Gaijin ga ooi!

This week and next week, the students at Kitako are taking mid-term exams. Everyone rushes back home every day after school to study. Instead of twiddling my thumbs, I made it my mission to meet other gaijins (foreigners). I already knew three my age: Addison, Laurent, and Max. Addison and Laurent are two other Rotary students. Max is from AFS; Max and Laurent go to Kitako with me.
So this week, everyday afterschool, I walked to Kaiseikan High School to hang out with Addison because I hadn't seen him since the first Rotary orientation in September. Sometimes Max and Laurent tagged along, and we'd always run into people we know downtown and they joined us.
So, today, I had school cleaning. Taka and Mina and I cleaned the, um, well I don't really know what it's for, room. But it's a room at school. Then I was talking to Kei and helping her write an essay for her college applications. Anyway, I ran off to Kaiseikan as usual and Addison was waiting as usual. We usually head straight downtown, but today we decided to find Uminohoshi, an all-girls school that we had been told contained a GAIJIN exchange student. We had no idea where the school was (we knew only the general direction) or who the exchange student was or where she was from, but that's what made it the fun part.
I'm actually really proud of our achievement. We knew it was past Kitako, so we started walking back to Kitako. We took advantage of the fact that I know many of the people I pass on the street in that neighborhood and asked everyone where Uminohoshi was. Minori told us to make a left at the light and walk for ten minutes.
So we walked. And walked. And walked, for much more than ten minutes. We got to a downhill part, and Addison refused to walk down it for the sole reason that he didn't feel like walking back up. So we turned around and asked a random lady where Uminohoshi was. The only words we understood were "right" and "supermarket." So we made a right at the supermarket.
Wandering around the general area, we found a very worn out baseball field but decided it couldn't possibly be a private school's. We walked past it and saw a building with a cross on it. Then I had a sudden revelation... "Uminohoshi" means "Star of the Sea" in Japanese. Star of the Sea is a title for Mary, as in Mary the mother of God. (Yay for Catholic school back in the USA!) So we KNEW it was that building. We entered the school grounds and asked the first group of students we saw where the Gaijin was. Some random teacher popped out of nowhere and said, "Oh! Gaijin! Exchange student! What grade is she in? First grade? Second grade?" (Mind you, this is all going on in Japanese.) We must have looked so ridiculous saying, "It doesn't matter. We actually don't really know her."
So the teacher asked us to follow him and he found the gaijin exchange student. She walked up to us and the first thing she said was "What are you doing here?" (Ok, this is in English) All we could say was "Well we heard there was a gaijin here, and we wanted to meet you." In the next hour, we got to know the Chilean phenomenon known as Josefa. She is so much fun and SUCH a character. She also introduced us to Yufui, a Japanese girl who lived in North Carolina for most of her life. She was also a character... it was so funny to talk to a girl with such American gestures and attitudes again. We have plans to meet on Tuesday.
Ok. I have no idea why I felt it was my duty to share that story. But I have.
Sunday Laurent, Addison and I are going to Numatsu for some sort of Rotary thing. It will be so amazing to reunite with the other exchange students in this district -- Marcella from Germany and Kati from Austria.
Wednesday, I started Spanish at Kitako. My teacher is French, and she teaches in Japanese. It's a pretty trippy experience.
My homeroom teacher, Kamimura-sensee, has asked me to participate in a prefectural exchange student speech contest. Ahhhh!!!
Laurent, Max, and I went to the tea ceremony club last Friday. Maybe we'll go again next Friday. It's so amazing! All the movements are SO graceful and SO beautiful. There are so many rules -- what angle your hand must be at, how the cloth must be creased, how you stir the tea, how you drink the tea, EVERYTHING. We just watched, though. It takes years and years of practice to learn everything exactly. Well, that's what Laurent says. And he's usual right about these things.
Ok. That's enough. Wayy too long. Good night!