クリスマスーーーーーー
Merry Christmas! Though you wouldnt tell from the looksof things here, school today, bleh! But anywho...
Saturday I woke up around 8:30 and HD dropped me off at Tara-chans for his families christmas party. His HM is an english teacher at Fuji High School, and so about 15 of her freshmen students came too. We started things by getting into groups for the gift exchange. First we put alll of our gifts on the table then groups competed, the winner getting first pick at the presents. We did some picture drawing game, and quiz stuff. And we won!! (where is finlands location to sweeden? I was the only one who knew!) So I got some strawberry scented soap, oo la la (there WERE about 20 girls there, so everyone went in expecting to give a girla a present). I also got an Asahikawa-Bloomington sister city t-shirt from 2003! Then we decided to make candles for about 2 hours. It was pretty hard, cause we kept chopping up white candles adding a crayon, then melting it, and lots more cutting and melting to top it off. But mine turned out pretty well, at least compared to some other peoples. Lots took them inside before the hardened, so they sorta looked disgusting, but in a cute christmasy way.
After all that stuff I left with Donnie to her house for an hour before we were going to go to a sister city dinner at someones house. So at her house I didnt do to much, I said hi to her sister, Sayumi, who Ive met a few times before, and also her brother, Fumia, who went to Bloomington for a year. But I DID spend about 10 minutes scratching their dogs ears, but sadly reminded me of my dear cinnamon back in Texas. Anywho, so then Donnie, her host family, and I made our way to Sarah`s (a girl who exchanged here for a year that overlapped with mine) host families house. Id met her HM before so we said hi, plus there were 2 Americans and 2 Canadians there. They were all in their 20s and taught english at some english conversation schools, except for Justin, who teaches at real schools. So we ate some turkey and stuffing, then played some games, like english crossword puzzles and rock paper scissors, except the wnner tries to smack the loser with a rolled up newspaper, and the loser tries to grab a bowl to protect his head before being hit. So we won the rock paper scissors, but lost the crossword. THe other team demanded we sing a Japanese song for our loss, but we steadfastadly refused, instead going to eat cake. Then Donnie and I tlked to Justin for a couple hours before we left. Though by now it was 12:30, so I got home at 1 and slept.
Sunday I ddint get to enjoy my sleep much, because at 8:00 I woke up to go skiing with Tara-chan and his host family and Jessie. So HD took me to their house and dropped me off. Then we left to go to a ski park on the edge of the city. There were only 3 hills, but we bought a 4 round lift ticket and skiied for about 2 hours. Since Jessie is from Venezuela and Tara-chan from Thailand, they only went skiing for the first time last week, but Jessie was doing realy good, and only fell once, but Tara-chan sadly enough didnt remember how to stop, but that was ok, because it was really funny, but we started to get better right before I left. When we first started I was really worried Id forgotten how to ski, because its been about 2 years, but it was really fun, and I cant believe I didnt do it in 2 years! So after that we went out for Hambagu again, and each got a sundae for dessert. Then I got dropped off at home and relaxed 2 hours before getting ready for 7:00 mass. So I decided to wear my confimation suit, since I havent since Ive gotten here, so i was a little overdressed, but think I looked snazzy. so anyway we eventually found Jessies house because cursed Japanese streets dont really have clear names, and houses dont usually have addresses written. But after we found her we then picked up HD&HMs friend and HD dropped the 3 of us at church. I was pretty dissapointed since there really werent any christmas songs durring the first half, but they did manage to sneak in a "Joy to the world" nd "The first NOEL" in Japanese. And after that we found some Japanese High School kids from her and my schools. So we talked a bit and found the German priest who presides over the mass and asked if we could take pictures with him and he let us! Then I got home abou 9:15 and Host Sister was there too for dinner. So we ate some meatloaf and drank some sparkling cider before the christmas cake! Now Christmas Cake is ONE thing from the so-called "Christmas" here that I DO like. Ours wasnt strawberry like most of the rest of the country, but chocolate is a fine substitute. By the time everything was finished I went to bed around 11:45.
Now unfortunatly, and i really REALLY mean that, we had school today. Which really ruined the whole Christmas feeling. I was surprised though to get a sweater from the host rents at breakfast though. So that was my Christmas present. At school we had a 45 minute cleaning period, which soesnt really make much sense, because the first thing we do after winter vacation is 45 minutes of cleaning, who uses the room and how much do they mess it up over the Holiday? Durring lunch I went down with Donnie to se a christmas concert by the school band, though it was only about half christmas songs, the other half being "oh Happy Day" and J-Pop, but it was nice.Then we had an hour long boring assembly about how to be good over the holidays and not wear short skirts or say the teachers are annoying. So after that School FINALLY Ended untill January 19th, or I assume it will if things go on schedule. And back at home nothing much, I did talk to Mom, Darby and Megan for a long time, but it was Christmas eve there, so didnt count, and will probably call in an hour or 2.
So Japanese December 25th (I dont like calling this day here christmas!) isnt as much fun as American Christmas, but Ill try to make up for it next year.
Here are all of us at Tara-chans Xmas party
I was just posing for this one while waiting for the others to come down
And here are us pre-skiing
And I got out waitress to take this one
I didnt really eat the flag, dont worry
And here we are with the German Priest
And here we are pretending to sing, Jessie doesnt like this picture, I wonder why...
