First Week of School and Other Adventures

Hey guys! Oh man, this week has been awesome!

The Social Aspect

The first day I walked down the halls at school, I swear everyone stopped what they were doing and started screaming. Once I'd been spotted news of me spread fast, haha. When I introduced myself in front of my class, there were a group of boys standing outside the door watching me, and as I made my way to my seat one of them got up the courage to come in and say 'Hello' (in English) before heading back to his classroom. The whole week has pretty much been like that. The amount of times I've heard the phrase 'meccha kawaii!' I'm pretty much friends with every girl in the school, even if I haven't actually talked to them yet. Man, if someone actually good-looking had come to this school these people would have fainted from shock!

And just in case I couldn't make myself known to everyone by myself, on Wednesday I introduced myself in front of the entire student body. So yeah, there isn't a single student who doesn't know me. Luckily everyone's really nice. I've made friends with two different groups of girls in my class. I'm having trouble remembering everyone's names, though >.< Everybody wants to talk to me, it's a little difficult. I've had a lot of people touching my hair, and comments on my eyes. My most popular name is Izu, which the girls who are my friends or know me slightly call me. The boys call me Isabelle/Isabella (as best as they can anyway), and to my fellow club members (more on that later) I'm Beru (Belle).

The boys here are really funny. I haven't really talked to any of them except for hellos and goodbyes, cause they're a bit shy, so I dont really know their names or faces. I remember one boy in my class's name because I sat behind him in Old Japanese or whatever it is and he tried to show me his textbook, cause I didn't have mine, but I didn't understand it at all, and he went bright red and his friends teased him about it. But I remember him so I think he did pretty well. Better than his friend who teased him, who i barely remember at all. I also had an exchange with a boy who wanted me to join the baseball club, and another one for the volleyball club. The only other guy's name I remember is a third year who, according to his female friend, had been wanting to talk to me, but was apparently rendered speechless for a few moments when he finally got the opportunity, hahaha. He eventually recovered and introduced himself. I love this place, definitely recommend Japan.

(This post doesn't have enough photos, so here's something yummy my grandma brought over.)

Actual School Life

Okay yeah, don't understand Japanese math at all. Pretty sure New Zealand's about a year behind Japan on that front. But I'm doing my best. That whole Japanese 'do your best' spirit's seriously infectious. I actually feel like I really want to get that homework done, so I can feel like I really worked hard. Which, what with after school club activities, means getting to bed rather late. But getting up in the morning's never been easier! Maybe it's because Japan's already fully bright by 6am, I don't know. But in Japan, if you're not completely burned out by the end of the day you're not doing it right.

Speaking of which, I joined a club! Please don't laugh too hard. You can laugh a little. I'll understand.

I joined the girl's basketball club.

Shuddup Japanese girls are shorter! (Which is really odd by the way, cause the boys are just as tall, if not taller on average like srsly wtf). The club's really happy to have me, since I'm famous and white and all that, but they haven't seen me play yet so yeah. I hope they still love me after they realise how much I suck. They're all such lovely people. But I'm determined to be a passable player by the time I come back! Practice is two hours a day (I'll be getting home between 7:45 and 8:20 everyday), plus four hour practice matches some Saturdays, so that should be doable. Did I mention some days there's an extra period added onto the school timetable?

Other Adventures

So, there was an earthquake about 5:40 this morning! Exciting stuff! Except I slept through it. My host mom woke me up to tell me there had been an earthquake and to be careful, but I was too tired to understand the Japanese word for earthquake so I just went back to sleep.

I went to see the Hiroshima Castle. I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the building cause everything in it is an ancient relic which would crumble into dust if I did, so I'm sorry but you don't get to see all the cool katanas. But have a picture of the outside.

Yeah, that's about it for now.

Catch you all later!