Okay!

Thank You Everyone!
I just wanted to say thanks to everyone at home, at school, at Judo, and well, where ever you all happen to be, for a great birthday! So here are some new pics, the last one of me is at school on my birthday.
And I have a few shout outs... Eliana!! I bet you're rockin Italy's world! I have your email somewhere so you'll have to tell me about it all soon! Kel- how'd the tournament go?? I was rooting for ya! KT- I finally sent your real card but HAPPY B-DAY again :) Lil-I saw the new Tim Burton movie and got new socks!
thanks again!!

This little dude couldn't take his eyes off of me. Well, I could just be flattering myself, I was eating some rockin' donuts.

Two of my host sisters, so cute!

Half days, half days! A whole week of half days! It’s time for midterms here. Everyone has the day off to study. And like we do in America, I’m sure they’re up in their rooms studying away with the curtains drawn and the books opened. Because it’s such a perfect fall day, you wouldn’t want to be blinded by the bright sun while studying! No! My classmates were telling me most of them only study for whatever exams they have the night before. Seems to be a global trend. I’m supposed to take the English exams this time around, I might pass if I can read the questions. Anyway, I’m home in time for all the soap operas and talk shows. I think I’m turning middle aged Japanese housewife, I find the Korean dramas more exciting. Oh! I went and saw Corpse Bride with two of my host sisters this weekend. It was cute in a Tim Burton way. Both my sister’s said they liked Charlie and the Chocolate Factory better. I sometimes wonder how the English jokes translate. Like in Charlie they pass a room with a cow being whipped (whipped cream) and I was the only one laughing in the theater. What did the subtitles say, ‘animal abuse is still a serious problem in America (or wherever Charlie lives).’ You think maybe it could translate somehow… maybe. Oh that reminds me of something else! When I was on the bus one morning I overheard one of my classmates talking to a friend about their trip to Australia. She was saying that they had ‘gone to a barbeque and were eating with other people, foreigners you know.’ That last part just kept bothering me. Usually, when you go to another country, you don’t refer to the people there as foreigners, right? Because you’re the foreigner. Even if you’ve come back they’d still be the Italians or Americans or Australians, right? So I’ve come to the conclusion that the true translation of ‘gaijin’, must not just be foreigner but must also be ‘not from Japan’. It made me think about how much culture has to do with language. Even if it isn’t a very good example it got me thinking. It also reminds me of a classmate of mine who is always swearing in English. Whenever she learns a new word it’s like she’s determined to get a reaction out of me, being the only person who really gets the true meaning of what she’s saying. It has gotten a bit annoying for me and now a bunch of the other girls seem to find it very amusing, making songs and swearing at each other. It makes them giggle, seriously, like a-hee-hee-hee giggle. Anyway, that was all thought provoking I’m sure. On the way home today I saw something really rare! A person wearing a helmet while riding their bike. I guess since so many people ride their bikes here helmets must seem inconvenient. Like, for some reason, wearing your seatbelt. This is the first family I’ve had that has actually asked me to wear my seat belt instead of laughing when I put it on. Which is comforting because most Japanese drivers are crazy and the one-lane two-lane roads don’t help. Well that’s all for now! Buckle up everyone!

Yoooo

TGIS! That’s my new slogan, since I’ve just come home from school on a Saturday, again! Well, I had an interesting week of sorts. My class took off to the land of Oz this week, leaving me in lovely Kansas, a.k.a. the freshmen class. Quite a different bunch than I am used to. The freshmen are very vocal and there are a few girls that should be professional clowns with all the makeup they wear. Class wasn’t too thrilling since nothing was relevant to me. However, I got a kick out of the English Grammar teacher. He’s a very large man with a posh voice, he should be British. (he did however wear a different pen around his neck everyday) Anyway, his English was by far the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. He was explaining the sentence, ‘I hope I will be able to speak English better.’ But what I heard was, ‘Aye hopu aye wiru be aburu to speaku eengurishu behtah.’ We’ll leave that at that ;-P Today all the freshmen had special classes to attend. The other exchange student and I had a sado (tea ceremony) class. We went down to our school’s little tea room that is all decked out with tatami mats, sliding screens, and the altar were an inspiring work of calligraphy is placed. Well, I tell you not much is inspiring when you sit for three hours in the seiza style. It’s like amputating your legs without any surgery involved! You could just look around the room and see all the students trying different ways to alleviate the pain. We didn’t actually end up doing a ceremony, just learning the basics. I felt like the native watching the other kids try and follow the directions. But I’m guessing maybe the seiza had the same effect on their brains as it did on their legs (yeah). Well, once the day was over I was out of there. No more frosh classes for me! But as I was leaving with the other exchange student this little dude came up to us. He was from the class across the hall. He had seen one of us foreigners in the cheerleading bit during the culture festival and was determined to be taught the different routines. (NO, it was not me who was a cheerleader!) Anyway, his friend told me he knows dances to stuff from Bring it On and Japanese TV shows and stuff. A little creepy. Anyway I really did get out of there after that. And I’m home now watching old dudes on TV in red thongs perform a ceremonial dance. And someone thought it would be cute to dress the reporter up in the red thong too…

Okay okay, a short aroha! I haven't been up to too much trouble this week. Mostly my class has been getting ready to go to Australia. They are all very excited to buy foreign clothing and Tim Tams. I made sure they all knew that my birthday is coming up and mentioned several times the subject of souvenirs ehehe. Someone offered to get me vegemite (vile-mite if you ask me). Yesterday I got the cutest letter from a girl in class 7. She was determined to write in English. Here's part of it, 'I'm not good at write a letter in English. So my friends help me. I write letter hard for you again.' She's really funny, always singing KISS songs in the hallway. Speaking of strange things, the other day I proofread a wedding speech a Japanese man had written. In the end it said something like 'I invite guests with us to send this couple in Bryant's cut.' I had NO idea what he was trying to say! So I made some sappy stuff up about meat cuts ad hair cuts, just kidding. And another instance today! One of my Japanese teachers was translating English stuff into Japanese and he asked me what 'valiant a smacking' is… He had me and all the English teachers stumped. There's a whooooole other English out there, the strange and mysterious Japanese English, not to be confused with 'Engrish'. Engrish is when the Japanese spell English the way it sounds in Japanese. If you want some good examples make sure you don't have to pee and check out www.engrish.com, there are some that’ll make you laugh so hard and some that'll just have you stumped! Here's one that I took a picture of while shopping...