It feels like summer, but it's JUST SPRING.

Hello friends, it's been just over a month since I said I'd start updating more frequently. Hahaha. Sorry about that, I really am, and I'd like to say I have some excuse like only getting half an hour to myself everyday or I've been frantically translating for everyone in my city, but I haven't. That's okay.

Also, I've been aprehensive about updating here because, well, I'm not really sure what I want here to be. Before I knew what it was like to be an exchange student I had all these plans for things I'd do, and would still like to, without knowing the complete exhaustion that comes with only understanding about 55% of what's going on when you're not being talked to with a clear voice using vocabulary you understand. It's rough, and I'm always tired, but I've found that spending time actively talking in Japanese and enjoying myself, whether it's in Kendo or making jokes with friends or relaxing with my mom, it really helps dull the exhaustion. Sometimes it's still there and I'm unable to remember a single word, therefore losing the meaning of an entire paragraph, but it's manageable and getting better everyday.

To combat the confusion and exhaustion, I've been writing a lot more. I don't know, maybe it was two years of being taught to the AP test exactly what writing should look like (which I did voluntarily), but I haven't been reading or writing much for myself since Freshman year. Now I am, and I'm singing at karaoke clubs, and exploring cities with a friend on the back of my bike. It's nice, so I would like my blog to reflect that. Maybe I'll be updating with weird thought processes, or an essay I write in class about something that happened that day, or an open letter to people who talk about me thinking I don't understand them; maybe it will be art, maybe it will be angry. The only truth I can offer to you now is that it'll be honest, and hopefully you'll come to understand what I'm feeling like, here in a big city where I think I belong.

To end, I'm including my daily schedule because maybe I play it down, it's pretty crazy, but it's better then a lot of Japanese highschoolers.

I'm a 高校生 again!

Hello everyone, I'm writing to you exhausted from my couch after dinner on my third day of school. They haven't even been real days, Tuesday was Opening Ceremony and a short day, yesterday and today were almost all testing, and Kendo club just started. However! Japanese High School Life is interesting and a lot of fun, very different from America in ways that don't make me homesick but very excited.

Like I said, I'm really exhausted right now. During my last few weeks in America I went to school for a couple hours every other day, and it was soooooo nice, so now it's like I'm starting school all over again, which I am! Ah!

I've made some really neat friends and I'm excited to start learning about Kendo, and even though I forgot half of my speech for OC onstage I've been welcomed so much that three days feels like a lifetime.
I love it here, I'll write more soon.

We're Gonna Be Fine

Tomorrow I start high school, again. I'm very excited for this new experience but am anxious about lots of things, and however natural that may be, it still freaks me out.

As a kid I was never good at sleeping the night before a big event, I think I got that from my dad. This past fall I lied awake waiting to start my senior year, thinking it would be the last time I did so as a child, and luckily I think that'll be true. Tonight, I feel, will be full of beautiful sleep and probably a little sleep talking.

My mom informed me this morning on our way to Itsuki's opening ceremony that I'd been talking in my sleep when she woke up. I was embarrassed of course, there's always that level of embarrassment that comes with not knowing what you've said, but I realized that 寝言 (negoto / sleep talking) is just another way of communicating. Back in America, Liz would sometimes write down what I said when I talked in my sleep. My favorite, by far, was "I DON'T WANT TO GET MARRIED!" which was screamed in desperation from my party van (from an altogether amazing dream that pretty closely followed the plot of Thumbelina) and when Liz read it back to me laughing we talked about the future of the part van industry.

Maybe I don't know where I was going with this all, but that's okay. I think the point was that the weird things we think are embarrassing are probably gonna make people laugh at you in a good way (you know, the way that hopes you'll laugh along with you so that they feel safe telling you some of their own embarrassing things) and you just gotta get over it?

I have to wear a uniform tomorrow at school and give a speech to all of my peers and the school's faculty and probably the families of my fellow students, and that's scary. I get embarrassed when I can't where what I want because clothing is so important to me, but by wearing a uniform I am saying "we're the same, we can connect," and that's a pretty cool idea.

Hello Again!

Sorry for not posting sooner, but I am happily spending time with my host family. The Yamashita family is amazing and they've welcomed me fully, it's been a lot of fun. I'm so grateful to be in Toyohashi with them and the school that I'll go to, everyone's been so kind.

Yesterday I went shopping(かいもの or kaimono) with my little sister Rika and her friend, we rode our bikes to Toyohashi Station and parked them underground, then walked to the shops on the other side of the station. We went to an office supplies and books shop first and I bought markers and pens for drawing, then we went to some other places and I bought some Alice in Wonderland earrings at Claire's. (Not gonna lie, Claire's in Japan is so much better than America.) We walked around a lot of other shops and finally rode our bikes back home, where we had a really delicious dinner.

So far we've had a lot of interesting Japanese food, like Nabe and Okinomiyaki and DELICIOUS Onigiri, and they've all been amazing. Tonight I think we're having Takoyaki! YUM!

However, I've been having so much fun that I haven't really taken a lot of pictures of Toyohashi yet, but I'll show you those soon. How about my trip here, do you want to see those photos?

Update from LA!

Email me at racheCorn@yahoo.com, I'll talk to you soon!

Goodbye Oregon!

Hello everyone!

I leave for L.A. tomorrow morning at 5:30, it's gonna be rough. I love you all and thank you for all your support. Also, thank you who showed up today to wish me well, I had a great time.

I won't be able to post until next week, email me at racheCorn@yahoo if you want to say hi.

Love you!
Maggie

Hello Again!

I've been so busy finishing school and my senior project, it's been crazy. I just wanted to update though!

This morning I got the second and final shot for Japanese Encephalitis! Thanks again everyone who donated, I couldn't have done it without you.