So I've passed my three month mark on November 14th.
I haven't been homesick, or had any truly bad days since I've been here. I don't know where I am in terms of the exchange cycle.
Anyway, to the point of this journal.
I had an absolutely wonderful weekend, and it wasn't even anything out of the ordinary. Nothing special. Just all the little things that built up to make such a great weekend.
It started on Friday afternoon when my friend back home emailed me the new BTR album, "Elevate". No matter where, when, or anything, they always make me smile and feel happy. I love their music so much. That put me in a good mood for the weekend. Of course I bought the actual CD but it would've taken a long time for my parents to send it by mail.
Saturday I had to get up early for Kendo practice. I'm not fond of early rising and was really dreading this. The bike ride there was cold and windy, and the hardwood floor was very cold too. I don't particularly enjoy warm up. But I ended up having a good practice session. The bike ride home was amazing though, a cool wind, clear sky and BTR on my mp3 player made for a lovely ride. After I got home, I went to have lunch with my mama and sister, we went to a Thai restaurant and I had Pad Thai! I love that stuff! It was soooo good. I enjoyed it very much. We got back home it was still early afternoon, sky clear lovely cool weather. I took a nap with my window open. After I woke up, I danced a little bit, and then had dinner. I don't particularly remember what it was, but it was good. Then I took ofuro, which is a bath, which felt so good especially on cold days. I love ofuro. Then an early bed for an early rise on Sunday.
Sunday I also got up early (as I before mentioned) because I had a Kendo test! The test was for 1-kyu, which is the first test you take when you start Kendo, to get to the next level. Early rise, I know, I didn't enjoy that, but I had an awesome dream that night and woke up ridiculously happy. It was so nice. As soon as I got to the Kendo jo, I was nervous. 50 something girls and 80 something boy were there testing too. Very nerve-wracking. First round I had to put on all my bogu (armour) and use my shinai. We had to to one set of kiri-kaishi, and then had an actual match. You know actual sword fighting. I was so worried I would screw up. After we finished that we had to take off the bogu and use a bokuto to do Kendo forms called, Nihon Kendo Kata, and Bokutō Ni Yoru Kendō Kihon-waza Keiko-hō. So nervous I would make a mistake in one of these steps like I always did in practice. My Kendo sensei was there and my host mama and sister too. According to my sensei, I did every step perfectly. After everything was done, the judges decided who passed and who failed and then put up the numbers of people who passed on the wall. And I passed! I was so happy! What a relief! It was quite an accomplishment too the fact that I have only been practicing Kendo for 2 months, and most people who take this test have practiced much longer. Woo~ Everyone was so proud of me. After that my mama brought me and my sister to a coffee shop and we had some yummy cake and juice in celebration and it was oh so nice. And I took some pictures of the Christmas decorations that were put out. (Which has started to put me in the Christmas mood.) And then we made a side trip to the store to get fluffy warm slippers since it's cold now, and then we went to the pillow section, and I joked around with my little sister and we laughed and had a jolly good time messing around with the pillows. And my mama actually bought me a new pillow, so now I have another pillow. Ahahaha. It's so fluffy. I will have a good sleep tonight. After that we got home and my brother came out of his room to see what the commotion was about and he and my sister ended up play fighting with his Kendo sword from when he was a little kid in the hallway. The hallway is really skinny with dressers in it so they only had like two feet of room. But it was so funny and I had tears from laughing so much. Dinner was great too, we had Okinomoyaki. Which I didn't really like when I first got to Japan, but for some reason tonight I found it delicious and I had two. Haha, I think I'm turning Japanese I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so. Fits so well here. My host papa came home during dinner from his trip to Canada and congratulated me. And he gave everyone souvenirs, and brought maple syrup. That was funny and we had a good time laughing and being silly during dinner. And it was like we were a big happy family. I was so happy.
That was my weekend. Just goes to show you how if you take time on exchange to appreciate and be happy about the little things, that you will never truly be sad about anything.
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