A few days

So the weekend just happened. Im not going to lie it was a pretty sweet time. to start it off we went out in the morning down to the beach to walk the dogs. it was beautiful. sadly i didnt bring my camera for this or many of the events i will be talking about . it was acting stupid. anyway the beach was really nice but my smaller host bro was holding up the walk pretty badly so we had to ditch him halfway through. the dogs names are kutpi and jyubi. they are some pretty fine dogs. only problem is i never have seen them being fed... ever.. they might want to try to do that.
anyway after this i came back home and did what i always do, i napped until my older host brother came back home. yah might think this is a bad thing and i should be out doing stuff. but im going to be honest their aint too much to do around here when everyone is either asleep or sitting around watching tv.
anway after that rousing walk and nap combo my host dad woke me up and me and 3 girls ( host bros cousin and her friends) all went on a huge tour of the town for a long time. it was amazing. there are some pictures on the last post showcasing it. but i dont think they really do it justice. its amazing.
after the tour and some lunch at the most japanese resturant ive been to since ive been here. i went back home. shortly after getting back home my host brother returned and we left on bikes off to play some pool. when we arived at the pool/ bowling place. we played some taiko drum game which was a ton of fun. i won both rounds we played.
so we played some pool once everyone arived. and let me just say, i sucked. i sucked bad. i think i got all of 2 balls in out of like 5 games.one of the kids was especially good at it. i think at one point he had a 5 ball streak.
after a couple of great games of pool we went down to a hamburger shop. i had a chicken burger. this place looked and felt like a fast food place but it was the opposite. i had some professional orange juice in a beer mug, a chicken burger that tasted as good as it looked without being unhealthy for you (unlike in america). and fries that looked more like they cubed and elongated potatos then crisped them up a bit ( in other words nothing like the fries back home). all around it all tasted just better then back home chicken burgers and was better for ya too.
after the food we went to a super market and i got ... nothing :) we got home like 10 mins late and my host mom was angry at host bro but i think she waited until after our card game which we played after i got home to tell him off. while we played the card game we watched transformers ... in japanese. and let me just say....... i couldnt understand a word.
anyway that was saturday. now for sunday. sunday started off stupidly. the day before the family said. " sure you can sleep in" so i assumed hey i can sleep till 12 and then we will go out and do stuff. NO. i slept until 8 (4 hours before i usually get up back home) and then they woke me up for ... nothing. absolutely nothing. we didnt do anything until like 12. at 12 we went down to the ocean for a good old swim time. it was really fun. i was reluctant at first to get in but once i was in i was in to stay. they had to work to get me out of there.
after this ... im not really sure what we did. the only thing i really remember was seeing a really really fat american lady leaving the ocean. i think that he largeness blocked out the rest of my memory.
so the next thing i remember is that we had a little celebration for fathers day. the cousins came over again and we had a little thing for the dad and grandfather. all the men gave a speech (including me). one of the cousins refused to move a towel they were holding from in front of their face and im not sure why. also that night was the first night i saw my little host bro nude. i say this because it has happened the next day (today) as well and i assume it will happen a lot more (He aint pretty).
anyway so then school came again. it was a pretty standard day of school. except today the place were we usually eat lunch was closed :(. so we ate in the math room. after i got done eating my host brother told me to wash out my little plastic stuff before i threw it away.. so i did. but then he said "one more time please" so i went to do it again but he took it from me this time. so ya know i assumed that was the end of it. Nope. 3 hours later at the end of school i found out he left it outside in the washing place for me to wash. kind of supprised me but oh well.
so another thing that happened today was. it seemed me and the girls of the classes seem to be getting along better and better. we talk more, play games and even sang songs today.
id have to say though that the worst part of the day happened at the very end of school. for 2 hours we had to sit in the gym and listen to a speech about memorial day here in japan (which is tomorrow so no school). anyway it wouldnt be that but if it wasnt for a few things. first off. its about a billion degrees in that gym. and its humid to boot. not only that but some old guy was talking in japanese and i couldnt understand it. next off i wasnt allowed to talk the whole time. which made it extra boring. lastly the floor was very uncormfortable and i felt like lieing down the entire time. but no. anyway the rest of the day has gone pretty eventless so far. i got home and ive been here ever since. we are about to eat dinner so i got to go but i`ll post some pictures later prolly.

picture post

decided to make a post of just pictures so yeah.

