The Semester Ends
Hey all,
So winter break has hit in full force, and oddly enough, I find myself gasping for air between all the functions with my host family. We lost three classmates from my language class. Two are going back to their home countries, and one of them, Matt, is going back to Maine for about eleven days before leaving for France to study abroad there in the spring. (He definitely wishes he was staying in Japan for the entire year, and I can’t blame him.) A couple days before the end of class, we took half the day for a wakarekai, which is basically a farewell party. Most people in the class performed some sort of talent or prepared food. A couple people did karaoke, two did a classical piece of music together (piano and singer), Pao, from Thailand, said Bangkok’s full name in Thai, which is apparently the longest city name on the record books, and it took her a good 20 seconds or so to spit it out. Machida-sensei got up on stage and performed movements from Iaido, a Japanese sword art. I performed two of my Taekwondo forms, and that went over pretty well. After the talent show was over, we chowed down on all the food. One guy from Boston made Boston Cream Pies which were to die for. I’d never had it before, and it definitely jumped up to one of the top spots on my dessert list.
About a week later, after I walked out of my last final (history), there was a party for CJS (the exchange student branch at Nanzan University), since a lot of people would be going back in a few days. One of my classmates, Lee-san, gave a really nice speech, and got me thinking about what I’ll be feeling in about 4-5months when I’m the one going home in a few days. It’s going to be rough to say the least. I’ve become horribly attached to everyone in my host family, and the feeling is reciprocal. I hate to see what Yugo is going to be like when I have to leave. He’ll be a bigger wreck than me. Anyway, I don’t want to dwell on that anymore than I have to, so back to the CJS party. My host mom came with the two kids to the party, so the party basically consisted of my introducing them to all my classmates, with Yugo constantly sticking his head under the hooded sweatshirt I was wearing, since that was gathering all the attention of my female classmates who all thought it was too cute. After grazing the free food, the party ended and a good dozen or so of us went out for karaoke. This was basically a farewell outing for the people leaving, and it was a three-hour marathon of fun. The karaoke chain of choice is KaraokeJoyJoy, because they are cheap, and the karaoke comes with nomihoudai, which basically means unlimited drinks. Granted, the cups are small, and you have to run your cup down to the front desk, so the fact that it is a pain in the butt helps limit how much you drink, but it is still a good deal. And it is something to do when someone starts singing a song you don’t care for. (‘Arigatou’ by SMAP for starters…) I’ll have to explain the enigma that is SMAP in a future post. Anyway, I normally stick the various “sour” drinks of various fruit flavors since they are sweet, but in the normal mix of ume, peach, and muskat grape sours, I ventured off the beaten path after trying a bit of Blake’s drink, appropriately named a sledgehammer. It tasted quite a bit stronger than the sours, and I realized exactly what I gotten myself into after I ordered it. The girl behind the counter threw a couple cubes of ice in the glass and then took the bottle of vodka and poured, and poured…and poured. No water, no soda, just a bit lime syrup and over half a glass(albeit a smaller glass) of vodka. I definitely started to feel a buzz after that little experiment and went back to the sours. I basically try to not be as drunk as all the salarymen riding with me on the last train home. Okay, so after starting off winter break properly with that karaoke-fest, the next day was devoted to cleaning. My host mom decided it was cleaning day since Yugo’s room was a freaking mess, and she wanted to do a thorough cleaning of the living room. I was totally fine with this, since I had been meaning to clean my room for a long, long time. So organized everything, vacuumed the floor multiple times and then wiped down the floor. And during this I finally told my host mom that I had accidently stained the floor with marker. This was a good month and half ago, but I made a visual aid for a speech I was giving in class, and the marker bled through the paper in some spots. The dots are pretty small, and I didn’t notice them right away either, but if you look closer there are quite a few of them. Anyway, even though I knew my host mom wouldn’t be mad, I was still a little anxious about telling her. But in her typical, extremely kind fashion, once I showed her the spots, she just smiled and said, “Once Yugo gets older and uses the room, we can just look at the dots and they’ll serve as a reminder of you.” It’s comments like that that get me everytime. She has even called me her ‘new son’ many a time when introducing me (don't get jealous, mom! haha). I just have to look back at comments like that to realize how lucky I am to have gotten this host family, and that we'll be seeing plenty of each other long past when I come back in May/June.
