July has been super busy!!

Sorry I haven't been able to post in awhile, I have been super busy. It's been summer holidays since the 20th, but I still go to school almost day for soccer club. ITS SOOO HOT!! Everyday is at least 35*C! I've gotten tanned quite a bit (at least for me it is). You just stand outside and start sweating like crazy. Everyone carries a towel with them XD.

Since I'm going to Hiroshima in August, AFS took Helle, Gus and me to watch this really old movie on Hiroshima. We were the only foreigners there, and like the only young ppl too. It was sad, tho we didnt understand alot of it. We kept thinking that this would be really awkward if we were american, tho some of the people probably thought we were. White ppl=american in Japan (most of the time).

We hung out after, and since it was soo hot, we decided to go watch Toy Story 3! It was all in Japanese, and we were so proud at the end of the movie when we realized we understood most of it! \(^o^)/ It was a cute movie too :).

I've hung out with (exchange) friends soo much this summer, when I'm not at club ;). Gone to karaoke alot!
My homeroom at school, including my host sister went to Australia for a 3 week homestay, so the last week or 2 of school was helping them prepare for that XD

I also went to Noto from the 24-27, but that will be in the next post :)

Not a very eventful post, sorry. Busy and super tired and would like to go to bed :)

Tests...again...

Japanese school is all about tests...

Anyway, my homeroom  teacher told me I didn't have to take any tests... but I have chosen to take Korean. I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but I am taking Korean at school. I think its my favourite class, because I am actually learning something, at the same time as everyone else. The teacher is awesome, cause he actually treats me more or less like an average student, asking me as many questions about how to read/write_____ and say the self introduction, as everyone else.
I am not trying to brag, but I think I'm actually one of the better ones (other than the only guy) in the class. Some of the korean pronounciation sounds nothing like Japanese... more like english, which gives me an advantage.

For the test, all we had to do was read about 20 phrases and the teacher timed us. To see who went first, (there are 10 in the class) we did "jan ken pon" or japanese rock paper scissors. I unfortunately lost, and ended up going first. I thought I did really bad, cause it seemed to take forever.
However, we got our marks back, I got the only 100%! I can't believe it! I was the fastest (3:15) and the only one to read everything right! The guy sitting next to me saw my mark, and proceeded to steal my test and showed it to the rest of the class ~.^

I feel, like I could actually do well in this class :D

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 >.<