Host Family @ MindSay 
The next morning my host mother dropped me of at school where I was supposed to meet the rest of the students to tour the campus. When she dropped me off, I had not idea where to go and I started internally freaking out. Then in the distance I saw some people I recognized and I got so happy! We took a tour of the campus. Its not what you would think it is. Its large, but kind of run down, not like the Campuses in the U.S. The students are very different and diverse, and they seem to keep to themselves. They are super chic and so trendy. They look so cute and they seem so effortlessly chic. I hate them for it. It seems like class here will be very interesting. We have been told that we have to approach the students or that they will not approach us. The first class that I had today was grammer. School seems so disorganized and it seems like no one knows anything about whats going on. The teachers also have a bad habit of going on strke and just not showing up to class. Typical. That was basically my first day of school. I was so happy to find out that food at school was super cheap because so far I have spent so much money in france! i wish I would have been old enough to appreciate when france was still using the Franc. Damn european union! Now being an american blows ass because it 1.31 euros to the american dollar with sucks!
On Tuesday I continued my second day at school. I took the bus their and the tram to school, it was nice and really not to complicted. The tram system is super nice here in Montpellier. When I got to class on Tuesday I was so happy to see that the class was also filled of other americans! I have made a super good group of friends here and we are taking all our classes toghether and we will be traveling toghether during our breaks! They are Kirstin who goes to school in Madison, Alexa, also from madison, Erica who goes to the U, and Eliza, who goes to UNC Wilmington. They are a bunch of cuties and they are really fun. Later that night we had a crepe party, that some french students had for us. They were so excited to meet us Americans. They all asked questions and spoke to us in english. It was very nice to finally meet french students without having to try too hard and introduce ourselves and stuff in france. They paired us up with some students to hang out with later to so hopefully I will have some french friends to tell you about.
I have to go now, but when I come back I will tell you about the big sales that started in france (because they only happen twice a year) and also about my friend Alexas 21st birthday party that we are all going to pre-game and drink before we go out hit the bars in Montpellier! Hope everyone is doing well!
For starters, I’ve cut off my hair and dyed it:
For me, this has a lot of meaning: since coming to Japan, already I feel that I have grown up a lot. I have a lot more self confidence, and a much greater propensity for speaking my mind. You’ll find that you have a much more difficult time scaring me. So I’m a very different person from the one that left with a tearful goodbye at the start of the new year, and the new look is symbolic of that transformation. Also, it makes me look older and red hair is awesome—but that’s beside the point.
Seijin no Hi, coming of age day, was this month and I was of age to celebrate. In order to celebrate the traditional way, you need appointments six months in advance to rent a kimono and have it put on, as well as have your hair done, and it costs around a thousand dollars. Suffice to say, I did not wear one. We found me a kimono later. I’ll post a photo next weekend, when I get professionally dressed and go out to the local noh theater.
I realized that the reason why the ladies in the kimono shop were asking my age when they were fitting me last weekend—they wanted to know if I were allowed to wear the long-sleeved adult kimono yet, or if I was still too young. I'm actually an “adult” here—which basically means I can drink. As my host mother’s friend told me the other night, “So what if you can't drink in the states? This is Japan.”
I go out and do a lot on my own now, too. I feel very independent, much more so than I did when I first moved from home, though I’m often with friends. At the same time, I feel responsible to my host family and spend a lot of time playing with my little host sisters or talking with my host mother. It goes both ways. Enough of the gush, though.
The other day we engaged in some naughtiness and entered the Shogun’s burial ground at Zojo-ji Temple, the family temple of the Tokugawa shogunate. In all fairness, they left the door open. Zojo-ji was firebombed during the Pacific War and completely destroyed, but has since been rebuilt. Very little of the original temple remains from the original seventeenth century construction, but it’s still a very hallowed place. Zojo-ji is a Buddhist temple (otera), as opposed to a Shinto shrine (jinja), but it contains some Shinto shrine elements also.
History lesson: Japan’s two main religions are Buddhism and Shintoism, but they have over the years become very integrated. It is often the case that a jinja is included in an otera complex. Buddhist religious figures were introduced to common folk as just a different form of Shinto gods when Buddhism first arrived in Japan via China. Some of that effect remains. Most people are quite reverent to both, but people here don’t really call themselves religious. Participating in festivities and holidays in Japan—which everyone does—according to most everyone, does not make one religious. It’s like our Christmas: a lot of people who aren’t religious in the least still celebrate Christmas. It’s rather more like tradition than religion.
