A Whole Bunch of Stuff: Part 1

I had so much go on during last week and the beginning of this week that it won't do to cram it all into one post. I've dividing it as so:

Part 1: Sports Festival
Part 2: Onee-chan's Birthday
Part 3: The Cave

So! Part 1:

Well, we were supposed to have the sports festival on Wednesday and practice on Tuesday, but Tuesday's practice got rained out, therefore pushing the festival to Thursday. So! Wednesday was practice day, and by practice, I don't mean we ran or did push-ups or anything like that- no, we marched. The entire high school was on the 2nd ground (big, dirt field for the school's big events) in their gym uniforms, divided by grade. I'm so jealous of the 2nd and 3rd graders because they have nice red and blue uniforms respectively, and us 1st years have this creepy aqua color that looks more suited for scuba gear. But anywho, we all lined up by grade and began to march. But, of course, as we were separated by such a large field, the counting often went awry. It was really funny :) Everyone was essentially marching to their own beat, and then some kids got the bright idea to have a screaming contest in the midst of the off-beat counting. *sigh* I honestly don't know how all those stereotypes about Japanese students got started, I've never seen two more... what's the word? ah! opposing ideas. Seriously.

When practice was over, most of us got to go home early, which was nice. I've started walking home more with the badminton girls (5 of us :), and they're all really cool and awesome. I'm glad I'm in badminton club :D

The next day was the sports festival. We did our marching and "rajio taisou" (which I've almost memorized), and the games began >:) First off was the 50 meter dash, which I was a part of. I got 3rd place in my group of 6, which wasn't too bad considering I had the weight of some 900 sets of eyes glued to my back. My class has gotten used to me and doesn't stare as much anymore. That's not quite true for the rest of the school yet. I don't really mind anymore. I've gotten used to it. But when it's the whole school... yeah, that can be a little stressful.

I finished and went to my class's area, which was conspicuously lacking girls. So I asked my bff Keito-kun (haha not really, he's just the only one whose name I can remember) "Where girls?" He was like, "adfkj over there sjahk hurry!" I realized they were about to take part in the 15 leg race, and there were only 15 (out of a should-be 16) girls there. I ran about 10x faster than I had for the 50 meter dash, and then we all geared up. And apparently, American skin is really tough, because by the end of the race, I was the only one without blisters on my ankles from the ropes we used to tie our legs together. We got second, though :)

After that came the really, horrible, awful part. You see, we were sitting outside in gorgeous, cloudless weather, and I had no sunscreen. I don't tend to burn very badly, but I take a medicine that has a side effect of making burns feel doubly painful (meaning they sting like CRAZY on top of the usual burned feeling). Put on top of that I borrowed from some classmates some sunscreen that I am apparently allergic to, and you get serious, burning, pain. So during lunch I went to the staff room, fetched Shimizu-sensei, and proceeded to cry. A lot. It hurt so badly. The teachers were like, "Oh no, what's wrong with her? Has being an exchange student finally driven her crazy?" (well, not exactly that, but something close). And I was standing there trying explain the whole situation with the medicine and my allergy to the sunscreen, all the while sobbing. But I must say, everyone was relieved that it wasn't something emotional. It would have been even worse if something like that happened on sports day, of all times. I got an ice pack for the burns and a fashionable hat to wear for the rest of the day, but sadly that didn't stop me from getting a little more burned on the field. I still don't know what to do about the sunscreen- there's definitely going to be times when I'll need it, but most of the sunscreens here I can't use. Where's my Neutrogena when I need it? :( On the bright side, though, most of the pain/redness was caused by my allergy, and after 2 days pretty much all that was left was a tan :)

Other than me burning, the second half of the festival was hilarious. It was the clubs competing against each other in full gear, meaning the hockey and kendo people had to run in their heavy, hot gear while teams like the basketball and badminton (yay!) flew ahead. The kids from the badminton team kicked some serious a**, and we won a lot :D I didn't run because it was only 4-5 people per sport, but I still got to cheer them on. And watching the kendo kids try to figure out how to not fall was hysterical. Eventually one guy gave up on decency and hiked the really long, voluminous pants up to his thighs, much to the amusement of all of us. High-larious XD And the basketball team ambushed the field when one of their guys won, which was also pretty funny :)

That was the sports festival. The 3rd years swept up most of the prizes (grr), but the 1st years got a few. Actually, the only group left out were the 2nd years. And now we're doing dance in gym class (girls ONLY), and I'm teaching them crazy American dance moves (along with one interesting Korean one... thank you, Gov School :) It's suugoku omoshiroiiiiiiiiiii!

On to Part 2! Mata ne!