So winter break has hit in full force, and oddly enough, I find myself gasping for air between all the functions with my host family. We lost three classmates from my language class. Two are going back to their home countries, and one of them, Matt, is going back to Maine for about eleven days before leaving for France to study abroad there in the spring. (He definitely wishes he was staying in Japan for the entire year, and I can’t blame him.) A couple days before the end of class, we took half the day for a wakarekai, which is basically a farewell party. Most people in the class performed some sort of talent or prepared food. A couple people did karaoke, two did a classical piece of music together (piano and singer), Pao, from Thailand, said Bangkok’s full name in Thai, which is apparently the longest city name on the record books, and it took her a good 20 seconds or so to spit it out. Machida-sensei got up on stage and performed movements from Iaido, a Japanese sword art. I performed two of my Taekwondo forms, and that went over pretty well. After the talent show was over, we chowed down on all the food. One guy from Boston made Boston Cream Pies which were to die for. I’d never had it before, and it definitely jumped up to one of the top spots on my dessert list.
About a week later, after I walked out of my last final (history), there was a party for CJS (the exchange student branch at Nanzan University), since a lot of people would be going back in a few days. One of my classmates, Lee-san, gave a really nice speech, and got me thinking about what I’ll be feeling in about 4-5months when I’m the one going home in a few days. It’s going to be rough to say the least. I’ve become horribly attached to everyone in my host family, and the feeling is reciprocal. I hate to see what Yugo is going to be like when I have to leave. He’ll be a bigger wreck than me. Anyway, I don’t want to dwell on that anymore than I have to, so back to the CJS party. My host mom came with the two kids to the party, so the party basically consisted of my introducing them to all my classmates, with Yugo constantly sticking his head under the hooded sweatshirt I was wearing, since that was gathering all the attention of my female classmates who all thought it was too cute. After grazing the free food, the party ended and a good dozen or so of us went out for karaoke. This was basically a farewell outing for the people leaving, and it was a three-hour marathon of fun. The karaoke chain of choice is KaraokeJoyJoy, because they are cheap, and the karaoke comes with nomihoudai, which basically means unlimited drinks. Granted, the cups are small, and you have to run your cup down to the front desk, so the fact that it is a pain in the butt helps limit how much you drink, but it is still a good deal. And it is something to do when someone starts singing a song you don’t care for. (‘Arigatou’ by SMAP for starters…) I’ll have to explain the enigma that is SMAP in a future post. Anyway, I normally stick the various “sour” drinks of various fruit flavors since they are sweet, but in the normal mix of ume, peach, and muskat grape sours, I ventured off the beaten path after trying a bit of Blake’s drink, appropriately named a sledgehammer. It tasted quite a bit stronger than the sours, and I realized exactly what I gotten myself into after I ordered it. The girl behind the counter threw a couple cubes of ice in the glass and then took the bottle of vodka and poured, and poured…and poured. No water, no soda, just a bit lime syrup and over half a glass(albeit a smaller glass) of vodka. I definitely started to feel a buzz after that little experiment and went back to the sours. I basically try to not be as drunk as all the salarymen riding with me on the last train home. Okay, so after starting off winter break properly with that karaoke-fest, the next day was devoted to cleaning. My host mom decided it was cleaning day since Yugo’s room was a freaking mess, and she wanted to do a thorough cleaning of the living room. I was totally fine with this, since I had been meaning to clean my room for a long, long time. So organized everything, vacuumed the floor multiple times and then wiped down the floor. And during this I finally told my host mom that I had accidently stained the floor with marker. This was a good month and half ago, but I made a visual aid for a speech I was giving in class, and the marker bled through the paper in some spots. The dots are pretty small, and I didn’t notice them right away either, but if you look closer there are quite a few of them. Anyway, even though I knew my host mom wouldn’t be mad, I was still a little anxious about telling her. But in her typical, extremely kind fashion, once I showed her the spots, she just smiled and said, “Once Yugo gets older and uses the room, we can just look at the dots and they’ll serve as a reminder of you.” It’s comments like that that get me everytime. She has even called me her ‘new son’ many a time when introducing me (don't get jealous, mom! haha). I just have to look back at comments like that to realize how lucky I am to have gotten this host family, and that we'll be seeing plenty of each other long past when I come back in May/June.
posted by Collin at 1:13 AM
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