HAPPY CANADA DAY!!

2 posts in 1 day! WOW!

Just wanted to wish everyone an awesome CANADA DAY! I will go to school like normal, since I'm in Japan XD.
I've realized since coming to Japan how proud I am to be canadian. I've become very patriotic, which I didn't think would ever happen. I love Canada... from all the nature/wildlife (to the maple syrup, eh?) to the soooo many different cultures and people that call the Great North home ;).

Here's 2 songs to help celebrate Canada/being Canadian!

Birthday!

So technically yesterday was my birthday, but I didn't get a chance to post this.

class wrote on the board

At school yesterday morning, my host sister dragged me to the library when we got there to "study english". She didn't let me go to class first, so I was suspicious that they might be planning something. Sure enough, when I came back to class, everyone was there, and they had written on the board. They all sang me Happy Birthday and gave me a little notebook that everyone in the classed had written in. I also got some little random presents from ppl and the 2 ALT teachers :) I tried to act surprised, but I got really emotional when they started singing Happy Birthday, so I don't know if it came across that way. I'm gonna really miss these guys...

I celebrated my birthday that night with my host family. I got a CD from my host grandma, and a yukata from my host family :) I skyped with my real family today (tho there it was still my birthday XD).
I also got a haircut today. They cut soo much off! Like 8cm! Tho I wanted it shorter, maybe not that short... but I actually like it. It will take a while to get used to though.

Kinda bad picture, taken on cell phone

I thought it was gonna be kinda a hard day, like homesickness wise... but it turned out really great :)

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. ;)