I'm too fucking tired to write this now but I'll try anyway. Yesterday was Monday and after what felt like months, school finally started. I woke up at 5am when my host mother got up and didn't sleep much afterwards. At 6:30, she told me to get up but I was already awake. While I was getting dressed, they came back to my door 3 times to tell me to come down, which I didn't understand because I was getting ready and not sleeping. I couldn't say anything that would make them understand. I choked down some frosted flakes and didn't touch my two huge pieces of toast and then was soon on my way. I think I'll sleep now and pick this back up tomorrow.
Where was I? Ahh, yes, first day of school. My host mother walked me as far as the end of the block and then I was on my own. I walked the mile or so the the station and met some other students there. We rode the 15 minutes into Hakodate and then walked another 30 to school. The building that the school is in is up two and a half blocks of near vertical slope. After that, we climb 5 flights of stairs to cold classrooms. The building is old and lacking many basic amenities like soap and hot water and water fountains. Anyway, we went to another orientation and then to our respective classrooms. We spent the day reviewing old stuff. Pretty boring. The class is almost done exactly like it was at UGA except it lasts 3 hours instead of one.
After school ended, I and 2 other students walked to KFC for some tiny expensive portions of grease. One of the people set out for a post office and never came back to the meeting place we'd agreed upon, so after waiting an hour, the remaining student and I split up. I went to an internet cafe, where I had to wait for a computer. It sucked because you're allowed to smoke in most public buildings here and I was surrounded by smokers. Not to mention that it can get expensive if you are used to getting it for free. When I was finally able to check my email for the first time in nearly 2 weeks, I learned that my sister got engaged and that my grandfather has bladder cancer. Boy, this is turning out to be a fun trip.
I left the cafe and went to the huge department store across the street. It seems to be 6 small floors of clothes and makeup and 1 small floor of books and cd's. Cd's here are amazingly expensive. Around $30 per cd and $45 per DVD.
I noticed that it was getting late and I was tired of being stared at by punks, so I got on the train for home. While I was walking from the train station to my house, I had a racial slur made at me by a group of high school punks. They were walking towards me and waving so I crossed the street. Then I noticed they were waving at me. As they passed me, they said "how" several times and then "si".
When I got home, my mother had made some yummy food from potato and carrot and pork kind of like pot roast but different. I ate a lot of it. My father said it was German food. I think. I was really tired afterwards but my mother had something to tell me about a bus pass. I couldn't understand her so we walked down the street to another student's house for translation. I thought we'd never leave. I was dead tired and they had a yappy dog and the host mothers wanted to talk. I was afraid I wouldn't last long enough to do homework. We finally left and when we got home, I bathed and went to my room to do my homework before I passed out. I don't really remember much else about that night. I do remember that I called my mother and tried not to cry much. She said she'd send me mail and phone cards. Oh, and that I almost made the descision to go home then and there.
Tuesday, the same thing happened in the morning as Monday. They knocked a bunch of times and then I choked down some toast. My host father announced that he was driving me halfway to the station and then we left 10 minutes before my walking departure time. Since I had 40 minutes to kill, I called home again and tried to make myself come to terms with spending 2 months here. I decided to talk to one of the HIF office staff since they seemed helpful. I rode and walked to school and was nearly late for that helper crap. That helper crap is a system in Japanese schools called "nitchoku" where one student has jobs each day. I had to write the date and weather on the chalkboard, make announcements, make a 2 minute speech and write in a diary. Needless to say, it sucked.
I don't remember much about class except that it was more review and boring and I had a bad attitude. After it was over, I went to tell the HIF person my problem. I told her that I was hating this and didn't want to do it and felt that it was a mistake to come here and that I was uncomfortable around my family because I didn't know what they wanted and that breakfast makes me sick. She offered to explain it to my mother and that I was to come back after the elementary school visit we had to make that afternoon.
The elementary school visit was um, amusing. Not fun but not terrible. We were taken to a large room with rows of small tables and stools. At each place was a name tag and huge ribbon-badge that we had to wear around our necks. Shortly afterwards, we were taken to the gymnasium, where children were singing and holding sticks of paper flowers into a tunnel which we walked through. Some children made some speeches and some more people made speeches and then we were distributed among the children to sit on the floor. And then, we had to play a GAME. BLAH. It was some kind of musical variation of rock paper scissors where the losers formed a train behind the winners. After that was over, we sat on the floor and stood back up several times for no apparent reason and then we went off to classrooms in groups. I went to a 6th grade class where some kids showed me how to make origami crap. At least I had nice kids since I didn't have much choice. After about half an hour of origami, we went back to the first room with the short tables where coke and potato chips were waiting for us. After that, we left. I heard the prototypical Westminster chime announce that school was over at 3. I heard one at 9 one morning too.
I went back to HIF partially on the streetcar but was on the wrong route so I walked the rest of the way. I talked to the HIF person again and went to look for the JAL store to buy a plane ticket back to Tokyo. By this time, it was after 5 and they were closed. I went to get my discount bus pass which everyone refers to as "prepain" but it turned out to be 7000 yen and I only had 3000 on me. I decided to just go home. While I was walking from the station to my house, my host father drove past and picked me up. When I got there, my mother was talking to the HIF person and we got everything straight. I think we're all feeling better. I don't waste food anymore and we know where we stand with each other. I hope.
Dinner was good. There was some grilled pork and onions on skewers with a really salty seasoning and also crab, carrots and celery wrapped in ham secured with toothpicks. There were yummy. There were a couple of pieces of fried pork which looked like fried fatback but weren't. They weren't as good as the other stuff. I was really tired so I bathed early and said goodnight. Which brings us back to where I started this entry. I did homework and tried to write in the diary but I laid down on the floor and fell asleep.