Goodbyes... or not ;)

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I have been pretty busy with club... and nothing amazingly exciting has happened lately that has given me the need to post. Maybe I'm starting to fall into a routine... nothing is as interesting as it used to be? And I'm just a procrastinator... >.<

2 of the Rotary students (Michael and Sandy from the USA) have left, and I was very sad to see them leave. We had goodbye parties with them, which of course, involved karaoke! For one of them, there were like 15 of us, so we got a big room, with tatami floors. It was great hanging out all together, and I miss them. I seem to say this alot, but it's amazing the opportunity exchange gives you to meet people from all over the world (although the US isn't very far from Canada).

srry, kinda bad quality... but it was dark

Also, I found this out about a week ago... one of my bestest friends in Canada was supposed to move this summer, which I was really upset about. She wouldn't be there when I get back. Anyway, I guess now, because of the crappy real estate market and they couldn't sell their house... she's not moving! So yay for the bad economy! (not really, but you get what I mean;)) This made a rather difficult month a whole lot better! :D So see you in 7 months Sterling!! Yikes, exchange is so short... :(

Taiko

Yesterday, all the International/Culture Studies homerooms, went to a Taiko concert/presentation thing. It was so cool! BTW, taiko are like big, traditional drums.

We there for about an hour and a half. I'm  guessing it got a little repetitive for some ppl, because you could see alot of people had dozed off. Even the principal did for a bit XD.

There were 3 guys, and they played all these different drums. They got everyone quite involved, getting them to clap and whatnot. Unfortunately cameras weren't allowed :(.  They were really good! They were also really muscular ;). I guess they need 'em cause they hit the drums really hard... One guy's stick even snapped, but he just pulled out another one and kept on playing. Half the time their sticks and hands were just blurs, they were playing so fast!

My, ankle still hurts, so I don't have club today (gives me a chance to write this XD). Also, in PE, I didn't run... again... so the teacher got me to call out the times for each lap. He said I was doing good and was loud enough, but he took the stop watch to call out the final times for people, I guess I was a bit slow... but whatever. I wrote down the times instead. It made me happy that I actually got to do something instead of just sitting there.

Also, I had to go to this meeting today during lunch. I still have no idea what it was for! :S My homeroom teacher just told me to go to the class. They were deciding which people would do what for something. I don't know how I got dragged into volunteering for whatever it was... I'm now the assistant for something/someone... I'm thinking it was maybe the student council were planning for the school festival, but I didn't really understand when the one girl tried to explain it to me. Hopefully I'll be able to figure it out >.<

I slept too long

Yesterday, I sprained/rolled my ankle during club. It didn't hurt that bad, so I just kinda ignored it. However, today it kept getting worse and worse until eventually my host sis took me to the school nurse.

Backup a bit... the schedule was changed around a bit, so I'm not normally in the library before P.E. (I'll be writing a post about my classes soon) but today I was. I was exhausted today, so I fell asleep. I do sometimes doze off, but wakeup well before the bell. Unfortunately I didn't hear it today, and was still asleep. My host sis came looking for me when I didn't come back for gym, but I guess she didn't see me. Luckily the librarian woke me up. She is super nice, and didn't seem to care that I was asleep. Anyway, I ran into my host sis in the hall (she came up again to look for me).

Since my ankle really hurt, we went to the nurse and I got some ice, and then we went to outside to meet the rest of the class, only 5-10 mins late. We were running around the school, but I couldn't do that. We have 2 teachers for PE. One guy is pretty hard on us and kinda intimidating. I found him kinda scary at first, but he's just really loud (like most gym teachers). The other kinda is younger (I think he's a new teacher) and isn't too hard on us.

The new teacher asked where I had been and my host sis goes and tells him I fell asleep in the library and didn't hear the bell. I thought "What the heck are you doing?! Trying to get me in trouble?!" Everyone started running right after, so I was alone with the teacher and he was like "Mou, Jenny (Geez, Jenny)!" and he gave me the dirtiest (as in glare type thing) look ever. I was like "Kowai! (scary), but he was kinda smiling, so I wasn't sure whether he was trying to be a serious teacher, or just teasing me... I just laughed nervously XD. He didn't say anything else about it though... so whatever...

I just sat there and watched people run laps,  and cheered them on. My ankle is still kinda swollen, so I didn't go to club either. I got a twisted ankle on one leg and a huge bruise from a soccer ball that won't seem to go away on the other >.<. Geez... XD

Hyaku Goku Man Festival

So Saturday (and Sunday) was the Hyaku Goku Man Festival, which is like the biggest festival in Kanazawa. The festival commemorates the entry of Lord Maeda Toshiie into Kanazawa Castle in 1583.
I met up with Helle and Irisz and we went shopping in the morning.

Clothes I bought

We then met up with my host mom and host sister at her break dance competition. Unfortunately we didn't get there in time to see her (tho saw it on video later) but everyone was pretty amazing. I met some of her dance buddies, and they were all really nice. We then spent lot of the day watching the competition. My host sis didn't get to the top 10, but a group of her friends did, so we were cheering for them. I think made it to the semi finals :). You can check out my youtube channel for videos from the break dancing.  We kinda felt like bad exchange students, cause we weren't watching the "cultural festival", but the break dancing was more interesting XD.

