shigatsu_no

okay, took me 20 minutes but i successfully sent out 3 emails on my cell phone in english/japanese, ahaha...

anyway...last night Rita invited me to Tsubahachi, and i wanted to go, but she was going with Alex, the other German student, and meeting her tutor, Tomo, who is fluent in German but doesn`t speak a word of English, so i felt like i`d be imposing if i went....but then i dragged Kimmie along, and we bumped into her rather tall and handsome  Japanese friend, Shu and he came along.

went back to the dorm afterward and watched Queen of the Damned with Marielle, Aga and Razel...Julie would be proud.

today we got the results of the placement test back and some of us were peeved but not surprised to be placed in elementary 2...went to the class and covered crap we`ve all known since...forever.   bought the text book and skimmed through it and was like `ya, i know all this crap`...it`S a complete repeat of everything I know...i guess it`ll be nice to have the review but seriously, i couldn`t have done ANY better on the exam, and neither could the others and i don`t think the placement is fair....fortunately i can also take Intermediate I classes as well, so at least that counts for something. 

so my courses are as follows:  Elementary II Japanese A,B,C,  Intermediate I Japanese A,B,C, and Japanese Culture and Education. 7 classes.  14 credits.   i dropped the Japanese Society and Gender Issues and the Seminar on Japanese Social Studies, so that i could take more language classes without going crazy from being in 9 classes (which apparently in Europe AND Japan, is too few of classes..o well, i`m a wussy American...)

also, i withdrew a hundred bucks worth of yen today and spent nearly all of it on the following: 
2 textbooks=about $50 together
about $15 at the 100 yen shop on school supplies + a really cool card for a certain friend of mine who will know who she is when she gets it ;)
about $15 on groceries (which are so freaking expensive by the way...you do NOT get your money`s worth!)
and finally, another $10 on a card for my host family, drawing pencils, a postcard for another somebody who will know who she is when she gets it :D, and a set of stickers


...so...not much left in my pocket...ahhh!  Japan is an expensive country.


ohhh, by the way, I am doing the Mihara homestay this Friday and Saturday! i`m actually looking forward to it!!  we`re visiting an elementary school and then in the evening, staying with one of the student`s family!   i have a feeling it `s going to be cute!  since the girls in my dorm ate all the Sees (with my consent of course), i thought i`d get a card, and with my somewhat decent drawing skills, i`d sketch on the inside a collage of Californian and Hawaii things....what do you think?

this weekend is also sake festival, woohoo!   by the way, i decided i like sake, but only cold and fruity flavored :p


uhhh, what else....so today, there was a mob of about 200 high school students wandering around campus, and me and Rikki walked through them, and sure enough, we got a ton of attention for being `gaijin`, hahaha! it was amusing!   this group of boys who seriously looked like they were 13, but were actually 15 (high school freshman age in Japan, right?)  stopped us and attempted and totally FAILED at trying to speak english to us, so we whipped out the Japanese on them, hahahaha!!  their reaction was so funny!! they got all surprised and started laughing...anyway, we conversed with them for a little bit in english/japanese...it was cute!

i`ve been talking to Aya, the crazy Japanese girl, and she said she wants to be my conversation partner, so we`re meeting up next Tuesday!  she`s literally an anime stereotype, i swear to god...she`s like the bouncy, spinning around in circles, giving people type of hugs type of character...but she`s a real person...hahaha, it`s odd yet endearing.  

 i`ve been talking to Jun, the Korean guy, a lot too! maybe i`ll see more of him soon :)