So ive had a pretty eventful time the past couple of days. as usual we started the day off with out radio excercises and breakfast. then we biked to school. it was a particularly sweaty day today for no real reason. On the way there i scraped my arm against a wall or somthing so i had to go to the nurse before school started. anyway after the nurse we (me and the other 2 YFU students at the school i go to) went to go introduce ourselves to the rest of the staff. the other two seemed a bit nervous to be doing this but for some reason ever since i have been here i have not been nervous about anything really. After this we started up some school. it was your typical waiting through the day with people asking many questions about nothing to me. On both of my days at school someone has called my hair something weird. first it was the boy calling it creamy. now it was a girl (oenda) who called my hair delicious. we all had a good laugh about it though.



anyway friday was kind of like test day at my school so after lunch we got back to class and had to go into another room so some students could test. i went to some reading room and learned to play a new card game. its called babanuki. basically you try to get 2 of the same card until you dont have 2 anymore in your starting hand. then one by one you pick a random card from the person next to you until one by one people lose all their cards and win. it was a very fun card game and i tried playing it later but the teacher got mad :(. anyway right after that card game we played the matching game with cards. i sucked hard at it and got like 2 pairs to everyone elses 5.



so then after school i went down to the soccer feild again to talk to amika and masayo the two soccer girls. it was a nice talk and we also went down to a super market to get some poccari sweat and vitamin water. when we got back masayo had to go to a practice for some play she is going to be in every day next week. im pretty sure she wanted me to go to it so im going to go.

after she left me and amika went upstairs to join peter and sarah the other YFU kids in the band room. we listened to them play about 3 songs which were freaking amazing then left. shortly after this we went home and i taugh the boys i was riding home with some curse words because they wanted to know some.



when we got home yoshiki let me know ( a bit too late too) that we were going to get a visit from his english tutor and his other student and her friend mine (she is half america so i communicated through her). on the note of communication. im not going to say i dont understand people. because i understand them fine (with the exception of my younger host bro i have no freaking clue what he ever says). its more that i can understand them but i cant think when i try to actually talk back in japanese.



anyway today so far i woke up. had some breakfast decided it was way to early to be up and went back to sleep until around 10 where we (me my host dad, young host bro , mine, her friends) all went on a huge tour of the town. which didnt take too long but it was the most beautiful tour i have ever been on. i have many pictures of it but i will have to upload them later as im putting like 2k pictures on the computer right now and its taking forever.



not really sure what im doing next. i know im going to the park at some point and to play some pool with the boys from school. but im not so sure about anything else. ill try for another update later but i might not be able to. so until next time cya.

First day of school

So i had my first day of school today. and it was just as awesome as i thought it would be. first off it was like a billion and four degrees over there. the air conditioning system was pretty sweet. i have to say thought that it really wasnt a problem at all. the people were so nice that it more than made up for feeling like i was in a sauna of fire the whole day.

I met a lot of people.. most of them girls. and strangly got a lot of kawaiis. they seemed to come up to me in drones then tell me their names really fast and then they would say. Ok now you say name. and i would sit there and stare until they figured out i had no idea. but besides that i got a lot of questions about sports language and miami. Also people are really interested by my hair. at first they were reluctant and tried to back away from the issue of my hair. but in due time they started to push forward into the question can i feel it? and there it starts many people felt for a long time. i even had a group of like 10 guys around my table at lunch reaching across to get some of the good stuff. One of them actually called my hair creamy which got a huge laugh from others.

