The Blog is Back

I finally found out my host family! I'll be living the Konyas in Osnabrueck. My host dad works at a hospital and my host mom is a school teacher. I have to host brother's, Mete and Emre. Mete is a year older than me and in high school. He just got back from a year in America and speaks flawless English. Emre is in college and studies at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Hopefully we get to go visit him ;).

Osnabrueck is a small city (170,000 people). It looks really old, in a good way! I can't believe this is really happening. It seems so much more real now. I'm going to Germany for a year! A YEAR!

This month I've been doing an SAT prep class for the Oct 1st SAT I'll take in Germany. I've been preparing and taking it easy this month. I practically bought a new wardrobe to take with me, and got my documents together for my visa.

I've also gotten to see a lot of my friends and family. I only have 13 days left in Philadelphia and 17 days left in America. It still hasn't hit me. It probably still won't till I'm on the plane to Frankfurt.

I leave Philadelphia and go to DC on September 6th and I have orientation until the 9th. Then on September 9th all us CBYXer's fly to Germany and arrive there the 10th. Since my scholarship is gov't funded I get to visit the State Department and my local congressperson. I feel so important. haha

I'll write another post about DC and getting to Germany in 2 weeks!

Leaving Japan :'(

After the party Soya and Suguru stayed overnight so they could come to the airport to with me off. We ended up playing around and talking till 2am. I stayed up till 2:30 or so and cried and couldn't sleep. I felt bad. My stomach didnt feel well. Okāsan woke me up around 7:30 so I could shower. I made my bed, packed up my belongings. Luckily I was so tired that I didn't cry. Katsuumi and Katsurou helped me with my bags. Norihito's mom was out to take Soya and Suguru to the airport since we all couldnt fit in just one car and she was wishing me off. I didn't cry during the car ride. Once we got to Naha airport we met up with other YFU people and waited to everyone arrived so we could check in as a group. It took a while and I kept my mind of leaving talking to the other Okinawa YFU people and my host family. After we checked our bags and got our tickets to Tokyo we went downstairs to the security area at the entrance to our gate.

Suguru, Soya, and my family was there and then Shiori, Serika, Rino & Ayame came. I took some pictures with everyone and was fine. I started tearing up as we waited and hung out at the security gate. I gradually became more and more tearful. The speaker announced that the plane was boarding. Then a guy from YFU waved us and compelled us to go to security and get to the plane. The YFUer's started crying then. I started bursting into tears and hugged my host mom who was also crying. Then I went over to my the girls and gave them each a hug and I think a couple of them were crying a little bit. I shook Soya and Suguru’s hands and then I shook Katsuumi then Katsurou’s hands and walked to the conveyer belt security thing. We hurried to security and boarded the plane just in time. I stumbled unto the plane and received looks from people (I'd probably give a weird look to a crying kid on the plane. Brie sat next to me and tried to get me to stop but I couldn’t. I opened up the one piece tissue box ichi kumi, my classmates gave me and it end up being an amazing gift. In an almost fit for a movie event it came in handy right when I needed it. When I got it I wondered how I would ever use it and now it all makes sense now. What a crazy work of fate.

Once we arrived at Narita airport we went through immigration and proceeded to the United Check-in. We saw some other YFU students from JPDO. (e.g. Taylor, Zahrah, Kiven) and we got in line at the United counter to get our tickets. We received our tickets to San Fran, and I got my ticket to Philadelphia. We went through security, and proceeded to the international gates. We had a 4 hour layover and spent most of the time reunited with or friends and chatting it up. I was on the same flight to SFO as Taylor, Dimitri, Brie, Alana, Alex, Sim, Spencer, Kima, Sasha and Katherine. I sat next to Sim. I tried to sleep on the planen ride but only managed to sleep for about an hour. It's too uncomfortable! I listened to the airplane radio a lot and then Sim, Brie and I went to Taylor's seats and talked until the flight attendant made us move back to our seats because we were being to loud. Sim depressed me by pointing out that we will never see some of the YFU people ever again. The flight back was sad. It wasn't exciting like the flight to Japan. Life isn't fair to have us make such relationships, friendships and then separate us from those people we bonded with. Once we landed at in SF we went through customs and immigration and headed to baggage claim. (trills Back in America!) We had to claim our bags then recheck them for domestic flights. At baggage claim I bid goodbye to Sasha, and later Sim, who both live in the bay area. (no tears though, just feeling sad) I hugged them both. Then we proceeded through security (for the 3rd time that day) and checked in with the YFU volounteers. Everyone had different flights all over and all leaving at different times. Again it was sad to think that Ill never see some of these people ever again. I had one of the latest flights (3:10), or so it seemed.