On an entirely unrelated note, I experienced my first earthquake last week. It felt like I was sitting on a washing machine while it was going. Apparently I’ve managed to sleep through several others. Japan is the most seismically active country in the world. The school scared us into taking this seriously during orientation, by telling us that major earthquakes run on seventy-five year cycles and the current one is overdue. The last one leveled Tokyo. That’s fun, now isn’t it?
After reading rraspberry's post on the humorous aspects of a foreign tongue, I thought it might be nice for me to share a story of my learning German the hard way. My senior year of high school was spent as an exchange student near Düsseldorf Germany, and it was overall a wonderful experience which I would recommend anyone do if they have the chance. My only problem was that when I arrived in Germany, I couldn’t speak the language at all. I knew a couple of cuss words, could count to ten, say that I was hungry or thirsty and ask where the bathroom was, but that was the full extent of German education. After about of month of total immersion in the language, I became fluent in German and as able to enjoy my stay. But that first few days were a trying experience, full of the frustration of not being understood and not having a clue about what was being discussed around me.
The first evening at my host parents’ house taught me very quickly how much I had to learn about the German tongue. My host father’s niece and her boyfriend had just returned from a vacation in Belize and had come over to share their pictures and holiday stories with my host parents and to take a look at the Texan that had just arrived to stay for a year. We sat around in the garden, on a lazy August evening, sipping coffee and enjoying tasty German pastries. I sat in the lounge chair with my foot propped up, in order to relieve the pounding pain in my ankle, which was tightly wrapped in a plaster cast, due to the ripped tendons that were the result of an accident involving a self proclaimed Wiking Warrior and a game of full contact king of the log, but that is another story for another time. So any way I sat there like an idiot, only able to comprehend about one out of every two hundred words of the conversation, when my host father got all excited and blurted out “Kuk mal, der Eagle.” (Look, an eagle) At least it sounded like he said Eagle, but what he really said “Igel” which sounds just like Eagle, but as I found out, it really means something else.
So since I heard a word that I thought that I understood, I start scanning the skies, looking for a large bird of prey. They of course thought that it was hilarious that I was looking to the skies. My host father says while flapping his arms like wings “Nicht ein Vogel” (Not a bird). So I that point I had figured out that they were talking about an “Igel” and not an Eagle, but I still didn’t have a clue what an “Igel” was. I host father’s niece struggling with her limited English tried to translate for me an “Igel” is the German word for what we call in English a shrub pig or a brush hog. Now I was even more confused, I had never heard of a shrub pig before and started looking out for the off chance that we were about to be attacked by wild boars, and in Texas at least a brush hog is a mowing implement that is pulled behind a tractor.
Finally, I saw a little ball of spikes over in the corner of the garden under a privet bush and I figured out what an “Igel” or as they told me in English a “shrub pig” really was.
It was just a little wild Hedge Hog, which lived in our garden and helped out by eating pesky insects and adding a bit of interest by the garden gnomes and fish pond.
So. Where to begin....How about the fact that its already September?! On Monday I get to meet all the other exchange people and head off on our big adventure together! We get to tour San Francisco, which is cool because I've been to CA once before but I've never been to SF! I spoke to Caitlin two nights ago, and Renny last night. Renny seems to be a lot like me in the way we think and he likes rock music too haha. Everyone I've talked to so far (I haven't talked to 3 of the people) seem nice.
Hehe I'm getting excited. But at the same time I'm getting a bit stressed, because I feel like i have a lot to do (but really I guess I don't) with so little time. I'm sure tomorrow will be stressful because I've got a lot going on. Apparently the C-J is going to take the picture then...the photographer called to confirm it this time so maybe it's actually going to happen??? Oh yeah, and I was in the Record today. It was just a tiny little thing about me under the Youth Events section.
I finally got the Japanese copy of my host mom's email!! Instead of buying a printer, Yumi sent my email to a friend of hers and he sent it back to me. This is what she wrote:
"Hello. I'm glad my letter got to you safely. That is good. So the email address written on the documents was wrong, huh? (she originally tried emailing me but they had the wrong email address haha) Today my daughter has come home becaus she is so pregnant (haha literally she said that she had a large stomach lol!). She has planned to stay for 37 days after the delivery. Yesterday when I saw my cousin, I found out that her daughter is probably in the same class as you (seems like it IS really small since everyone seems to be in the same grade as me haha). Her name is Hiromi Hakkai. It would be nice for you two can be friends. When you come to my house, it would be nice if I would be able to learn a little bit of English from you. Please teach me, okay? (haha she said "Oshiete kudasai, ne" which means "Please teach me" but the 'ne' part is looking for agreement, so I guess she kinda expects me to teach her some English?) Well, I am looking forward to seeing you. Good-by (hehe she typed that as her only English word and she spelled it wrong lol)"
Hmmm sounds like my host mom really wants me to teach her some English? Ah well I don't mind as long as its not out of control or something. I am coming there to learn Japanese afterall. She is doing me a big favor, so I wouldn't mind sitting down like one day a week and trying to help her with English. It's the least I can to.