Introducing yourself at this school is a horor. people just sit there and stare at you well after your done so you feel like a complete idiot just standing there waiting to be told you can sit. School didnt go on for very long though. i was only there from 8 am to 8 pm. there was soo much to do it was amazing. for the most part i hung out with the soccer team because my host brother is on it. but i also went into the band room and listened to them. went to the traditional dance room and then every time i passed it afterward they would Jump out of the room to get a picture .

anyway first period was i have no idea what class that was. followed by english where i had to read a story about yo yo ma and his life. next was like social studies or something i have no idea what it was. followed by P.E (i played a feirce game of badmitton against my host bro then with him against 2 other people. they wanted me to play some basketball but i said that i would do that tomorrow. after P.E was japanese. and at this point i might as well have been pure sweat. it was the middle of the day. sun a blazin and humid as hell. not to mention that i had just been running around. anyway next was something in the libary where i just talked to some of the other boys at my table. and they taught me the word for alien head (gatpai). after this was lunch where i ate with the soccer team in what seemed like an all boy resturant. this is where we had that creamy experience as well as many other little laughs like when i just kept saying oo instead of good and they just kept saying it after me.

anyway the rest of the day is pretty much nothing until after school. there i ran into chika not the best picture i have but its the only one i have on this camera so yeah anyway we basically walked around the school and talked for like 1 or 2 hours or something like that. she speaks amazing english. i also ran into a girl who looks 100% not japanese. i later learned her dad is english and her mom is japanese but she was born here so yeah. i have no pictures on this camera but im sure i will when i actually talk to her.

after that long talk with chika i went back down to the soccer feild to talk to the two soccer girls on the team (they just fill the water bottles) anyway their names were masayo and amika. both very awesome. we talked for like an hour and a half about nothing in particular. no pictures of them at the moment. i also ran into hisae on the way around the school and we played some uno with like 2 other girls.

and yes that is like 10 draw 2`s in a row. someone drew a whole lot of cards

ahh yes and lastly there was a point in the day where i went to to a to a class to learn to make clothes. i made this beastly peice of fabric. some call me more than i man but less than a god.. i like to think they are right.

thats basically it for today. i probably could write more but i really should go hang out with some family or go to sleep whichever works. cya

In japan

So after about a million years in cali and waiting to get over here im finally here. it only took like 7 plane rides and 1 missed plane to get here. I met my host family and they are freaking awesome. i will try to upload more pictures and such later but for now its like 11 mins till dinner so i have to make it kind of quick. i have many funny stories already but they will have to wait. i can tell one how ever. its not really funny but when i got here my host brother was like Hey lets go to my soccer practice and you can watch it. so we got there said hi to the team.. and left... yup no watching any soccer practice. also he said we are going to stop by the school and we can look at it. so we passed by the school. and i thought we would turn around. but nope just kept on going . so when he says stuff i guess i need to take it very litterally. there isnt much to do at the house but its pretty high tech. internet is nice but there is too much to do around town to get caught up on it. this keyboard is so hard to type with too. i think im going to go now. its like 4 mins to dinner. look forward to another post soon

Computer problems

due to some recent stuff my mom has decided and has it locked in her mind that i should not bring my laptop. Now if this will make a difference i have no idea , my family might have a computer they might not. the schools will probably have a computer class and i will probably be in it. so this might not really affect anything more than the amount of posts i put up. but ive tried telling her all my reasons that i should bring it but she seems dead set that it will be a major distraction. i cant say i dont see where she is coming from but even though i disagree there isnt too much i can do about it. 

