Friends

I cannot believe that it is almost Christmas.  It's so crazy that it's coming so fast.  This past week we had our end of semester meeting already, and it was kind of depressing because they split us up into year students and semester students.  It's weird to think that Jaren, Melissa and Rick won't be here next semester... :/  I think that it's worse for them though, and they made it sound like Michelene was really blunt about how their friends here would make new friends and stuff. o_o  For us, we had Hiroko-san, so things were different. We also got an end of the semester reflection, and I think I am going to fill it out on here...
First though this past week: Tuesday, I met up with CJ (my Japanese teacher from the summer class) and we had lunch.  CJ is more like 兄 than a teacher for me, and he was even more this week.  >_<  He proceeded to tell me that he thinks the best way for me to learn Japanese is to find a Japanese boyfriend, and then looked around the cafeteria we were in to see if he could find someone.  What's more is that Keigo (from karate) was sitting near us and when he left CJ kept making comments about how my friends from karate are cute and any of them would be good.  (He saw the picture on my cell phone when he was looking at Hiroshima pictures.) 

After Keigo left, some older guys sat next to us which was weird because in Japan, college students are, at the oldest about 25.  But then, one of the cafeteria workers came over and asked one of the guys for his autograph... it was weird, so CJ asked who that guy was.  Turns out that it was Matsuzaka Daisuke, who is a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.  What he was doing in Jouchi's cafeteria, I have no idea.  And, I didn't know who he was either, so that didn't help. We left there, and I was going to take CJ to a coffee shop so that he could work on his paper for a presentation later last week.  We saw Melissa outside and while we were standing talking to her, Wakoto (who was an exchange student at CU last year, and my friend Chris' girlfriend) saw us, and so I finally got to talk to her too.  Since I didn't really have a good way to get a hold of her, she didn't even know I was here.  -_- She had to go somewhere (I think it was a job interview) but she gave me her cell phone information before she left so I can contact her now which is great!

Wednesday night, I did my homework so that I could go out to dinner with CJ and Wakoto... and Emily came with us too, because CJ said to bring a friend if I wanted to.  We went out to a Korean place in Shinjuku, and CJ payed for it but said that one we get jobs and rich we have to take him out to dinner.  We spent a lot of time there, and CJ thinks that it's so weird that I can understand so much more Japanese than I can speak.  Well sorry :P

Yesterday (Saturday) was fun.  I talked to Katie on Skype and we tried to figure out where we're going to stay again, and made a little more progress which is great.  I also talked to my grandparents and everyone seems like they are fine.  I need to try and talk to my mom today though because it was her birthday on Friday.  Hopefully she's home. I went to karate practice yesterday too, even though it wasn't an official one so there were less that usual amount of people there.  I mailed Mari and Omura-san to ask if they were coming and neither of them were... but I knew that Makoto-san was coming because I ran into him on the train home one day, and then I was also emailing him (possibly bothering? haha) when I ran into Wakoto because they are friends, and he said that he could tell her that I am here if I wanted.  >_< That guy is so crazy, he mails me in such good English, he is so fluent but he's scared to speak.  I bet if he heard Wakoto's English he would be crazy jealous.

After practice, I was scheming on how I could get Takeda-san's phone number without seeming weird but he was working with one of the other senpai, so I didn't know what to do.  Bastian and I had this funny banter going on through my contemplation time, but maybe it's not as funny if you can't hear it... Well, it's funny to ME. :P
Me: I want to get Takeda's phone number and stuff.
Bastian: Why, so you can stalk him?
Me: No that's only you that I stalk. On Facebook.
Bastian: I knew it!
Me: Because you're totally my type and all, specifically the whole being gay part.
Bastian: You know, girls are attracted to gay men...
Me: ...But in all seriousness, I have someone else I like, so you're off the hook.
Bastian: You ruined my dreams! I had a house planned out, and a car... and kids! How could you!?

Eventually, I stopped being a chicken and just went and asked him for it.  When he asked me why I wanted it, I couldn't think of what to say in Japanese, so maybe I looked creepy? Hahaha.  But, Takeda-san is a friend and I want to mail him sometimes so that's why I wanted it.  (I sent him a mail later last night that said "Thanks for today.  I probably was a little weird but Takeda-san is my friend so sometimes I want to mail you.  Is that okay?" and he basically said "Anytime ^^" hahaha.)  After practice, I went and met Emily, Jaren, Ai-chan and Melissa (they were waiting for me, uninvited... haha) and some of Emily's friends and we went to karaoke and then dinner.  It was fun, and Emily and her friend were screaming songs... Melissa and I tried to do One Love by Arashi, but we both have throat problems still so it didn't work out to well.

Other than that, nothing much else has happened?  I think... hm...
Yup, I think that's all ^^

( End of Semester Reflection... )

Current Mood: crazy
Current Music: Super Girl (Korean version) - Super Junior

Last weekend CIEE took us to Hiroshima and Miyajima. It was really interesting, and very sad too.
As far as that goes, I think that anyone interested in history should go there. One might think that maybe the people of Hiroshima are resentful to Americans or something of the like but it's not true (at least not in majority.) Maybe they like to know if you're trying to understand both sides?

We heard a testimonial from an A-bomb survivor, and it was very VERY hard because it was her first hand testimonial. After that, we had to do group discussion in our groups (mine is Emily, Joann, Tom, Clark and Saad but Saad wasn't there.) Clark was being somewhat ...insensitive about it, and he really upset Emily.

