talking too much

Haha I went to sleep around 11 last night b/c I was dead. And woke up around 7:30 today. So nice sleep. But today I’m still tired. And I’m probably going to go to bed soon.

But anyway, today was the last day of classes. We watched ballet Trocadero, a Canadian ballet company made up of only men; it’s a satire of ballet and gender and sexual dimorphism. It was amusing enough, but I definitely prefer the real ballet better. But we got out of class early, and our group decided that over the next week, we will individually do our stuff, then meet at 10 on the 25th to put together our group presentation and hand it in. Then I went to Japanese, and it was okay, and I’m glad it’s over. I have a final for it on Tuesday and Thursday next week, but really, it’s going to be basically like the midterm which I did fine on. We also got our presentation grades from our class today, and we did okay. But it’s the class grade, and everyone graded nice (except for one person, but apparently she gave everyone the lowest scores possible, so maybe she was confused? Or just not very nice). I also got a package from my mommy! A box full of snacks/candy hehe. I shared some fruit snacks and 3 musketeers with people in my Japanese class. It was nice to get a box. ^_^ mew. Nobody else is allowed to send me anything anymore though b/c most likely I won’t get it, and they throw away any mail after we leave. ^_^; I also got my cell phone bill which wasn’t about at all. Close to 4000 yen, which is pretty nice. Mew.

But anyway, waited around in the computer lab until about 5:30ish, and then we went over to the hotel where our orientation was and where our CIEE farewell party was tonight hehe. In the rose room! Haha I’m glad I can understand such things when I ask the receptionist people where I’m supposed to go. But anyway, only a few of us wore yukata tonight, but three of us who did got dressed in the bathroom right before, had some major issues lol. We didn’t know what we were doing. So we got some host moms to help us. Anna’s host mom was especially helpful and incredibly genki and very very very nice, and she squeezed the crap out of me putting my obi on. She was also not very shy in fixing our yukata when it included taking it off and putting them all back on again hehe. But she did a very good job despite the fact I could barely breathe. It was impossible to take a deep breath without a certain amount of pain. Hehe. ^_^; fun obi.

Anyway, we finally got them all on and went in to the party a little late, but it was cool. Had good food…I only ate a little bit b/c I could eat about as well as I could breathe, and it quickly got to the point where there really was no room in my poor stomach. It hurt. Hehe. But it was fun. We all had to say something, and no one listened when I was talking, and probably no one could hear me anyway hehe, but I didn’t care. I met lots of host families and they were all very nice. I was kind of sad b/c I wanted everyone to meet my family, especially Nagi and Ryou-kun, but my host mom got sick tonight apparently, so they stayed home. So I was without a family at the party, which was kind of sad, but everyone was nice and we took lots of pictures that we should all share eventually, and it was fun, and those of us who did wear yukata looked cool. ^^ It was lots of fun. Hehe, I definitely took the thing off though after the party b/c I definitely wasn’t wearing the thing all the way home on the train. ^^; Candy!

Hopefully a certain boy got to Alaska okay.

Harry Potter released tomorrow! I get it Monday maybe after Ruth reads it!

July 15 11:13 pm


Have I ever complained about my missing mangos? I’ve decided that my family ate them without me or she gave them away or something. But the fruit that my family sent from Miyako…I barely got any of it, and if I look in the refrigerator now, those fruits aren’t there. It doesn’t make me happy. I’ve decided my host family and I are slightly like Mallory and I in a way. We get along well enough, but aren’t really friends. My family and I do things together (today we went to Tokyo Tower, which was cool), and of course the kids and I play together, but I don’t really feel like I’m as close to them as I should be or like how other students are with their host families after I saw most of them yesterday. But oh well. I really do wonder about my fruit though. Miyako fruit is so good…all of Japan fruit is so good (but expensive), and I wanted to eat them. I’m sad. I think I only got 2 that we shared. But I did get juice this morning. My dorm refrigerator is going to be stocked very well with juice. I’m so excited about being able to drink it at home (in my dorm, wherever) whenever I want to again. It was also interesting about the candy I got from my mom. I showed my host mom this morning sometime, and said we could eat them together, and she gave the skittles gum to the boys, and in the car on the way home they ate it without offering me any until the mom suggested they should, and then Nagi was like, can you hold this? (while he got another snack). So I did, and then he’s like, it’s okay if you eat *one*. I didn’t eat any. I did eat some senbei.