"Ancient" firefighter "dancing"on a ladder

That night, everyone in Kanazawa AFS chapter (and Irisz ;) met up. Irisz proceeded to make us look bad in front of our chapter leader, with her amazing japanese XD. They were quite impressed.  After dinner, we danced in the parade. It was awesome! We never learned the dances beforehand, so they just kinda put us on the road and told us to dance. It is now considered the "Humiliate the Foreigners Parade" ;p. It took a bit to get a hang of the 3 different dances, but I had sooo much fun! There were tons of people dancing the traditional dances through downtown, and random people of the street would come and join in.

Helle, me and Irisz

All the ppl in the street downtown

Sunday, I hung out with the Rotary and AFS exchange students. The Rotary ppl are leaving within the next 2 months, and I will be sad to see them leave. Always good times. ;)

Soccer Tournament thing...

So These last couple days have been competitions for all the clubs. Thursday and Friday we got of early.
Thursday was the soccer tournament thing, but since the girls don't compete we just went to cheer the guys club on. So all 30 or so of us piled on to a mini bus and drove about 2 hours to Noto. However, on the way, the bus broke down on a bridge, and every time the teacher/coach tried to start the engined it won't go and we'd roll back a little X\. It eventually started working again, so we were only a little late.

We ended up going to this Aviation Academy (plane school) which was pretty cool. I felt a little awkward because I stood out and everyone kept staring where ever I went. Plus it was pretty much all guys XD. Like, I went to the bathroom with a friend, and we passed the baseball club. They were standing in this huge group and started calling kawaii and whatnot. When we came out, there were a couple of them standing there... but I just smiled and waved like normal. My japanese is still not good enough to keep up a conversation >.<

My school was the last team to compete. I kinda got the feeling we were the"underdog" so to say, because we have less players than everyone else, no 3rd years, and everyone else had really nice uniforms and brand stuff (puma, Nike, Adidas, etc). Anyway, my school lost 5-0 :(.

We got back kinda late, and I had left my school uniform in my classroom because I didn't want to carry it all day (were wore our gym/club clothes). Unfortunately, no one was there and the school was locked >.<. Luckily I have a spare blouse and I just wore my summer uniform skirt the next day.


Today, since school ended early and I had no club, my host sis and I went to MacDonalds. I had a Teriyaki burger (it made me sick feeling after >.<). There were a whole bunch of students there. Since make up isn't allowed at school, most of the school girls were sitting there putting on their fake eyelashes, contacts, makeup, etc. They seem to get really dressed up after school, but they still wear their school uniform because they think it's cute.

Lanterns at night

After we went and did Purikura! So much fun! After, I went to Japanese lessons and then Helle came over for supper and we went to this event (It's to commence the festival this weekend) where they put a whole bunch of paper lanterns (mostly made by kids) on the Asano River and they float down from one bridge to the end at the next bridge.

They were all collected at one end of the river

Tomorrow is the Hyaku Man Goku Festival, the biggest one in Ishikawa. Looking forward to it!

No Free Time

So far I am enjoying club. They aren't crazy strict, but I'm still working/exercising hard. Tuesday and Thursday I have PE on top of club after school. Today, PE was last block, and we ran around the school for about 25 mins (I only stop to walk twice, for about 30 secs each :D) and then I ran more during club.

 I am so exhausted...(but it's a good kind of tired.) I don't get home earlier than 7pm during the week. Wednesday and Friday are Japanese lessons and I get home about 7pm. The rest of the week, club ends at about 6:30, but then after we have to sweep the field.
The soccer field/baseball diamond is all dirt, so we have to drag big brooms around after to even it out and remove most of the marks from are cleats. Speaking of which, I was able to finally buy some supaiksu (spikes/soccer cleats), so now I don't have to wear my converse :). They are Puma, so kinda expensive but they were one of the cheaper pair at the store.

Anyway, (sorry I'm jumping around a bit XD) I usually don't leave school until about 7pm - I have to sweep the field, then change, and I talk to the others a bit - so I don't get home until 7:30 - 7:45pm! So late, but that's the life of a student in Japan. I really don't have any free time during the week anymore. It's pretty much go to school, club/Japanese lessons, come home and eat, about an hour of free time/study(doesn't happen often >.<), bath, then a bit more free time and to bed between 10:30 and 11:30pm. I sometimes end up falling asleep after supper XD.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm whining. It's not my intention. I'm just trying to give you an idea about my day to day life. I'm enjoying being busy. However, this also means that I may not have as much time/energy to post on my blog... but I will do my best to keep it updated. :)

Also, I would like to say a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! to my dad back in Canada! \(^o^)/ Miss you (and everyone back home)~♥!

So tired, time for bed... ( -.-) zzz
oyasumi~ (goodnight)