Karly update Nov.23/10

We had a lecture as if we were University students, then proceeded to take a tour of the campus. From what I understood it specialized in the medical area. Afterwards we toured and had a lunch at a samurai castle. It was really interesting to see how they lived. We all came home exhausted. Last weekend I went to Tokyo with the four other exchange students in my district. It was so amazing for us to be together again, so full of stories. We stayed for two days. The first day we went to Disneyland. We started at eight in the morning, and finished at ten in the evening. Turns out it was the first weekend of Christmas theme, and a Saturday so the place was packed. We rode all the rollercoasters we could and bought as much as we could carry. By the end of the day we were sore, but filled with the satisfaction of Western style food and good company. The next day we went to Asa Kusa. It's very famous for the beautiful shrine and tiny shops surrounding it. We were feeling a little adventurous and saw a vendor with all sorts of food. We ended up eating whole baby octopi the size of your finger and cow tongue. The octopus wasn't even too bad. The cow tongue had an average meat taste, but the texture was actually tongue like. I manged to get it down and was a little proud of myself. At the shrine we went to Ginza, one of Japan's most famous shopping districts. The thing is, we only had an hour. We went off in teams and I went off with Stephanie from Athabasca. We went to a couple small shops, but then we found our favorite store, with four floors and only half an hour to spare. I don't know how we managed it, but we went floor by floor madly grabbing things that we might like and stuffing them in our shopping bags. On the top floor we started trying them on yelling at each other when we needed the others opinion. Two dresses and a vest later, we managed to meet the others almost on time. After Ginza we slept all the way home on the bullet train. This is one of the trips that I'm going to remember forever. Today was international day at my school. All four of us exchange students at my school had to make a five minute speech in Japanese. I was really nervous, but once I actually got in front of the students I relaxed. I talked about the differences between Canada and Japan. They are all so amazed that we can drive when we're 16, and that I have my own car. They couldn't believe how cold it gets in Canada. They laughed when I talked about my first earthquake here. I have experienced about five earthquakes since I got here. Although the first one I felt was really tiny, it was pretty scary. Since then I've gotten used to them. Where I live they usually only get small ones. The biggest I've felt so far was a 3 on the Richter scale, and the biggest they giet is a 5 or so. At that point there's still no damage, it just shakes some things up. I'm at my second host family now. I have a five year old brother and a nine year old sister. I've only been at this family for a couple weeks but already I know I'm going to miss my siblings a lot when I leave. Last night my little brother woke up crying because he had a dream that I went back to Canada. He had to come into my room to check that I was still there. I've been teaching my little sister how to knit. She's been catching on really fast. I'm the youngest in my family, so it's a change to suddenly be the big sister. They have really been helping my Japanese. They've got to talk nice and slow so I usually understand. My host dad owns a restaurant and my host mom helps cook. A couple of days ago I had my birthday. I wasn't really expecting too much to happen but I found out when I got home from school that my host family had invited my first and third families over for dinner. We had quite a feast, including two cakes. It was really nice to see my first host family again, and my third family seems really fun. Sometimes I miss Canada, but I know it will still be there once I go back. I feel so lucky to be here, and to be learning Japanese. I can actually understand and say a fair amount now. I hope everyone in the club is doing well. Thank you SO MUCH for giving me all this. Please feel free to look at my pictures on Facebook if you have an account, but I'll try to send some soon. Karly J. Hilgers