(insert frowny face)

Why the frowny face? No, I'm not hating it here or anything bad like that. But the only reason I have time to write this is because I got sick today from something I ate and, for fear of swine flu, have been forced to take the day off. *sigh* They are absolutely terrified of swine flu here, it's a little crazy!

So! What's been going on in the life of this exchanger? Hmm... I'm glad to say I FINALLY got to hang out with Susan, something I've been dying to do for a while now. She's the other American exchanger here, and has been in and out of the hospital for a few weeks now, so it was good to see her after so long. We talked in American English :D My slang is so hideously bad right now. I keep forgetting the appropriate times to insert slang phrases, so it sounds a little strange... Luckily, Susan is having the same problem, so no worries about embarrassing myself (yet)! And something I discovered: At my school, everyone speaks Kansai-ben, or the Kansai dialect. When I realized this, I thought, "Oh cool, I'll learn a dialect, m'kay now where's my sushi." Well, I have learned more than I thought. And because of it, sometimes the other exchangers can't understand me. I'll say something in Kansai-ben and all of the Japanese people will understand, but the other exchangers are just like, "Wha...?" It's so weird!!! Like, for instance, I say "Wakarahen" when I don't understand. They say "Wakaranai". I understand both just fine, but they had no idea what I was saying, much to the amusement of the Rotex (old exchangers from D2650). GAH! Shiga has a mix of Kansai-ben and the normal Tokyo speech, so most everyone here can understand AND speak both, but get out of Shiga and you pretty much have just one or the other. So boo. But hey, I love Kansai-ben, so I ain't complaining about that :)

As for school- I am proud to say that I can officially understand about half of what's going on in math class. Meaning if it's a topic I might maybe know, I'm good, and if it's something WAY out there, I'm pretty lost. But for the most part, I can do it. I just can't really read the worksheets they hand out... Other than math, I don't do all that much. I mean, I try my best in history, I actually managed to ace a geography test (BEST DAY EVER), and I at least act like I have a clue in Japanese class, but I don't do that much. Part of it is the change from American school to Japanese school- if I'm not asking questions during class, I don't feel like I'm part of it, and here, no one ever asks questions. It's 100% lecture. The other part is, well, the language. Thank God the numbers here are the same, that's all I have to say.

And that brings us to Japanese! How is it going? Well, I had some sort of click a few days ago and could suddenly understand a lot more. I have no idea how that works, but I don't question it. And people tell me I'm doing well (they are obsessed with my ear for tone, meaning I can understand entire conversations SOLELY based on context and the sound of peoples' voices. Music is, after all, the international language, right?) I'd say that in an average conversation, I can understand maybe 1/3 or 1/2 of the vocabulary, which is well more than enough for me to be able to auto-complete the rest. And I can mostly get my point across with a combo of frantic arm movements, strange vocabulary, and occasionally a dictionary (Just fyi: no one will ever beat me at charades now. Ever.). Of course, some topics I can understand almost everything, some topics almost nothing, but it's going alright. I can't say I do a lot in the way of studying, but quite honestly, studying brute grammar and vocab is hideously boring. I work best with example sentences and stuff. The only way I can learn grammar and stuff is by hearing examples. I just can't do that thing some of ya'll can where you memorize verb congugations from a book and then can magically speak with flawless grammar. No. I need to hear it. And for any of ya'll studying Japanese or going to Japan (endorsement coming up!), I highly recommend the "Japanese" application for iPod Touch/iPhone. It has saved my a** SO many times, especially because it has a) example sentences and b) verb conjugations listed out for easy access! I dunno how good it is for basic study, but I use it everyday here and I've learned a lot using it (meaning I no longer speak in only present tense). So thank you, Padre, for that cable! You have indirectly helped me learn more Japanese :)

Hmm, next I guess I should say a word about friends. The exchangers, of course, are my closest friends here so far, but that doesn't mean I don't have friends at school. Making friends in Japan (and more so if you are an exchange student) is just something that takes time. There are some people I really like and would love to talk to more, but I simply don't have the vocabulary yet. And friends don't hang out like they do in the States. It's pretty much school only. And club, but I still count that as school. There's not a lot of hanging out on the weekend (which it only Sunday, mind you) or after school. Just during school/club. Also, a lot of people are VERY shy around me. If they're in a group, they don't talk a lot because they don't want to make me feel awkward when I don't understand the conversation, but I'm a-okay with that. Listening to people talk is how I learn! So while it has been rather slow and often very lonely, I'm making friends. People at my school are interested in me and like to talk to me, but right now it's just hard because a) we're all shy, and b) I don't speak quite enough Japanese yet to hold a REAL conversation. So yeah. Working on that!

Other than that, well, I'm busy, obviously! School, Kyoto, club, etc., not to mention getting sick, writing blogs, violin, shopping, making friends, mailing, the list goes on. I'm going to stop here before I fall asleep writing and/or defeat the purpose of taking a day off, so...

Love ya'll back home, miss ya! Jaa ne!