I still really miss my host family and my friends from Japan. Luckily they have Skype! ;). I'm forever grateful to my host family who took me , taught me so much, and loved me. We'll meet again!

Last day in Okinawa

My host mom said that today we shouldn't travel far from home. We went to the mall and the supermarket where I bought some last minute gifts, and some Japanese grocery goods. I bought green tea, mugi cha, soba cha, calpis water, cc lemon (all drinks) these chocolate pretzel candies, this rice snack, and senbei to eat on the plane ride. I spent the last of my cash money. My host mom took me out around chunjun to say goodbye to different people. Unbeknownst to me my host brothers were cleaning the house up and setting up for a party. When I got home I found out my family was throwing a goobye party barbeque for and they invited my friends from the high school. My high school friends brought some drinks and most importantly icecream! I am so touched by everyone's thoughtfulness. I can't believe I'm actually leaving Japan. I dont want to go! I'm comfortable here. I can get around. I can talk to people. I feel comfortable with my host family. I'll probably tear up at the airport when I have to say goodbye to my host family.

This has been the most memorable summer of my life. I cant think of a better way I could have spent my summer. I'm indebted to my host family for taking me in and I'm so grateful for the kindness the Japanese people showed me.

Back to America

Monday's Itinerary
I have a long journey back to Philadelphia

August 1st:
Depart Naha 10:40
Arrive Tokyo @12:40
Depart Tokyo (Narita) 5:25
Arrive SFO @11:00am CA time
(10hr flight)
(4hr layover in SFO)
Depart SFO 3:20pm
Arrive PHL 11:30

I spend over 24hrs flying and in airports. :/

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday:
In the morning around 8:00 okāsan woke me up. I got ready to go snorkeling! I packed a change of clothes and a towel into a bag, ate a quick breakfast and headed out to the car. Okāsan, Katsuumi and myself went. Katsuro had to go school. From home we drove to Onna, a 40 minute drive North on the West Coast of Okinawa. In the ocean front parking lot we met up with Takuma(a friend of Katsuumi) and our snorkeling tour guide. The tour guide had a difficult time finding flippers??? that fit my feet. We were outfitted with life jackets, and snorkeling gear and hot dogs. From the parking lot we headed down steep stairs to the ocean. There was no beach, no sand, just rock walls and coral reefs. The stairs were cut right from the rock. We carefully climbed into the water. The flippers were really hard to use! difficult to manuever in! I feel over a couple times and had to balance my self on the tour guide when we were getting in the water. The tourguide lead us out further into the water and along the rocky shore till we reached a cave, grotto worn into the rocky wall of the shore. It was really deep, 20meters and very cold! The tourguide brought one of those underwater cameras and we could see schools of fishunderneath us. After we left the grotto we swam out to the reefs and feed the fishes with the hot dogs. The fishes would come up swim right near you. You could here them swimming. There was a rainbow spectrum of colors! Fishes of every color.

At 4 I met up with Shiori and Ayame in Chatan and went to the beach! Lots of time by the ocean Wednesday. We spent about 2 hrs swimming at Sunset Beach, Chatan's take on Waikiki beach. Then we ate McDonalds in the mall food court. We looked around the shops in the mall, took Purikura and around 9 my host mom picked us up dropped Shiori and Ayame off.

Thursday: I woke up around 10. My host mom planned for Katsuumi, herself and me to meet Ayako-san, Chiemi-san and Hayato to meet up at the bowling alley. In Kitanaka the bowling alley and the karaoke bar are connected and you usually do karaoke and bowl together. We played 3 games and then headed over to the karaoke bar. You (as a group) are given a room equipped with a karaoke machine. It's no rinky-dink machine either. Theres a wireless touch pad where you choose the song you want to sing and then the lyrics come up on the screen on the wall. It was fun! We Ayako knows a lot of American music, well old music and we ended up singing lots of Beatle's songs, Journey, ABBA, and Michael Jackson along with some Japanese artists but they were thoughtful and tried to pick stuff I knew. At the end of every song the machine tells you how many calories you burnt! I thought that was really amusing. I burned a whole 7 calories singing We Are the World! Haha. We finished up around 7 and went home.

