Little Miss Kara Lynn’s blog

Well Ill admit that Im never good at keeping these things updated. But Im gunna keep trying.

So Ive been in Japan for over 2 months now! I love it. I cant imagine what it would have been like if I had gotten another country. Everything here is amazing. I love the food, and the people, and my school, just everything.

The only thing that I was a little upset about is that Mayu left for Canada last week. It was sad. We did soooo much together. Going to lawson at midnight and watching movies on the portable DVD player in eachothers rooms. Im gunna miss her. But I hope she has a great stay in Canada of course!

Well some of the things Ive done. We had our first overnight rotary meeting, and I met Rio. He is a Rotex member and speaks great English! So he has been tutoring me and Sofia in Japanese and weve done stuff like Karaoke and going out to eat and stuff. So thats fun. He also goes to the college that Im interested in if I were to go to college in Japan. Although the name kinda makes it seem more humorous... Kinki university. =D

Ive done Karaoke tons of times, with friends from school, Sofia, Miho, and Hiroki. I even went with my host family before Mayu left. And of course with every time that you go out and do something you always take purikura, its like some sort of rule for remembrance. So i have a little box full of purikura with tons of different people. The hardest one was probably when we tried to fit our entire district into the purikura machine... we got it to work, but we couldnt write on it much. >.<

I started Tea ceremony, and Dance, and Shamisen, and Karate. So Im usually busy. Especially since our school doesnt end till around 430 and then I have a 20 minute walk home. Unless I decide to go to club, which I wont start till next week becuase they have to perform at the Bazaar (school festival, really big, tons of people, very excited.) before they can accept new people... they dont HAVE to but it just makes it easier. So Im waiting till next week.

Ive gone to many many many festivals. They are one of my favorite things. I actually took part in 2 of them, that was an interesting experiance and highly recommended to other exchange students. But be carefull of creepy old guys who ask you to marry them in another langauge, they are really creepy. Luckily the lady next to me used to be an english teacher and she told me what he said after we had started running again. >.<

My Japanese has improved TONS. But ive still got a long way to go.

Well Im not sure what else to say at the moment. So Ill try to update later with pictures and explanations. 

School is great!

I love my school... I love the people in it.. I love the clubs. I just love it! haha.

Today was so amazing. I got up for school at 7 and left at 740... I rode a bike to school with a girl that lives by me. It was about 10 minutes.

I met with Sofia at school, and we had to do a presentation in front of all the other students and teachers, in Japanese of course. It went well. I got called Kawaii many many many times.Then I met my class, M1A. The teacher is an english teacher... so its kind of helpful. But the school day was short, since it was a saturday. So then I went to music club with my friend who went to school with me. When you think of music club... u probably think of a chorus or something. Especially at an all girls Catholic school, but this was nothing like that. It was a club where they had actual bands. People on drums, bass, guitar, keyboard and vocals. It was great.

I also tried some of the other clubs, since everyone kept asking me to try theirs. So I tried basketball, cheerleading, baton, and volleyball. Then I went back to music club since I was riding my bike home with my friend.

I got tired really fast from trying to focus on what everyone was saying... so I went home from club around 5ish.

Overall I had a great day. Hopefully all the other days at school go as well.

=)

はなあかり　の　きみたち　え 　(Hanazakari no Kimitachi e)　is the best show ever!

Im currently watching it with my host sister. Its sooo funny, and the endings always keep you wanting more! Too bad the final episode is next month. I think we just finished with episode 9 and there are 12 in the series. I also love the music. The song `Peach` is amazing. <3 haha.

But in other news...　

Ive been pretty busy. I just got my uniform today... and I start school on Saturday. >.<. Ive been watching Disney movies with Yuzu-chan in Japanese! Becuase we love disney. haha.

I memorzed a Kata routine for Karate yesterday. It was my first REAL day of class. so it was fun.

Ive improved a lot with my Japanese as well. So things are going really great!

I think next time I update will be after my first day of school.

じゃね。

Hehe. =)

So yesterday I went to karate... it was only supposed to be so I can watch, but I made friends with 2 girls in the class and they tought me a few things. So it was a lot of fun. I also went to Osaka castle. My host mom said that we were lucky, becuase the castle was closed but we were following a school teacher who was let in, and she said that we can come with her. The views was really pretty.

We ate at a small cafe and my host mom said that we would study for an hour since the bus didnt come till around 622. So we studied Kanji. I got a few of them down.. but its difficult. It took my host mom forever to figure out how to explain why they use Kanji instead of Higragana... like when they take one letter of higragana and make it more difficult into Kanji. But I finally understood.

A few days before all this.. I went to my first Rotary meeting. I met with Sofia, the girl from Sweden, and got to see Miho again. Then I had to do a speech. Fun stuff. haha. The rotary meeting actually went well. Then Hiro-chan and Mayu-chan came to get me... then we went downstairs for PURIKURA!! muahahahha. Yeah... it was fun.

So I guess thats been my past few days...

Yeah.

Heyy guys.

So I finally made it to Japan. After a really really long plane ride, sitting next to another exchange student. He was pretty cool... and he had a D.S. So we played that alot. Then we made friends with the Japanese school girls who were on a school trip. They were sitting behind us during the ride. When we were getting off the plane they wanted me to take a picture with them. I thought that was pretty cool. haha.

I finally made it to my new house in Japan after having something to drink at a cafe with the other Rotary members. They were all speaking Japanese, so i could only pick out a few words. When i got to the house my host mom and 2 host sisters were there to meet me. Since my host dad and 2 youngest host sisters came to pick me up. We talked a lot and then went to a small festival by the house and then I went to bed, since the plane ride was really tiring.

