I am so terribly sorry that I haven`t blogged in so long. I was attacked by a sudden bout of homesickness and was unable to do anything that reminded me of home without tearing up. And I couldn`t really afford to be crying while here so I simply avoided all things American. This next paragraph is from two weeks ago when I started this blog post.

You remember that I told you I had a few days off from school for silver week? Well, then my school had to go and make me come to school over the weekend, to make up for those days lost. School administration annoys me, even here. But it was still okay, because that weekend was MY SCHOOL`S FESTIVAL!!! It was so much fun! But I didn`t get to do everything that I wanted. So saddening. But the festival was exactly the kind of thing that people like daisy and anna would love. There was dagashi and dango and gyoza and udon curry and a bunch of other things that I didn`t know what they were. It was all so yummy! And then there was tea ceremony club(the girls wore yukatas, they were so cute), japanese drumming, games, plays(and yes, they did in fact put on a production of HSM 3, I still cant get over how much they like it), and my favorite: synchronized dancing. There was also some cosplay and dancing. I took tons of photos, but as I still can`t figure out how to upload the stupid things, you`ll just have to wait.

So now I`m going to tell you about the past two(or so) weeks. This upcoming week will be my school`s sport`s festival. Geez, I nearly wrote that last sentance in Japanese. I need to be careful. I`m not quite sure what the festival will be like, but it`ll probably be fun, right? I also sent in an application for the Level 4 Japanese Proficiency test. I`ll be taking it this December. I`ll almost certainly fail miserably. I took a level three practice test and I couldn`t even figure out what part of the test I was supposed to be on. There are three sections(I think). So I just filled in the bubbles in the design of a face and I got half right! I was seriously surprised. 0-0. But I promise to study hard and try to actually understand what I`m doing in the real test. Also, this past week, I actually took the train home with someone! The girl`s name is Hitomi and shes in my calligraphy class. Her station is one stop before mine. She also isn`t in a club, so I`ll probably get to take the train with her again. I`m so happy. :) I also went to another afs meeting and all the exchange students had to make a treat from their home country. I made chocolate chip cookies. They had never had them before but they thought that they were delicious. I doing pretty well in all my classes at school, except for this one class that I don`t even know what subject is being taught and Biology. We`re studying genetics and I so don`t get it. I think I`ve already mentioned this, but i don`t know.

Well, I thought that I was going to have to rant in this post but it turned out surprisingly cheery. I feel much better than I did when I started typing. Sorry this is so short, but the wit just isn`t flowing from my fingers like it normally does. Oh, and this is rather random but I really miss soccer. The boy`s soccer team at my school always practices right outside my classroom(which is on the third floor) and it kills me. I can`t even watch cause I don`t have a window seat. It makes me so frustrated every day. Girls just don`t really play soccer in japan. Also random, But apparently my school is a prestigious private school that the majority of students can`t get accepted into. And we changed into our winter uniforms, which look pretty dang...prestigious. Argh, I so didn`t want to use that word again but I COULD NOT think of a synonym.

I sent letters to my family and they should be there in about a week. Also, any requests for presents should be submitted now, before all spots are taken. I seem to be making less and less sense as this blog continues so....Yours Truly, Emily