Anyway i will still be able to update this thing as often as possible at school, or internet cafe's or even at home and the fact im bringing a written journal just means that if i do get delays i will still be able to post many posts for different days when i get the chance to. i dont know if my mom will change her mind but dont worry because it wont affect me updating this thing as often as i can :) just something that needed to be said

Host Family Phone call

So i called my host family today, and after 3 failed calls where i dialed the wrong number and one where i started talking to someone who wasnt actually the right person (because why wouldnt i), i finally talked to my host family. or rather i talked to my host mom ( i think). after the conversation i wouldnt say im really nervous but rather im pretty Antsy about going. after reading that sentence you would probably say to yourself "Oh the conversation went well" as antsy usually means excitement. But nothing could be further from the truth. the conversation went down the cliff right after the first sentence. she asked me something i hardly got asking me about my family and what are there names. so i told her. and after that i couldnt tell you a single thing she said. something about .... .... ... well i know i heard something about their family a lot in there.
Anyway i thought my japanese was pretty good. but you know what apparently there is this little thing called dialect that i forgot to take into account, and it turns out its pretty dam important. She kept going on and on and saying sorry with every sentence because it was pretty clear she knew i couldnt understand her and she couldnt speak a word of english. i kept saying sorry back because i couldnt understand her.
SOooooo about after about 5 minutes or what felt like 20 years of the most awkward conversation ive ever had (im pretty sure she managed to ask me the same question about 15 times no matter how many times i told her i didnt undertand it) it was over.

Now dispite the awkwardness and terribleness of the actual talking it was not a complete waste of a long distance call. dispite our you know not being able to talk to each other we did get a lot of laughs in. Now dispite the fact that mine were probably from nerves and hers were probably from the fact my japanese was a good the typical digital talking dishwasher. i call laughter a definate plus.
All in all i think it was a good coversation dispite all the bad in the actual talking but then again when has conversation been about the talking ( shut up i know im wrong). i think we clicked on some level ... somewhere and thats that. soo when i meet them in real life for the first time it should be about 10 times as awkward but i happen to have a good talent for making the first meeting with a person i havnt seen in a while or ever very awkward and every conversation after that very ... unawkward :D.
i look forward to writing more of these but you know with actual stories and who knows maybe i'll add in more terrible grammer and horrible sentence structure ;D. but i must say to people ( if anyone is actually reading) that there is a chance i wont be able to post every night. so i will have everything written down from the moment i get there to the second i get back. that way if i get no internet at the house and no internet at the school or anywhere i can still get my stories to you people (or myself) at the end :D. its not what ya wanna hear but its possible and it had to be said. anyway ive talked more than enough and i need to learn to shut up faster so im out. expect a new post either right before i leave or after ive been in cali for a day or two dependent on when i can get to the internet. CYA

Host Family

Soooo it finally happened. i got a host family :D.
They are the Yamada family (Most common last name in japan?). Anyway i got a mom,dad,2 brothers one 16 and one 17, and a grandma and grandpa living at home :D. I will be staying in Ishigaki , Okinawa and im going to Yaeyama High school. http://www.city.ishigaki.okinawa.jp/International/Media%20Files/Ishigaki%20City%20Map.pdf If it works thats a map of the city. I cant help but notice a few funny things all in the town. maybe its just me but i find them funny. for one Right next to the school im going to Is a mister donut. because when im hungry for a donut i want to be constantly reminded of school as i eat it :). Oh and dont forget The Goat cuisine rest stop. for all of you who need to take a quick break and you know... eat a goat :D. the vanilla deli ... something about that just cracks me up :D. next on the list is they have their own bull fighting ring oh man this city has it all. goat rest stops, bull fighting, 6 hot spars because you cant have just 2, Glass land (personally my favorite amusment park), and last but not least it own vanilla deli. thats right people while your shopping at the 6 hot spars you can go on down to glass land to have a bit of fun on some broken glass rides, then get on down for a quick rest at the goat cuisine rest stop and finish off the day with a vanilla flavored steak. I dont mean to make fun of the place just some funny sounding areas i look forward to visiting while im there :).
I am really happy. For one thing Okinawa is suposed to be extreamly beautiful with amazing beaches :D. also something i didnt really think about till later today was that since it is at the bottom of japan i will be getting the full japanese experience. since it is far from the capital it is (and im just assuming this) going to be more... japanese and wont have as many big stores and everything. i thought that would suck at first but then after thinking about it its pretty big advantage as that would most likely have been a huge distraction.
I know as much about the place as i do about how my rooms floor looks like (anyone who has seen my room will understand that). But from the little i could figure out from web sites and things the city looks like a very nice place to be. i tried to find out something about the school but with No success. Im going to keep looking but if anyone can help me out feel free to. you know unless im already there.
Anyway i Leave in about 5 days not counting today. or yes counting to day. to be honest i have no idea what day it is right now im way too tired but i want to watch this rock docs on iron maiden so im not going to sleep anytime soon. Going off topic here a bit (UNDERSTATEMENT)
a pringles commercial just came on with the song we've got the funk and i just cant help but notice that the distinct smell of cat poop just wafted into my room :(.