Miyajima was beautiful and a nice break after the emotional wreck that Saturday was. The deer there will eat anything, and we saw that demonstrated a few times. Going up the mountain was pretty, and going back down was fun because Emily and Jaren are ridiculous. We went up and down in a cart similar to a chair lift, and on the way down they decided to make faces at the people going up. Many of the people laughed at them so that was nice, I guess? I bought momoji (Miyajima's famous pastry thing) for karate club and my host family. Of course, Clark bought some for karate club too, and what's more is that he bought MORE than I did. It was annoying... I felt like he was trying to make me look bad or something.

Friday and Saturday night we watched movies in Emily's room. I think that I have seen more American movies since I got here than Japanese.

On the Shinkansen (bullet train) back, Emily was getting sick. She slept most of the way, so I did homework and Jaren slept too. When we were eating, we gave our left-overs to George, and Jaren hit Ai-chan in the head with a cookie or something somehow. We got back around 8pm.

Pictures from Hiroshima and Miyajima here.

This past week has gone by pretty fast, and it's pretty crazy. I run into Watanabe-san and Takeda-san all over the place at school, but neither of them ever see me unless I call out to them. It sucks, hahah. Although, Takeda-san usually stops and talks to me if I do which is nice because I like him and think of him as my friend. ^^

Emily ended up getting some string of influenza and was quarantined all week. She missed out on making soba Wednesday and the Sophia Exchange Student's Christmas party (I didn't go to the party because of karate) but other than that... Tuesday night, when I got to karate practice I gave Makoto-san my present for everyone and the look on his face was so cute, so happy. After practice, Clark also gave his momoji to them, and all of them were so happy about it, it was so cute. ^^ But, we ended up have way too much because Clark bought so many. Nishi-san kept trying to give me them too, but I didn't want more than one, so I think that everyone ended up taking like ... 5? (But not everyone was there, it was just Makoto-san, Omura-san, Oo-san, Nishi-san, Keigo, Sana, Bastian, Mike, me and Clark. I bought enough for if it were them plus Fran, Watanabe-san and Takeda-san.) Something like that. George said that he was jealous that I bought that for my club willingly like that because he bought some for his club too, but he didn't really want to? But, they're my friends so I wanted to buy them something...

Thursday night, Makoto-san and Omura-san told me, Sana and Clark that there might be a test for us on Saturday at practice which scared the hell out of us. Omura-san said that we would be doing a test for 7 kyu, which is skipping a level and that we also would have to do push-ups. ...50 push ups for me and Sana and 100 for the guys. But, then he said that baby push-ups would be fine and we could do them fast too. Clark is way too freaking genki and wanted to practice (by the way, we had to do fifty push-ups on Tuesday night) but I said I couldn't do it. Sana gave in and did some with him, which I think that he (Clark) surprised both me and Omura-san because he was able to do so many good push-ups. ._. But, he wasn't able to do 100, and guys have to do them on their fists which he couldn't do.

Friday was pretty uneventful as far as Fridays go... although I have to mention that I have become friends with a few other girls in CIEE, Nhu and Momo. Momo is really cute, and we can talk about Korean music together so that's fun.

Saturday, I talked to my mom and Katie, trying to get things figured out for March. Ai-chan told me about where she's going to stay during the two month break, and so Katie and I decided that maybe we should do that too because then we wouldn't have to worry about our luggage when we go out. We got at least our plane tickets figured out so far which is good. I'm looking at the Sakura House right now, but there's nothing that I am liking that much at the moment and I can't do it without Katie anyway, so it doesn't matter.

I left for karate practice a little early because there was a party after wards that I needed to dress nicely for, and had to wear heels to. Walking to my station takes longer in heels, so... I left early. Of course, I got lucky and caught the trains right away and was super early. But, on Saturdays when there are so many more people I would rather be early than late. AND, those two scared us for no reason about testing... because there was no such thing. >_< We did a lot of partner drills, which I worked with Mari-chan (okay so her name is spelled MariE, but it's not like the Enlgish Marie, so I'm spelling it wrong, just FYI.) so it was okay. But, sometimes this one black-belt that I have never met before worked with me and every time it was his turn to practice, Omura-san and Nishi-san came over and made sure I was okay because he was kicking so hard. They were both like *worried face* "Daijoubu?" :P

After that, we went to the restaurant for the party thing. Sachiko came even though she didn't come to practice, but she got stuck with Sana on the other side of the room from me and Mari-chan. ...also, I found out that my Buddhist Traditions professor is the karate club teacher sponsor... um, weird. Anyways, the party was fun... we had some food, and talked and stuff. Fran and Takeda-san had their little chats about whatever, and so Mari-chan talked to me... and we talked about something I knew was going to happen too... she said, 「コリンは、好（す）きな人（ひと）がある？」　もちろん好（す）きな人（ひと）があるけどヒミツです。　Of course, when I said that she said 「ええ、留学生（りゅうがくせい）ですか？」　Of course it's not! 「日本人ですか？　同(おな）じ授業（じゅぎょう）があるか？」 And then when I said no she figured something out... thank goodness she doesn't go to the same school. 「ここにいるか？」 私はええと言（い）いました so then she got her camera and looked through her pictures trying to figure things out... and she got it on the second try. How annoying haha, but I mailed her later that night and she was super happy that I feel like she's a good friend even though she can't speak English.

I was going to try and get Takeda-san's email and phone number so I can keep in touch with him too but I didn't get the chance to which is too bad. Maybe I can next week (apparently there is "practice on your own" kind of thing) and he said 「また来週」 so maybe, just maybe. Then, I can bother all of them over Christmas break, haha. I think that Takeda-san is determined to get me to drink, because he kept saying "Please drink with me (sometime)!" when we were leaving. But, after I saw what happened to Sachiko (she had one drink...) I don't know if that's going to happen haha. I did try some of Mari-chan's drinks, but I wasn't too fond of them so I didn't get my own.

Current Mood: melancholy
Current Music: スーパーフレッシュ - Arashi