what a week!

so this week has held AMAZING surprises for me, both bad and good. i won't go into detail about the b ad as many of you already know the news, so i'll skip to the good!

let's start with monday night. after a certain bad incident took place, i went over to my friend's new apartment. she had moved out of the dorms i currently reside in and took up residence in the apartments that they offer just down the street. i had never been there, so it was very interesting to see the place. it was SO TINY! i couldn't believe it. my bathroom is bigger than her kitchen and my entire dorm is bigger than her apartment. but we still managed to have fun. there was quite a lot of us and cake, salads, fried shrimp, and one giant bag of skittles. plus 5 cameras. fun shit went down to keep me happy. my friends here really helped me out.

tuesday is a day i managed to recoup. after monday's event. my mood really cheered up then and has yet to go back down.

we'll skip to friday when the action started. so i had been working on a project for the past two weeks and friday was the day to present the information in class. i was supposed to go fifth, but when the third student goes up to present, i realize... mine's the same as his, but we don't have the same topic. i freak out and ask my teacher if my presentation was on bamboo weaving. she looks shocked and says, "it's on cloth weaving!"
i am about to cry because yeah... so i quickly write up an entire new script in japanese in 5 minutes (because that's how long all the presentations are) and stand up, give my new presentation that only lasted 3 minutes, sit down, and just CRASH. oh man, the stress was awful

so then i go home and there are two birthday parties going on. i get excited and run downstairs because there's some partying going on. i didn't sober up until about 2 am or so...

saturday was an amazing day. there was a cultural exchange party going on at the school and i really wanted to go. there was a chance my host family was there. so i got up (without a hangover, thank god) and went with some friends. there were SO many types of food and activities. there were also a lot of children from families there as well and i got to interact with them from time to time, but many were too shy. i talked a LOT of japanese that day and met so many nice ladies. i even got invited to two different parties (one this weekend and another later in november) all of which having to do with helping children get more involved with foreigners.

i think that's the aspect of this area i really like the most. while there are still a lot of people unwilling to be close to foreigners, the entire area is changing rapidly because of the interest in foreign affairs and so many families and communities are coming to my school to get to know us. it's really uplifting because they just want to promote things such as working together, exchanging cultures, and understanding one another. i really love that about japan. and it's not just in japan, but other countries too because there are a lot of people from different countries here speaking different languages. it makes me so happy.

oh yeah! i also got to play the taiko drums! i'll have the video up on another post for everyone to see. it's a short clip so i hope you enjoy it. (it won't be of me playing, just of the performance in general)

sunday was an amazing day. we all went to nagoya city to go to animate again as new hetalia merchandise came out. on the way there, i noticed an older lady getting on the train and started to get up to give her my seat. she grabbed me, startling the hell out of me, and told me that it was ok. she grabbed my arm and was all, "no no! you're so young! it's ok! don't get up, you cute girl" i was like, "oh thank you, thank you". she then proceeded to talk to us all the way to nagoya city, asking us where we were from, our ages, why we were so cute, and if we went to school nearby. when we said we were exchange students, she was BLOWN away. she was all, "oh no no! that's too hard! i'd never EVER do that! i wanted to when i was younger, but...wow...you girls are so strong! good luck! i'm proud of you!"

it was hella uplifting and totally made our day. which...was pretty amazing, lemme tell ya. animate just always makes me happy. (SO MUCH IGGY STUFF!)

so... yeah. this week is a bit hectic as there are more tests and eventually, there's going to be a new placement test so i can HOPEFULLY move up in my kanji class. i'm so done with that class... and possibly move up in my language class too, but i'm pretty satisfied with where i am in that class. this friday, i'm going to an old town to do cloth weaving and to see the sights, so i'm excited about that. also, the party is this saturday AND a super special secret update on sunday.

love to you all!

~星子☆