But anyway, today was hot. Ryou and Nagi came into my room around 8, but I told them I wanted to sleep, so they left…Nagi did after some urging. So I got to sleep till 9. We went to Tokyo Tower, and I did some shoji with Ryou, but that’s about it. I’ve kind of been working on my Edo paper off and on today, but my concentration lasts for about 5 minutes at a time, so I haven’t really done much of anything. I planned on finishing tonight, and maybe I’ll do just a little more before I go to sleep. Who knows. I also read a little. Ruth is reading Harry Potter right now. Anna might be in Osaka.

I’ve been trying to up my energy with pixie sticks.

I want my real mommy. Mew. Next year is going to be hard. I’m such a baby. *cries*

July 16 10:53 pm


I just finished reading The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, one of my favorite authors ever, and this book just helped me to remember why I like her so much. It was soooo good, and the ending was sooo good, and the whole set up was so good and so able to touch me. So I loved it. Mew. That’s about all I’ve done today. I’ve worked a little on my lit final exam, but I really could have done lots more, but my attention span is incredibly short today, and I’m highly unmotivated to do anything. Maybe I will just wait till the last minute haha. I work much more focused then. But at least I haven’t been totally unproductive.

It was hot today. Ruth finished the new Harry Potter book and was disappointed in it. And my host mom asked me if there was anywhere I wanted to go since tomorrow is a holiday, and I got the guts to say I wanted to go the ocean to swim (see if I really want to do something I’ll say it so boo) hehe, which is slightly taihen since there aren’t any places you can really swim in Tokyo so we’ll have to exit. But oh well. I really want to go before I leave especially since Arkansas isn’t exactly close to any large pieces of saltwater that I can play in. I want to taste it again. And according to the forecast in the corner of a show on tv, Suginami-ku has a 10% chance of rain tomorrow, and it’s going to be another very very hot day, so as long as that’s right, and Suginami-ku represents all of greater Tokyo, then I’ll be in my ocean tomorrow. Mew. 10 days left.

July 17 9:01 pm


And I got to taste the ocean. Mew. I was woken up at a little before 7:30 this morning and hurried along to eat my toast for breakfast and out the door by 7:50 b/c we wanted to get to the ocean early before it got too crowded, b/c this is the last holiday for a while and b/c the holiday is actually Ocean Day. I love any country that has a national holiday to celebrate the ocean. Mew. Anyway, we went to a beach that I think is called Miura beach, along the coast not too far from Enoshima/Kamakura I think, b/c I saw this place the last time we went to Enoshima. But this time we stopped of course, and it was already crowded at 9 am, and I got to play. We played in the ocean and on the sand and searched for Nagi who walked off by himself and played some more and caught some sea shells the very strong waves kept washing ashore and then washing away. The water was actually very dirty with brown sand, and with my goggles, all I could see was brown, lighter shinier brown at the surface from the sun and a darker brown deeper, though I didn’t really dive at all, b/c there was nothing to see anyway. Hehe. But I did swim a little, and played a lot, and I put sun screen (just a little) on myself, and apparently got a few spots on myself well covered and then the rest of me not at all, so I actually burned today, so I look very much like a lobster. But! It doesn’t hurt hehe, and I think it will turn very soon into a tan, so I’m happy. It’s just a little warm. I do have a nice white streak in the middle of my back from where I did actually manage to get a nice spot of sunscreen. It looks slightly goofy. But oh well. It was fun.

The rest of today has been pretty boring. We got home around 2 (we only stayed at the beach till around 12:30), and did basically nothing since then. I played a little with Nagi and his legos and Ryou came in and out and the host mom seemed tired. She’s seemed pretty depressed lately…not eating much of anything at all and such and Nagi came and reported to me yesterday or the day before that she was crying. So who knows what’s wrong. I felt kind of bad today at the beach b/c she didn’t play. She just sat, for the most part, under the little beach umbrella thingy and read and watched. She played only a short time with Ryou and nagi when they were trying to build a mountain or something. She must have been bored though she said she wasn’t. But oh well. *sighs* I studied a little for part 1 of my Japanese midterm tomorrow…I only studied kanji. The rest of the test tomorrow is nothing worth studying for. I really also should work on my other papers/tests, but who knows if I will tonight or not. That’s all. Mew. I need to figure out how I’m getting to Narita on the 27th.

July 18 10:10 pm