Trust me, nothing exciting

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, nothing super great has been happening, so no super surprises. I have mid-terms in both my Japanese classes next week and I've had a test in every subject in the past two weeks except for Architecture, which had me do a five page paper on Todaiji. Fun.

Last weekend was a hoot and a half Friday Maria, Hilda and I decided the week sucked so hard we were going to a bar across from campus right after classes got out at 6:30. We didn't leave until 11, needless to say it was fun, but we most certainly are not going to do that again anytime soon. I mean, we're going again today, but probably only for an hour and that's after I fix her new ipod. I won't talk more about the bar adventures because the two people who read this daily are my mom and Hali. My mom hates hearing about me being drunk and Hali knows first hand how I get when I'm drunk, so no new ground to cover there. I was safe and fine and my host mom (who had to let me in because she locked the door using the chain and forgot) thought it was hysterical. She gave me crap for the rest of the weekend.

See that's another thing that's made me feel down this past week. My hostfamily is Japanese and they're... just... different. I'm at the stage where I'm not a guest, but I'm not family and even though they've had 16 host kids they aren't really sensitive to how it feels to be a student in a house where they don't talk to you. I started getting embarassed about my Japanese recently and didn't say a word aside from "Now?" "Good Night" "I'm home" and "yes" and things got worse on Sunday when Riho (girlfirend of a prior host student) visited and everyone was happy and I was lost. I then got frusterated as hell (if you can do that) that I hadn't progressed and I was such a screw up at all of this. Even in America I constantly think people are mad at me and so when I don't speak the language I just KNOW they're mad at me, even though they're not.

So I decided I'd just email Riho on my phone and ask her what the heck was wrong with me. I apologized for being embarassed and quiet at dinner (they mentioned that I got drunk on Friday and I got embarassed, but they thought it was funny, so I didn't talk much) and explained why. She emailed me back right away and we talked for a good hour or so via email on the cellphones. It was an amazing help, I email her about once a day to let her know how things are going and thank her up and down for just listening to me. I try to talk more about random stuff and last night I had a bit of a break through when my host parents started talking to me about my pets at home and I asked them about pets they had as children. Sucess on many levels, plus I feel less lonely at home.

That was Friday and Sunday, on Saturday I got up and went over to campus to get my bike and visited the seminar house for a few hours. I walked in the door and I found all the roommates in the bathroom and half of Nadia's hair on the counter. Apparently she wanted to donate her lovely long hair to cancer patients and had Erica cut her hair for her in the bathroom. Erica did an awesome job and it was cool to see Nadia's transformation. This week turned out to be the week of hair cuts with Kim deciding to cut her own hair and Maria cutting Matt's hair because he wanted to shave his head and we just couldn' t deal with that. No, I haven't had anyone cut my hair, I'm fine. The reason why we have to cut our own hair is not that there aren't any hair salons here, quite the opposite. The thing is everything, EVERYTHING, is made for a specific body type, because everyone here is Japanese. They all have Japanese skin tones, hair, etc. That's not racist it's true, because at home we don't seem to realize it but we made products for all sorts of hair color, types, skin tone, skin sensitivity you name it. Here their market is a single type, so you wouldn't bother making shampoo for blonde hair if no one has it. Therefore, Nadia, being from America (who is Chinese) has never had such shiny hair and clear skin because they have a wider variety of products for her body type than in the states. The rest of us just suffer and we also can't go to normal hair salons because our hair styles differently. A lot of the types of layering I see in girls hair around campus just wouldn't work with my hair. We have heard of a few gaijin salons in Osaka and are waiting to see how they are. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, Saturday was great because we hit the store and I picked up some supplies for making PB and J. I miss it, it's easy and delcious. Now, what I didn't realize is that not everyone loves PB and J, I sat down back at the dorms and whipped open the jars and starting making a sandwich while Erica drooled over her own jar of peanut butter. Suddenly Maria walks by behind me and comes to a screeching halt, "WHAT are you doing?!" We (Nadia, Drew, Erica, Me) just turn and go, "Making Peanut Butter and Jelly?" Maria goes on for a good five minutes about how that's just wrong, gross and you should only put one on a sandwich or toast, and finishes by saying, "I always see that in the movies and thought it was a lie." This has had me amused all week long. We all keep asking Maria if she wants some PB and J and the face she makes is just priceless. We asked Tracy (from England) if she hated it and she said she'd heard of it, but never tried it and didn't see how it was that good. We also asked a few Japanese people and they seem to think it's okay, but don't swear by it. Meanwhile, I can distinctly remember my Nana saying when I was four or five that I could live off peanut butter and jelly sandwiches everyday for the rest of my life. Erica says she still lives off of it and what makes our dependence depressing is that here in Japan Peanut Butter (NOT Peanut Cream, that's like a sweet crappy subsitute) is $5 for a little jar. ;____; Also, no Fluff, so I know exactly what Pat's bringing me this December.