Anyway There probably wont be another real post untill after im actually there. I cant say these posts have been really intersting for anyone out there or really funny. but I Know within the next ohhh 7 days they will start to be come either awesome or Funny as hell >:D.

Danny Tips

 To a majority of the few people actually reading this thing this post will not make any difference. but it means something to me and i felt like putting it on here for future reference and to i suppose pay some respect to the man.

basically  friend of mine by the name of daniel has been giving me little rules to follow while im in japan. its been 1 rule almost every day for a few weeks now. i really like his rules a lot so i decieded to put um up here. who knows maybe someone will read this and find some of them helpful i dont know. anyway here they are :)

20. Teach them cool "American" things, like phrases or gestures. I taught my lil' host-brother that handshake you do when you cup your hands with somebody else's and then pull them back with a snapping sound. He went crazy over it and taught it to everybody who was at the barbecue they prepared for me. They really are eager to learn; I stopped Sean's host-sis from doing that silly "woooooo" thing you all were obsessed with. Ha ha! :) Teach them things like "oh snap" or "wazzup" (aw man, nobody says that anymore!), as well as when to say it. Don't teach any curse words or crude stuff; keep your record clean. ;)

19. Don't make any put-down jokes. Sure, they're funny among friends who you know well, but you're spending time with people who you've never met before. Thinking back now, one kid in the middle of running laps after school said hi to me and I told him to run faster as a joke; I totally take it back. I should've challenged him to a race. :( You get the idea right? Its better to just compliment people all the time, and again, "explore" them or their areas of interests with the intent of actually being their friend. If someone shows a drawing or something, try drawing it yourself; that kind of interaction. Even if the jokes are barely even mildly degrading, keep 'em to yourself.

18. Film videos often if the amount of memory in your camera is not a concern. You're gonna want to have more than just one video in which you can remember what your friends' and family's voice sounded like. Before you leave, make sure you make one of all of them each giving you their own goodbye speech.

17. DUDE! Take a Pinecrest Tribune newspaper, and take a picture in some nice place that totally stands out from American scenery; choose a VERY JAPANESEY place to take a picture! If you send the picture in, you just might appear on the cover of the Pinecrest Tribune! :D

16. Be good friends with the adults too because being able to communicate and converse with them boosts your maturity more than chatting with a kid your age does. Best of all, adults acknowledge and appreciate this kind of maturity more than kids our age do. Sure, Bjorn's host-brother and I were good friends, but his mom is the one who has been keeping in touch with me. In a way, adults are usually more loyal than kids because they've learned to not take such rare friendships for granted. Best thing is if one wishes you were related to them. ;)

15. Candid pictures are usually the best, but if you're gonna pose, here are some nice suggestions (again, the more people involved, the better):
a) People jumping (caught when they're mid-air).
b) People doing that whoosh-whoosh retarded face I'm good at making.
c) Stretch arm up, aim camera down and get everybody to huddle beneath and look up.
d) Vice versa: everybody looking down at the camera.
e) Posing in front of a big painting/portrait/etc as if you're actually part of the picture.
e) Making out with female statues/mannequins/etc.
f) Imitating face of a statue/person on poster/etc.
g) Prowling pictures (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=644459155&ref=name#/photo.php?pid=30296204&op=1&o=global&view=global&subj=644459155&id=1100880621)
h) Pictures of people's shadows.
i) Godzilla pics (those in which you pretend to be bigger than things that are actually far away).

