Let's see if I still know how to write in English!

Never fear! I haven’t neglected my blog, for too long. Things got real busy last week. I didn’t get to have a day off! We had school on Saturday and then I got pulled into writing and memorizing a speech in Japanese (in only two days) so that I could come to school Sunday to give it. Let’s just say the speech was written, but definitely NOT memorized. But most people here are pleased with anything a foreigner can say in Japanese. But people who know me know I don’t like making mistakes, so it was kind of frustrating. But my mistakes were still worth 5 pieces of AMERICAN candy as a thank you. It was funny, because the Australian exchange student was asking me what Butterfingers and 3 Musketeer Bars were. And then someone behind me was telling her ‘one is honey comb and the other is strawberry chocolate’. I still can’t let the strawberry thing go, it’s fluffy chocolate, no fruit! I’m hoping there won’t be any more school on Sunday for me lurking in the near future. But I did have a lot of fun on Saturday with my host family. It was my host grandma and grandpa’s 50th wedding anniversary. One of my host sisters was sick (but we got to eat her portion of dessert at the party ;P). We all met at my host grandparent’s house and took a mini charter bus to a hotel. The hotel was near my 3rd host family’s house. It was kind of weird driving by places I thought I wouldn’t see again. At the hotel we took a family portrait. Since it was being professionally done we all had to dress nice, i.e. school uniforms. If you look at some of the pictures I’ve posted below you can see the differences in the uniforms. My second youngest host sister is in a public high school. She can wear whatever kind of sweater or socks she likes. However they aren’t so lenient in the hair department, they still got made when she dyed her hair brown (they made her dye it back to black right away). And my youngest host sister is in middle school. She’s in the blue uniform with the long skirt. You won’t see ANY middle school kids here with their school skirt rolled up short (just their casual skirts). I guess it’s like a coming of age thing, ha! Skirt rolling! And of course there is my uniform, the private school one. Lately girls have been getting in trouble at my school for talking guys into buying them guy sweaters, they ride lower. And then there are a handful of third year girls that change into other ‘unapproved’ sweaters while waiting for the bus or train. Girls who are ‘artistic’ with their uniforms are called ‘gals’, not usually a nice thing to call someone. It’s a whole other fashion world and most kids like it though. We talked about in English class once, if people would like coming to school in normal clothes or not. The general consensus was ‘no! that’s too expensive’. (I won’t say that their blazers cost almost $300). Anyway! Back to the anniversary! After portraits we ate a fancy dinner while singing karaoke. I’m so glad I had the western meal. I can deal with most Japanese food, even raw fish, but sometimes you just have to pass. I sang YMCA during karaoke time. On the way home my host grandma was doing the dance to it saying, ‘oh I used to do this when I was young’!! It was really cute. And so now it’s Wednesday, a day off (FINALLY) and almost time for Turkey Day in the states. I’ll be thinking of all you people with pie, well… I’ll be thinking of the pie at least! Eat up!