A Day in the City

Blog post: A day in the city
Today we left the house around 8:30 and headed to Naha airport. We were going to wish Norihito goodbye. He's studying for a year in the US. We were joined there by Gray sensei and a some classmates and naturally Norihito's family, his mom, dad and grandmom. When the plane boarded he bid us all goodbye. In his departure I noticed something that distinguishes American culture from Japanese-they gave no hugs or kisses. He didn't hug his friends or hug or kiss his family goodbye. No one cried either. Japanese people usually only hug or kiss when they're boyfriend or girlfriend or "rabahs" (lovers) as my host mom said. I think Americans express their feelings more outwardly than Japanese. It's just a cultural differenc I guess. Right before I went on this 6 week trip I remember hugging and kissing my mom goodbye. Norihito's going away for a year!

After we left the airport we headed to the Okinawa times (the prefecture newspaper) building and my host mom had an interview for her sanshin playing. (A sanshin is like a 3 stringed ukulele and beloved by Okinawans.) She's going to be in the newspaper for her playing! That's a big deal! Right?
After that we eat lunch and headed to Shuri castle. Shuri castle is a world heritage site and over 500 years. It was the seat of the Ryuku Kingdom. Honestly, it reminded me alot of Mulan. It was built in Chinese style and used to welcome the Chinese traders.

After that we went and did some shopping around Kokusai dōri. I got all my gifts for everyone back home and some things for myself ;). We also went to Naha-D which is largest bookstore in Okinawa-I'm a book lover and I was extremely impressed by everything they have. They had a whole section devoted to miscellaneous foreign books. They had a whole shelf o German books, and I bought Momo by Michael Ende, I have to have something to do on the 20hrs of flying I have coming back. They even had Harry Potter in Irish and Ancient Greek-I'd be surprised if Philadelphia's Barnes and Noble had all those books. My host family also gave me a shirt they made that says `将来大者‘.　That　means　`future　big　shot　or　future　VIP`!　I　am　always　freshly　astonished　by　everyone`s　thoughtfulness here. The down side to all this hedonistic pleasure is that I'm almost out of money.

We went back to Kitanaka, picked up Katsuumi's new glasses and headed back home. We had pizza for dinner :))). At 8 okāsan drove me and Katsuumi biked to Katsuumi's English class. After the English class Katsuumi told me to ride on the back of the bike since okāsan wasn't picking us up. It's pretty common here for 2 people to ride the same bike. I'll say right now that it was terrifying! Flying up and down the hills and having no control over anything. I clinged to the seat for my life. It was kind of fun and exhilarating, like a Disney ride but scarier!

First Day of Summer Vacation

I woke up this morning around 9. My host mom told me that there was an earthquake around 3 in the morning. I didn't even notice it. I slept right through it. Haha. I emailed some people, went on facebook and then at 11 me and okāsan drove to Naha airport to wish Rina goodbye. Rina is a Japanese classmate of mine from Kitanaka hs and she's going to be an exchange student in Germany.Today was her last day in Okinawa. A bunch of her classmates Maki, Sayuri, Serika, Shiori, Ayame, Katsuumi, Norihito and myself all came along with Grey-sensei. Once the plane started boarding the girls started weeping and tearing up. I never really thought about all the tearful goodbyes that must happen in airports. Once Rina boarded, the girls started eating chocolate! I remember being told chocolate and ice cream always make you feel better when your sad. I guess that's universal!

After that we went to Ginowan to go shopping. My host brother Katsuumi is studying abroad in the Netherlands this year and leaves in August right after and he needed to do some errands for his trip. We went to the shoe store, clothes store and the eye doctors. The eye doctors is exactly the same as American ones. However, Japanese people pay out of pocket for everything. I dont think insurance covers eye wear.

We went home, showered, ate dinner, went on facebook and then went to see the last Harry Potter movie, in 3D! Japanese movie theaters are exactly the same as American movie theaters, maybe a little bit cleaner, but really the same, even down to the layout. The only difference I noticed is that Japanese people actually wait till the very end of the movie to leave. They like to read all the credits. Americans usually just get up and go as soon as the movie`s over. Most major movies in Japan are released in English with Japanese subtitles and that`s how Japanese people watch their movies in theaters.