14. Make sure your pictures have PEOPLE in it. Scenery pics are nice, but people seldom look at 'em twice. I told Casey King the same thing. Her pics are nice, but compare the attention her album gets to those of everybody else. Don't take too many pictures of yourself holding your own camera either cause the vanity shows. If you wanna appear in pictures, just ask people to take one of you every now and then. If you want to appear with somebody else, then stretching your arm out with the camera is still cool. ;)

13. Don't shave before going into the hot baths. The cuts are gonna burn like crazy when you go in. Shave the day before, or a couple hours before going.

12. Ask tons of questions. People will know that you're interested, and having such a curious person is always entertaining. On top of that, you won't give off the impression that you're waiting for people to ask things about you so that you can talk about yourself. Sure, answer their questions about you, but keep the focus off of yourself and on them instead. Besides, don't you feel honored when people want to get to know you better? Be the one to make them feel this way. ;)

11. Don't isolate yourself! In fact, don't even take your iPod or any video game console of any kind. Don't even use it in bed to go to sleep. Let the sound of an authentic Japanese setting put you to sleep. ;)

10. Do things that will make strangers happy, even if they never see you again. Yeah, you know what I mean: smiling and doing bunny-ears in their photographs. Helping strangers out, like the ryokan lady or that lady in the wheel chair who was trying to get into the bus, makes great memories too. Ha ha! I'm remembering that on our first day in Kagoshima, I smiled and waved hello to a lady driving next to our bus; she laughed back. :) Just knowing that some person I don't know might be laughing and smiling right now at the thought of what I did feels great. :)

9. Don't go on the trip with the intent of getting laid. You're not old enough, you're not married, you're student visa (or whatever document it is) will get damaged, your reputation will be at stake and you'll be the cause of many unpleasant consequences and regrets in the future to both you yourself and the girl.

8. Don't bother filling up your bags with toiletries from here. Buy the toothpaste, floss, disposable razor, shaving cream, deoderant, shampoo and whatever else over there. It adds on to the whole Japan experience. ;)

7. Do not say that you don't like something and that you're not open to try what they like. I regret saying that I wasn't interested in Narnia because I later found out that a group of friends went to watch it. You're not there to pick and choose the activities that suit you, but to try out the things the people over there enjoy doing. Sure, don't do anything dirty, but give the things that you think will be boring a chance when it is offered. Best way to make friends is to be open to their interests rather than enforcing your own upon them. ;)

6. Even if you're not catching a single word of a conversation, look as though you're trying to understand what the people are saying, as if you were one of them yourself. They'll know you're really putting effort into trying to get what they're saying, and chances of them including you into their conversations will be greater. Even if you don't say a word, turn your head to the person talking and actually listen to what they're saying. Don't look confused/lost though; smiling will leave them sympathizing for you and admiring your efforts. Sometimes, smiling, laughing along and showing an attitude of being interested in what people are saying are enough contribution to any enjoyable conversation. But smile and laugh sincerely; make your facial expressions match the tone of the conversation. Anybody would look like an idiot if he were smiling when everybody around him is obviously upset.

