The Second Adventure: Meeting the Homestay Famliy

Monday, September 5th, 2011

    I haven't written to you all in a few days, and I'm sort of sorry about that. Honestly, though, there wasn't much going on. We weren't allowed outside on Saturday. Of course that didn't stop us. I read most of the day. I did go out in the late afternoon. We found a very close by 100 yen (pronounced he-yah-ku-eh-n, 百円、ひゃくえん) store, basically a dollar store, where we bought gift wrapping supplies for our host family gifts. Then it started raining. It rained most of Sunday too, so once again, I stayed inside and read. One measly paragraph sums it up, so trust me when I say there wasn't anything to talk about.

Now, back to today:

    Waiting. That's what today was about. I got up early, finished packing, folded my futon, and walked out of the seminar house around 10am. I went to the library first. I wanted to absorb some of that wonderful atmosphere I talked about before. I brought my computer and opened it up to check my email, when lo and behold! My father was on Facebook! The whole family was home apparently, and not having seen me in a while, wanted to Skype. So I went to a corner with no one else around, plugged in my headphones, and spoke softly. About five minutes later a student came up to me and said we weren't allowed to Skype in the library. I made many apologies, and continued my conversation with my family via Facebook chat, because they didn't know how to find/work the Skype chat.

    After that, I went over to the CIE building and hung out for a while in the lounge. One o'clock finally rolled around, and I had a session in the Language Lab (LL) to show us how to work the programs on those computers to help us complete our Japanese class homework. That took all of 15 minutes, and then it was back to waiting. I sat and talked to various people in the CIE lounge until 3:30pm. At that point,  I went to the CIE office and sat and waited for my host family to arrive.

    My Okaasan (mother, pronounced oh-kah-ah-sah-n, おかあさん) came, and we went to a private room with a translator who helped us go over some rules and such. Things like household chores, curfews, meal times, laundry, etc. were discussed and agreed upon. Then she drove me to the Seminar House, where my luggage was waiting, and then we drove to my new home.

    Let me pause here for a second and say this. I was scared when I was a pedestrian and had cars, bikes, and scooters coming at me on those narrow streets. I was terrified being in one of those said cars, not because I would have been hurt by a crash, but because of the bikers and pedestrians we seemed sure to run over. And I never, NEVER, want to have to ride a bike here. EVER! Bikes are both like pedestrians and cars, because they can ride on the sidewalk or on the street (usually in a special lane, but not always). But cars will survive a crash with a bike, and pedestrians have more flexibility and can jump out of the way or squeeze against a wall to avoid being hit. A bicycle just has to catch a wheel wrong, brush it against something, or go over a big enough bump...or crash into a car, and then it's all over for the rider. And the bikes are constantly trying to race the cars!!! It's insane! And that's the mini version of my traffic-in-Japan rant.

    So, yeah, my family is nice. The cat is called Nihango (ne(as in neat)-hah-n-go, にはんご). The house is very narrow. There are three floors: The first is the entrance way, the washing machine, and the bath/shower room. Then comes a flight of stairs, narrow, but with steps of a normal length (the size of my foot). The second floor is the kitchen, dining, and living rooms. They have a Western style table and chair, and a very comfy couch. The toilet is on this floor too.  Then comes the second set of stairs, which is going to, at the very least, injure me one of these days! The steps are barely the length of my hand!!! And most of you should know my history with stairs...

    Once, I'm up this potential death trap, I come to the bedrooms. OooooO! Mine is so nice!! I have a window, which opens out to a small balcony where the clothes are hung, with the bed against that wall. There are a couple of sets of plastic drawers, which my clothes have all fit. (Including my winter sweaters!) There is a rack on one side where I've hung my skirts, dresses, and coats. The closet holds my shoes, suitcase, and a vacuum cleaner. I also have a small (under a desk style) fridge. This is because the last exchange student the had would buy juice and leave half full bottles in the main fridge, and the family didn't know what to do with them. My Okaasan bought me some juice already (apple and grape) and told me to put them up there.

    They all leave really early in the morning, so I've been told to prepare my own breakfast. My plan is to get to school a bit early some days, even if I don't have class, so I suspect I'll actually see more of them than they think.

    So far, so good! And that's about it. They have wireless internet, but I'm not set-up for it yet-a project for tomorrow! So, I'll be posting this then! Sorry! Gomen-nasai! (goh-meh-n-nah-sah-e, ごめんあさい！)