First Day of School

Am I updating too much?
Well, I'm mostly just putting the big stuff that happens.

Today was my first day of school.
I rode my bike there.
I got lost. Twice. Thank god I can read Japanese because I use the shop names to know where I'm going.

I got lost even more on the way home. I went one way, and passed 3 boys who were most likely in the baseball club, then I turned around because I realized I was going the wrong way, and they kept looking back at me which was embarrassing. Then I had the horrible luck to run into them again in front of the train station coming from another direction (I made a big circle), at which they started pointing at me which was horribly embarrassing. They probably recognized me so fast, due to the fact that I was wearing a bright pink raincoat over my uniform, which made me stand out even more.

-__-;

Well, today Libra had an unlucky horoscope on TV... #11.... Yesterday it was #1 though.


Anyways, I got to school late on account of being lost, but I didn't miss anything big or something. I went to see the ALT from America who lives here with his wife and we talked in English for a while. Then there was the opening ceremony where I had to make a speech.
As soon as they announced me the gym suddenly got louder because all the students were commenting about me. That made me even more nervous. I kept pausing during my introduction (at the end of sentences) because I saw so nervous.

Then the 2nd year girls had a uniform check where they check skirt length, if you plucked your eyebrows, the length of your bangs, if you hair is tied up if it's too long, and if you are wearing make up or not.

My skirt was a bit too short because I have long legs compared to my torso (on a Japanese girl of my height it would be just fine). The skirt went halfway to my knees when it's supposed to cover them, but they said that because it was a borrowed uniform and not my own it was okay. More like, there's nothing that can done about it so I would be allowed to have it at that length.

Then I went to my classroom and talked with some girls for a bit, and then I introduced myself to my class and one of our teachers told them to ask me questions. I was asked by one boy if I like hamburgers. lol

Then I went to go buy my slippers and went home because everyone had tests.
They have tests tomorrow too so I get to go home early again. Also I don't have school on Saturdays either because that day is mostly for extra studying (my school is for people aiming to get into college).

Bleh I feel all embarrassed and nervous even now.

Oh and Japanese summer uniforms are amazing, they like don't absorb your sweat or something. The summer shirt is made from a different material that a regular shirt.

I also did some stuff yesterday, but I'll save that for another post!

byebye★

Cicadas are loud

I got to Miyazaki 2 days ago~
The plane ride from Haneda took 1 hour and 45 mins. but I slept the whole way, and when I woke up we were starting to land.

We (Me and 3 other exchangers from other countries) got off the plane and could feel the heat right away.
We went to baggage claim and went to the bathroom, and we could see our host families on the other side of the glass which made us really nervous. My host parents had a sign:



Then we went back to their house which was a like a 10 minute drive from the airport.

Yesterday I went to visit my school with my LP and her daughter Yumi who is 19.
We met the principal, an english teacher, another teacher which I don't exactly know what she does, and my homeroom teacher. Then my homeroom teacher showed me around the school. I am in 2nd year Class B.
There were a lot of kids there even though it's summer vacation because of club activities, etc.




Then my LP and Yumi took me to Mister Donut were I had a maccha (green tea) donut with milk. Japanese milk is very creamy and sweet, while American milk is more salty because they take fat out of it. I prefer American milk.

After we went to the book store next door under TSUTAYA and I bought a magazine and book. I used my Tosho card so it was very cheap.
And then they dropped me off at home.

I also got my uniform. Yumi's friend graduated from my school and is letting me borrow it.
I have the summer uniform, normal uniform/winter uniform, minus the blazer which my school will prepare for me, and the summer PE clothes, and shoes.

summer uniform

Tomorrow school starts. I have to make a speech that day.

I go to school by bike, and it takes about 20 mins, so it's pretty close.
Today I practiced how to get there~

I also made a new vlog.

Oh my gosh, I never want to leave Japan, I love it here so much.

byebye☆

Orientation

We had our Orientation in a hotel near Narita for about 3-4 days, plus the orientation is the US the night before we left, for a total of 5 days. (If you count the days we actually had orientation (otherwise we were traveling) it was 3 days).

We were split into 3 groups, Tokyo, Nagoya, and Osaka, I was Osaka. The Tokyo group went to Tokyo for their orientation, and Osaka and Nagoya stayed in Chiba. Narita airport is in Chiba prefecture, but I think many people think that it is in Tokyo.

I mostly hung out with some of the US kids, but I also met a really cool girl from Australia as well some other people from different countries.
Even though we only knew each other for a short time, we became really good friends! It probably has to do with being together 24/7 and having a lot of the same interests. We all act really similar too, so it was a lot of fun!

The Japanese student volunteers taught us about Japanese life and what to do, what not to do, etc etc. The whole orientation was in English though.

I will make a vlog about the orientation soon!

I arrived in Miyazaki yesterday, it's really humid, and I feel tired early and wake up early because I'm not used to the time difference yet, but only by a couple hours. I can't sleep properly quite yet (it takes me a while to fall asleep and I wake up at random times sometimes) but I'm sure I'll get used to it soon!

