I just got done taking a bath. School today was alright. But it’s actually kind of boring. I mean, the first day everyone was all "oh my god! Foreigner!" and don’t worry I knew it wouldn’t last. Not to mention I knew the people that were talking to me today would probably not be tomorrow. But some people still talked to me despite my lack of Japanese abilities. Japanese class so far is actually not that great. I thought it would be a sort of sanctuary where I can express myself in English and learn the Japanese equivalent. But so far today it has been… kind of a slap in the face. We started with the basics, I expected that, but the whole thing was like teaching a 3 year old. Picture flashcards; make a sentence using the flashcards like "I like to eat watermelon". Alright, we have established this. Watermelon is wonderful. Let’s move on. I know I have to enrich my vocab in order to speak...at all. But I would rather use sentences that could get me past talking to a three year old. The second half of the Japanese lesson was basically an origami lesson. This sensei is OBVIOUSLY suited to small children hahaha

My uniform doesn’t fit. I mentioned this already but I tend to forget how nice it is to go to school in clothes that fit.

The rest of my classes outside of the international office are alright. Except I feel like a shadow. The teachers don’t really consider me apart of the class and treat me as such. I mean, one of the teachers came up to me and said something along the lines of “you’re not going to get this class, there’s a lot of kanji and you miss one of the classes to learn Japanese so just bring something to do” nice to meet you too.

Going from America, where everyone looks different but are treated the same to Japan where everyone looks the same so its easier to point out the foreigners is….hard! I mean there’s no better word! Here, it’s smacked in your face that YOU ARE FOREIGN.

International club…whoo boy.
Alright, first, I found another zhang lao shi. Except Japanese. I don’t even know how to explain the similarity between them…but its scary. International club was basically interview the American. Questions ranging from what’s your favorite Japanese food to do you have a boyfriend to do you watch anime to if you had a boyfriend what would you give him… interesting…

AND I am so SO grateful to one of my pointless vending machine stops. SO HAPPY. New favorite drink: melon and cream soda. SO. AMAZING.

(I love how the whole tone of this blog (and my mood in general) flips with the introduction of a new drink)

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been here for only a week. I mean, it seems like a whole month.


Gahhh I'm such an English person. Most people just write what they did and maybe an “I miss home” but I just have to be englishy and write an essay..for fun.