5. Adding on to the gentleman thing, make the girls' lives nicer. If you make a paper fan, be the one who fans her. If she flunks an exam, make a card encouraging her to do better on the next one with some drawing that she'll find cute (NOT random-weird!). Don't be obsessed with wanting to help her out with everything because it can scare her, but let her know that she's lucky to sit next to a guy who makes his neighbors' life more pleasant. In fact, be like that with everybody you're with; be the one to serve whoever is next to you. Yeeeah, that means helping your host-mom wash the dishes, or the Ryokan lady clean the hotel. This is probably the best advice I can give ya, not just to use during your trip but to apply to life in general. Believe me, being humble pays off BIG time. ;)

4. If you sit next to a cute girl in class, be a gentleman. You remember how hot school was right? Make a paper fan and fan her during class. Drawing things that are designs of her belongings, like the cartoon characters on pencils and folders, will flatter her. Besides, everybody likes to be acknowledged; she'll be excited to know that you noticed something of hers that is given little attention to. If you sit next to a dude, draw something cool that's relevant to whichever boring subject you're currently zoned out of. In my case, there was a history quiz in which the only word I picked out was "Sparta." :D Don't draw random weird; draw relevant cool. ;)

3. Try to know at least one Japanese song by the time you go; the more popular it is the better. I didn't have the chance to do it, but I've got GreeeeN down for the next time I do go. Everybody knows "Aladdin" before, so I think learning the Japanese version of "Whole New World" would be awesome, especially if there are girls with you; that way, one can sing the Jasmine part with ya. Aside from that, sing popular American songs, but not the heavy rock ones because the people there are into pop music (I almost sang Chop Suey; that would've been so awkward). Choose the more mellow songs, but if you sing an upbeat one, sing a catchy one or one that is associated with westerners, like Elvis or The Beatles (they loved Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl"). Again, there were no guys at karaoke with me, so I was singing "awww-how-cute" songs like "Hey There Delilah" and "All My Loving." Try to choose styles similar to what they are singing.

2. Come up with something to always say given a situation; something people will expect you to say when the occasion comes up. It'll be like your motto or something. In my case, I always said 食べてみます ("I'll try eating it") when somebody offered me food or asked if I liked what they were giving me. Soon enough, they were repeating what I'd say before I had a chance to answer. :)

1. Wear something that will catch people's attention and that will be associated with you; it makes you stand out, and people will think of you every time they see similar kind of what you're wearing. It can't be begging for attention, like an outrageously flamboyant shirt or a silly hat; its gotta win people's affections without it looking like its trying to get attention. Like a yellow hat; I have a red Hawaiian-styled flower cloth tied to my backpack just for decoration, but that people compliment me for. :)

Pre-Departure Orientation

So yesterday at around 8 in the morning i went to a pre-departure orientation meeting. Its supposed to be a meeting that everyone goes to before the actual orientation so they can tell you all the information that you basically already knew :). It was a nice time and everyone but one person showed up (you know who you are..*cough* Brian  *cough*.

Anyway the meeting was nice in a small room in deerfeild beach Florida in some library. Before going i lost the address so i got kind of freaked out but my mom saved the day.

So the whole meeting was pretty uneventful and i couldnt really stop noticing a few things. One was the women named Pam who is the person who interviewed me for the trip. she said she never had kids and i could tell. She was hosting a girl from germany and another from korea and she really did not know how to talk to them or do stuff with them at all. also she seemed to have a real problem with talking to adults and whenever she talked to one of them she would always get really pissed. 

A funny thing happened and i might just scan the paper and put it on here. The rules that they passed out at the meeting were sooo dumb. they contradicted each other saying things like " give people there space dont touch people to much" then later saying " body contact is good try to touch others as often as possible. My personal favorite rule was " keeping eye contact is very rude. try your best to keep your eyes on peoples shoes at all times" after reading this i looked all around the paper for something telling me that this was supposed to be the opposite of what i was reading. 

Another thing that i noticed at this thing is the amount of people who really dont deserve to be going. there was only 2 other people there going to japan and a few going to france and other places. but the people going to japan seemed completely undeserving. both of the kids had gotten scholarships because their parents worked for the companies. Also one of the kids had taken 1 japanese class and seemed like his parents came up to him one day and said. "hey your going to japan" .. then he said "sweet". i dont know maybe its just me but most of the people ive met online that got rejected seem like they were more deserving.

anyway it was a good time and the girls from korea and germany and the one who went on this trip 2 years ago were nice. really looking forward to the next 2 weeks as i should be getting all my info about the host family i will have and everything. going to be a great time and i cant wait :D

(wow i am really bad at keeping things short)

Pre-orientation meeting

So this saturday i have a pre orientation meeting. really excited for it. comes right after AP's are over so no real school to worry about. Anyway thats all to report about that until this saturday actually rolls around.

