October 8, 2014
I'm doing very well, since I knew a
lot about Japan already I haven't been hit with cultural shock. My health is fine. I normally get sick a lot in the winter
because my immune system is lower than most people but thats normal. I got a cold once since i've been here, other
than that the only health problem is my lack of sleep. Im working on going to bed earlier and earlier
to counteract having to wake up so early.
Thats been helping a lot.
I love my current host family. My grandmother is the cutest thing in the
world and my mother is really nice.
since my sister and mother shower at our grandmothers house the bathroom
is all mine which is so amazingly nice!
My grandmother and I have an amazing
relationship. Even tho I can't speak Japanese and she can't speak English she
still talks to me in Japanese and pats my arm.
I say i'm back in japanese
everytime I go to her house and she always says welcome home in Japanese and
has a smile for me. My mother always
makes me laugh because since she can't speak English a lot of our communication
is done through charades.
I go to school everyday unless I
miss the bus or am sick. I walk to
school in America so I'm used to waking up a lot later and going in late if I
oversleep. But here in Japan since I
live so far away I have to wake up a few hours earlier and take the bus. If I sleep in even by 10 minutes and miss the
bus there is no way for me to get to school.
Theres the public bus system but I dont know how to use it yet and id
rather not get lost in japan.
I am going to do cheerleading but
it doesn't start for a few months. I am
currently in the cooking club every wednesday.
I also have calligraphy on wednesdays, traditional tea ceremony on fridays
and traditional japanese dance on mondays. But those are all elective classes
and not after school activities. I also
have a kanji class, and 2 japanese classes.
My classmates all love me and whenever i'm in the hall everyone says
hello and smiles. Im sad to say I only
know a few peoples names but that doesn't mean i dont have a lot of friends.
I have lunch with the rotarians
every other tuesday. They pick me up
from school at lunch time and bring me back a little after lunch. The first tuesday of the month I am expected
to give a speech in Japanese. I just
finished translating my second speech. I
have also attended an overnight Rotary orientation as well as an all day event
where I had to give a small speech. My
last meeting was 3 days ago at a hotel where we have lunch. I receive 100$ a
month and they also pay my 65$ phone bill.
When I get my allowance is when I give my speech, kind of like a thank
you as well as to show my improvement in Japanese,
I like my counselors very
much. They have been very helpful in
settling me down in Japan. They go above
and beyond. They managed to find a
weekly japanese class for me to take every tuesday and one of the rotarians has
volunteered to drive me home after, saving me a lot on bus fare. They have also introduced me to Greg, an
american who's lived in Japan for 6 years.
He is very fun to talk to because he has a lot of experience being a
foreigner.
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