I could write a whole other post about neat things I've learned about childhoods from the international students here. There's a few that I've mentioned, first is that kids love playing in the dirt. I saw this at the Okinawan Festival and Maria noticed it too and we both thought it was kind of neat. She was in Spain, I was on Nantucket, Erica in RI, Drew in OH and here there are kids in Japan who couldn't be happier making giant dirt castles. The other thing I wanted to mention I learned last Friday from Hilda and Maria. Hilda is a girl from Munich, Germany and is very very sweet. I don't know how we got to talking about it, but Maria said that when she was little and they were visiting their family cottage in the Pyraneese Mountains, she and her cousins begged their parents to let them go camping over the big mountain. Finally their folks gave in and said they could "camp" next to the pool for a night and they did. They were in their own beds by 11pm. Meanwhile Hilda said she and her brother also begged their folks to let them sleep outside in the backyard for a night and when they did they also ran back inside. I did the same thing, before I was in girl scouts I wanted to go camping in my backyard and I got my parents to let me sleep in my pop out tent on the otherside of the fence (we must have just moved to the Old South Road House) and I got so scared by the shadows on the wall that I was back inside within an hour.

Sorry that was random, back to the important stuff. Monday was a day off so I went to Osaka by myself because I couldn't convince anyone else to go with me. I wandered around Umeda looking for the huge electronics store (the one that makes Best Buy look like a 7-11), but I couldn't find it. I don't know if it's by Osaka or Shin-Osaka Station and I'm just dumb. Anyway, I wandered down to Namba and I found a bunch of stores there and hooked myself up with a headset and webcam for a total of $30. Sweet deal. So Tuesday I went into school early and called up my parents and Pat on Skype. The next day I called up Tessa and today I called Olivia (not home), Renate, Elmer, Parents and Pat (not home). I also learned from Renate that my blog isn't allowing comments so as I was talking to her I fixed that. Comment away! If you can't tell me and I'll fiddle with it some more. I'm sorry I haven't called everyone yet, I have a small window from 9am to 11am my time where I can get in calls before class. After 1pm it's 12am where you guys are and I can't call most people. The other time I'm free is from 5 to 6pm and it's 4 to 5am and I'm pretty sure that doesn't work for you either.

This has also been the week of bad news, because no one will tell me bad news on AIM or through email. So the moment I call people all the bad shit gets passed along, which probably added to my bummer of a week. First family stuff, my Grandma has colon cancer and will most likely recover, but this has caused everyone to realize that she can't live on her own anymore and will move in with my Aunt Linda down in Arkansas. Not my Nantucket Aunt Linda, my actually Aunt Linda, she's a set of twins with the one that's a missionary in the Phillipeans. A friend of the Prugh's had a bad car accident and is recovering, but it was quite severe. My cat's not dead, but my dog's (Jemma) got a new lump and she can't move as easily ontop of slipping and falling alot. She's going to go to the vet and I'm sure she'll be fine until I get back, but it's said to see the little puppy wheels start to fall off. Tessa's dog Jackson, aka Jack-Jack, General of Fort Jackson, and just an awesome dog was put down two weeks ago and I just found out. He was old and part of the same generation as Aoife's dog Sadie (who died last summer) and Taylor's dog Moses (who died earlier this summer), so it's not a huge surprise, it's just sad to lose a good puppy friend. I can't imagine going to Tessa's and not having him woof his ass off at me. I actually can't think about that because I'll probably cry, nevermind. More bad news? Yep, in my more recent phone calls I found out a friend's grandfather died. I never met him, but it's just sad to hear most of your friends sad on the phone even for a few seconds.

I hate to end on a depressing note, so I won't. I talked to James and he's kicking but in Football and they won their game today (yesterday for me? God I don't know how to say that) . Also the Gators are #2 in the Nation in football. GO WHALERS GO GATORS and there's two more baseball games left here so HANSHIN TAIGAAS GAMBATTE~! (Hanshin Tigers are the team here, in case you couldn't read my awesome Japanese) The plan is simple for the weekend, hanging out with the crew tonight, home early (like real early), Saturday study and chill, then Sunday going to Riho's family's house in Nara. :3 I can't wait! I hope things are better for all you folks! I promise more frequent posts Hali and Mom! <3