Spokane-Nishinomiya High School Exchange

Even though it's already going on my third week of being here in Japan, I thought I should probably finish writing this blog post about my first week. So--here's how my first day of school went! First of all, I woke up at about 6:30am and made my bed. Then, I went out to the kitchen to eat breakfast with my host family. The breakfast consisted of French toast and juice; the day before, I tried showing my host mother how to make French toast, and then she managed to make it even better than I did! Now that my second week here has already passed, I usually eat cereal or bread for breakfast, which is delicious nonetheless! After breakfast, I got changed into my uniform and left to walk to school at about 7:30am. About half of the walk is uphill, and since the humidity is so high I got really sweaty. When we arrived at school it was about 8:10, and Hana and I were supposed to give our introduction speeches to the all of the teachers. Beforehand, we met three important faculty membe...

Hello everyone! Wow. It has been a crazy week and I can’t believe it has already been over a week since I first arrived. The routine that I am starting to build goes something like this: 6:00 am I wake up, talk to my friends in America, get dressed, and do my physical therapy exercises (I tore two ligaments in my ankle back in March so I am still trying to fully recover from that). I eat breakfast with Nanase at 6:50. This usually consists of rice with some variations. We leave at 7:15 and walk about 15 minutes down and extremely steep hill to catch the overly crowded bus. Usually there is standing room only. After riding the bus for about 30 minutes and another short walk, we arrive at school. School starts at 8:10 and ends at 4:00 but club activities do not finish until 6:30. This means we get home at about 7:15 at which point I take a quick shower and then eat dinner with the whole family. Recently Nanase and I have been practicing our class dance that we will perform at our sch...

Konbanwa! Tonight is my first Saturday night here. It is now my fourth night here, and I think I can officially say I've shaken the jet lag. I love my host family already! They're super kind and really fun! Back before we came here, I had asked Meg what her family's hobbies were. She told me eating different foods! Sure enough, we eat lots of neat things, and go out to some super cool restaurants. My host mother likes to bake. This morning we ate cake for breakfast!!! My host family is very sweet, and also silly! We exchange humor from our cultures, and we like to laugh! Even in Japan, they have puns and "Dad Jokes!" The people here are wonderful! It's very fun to trade language, and learn from each other. Even though I've only been here for such a short time, I have already picked up so much more language. Taking the language barrier in stride, although it was not easy at first. My first day here, I was very shy. But over a few days, I've warmed u...