And here is our christmas cake, my candle is to the left
Saturday I woke up around 8:30 and HD dropped me off at Tara-chans for his families christmas party. His HM is an english teacher at Fuji High School, and so about 15 of her freshmen students came too. We started things by getting into groups for the gift exchange. First we put alll of our gifts on the table then groups competed, the winner getting first pick at the presents. We did some picture drawing game, and quiz stuff. And we won!! (where is finlands location to sweeden? I was the only one who knew!) So I got some strawberry scented soap, oo la la (there WERE about 20 girls there, so everyone went in expecting to give a girla a present). I also got an Asahikawa-Bloomington sister city t-shirt from 2003! Then we decided to make candles for about 2 hours. It was pretty hard, cause we kept chopping up white candles adding a crayon, then melting it, and lots more cutting and melting to top it off. But mine turned out pretty well, at least compared to some other peoples. Lots took them inside before the hardened, so they sorta looked disgusting, but in a cute christmasy way.
After all that stuff I left with Donnie to her house for an hour before we were going to go to a sister city dinner at someones house. So at her house I didnt do to much, I said hi to her sister, Sayumi, who Ive met a few times before, and also her brother, Fumia, who went to Bloomington for a year. But I DID spend about 10 minutes scratching their dogs ears, but sadly reminded me of my dear cinnamon back in Texas. Anywho, so then Donnie, her host family, and I made our way to Sarah`s (a girl who exchanged here for a year that overlapped with mine) host families house. Id met her HM before so we said hi, plus there were 2 Americans and 2 Canadians there. They were all in their 20s and taught english at some english conversation schools, except for Justin, who teaches at real schools. So we ate some turkey and stuffing, then played some games, like english crossword puzzles and rock paper scissors, except the wnner tries to smack the loser with a rolled up newspaper, and the loser tries to grab a bowl to protect his head before being hit. So we won the rock paper scissors, but lost the crossword. THe other team demanded we sing a Japanese song for our loss, but we steadfastadly refused, instead going to eat cake. Then Donnie and I tlked to Justin for a couple hours before we left. Though by now it was 12:30, so I got home at 1 and slept.
Sunday I ddint get to enjoy my sleep much, because at 8:00 I woke up to go skiing with Tara-chan and his host family and Jessie. So HD took me to their house and dropped me off. Then we left to go to a ski park on the edge of the city. There were only 3 hills, but we bought a 4 round lift ticket and skiied for about 2 hours. Since Jessie is from Venezuela and Tara-chan from Thailand, they only went skiing for the first time last week, but Jessie was doing realy good, and only fell once, but Tara-chan sadly enough didnt remember how to stop, but that was ok, because it was really funny, but we started to get better right before I left. When we first started I was really worried Id forgotten how to ski, because its been about 2 years, but it was really fun, and I cant believe I didnt do it in 2 years! So after that we went out for Hambagu again, and each got a sundae for dessert. Then I got dropped off at home and relaxed 2 hours before getting ready for 7:00 mass. So I decided to wear my confimation suit, since I havent since Ive gotten here, so i was a little overdressed, but think I looked snazzy. so anyway we eventually found Jessies house because cursed Japanese streets dont really have clear names, and houses dont usually have addresses written. But after we found her we then picked up HD&HMs friend and HD dropped the 3 of us at church. I was pretty dissapointed since there really werent any christmas songs durring the first half, but they did manage to sneak in a "Joy to the world" nd "The first NOEL" in Japanese. And after that we found some Japanese High School kids from her and my schools. So we talked a bit and found the German priest who presides over the mass and asked if we could take pictures with him and he let us! Then I got home abou 9:15 and Host Sister was there too for dinner. So we ate some meatloaf and drank some sparkling cider before the christmas cake! Now Christmas Cake is ONE thing from the so-called "Christmas" here that I DO like. Ours wasnt strawberry like most of the rest of the country, but chocolate is a fine substitute. By the time everything was finished I went to bed around 11:45.
Now unfortunatly, and i really REALLY mean that, we had school today. Which really ruined the whole Christmas feeling. I was surprised though to get a sweater from the host rents at breakfast though. So that was my Christmas present. At school we had a 45 minute cleaning period, which soesnt really make much sense, because the first thing we do after winter vacation is 45 minutes of cleaning, who uses the room and how much do they mess it up over the Holiday? Durring lunch I went down with Donnie to se a christmas concert by the school band, though it was only about half christmas songs, the other half being "oh Happy Day" and J-Pop, but it was nice.Then we had an hour long boring assembly about how to be good over the holidays and not wear short skirts or say the teachers are annoying. So after that School FINALLY Ended untill January 19th, or I assume it will if things go on schedule. And back at home nothing much, I did talk to Mom, Darby and Megan for a long time, but it was Christmas eve there, so didnt count, and will probably call in an hour or 2.
So Japanese December 25th (I dont like calling this day here christmas!) isnt as much fun as American Christmas, but Ill try to make up for it next year.
Here are all of us at Tara-chans Xmas party
I was just posing for this one while waiting for the others to come down
And here are us pre-skiing
And I got out waitress to take this one
I didnt really eat the flag, dont worry
And here we are with the German Priest
And here we are pretending to sing, Jessie doesnt like this picture, I wonder why...
And here is our christmas cake, my candle is to the left