Count down timer

http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/customcounter.html?month=June&day=7&year=2009&hour=0&min=0&sec=0&p0=156

Meeting others

I have been really bored from the terrible wait for summer to start ( i leave the 7th or 12th don't know which yet). So at some point in the last 3 weeks i went looking for others who are going on the same trip as my i found 2.http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52529848593 and http://www.cultures-shocked.org/Joomla/forum/index.php?. It helped me meet people who will be going on this trip or other trip or have already gone. I basically listen to them share stories or talk about waiting and other things. its a nice way to pass the time and assures i have someone to talk to in the orientation in japan and in California. The facebook group is more specific but if your going to any country not just japan for a while on exchange i suggest you check out cultures-shocked.org. its a very nice community and is very helpful for anything your looking for concerning trips.

Introduction

Well I guess I should introduce myself first. I'm Kyle :). I live in Miami Florida and im 17 years old. 

So anyway a while ago I decided I wanted to go to Japan this summer. Now at first i had decided i would use the program that my school/ city uses, which is a Miami Kagoshima sister city program the city puts together each year. Me and a bunch of my other friends had decided to go on this trip but ultimately it was cancelled. This was all right before December I believe. Anyway so i started to look around for other programs, and I found many really good looking ones. However many of these programs were very ... learning based. What I mean by that is that you go over there and basically focus on learning the language or doing school work. Now I wanted to go to school but i definitely didn't want that to be the main focus. So i came across YFU (youth for understanding) which had been very highly recommended by my teacher. It had Everything i was looking for, Stay with a family, go to school ( but not focus on learning but rather to learn and experience being a student to a lesser extent than the actual students), and a bit of touring. The thing that really impressed  me most was that it was 6 weeks with the family and 7 weeks in total, so i would be in Japan basically the majority of summer. 

So i decided at this point i would sign up for it. only a slight problem occurred. The Kagoshima trip opened back up. Now while the other trip appealed to me more I couldn't help want to be with my friends more.  So then after a week or so of not hearing anything from Kagoshima they finally call and say that they will cancel it again. Now this cancel reopen thing happened like 2 more times and I decided that this year it was really flip floppy and i didn't want to invest myself in that program if there was a chance it would just close again. At this point it was like 1 week until the YFU application was due. I can say pretty safely i was freaking out. I didn't think i was going to get into either one at all. My mom had been calling and talking to my Councillor for YFU (named Eric) for the past 2 weeks so i decided to screw the Kagoshima trip and just go with YFU. After i had sent in the application ( the freaking day before it was due >.<) i got another call from Kagoshima telling me it was reopened for good this time. But i told them i already had a program.

Now maybe it was my mom calling almost every day to talk to Eric ( not always about the trip or info but also about just random how was your day stuff), or maybe it was my letter and credentials, but 9 days after i sent the letter ( Thursday of my spring break) i got my acceptance letter :D!!! ( i later learned it was just the letter telling me i had a spot reserved but not necessarily accepted but i got the real one some time later). My heart nearly stopped when i saw it there in the mail. I really wasn't expected to get in, despite my moms telling me constantly that i would.

So that is basically it for the intro. sorry for the length it really didn't have to be that long, and unless i have a really awesome story while I'm there, i probably wont have a post this long again. To finish off i recently got my shirt and all the info booklets and right now I'm waiting on scholarship news to see how much i really need to pay and where and with whom i will be staying. Also waiting on may 16th for the pre-departure orientation in Deerfield for everyone in Florida. cant wait :D