My mom today got stung by a bee or wasp and freaked the hell outta me because she got all flustered (she's allergic to them). Since I can't drive, she had to drive herself to the walk-in clinic, which is fortunately near by. She had me sooo worried! eee! But yea she's fine now.
Anyway when I got an email from Yumi's friend, he said that Yumi said the following about me, "Yumi told me a lot about you. You are the best student of hers. She is proud of your having been chosen as one to go to Japan for great experience. In the mean time, she is sad to let you out of her hands even for a year. Be good at Japanese language and one who understand Japanese mind." (As you can tell, his English isn't perfect but its still understandable so I'm not going to fix it for you). I was embarrassed--yes embarrassed--to read all that. But it also made me happy that Yumi thinks so highly of me. In a way--which my mom has said this once before, and I hadn't even said that to her--I am like Yumi's daughter. Yumi doesn't have any kids and I see her a lot. She's always very caring and concerned about my well being. I'll be sure to learn Japanese really well so I can come back and speak to Yumi without a problem! hehe
Well my 4th to last day is almost gone. All I'll have now is Friday, Saturday, and Sunday...then on Monday I leave. I had some more good-byes today. I said good-bye to my sister and her hubby. Like my farewell to my bro, it was pretty unemotional. Haha. I might get emotional at the airport though. Who knows.
I got a letter in the mail today from my host mom, Satoko! Apparently she tried e-mailing me but she had my old email address. So I'm going to try to get a response via e-mail to her tonight or tomorrow. Anyway I've translated the letter into English so you guys could read it if you wanted. Japanese does not translate well into English, and I'm too lazy to think of better English equivalents but you'll still be able to understand it. Any time I have parentheses followed by :: means its just a note by me to help explain things. If you don't want to read the letter, skip the massive paragraph that is enclosed by quotations. It reads:
"Thank you for your letter. I am Satoko Moriyama, and I have undertaken you as your host family. I am 55-years-old and right now my parents and I all live together. Other than us 3, there is a Shitzu dog named Shiita (5-years-old) also living with us. Amy, around the time you come to Japan, my daughter Mizuho, 30, will probably haven given birth to a baby and for a while life will become very lively because of this and I think it will be very enjoyable. On your fourth day (::my fourth day would be the Sunday before I start school I'm assuming), AYUSA's Yokomichi-san will take you to visit Koide High School. You can borrow a uniform from the high school. It is about 4 kilometers (::about 2.4 miles for us non-metric people! hehe) from my house to the school. You will go by bike. Can you ride a bike? (::yes she actually asked that..haha..Ah well I guess its is a good question to ask. Good thing I've been riding my bike everyday!) In the winter when a lot of snow piles up you will go by bus or car. Are you good at skiing? (::umm I've never been skiing before haha) At the high school they probably have skiing lessons (::my Japanese teacher said that oftentimes schools in areas that get a lot of snow go skiing for PE class!!). I really like skiing, pottery, and hiking in the mountains. Because I take care of the rice field and vegetables, I am busy everyday. I heard from Yokomichi-san that you come to Japan on September 7th. You will probably arrive at my house on the 9th. We will have fun. My next door neighbor is in in the same class as you and his name is Keiya-kun Moriyama (::strange...Both Satoko-san and Keiyaku-kun have the same family name but I don't think they are related since she didn't mention it..hmm..interesting). He says hi. Well, I hope you are well and I'm looking forward to seeing you!"
Satoko also apologized for not writing me a letter in English. She seems very concerned about needing to use English with me. I hope she just doesn't want me to practice her English with someone -_-... Anyway I'm excited that my next door neighbor is near my age!! Especially since everyone in my house will be lots older than me (exluding Mizuho's newborn of course lol).
Anyway, apparently my press release (which I didn't even think was necessary) was sent to all the staff members on the Ursline Campus. Also the Courier-Journal (the big local newspaper around here) told my dad they want to interview me after they recieved my press release. I DON'T WANT THE INTERVIEW! LEAVE ME ALONE! *runs around in frantic circles* The AYUSA rep in my area also wanted me to go on TV, but I put my foot down. I'm not sure my parents will let me put my foot down on this one too. *sigh*
End of the ridiculously long post.
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