Hello, People!!! So this week started off pretty bad, but then got good in the middle, and ended with bit of a negative turn. But now I have a three day weekend and I`m meeting some friends for shopping etc., so at the moment I`m preetty dang happy. So the beginning of the week was just awful. No idea why. It was just so exhausting and depressing. Mondays are always sad cause I`m short on sleep and there are my least fave classes, but this time was especially bad. And tuesday, which I normally love was pretty bad too. But then Wednesday was awesome. My school is really big on english and offers internships to americans and the like, and on wednesday a group of 12-16 year olds and some parents from america visited the school. I was asked by my japanese teacher to help her teach them some basic japanese phrases and it was SO funny and weird. I hadnt realized it since Ive been surrounded by only japanese people for the past two months, but Am. and Jap. peeps are so different. Americans are much more open and less afraid of giving offense. There were a lot of differences that I just cant put my finger on the words to describe, but the whole experience was rather enlightening. And then on that same day my teacher told me that my school was going to see Les Miserables in japanese on the 9th!! I was so excited!! They put posters up in my school and I took a pic. of one. So I was incredibly, amazingly happy, until after I got home thursday. Then I had the sense to check the calender to make sure that I was open on the 9th, and lo and behold! My host parents had planned a trip to a deluxe onsen on that same day! Needless to say, I was a bit saddened. I actually sulked in my room for a while after dinner. But I was able to wake up on friday in a relatively good mood(thanks to the afore mentioned reasons). Yeah, so that was my week.
On sunday I`m going to a flea market with my host mom. I wonder if I`ll buy anything. OH! Speaking of buying, I went shopping for a little at some point(don`t ask when, I honestly can`t remember)and I actually bought something! Just a dress and a skirt and a crepe with green tea icecream, whipped cream, green tea jelly, and some powdered sugar. (The crepe was delicious^-^) I love crepes. I also love traditional japanese sweets, especially the ones with that sweet red bean paste that I always forget the name of.
I have nothing else to write. Umm, well. Since I came to japan, ive started liking coffee. Is that sad or what? I was hoping to never like it since then I wouldnt have to run the risk of being addicted. I blame the vending machines. I was trying to buy some hot cocoa one day, but I couldnt read what the cans said(duh, it was in japanese) so I just bought one that had a picture of milk on it. It turned out to be that thing thats a mix of coffee and milk(forgot its name). I didnt really like it, but I forced my self to drink it cause I dont like to waste food. So I kept drinking it, and to my very great surprise, the more I drank, the more I liked it. So I bought another one the next day to see if the day before had just been a fluke. I still like it. And that is how I came to like coffee while in japan. Now that I look back, that was a really weird story. Oh, well.
Alrighty, so Ill just end this post and go do.......something else. (I wonder what?)
Oh, and to grandma. I have recieved the halloween pkg. I loved it. I shared some(a very little)with my friends at school. They were very surprised. :)Ive been eating the rest. Yup. Laters.

Last Tuesday, I joined the Tea Ceremony club at my school. Silly thing to do. I have club after school on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and I don`t get back home until 8:30. I was already exhausted and then I had to go and add even more to my already overflowing schedule! See, aren't i silly? I really ought to think before I act. But the club IS really fun. So far I`ve learned the proper way to fold the orange cloth that is used to clean the bowl, tea scooper, and tea holder during the ceremony. Those things all have special names, but I cant remember them. I also learned how to act when offered tea. The whole thing is rather complicated. Also, on Mondays I do Japanese flower arranging. Ive only done it once, but it was rather enjoyable. We did a triangle style with daisies, carnations, and red branches(from a tree). Also since I joined the club, I`ve started walking home with two girls named Ayumi and Ayame. They`re both really nice. Yesterday, we were talking about America and I told them that I had seen obama in person. They were very amazed. Also last week, was my school`s sports festival. So much fun! Although I actually didn't do much, I only had two events in the morning and then I just watched for the rest of the day. But it was still fun. :) Most of the events were pretty normal, like relay races, and tug of war, etc. But some were really weird. Like when everyone got dressed in their club outfits and raced. They also had to do certain things at the checkpoints that had to do with their club. Like the kendo peeps had to perform a fighting sequence and so on. Yup. That`s about it.

So a while back(this was before I got my ipod)I was riding the train on my way home from school and all of a sudden this Japanese woman starts to talk to me in english. She asked if I was an exchange student living in japan. I was so surprised that I answered immediately. Then we got into a conversation. Apparently the woman was on her way to narita airport to pick up her sister who was returning home after spending several years living in America. The woman on the train had also lived in America(Michigan, I think) for several years. I told her I was here for six months as an exchange student, but I`d only been there for a little while. The whole experience was so surreal and unexpected, I really didn`t know what to make of it.

Well, I have to get off to take a bath and go to bed soon, so yeah. Oh! And tommorow, I have a day off school(don`t know why) and so I`m going to a Japanese history museum with my host mom. That`ll be fun, right? Anyways. Night.