First tests

9/22/2010
Today Javier's dad drove us to Kida station, and we went to school together from there. I think I was on my most crowded train yet this morning from Kida station to Sukaguchi station. After the second stop, I couldn't get to anything to hold onto anymore, so I was scared of falling. But it was so crowded, that even when I sort of fell on the person next to me, they didn't fall, it was too packed for us to move much at all.
When I got to school today, everyone told me that I looked like I was having a bad day. Shiori told me that my hair looked like I had just come through a hurricane. I still don't quite know why I looked so disheveled.... It might have been because the brakes on my bike aren't working too well, but I don't think that distressed me that much...
My first class today was English, and we had a test... I don't think I did badly on it, which probably means I failed, but we'll see.
After English was Japanese. We wrote essays today, that was fun....(not really) and then we got our tests back... *total despair* Although I took a different test from everyone else, and still got one of the highest scores in the class, no matter how you look at it, an 84 on a Japanese test is just pathetic... I'm so ashamed I could die... I think I lost most of my points on the kanji section, which I think was just bad communication on my part. I study by myself, so there aren't any deadlines or anything for me to learn things, and I told sensei that I had studied chapters 18 and 19, so she assumed that I had studied the kanji for both chapters as well, but I hadn't gotten to the kanji in chapter 19... Also, there was a lot of kanji from chapter 17, which I studied by myself during the summer, and I just don't remember that very well... so yeah... total fail....
Anyway, after that was lunch, today I got some vegetable tempura on rice, it was so good. Today was like the second day that I ate the whole lunch they provided for me (the first day was curry :) ).
After lunch was "Japanese culture and society" I don't know if today counted as our first class day or not, there was a lot of stuff that wasn't class too.... The first thing that happened in that class today was a happy birthday to everyone who had birhtdays in August or September (yeah, that includes me, weird, I know). So everyone who had those birthdays went up to the front, and everyone sang happy birthday. Today was Nyssa's birthday by the way! And then all of the birthday people got baskin robins ice cream cake, and everyone else got ice cream. It was really good, but I was already mega full from my lunch, so I elevated to like exploding level...
After that we split up into groups, and each group got an article (or in our case two) about a current event, and then we had to put together presentations to inform the rest of the class(/school. everyone has this class together) of our current events. After the first two groups presented, the mayor of Ichinomiya had arrived, and started to talk to us. I don't really remember what he said... but he brought his friend, which I honestly don't know why he was there... but he talked to us about his business, which is drying fish, and cutting them, and he told us that we could come by his shop some time, and he would teach us how to do it. After that, we were told to ask the mayor questions, I don't remember anything particularly interesting... I know Marius very kindly told the mayor how nice people in Ichinomiya are, and the mayor said that that was one of the things he was most proud of in Ichinomiya.
After school I just hung out at the school for a while with friends, and then walked with Kiara to the station. I was going to learn how to withdraw money at the station today (I don't know where to do that), but we were running a little late, and had to catch our trains, so that will just wait until another time.
I returned with Javier, when we got to Sukaguchi station, we were totally prepared to run and catch the train that leaves to shippo like a minute after our train arrives, so we got off as soon as our train stopped, and we ran up the stairs, around the thing, and down the other stairs, but then the train was gone, and we had to wait 10 minutes totally out of breath. But Javier's host dad drove me home from Shippo station. I was very grateful, because I would have had to walk home by myself in the dark, had I gone to Kida. My host sister's children are here tonight, being babysat by my host mom, so she couldn't come pick me up.
When I came home, in response to my "tadaima" both my host mom, and Taiki said "okaeri," (Taiki=so cute!) but my host mom couldn't get Miyu to say it. I walked into the dining room, and Miyu and Taiki were eating dinner, but after seeing me, Miyu started crying, and my host mom had to move her to a different room to eat. I feel so bad about it, I don't mean to look scary.... I kept hearing my host mom say "anii wa kowakunai yo!" (annie isn't scary), and then she turned to me, and said that Miyu wasn't used to me yet. but Taiki quietly ate sitting next to me with no complaints. He's so adorable. So is Miyu, but I don't see her much, because she's always hiding from me.
Tomorrow is a national holiday, so no school! woot woot! And then I have a history test on friday.... yaay......