So I'm writing this in the dining room in my new host family, as it is the only place where internet works, but that might just be good for me.
I'm also writing this at 15.08 on a Monday, which is 12 minutes before school ends, this in only possible because I, actually, did not go to school today. I'm justifying this by having been stressed out lately, by adapting to a new family, being confused by the long distance train rides to school, International Week demanding a lot of my attention as well as the speech on International Day proving to be a nightmare, followed by not being able to sleep on the Sunday due to a trip to Hakone, which was very far away plus incredibly exhausting, albeit interesting and that I have taken on the mission of cooking dinner for 12 people today.
So I hope all of that is good enough reason to take one single day off (and I pray I'll never have to again), I'm also doing chores at home during this time anyway, since I finally have the time to get things done.
So what has happened in a week, you wonder? Let's begin by describing the new host family.
So as I said, the host parents are old and the father is American. There are in total 6 students living here, 3 of them being exchange students: Nuri (Korean, the sempai), Santu (Finnish, was apparently in the same car as me the day I arrived in Japan, though I was so insanely tired at that time so I had no recollection of the event) and me (Swedish, writing this blog). The other 3 are Japanese University students: Yunsuke, Name-I-Forgot and Maho, two guys and one girl in total.
Though I've only Maho once, yesterday. She's very busy, they tell me.
The house is very nice, lots of space and everyone has their own room, with a private bathroom, fridge and microwave (awesome). Breakfast is on the table from 6.00 and contains fruits, cereals and toast bread (awesome again), sometime my breakfast is eaten in loneliness, sometimes in company (it depends). Dinner is served at 19.30 and everyone eats together (though the Japanese students are usually a tad late, Maho never eats dinner with us) and the food is either some interesting Japanese cuisine or one of the exchange students' cooking. Also, this family has loads of English tea, free to be drunk at any time (more awesome).
There are only two downsides with the new host family; the distance to school is pretty far, so it takes about 1 1/2 hours by train to get to school (during rush hour, so no seats for me). It's also in a quite off location, so I need to transfer 3 times (still during rush hour, mind you).
The other downside is not nearly as alarming, but the house is located far up on a steep hill, requiring a harsh treck uphill when returning home (also, the nearest store is at the base of the hill). But there are several positive aspects of the hill to take in mind: Itsumo No Fuukei can make the entire hillclimb a fun procedure and going up a steep hill at least once a day (plus the usual 20 minute walk to school from the station) is probably going to improve my stamina. Also, it's easy to get to the station every morning, since walking downhill marginally minimizes the time it would take if the house had been located on flat ground.
International Week was fun, though it didn't really get started before the Wednesday. The activities on the Monday were delayed until Thursday because more than 100 students in the tenth grade had been ordered to stay home due to another flu outbreak, and the Tuesday was a national holiday (I slept).
But Wednesday was fun, a lot of my classes were canceled and instead I got to do things like introduce myself to students in an English class (and I noticed that I could now make a detailed introduction of myself with ease, as opposed to the trouble I had months earlier) and watch a performance by Indian dancers/drummers.
Thursday was even better, as we had a delayed Halloween event that day. Each of the exchange students were given candy of a different kind and the Japanese students were charged with the task of finding all of us and getting a piece of candy, those who had the complete set were given even more candy.
By the end of the day, I had more than half of my candy left in my hat (yes, I was giving it out of my hat, obviously). I could have rightfully gone home with all that candy and said that it was "their loss" that most students hadn't gotten any, but I decided not to. Instead I trotted through the corridors, handing candy to every person I met. The multitude of "ありがとう"'s and "thank you"'s I received made it totally worth it.
Friday was also plenty fun, the first two lessons were free and therefore spent in the library, alternating between chatting with Truls & Amanda and reading in a copy of Norweigan Wood I had found (it's an interesting book).
During lunch hour, we exchange students were supposed to have a basketball match against the 10th year's girl team (yeah, I'm not sure why either), It wasn't that fun to play and not really worth losing the time to eat for, but I did what the teachers requested and got a laugh out of watching the (very tall) German visitor students more or less hand the ball to each other, far above the girls' heads.
Later, Friday took a turn for the awesome when my Japanese teacher gave me a Dreamcast.
Just like that.
She said that since her son had stopped using it and I'd told her I liked games, I could have it. I was not one to complain. She did say, however, that it was a little broken. But after looking at the console myself, I doubt it is something I can't ask one of my friends to fix (especially if I bribe him with some goods from Japan).
To make this story even more amusing, imagine my surprise when I found this article the very same day I had been given the console. Coincidence must be laughing out loud.
Despite what you might think, International day was also great fun, despite my speech being horrible. The entire event was interesting, it started out with seven Japanese students giving speeches in a speech competition (in English), despite some difficulties it was interesting to hear what they had to say. After that we were treated some performances by the German and Thai visitors and a speech by a Japanese film director (though I have no idea of what she said). Then it was my turn.
My speech wasn't all that bad, they told me, the content was interesting. Really, it's mostly me beating myself up, knowing that I could do so much better. I'll just try to describe how it went for you:
I probably broke all of the rhetorical rules, I had my eyes stuck on my paper all the time as I could not remember a single word to save my life, I was also more or less bent of the table, barely showing my face while talking. I also had no proper pace whatsoever in my speech, along with stopping a few times, forgetting where I was and having to take a few incredibly embarrassing seconds to find where I had lost myself.
So yeah, more or less everything that could have, went wrong with that speech. But I made it and I haven't developed any stage fright because of it. Rather the opposite, as I asked if I could make a speech in English at some point in the future, just to show that I could do better (sadly, there was no possibility for me to do so, I'll have to do something like it when I get home I guess).
Seems like there was a lot more to tell than I had imagined, I've been writing for over an hour now and I'm far from finished in retelling all events, I'm going to have to stop here in order to have some time over for my chores. Be back as soon as possible, miss you.