Today I'm going to visit my school with my LP and they will give me my uniform and info, etc.

I will talk about my host family and Miyazaki in a later post! This one is getting long!

byebye☆

We're in Japan!

We're in Japan! I'm tired and jet-lagged, and we've been having orientations every day. I'll make a more detailed post later!

But everyone is really fun to talk to here so I'm having an awesome time!

Airplane

 

Airplane Food

 

Hotel Room in Japan

 

Outside the Hotel

 

Lunch

partenza

Partenza means "depart" in Italian :3
I'm not going to Italy, but there is a Japanese song called partenza, so... :D

Today I'm off to Japan!

I've got all my stuff packed except for a few last minute things I couldn't pack till now~
I finally bought the rest of my host family presents a few days ago too~

My schedule is like this:
17th - Overnight Orientation in LA
18th - Fly to Japan
19th - Land in Japan, stay at hotel near Narita for a night
20th - go to Osaka Orientation (it's a 10 hour bus ride :P)
20th-22nd - Osaka Oreintation
22nd - Fly to Miyazaki

We're about to drive to LA in an hour~
It's only 2 hours away.
I'm leaving Southern California for Southern Japan!

I'll try to update soon~☆

It's that time of the year again!

Yes, it's the time to go on exchange!
With only 16 days left till I leave, I have been getting all my final stuff together.
It's going to be harder to pack now...I've bought a lot of new clothes this year that I really like D:
Plus I have to plan for bringing clothes I buy over there and gifts back. I'll probably have to ship some of it then...
So I've been eliminating my clothes one by one.
It's so hard to pack because not only do I have to bring my summer clothes, but I have to bring winter clothes too. My winter coat takes up half of my big suitcase, so I will have to ship it over.
I have to finish getting host family presents as well!!

I know a lot of kids are worrying about the language, so I feel really lucky that I don't have to >__<
I'm looking forward to no English! However I have been practicing kanji. I really don't like to study kanji that much, but I do anyways. I can read 700+ now, that's not that much when you consider it's 700/2,200 about 31%. I'm really behind because I don't study enough, so I want to be at 1,000+ by the end of my exchange, maybe even more.

I hope I can get out my country at least this time. -_-;

お久しぶりですね、、、

I haven't posted for months!!!
It's not like I had anything to post about though...

Now it's already July. It's been approx. 113 days since the earthquake, and now I have 46 more days to wait for exchange.
I've gotten my new flight info from AFS and I leave on the 18th of August.
But honestly...I have no excitement for this at all. It's not that I don't want to go, but after all that happened...my feelings of excitement have severely dropped.
Not because of worry or earthquakes or radiation (which I am not even worried about in the slightest), but because I was so looking forward to it and then my dreams were crushed so suddenly.
Back in Late February, Early March, when I was getting ready to go, I was so excited I couldn't even concentrate on anything, I couldn't sleep, I remember going to the movies and thinking about exchange the whole time I was watching it, I was that excited.
Now I just feel...sad. Looking at my flight info saying August....
My excitement was drained out of me, so I have none left (for now).
I really do want to go, but I don't want to set myself up for disappointment, so I wont get excited till I'm actually there.
But I won't get into all that again.

I've been e-mailing my host mom occasionally, and IM-ing my host sister in Brazil on Facebook occasionally as well.
They seem very nice~ :)

I'm also wondering what club I should join at school.
I've been thinking since way back that I wanted to join the Broadcasting Club this whole time, but then recently I was thinking, joining something like the Tea Club would be fun too~
I really hope my school doesn't try to make me join the English conversation club. Anything but that >_<
I don't like English!!
But yeah, the Broadcasting Club is first on my list!

I'm glad I won't be missing out on my schools culture festival or school trip though!
I am excited for the school trip~ (Like a mild excitement. I'm not even letting myself get too excited for anything right now.)
I think I mentioned this before, but we go to Hokkaido & Tokyo.
They have pictures from last years trip on my school's website.
Last year they went for 5 days in December. They went to Hokkaido for 3 days and went skiing, made ice cream, and went to a zoo. Then went to Tokyo for 2 days. Toyko Disneyland one day, and touring around Tokyo the second, which was the last day of the trip.

I start school on Sep. 1 there and my last day will be Jan. 30. Only 5 months T_T
I feel like I'm missing out on SO much...
But my school here starts on the 20th of this month D:
And I have summer homework (for English >:P)! I don't want to do it! I don't need to do it (since I'll be leaving)! I'm debating what I should do about it...

Oh! A couple of days ago, my mom gave me ¥2986 (approx. $37)! My mom's friend had went to Japan a couple of years ago, and had it left over and didn't need it (although I don't know why she just didn't exchange it), so free money! Yay!


Oh yes! AFS told us that they would be providing us with cell phones for safety because of all that happened. I was planning on getting a cell phone anyways, but now I get one for free! Yay! I do hope the model isn't too outdated though...
According to some students it will be this one.
It looks decent~ I want light pink >_< But apparently we only get the choice of black or white, so I'll choose white then if that's true.


This has ended up getting pretty long so I'll stop here!
☆bye bye☆