Winter Break

So today was omochi day! Omochi is rice cakes that you make for the New Year. So today we went to the neighbor's house for an omochi party. My first host parents, the Hiranos, plus one of the Rotarians, Kinpara-san, came too. Then we went out for Italian food.
Yesterday, I just bummed around at home. Friday, I hung out with Addison and Laurent. Addison had to leave early, so Laurent and I walked into this supermarket downtown with lots of Western stuff. We were staring at everything and talking about what was good and what we missed. Finally, we bought cheese, a baguette, Orangina, and Swiss chocolate and had a little European picnic. It was amazingly fun.
The day before, I hung out with Max and Sakiko Maria. That was an interesting linguistical experience. Max wanted to write a letter in Japanese, so he dictated it to me in French, and I wrote it in English, and then I gave it to Sakiko Maria, who translated it into Japanese. Ah, this is basically every day in Japan: my head is swimming in 3 foreign languages at once.
Last Tuesday was Christmas. I called my family and talked to them for two hours and my best friend for about 30 mins. Then I went over to the Hiranos. They cooked a Western meal and we had apple pie sent from the USA and it was good. I wasn't that homesick on Christmas day, but before hand I was horribly, horribly homesick. Anyway, Christmas Eve I hung out with about 10 people at once, from all corners of the globe, half Japanese, half gaijin. Then most of the people had to leave early, so me, Addison, and Josefa had Christmas Eve dinner together at a ramen shop. It was so much fun!
OK, thats all for now. I'm at the Hiranos now for the New Year's festivities. Take care and yoi otoshi wo. (Have a good new year)