The next day we went to Kyoto for the festival. It was really pretty, and interesting too. I guess it was the day that all the ancestors go back to heaven. So they had lanterns on the pond and Kanji on the mountains.

Yesterday I met with my dance teacher, and I got to wear a yukata for the lesson. Now today I am going to Namba! Should be fun!

Well in about 2 hours I will only have 2 days left in the U.S.

Today was fun. I got to go shopping, then went to see Ratatoulle, and then I went to eat at Jersey's. Yumm.

On the exchange part....:

This is soo weird. I don't know if I'm nervous or excited... its always been my dream to do this exchange, and I'm getting it.
But now... every time I think of leaving my family and exploring this new country and language I can feel the butterflys in my stomach. I'm guessing this is normal... hopefully. haha.
I'm not even packed yet! I keep holding it off... it still feels like the day of my flight is soo far away. But I don't have much time at all.

Ja Ne.

Host family!

I got a picture of my host family! They seem sooo great. I really can't wait to meet them. I have 4 host sisters... they are soo cute. My host grandmother, host mom, and host dad. There is also a inbound student in the picture.

Its sooo amazing. Can't believe I leave in only 18 days.

This weekend was absolutely amazing.

I spent the weekend at Grand Rapids Michigan and I had the time of my life. I know it may seem weird that I want to cry after such a great weekend, but I just can't help it. It was the last time I will see most of those people and they have become such a big part of my life. I made new friends, and reunited with old ones. I met inbounds, outbounds and rebounds, and we all have something in common. We are all exchange students.

My inbounds friends are going home, and I don't know if I will ever get the chance to contact them, I'm kinda bad at that, even though I really want to stay in touch. My outbound friends are leaving, I know I will see them next year, but then things will be worse. I will have gotten to know them for a full year, maybe by email or blogs or anything like that, but we will be so close and have so many stories, and then after that weekend in Grand Rapids when we get home, its over. My year will be over, I know I shouldn't even start thinking about that, but I just can't help it, I never want to lose these people who have been such a big part of my life. The rebound friends that I have made have been the biggest help when explaining exchange, and the fact that they are already done with, it just makes it seem like its gunna go by too fast for me. I hope I'm able to handle this.

I don't know what I'm going to do, after this year its going to be one goodbye after another. When I come back I have to say goodbye to everyone there, when I come home I have to say goodbye to the new friends I will make at Grand Rapids, and the old ones I had. Finally, I will be graduating highschool and saying goodbye to more people. Its going to be crazy. But I'm going to enjoy everything now. Take it one step at a time, and deal with it all when it gets here.

I'm not sure if I should go into detail about the weekend, what I did and the great times, I might start crying half way through, but even if going to this weekend makes me depressed, I wouldn't have given it up for anything...

Well some of the details for those of you who want to read them...

So Thursday morning I got up and frantically packed, I hadn't packed anything yet! I guess I just didn't feel like packing very much... I dunno. So I packed everything up and went to the bus stop. I met with my outbound and inbound friends and made some new rebound friends. I had a great time on the bus... I spoke in Japanese with a girl named Yoshi who is from Japan, and I played a hand game with a gorgeous rebound who went to Australia (of course he turns out to be gay =(.... heh.). We were on the bus for about 5 hours... that includes our break for lunch at a rest stop place.

We finally get to Grand Rapids and the place looks really small surprisingly. I always pictured colleges to be bigger than that... but we get our dorms and I find out that I'm roomed with Nukke (an inbound from Indonisia) which is okay with me. That day went well... It wasn't that interesting, but I did get to see all my friends and we had a blast. The next day we didn't have to get up for breakfast which was at like 6-7:15, so I didn't considering lunch was at 10. Our parents came up to GR and all the students met with them, and even more students came up! We had a huge meeting and a flag ceremony kinda thing... it was really really cool. Then we had more meetings with different people and groups based on countries. Finally that night we had a dance and cufew was at 1. Before we went to bed I had some interesting conversations with my long time outbound friends... they were really funny, and I even recorded some of them... If I'm able to post movies on here I might put it up. I know I will put pictures for sure.

The final full day was the best of all... We were woken up at 6:45 by airhorns at our dorm doors (what a joy). Went to breakfast, had meetings and all that jazz. The dance was amazing, and I danced with soo many people. Lukas from Germany, Danilo Deoh cause I owed him a dance, some random guy (that lasted about 30 seconds cuz I pulled away from him), the rebound from Australia (=D), Tom, going to Argentina, Josh, Going to Belgium, an outbound going to Zambia, an inbound from Taiwan, and tons of other people. It was soo great. Until some girl got drunk and took her shirt off in the middle of the dance floor... we left right after that while they took her away. haha.

Then we had a party in the dorms basement. I spent most of the time trying not to fall asleep and playing catch phrase for a little while. Then I found the rebound and spent the rest of the time playing with his hair (I loved his hair) and giving him a backrub, haha he ended up almost falling asleep on the floor until the rotary people told us it was time to go to our dorms (it was 3 in the morning by then). So I went to my dorm, took a shower and went to bed... only to be woken up by that stupid horn like 3 hours after I had fallen asleep. So I took my bags to the bus and said goodbye to some people who I won't see until next year and others I might not see again.

The bus ride home was somewhat uneventful. Almost everyone fell asleep except for me and one of my good friends, Josh. I took pictures of everyone sleeping and talked to Josh for a while. Then everyone woke up when we stopped somewhere in Indiana, so we were all hanging out on the bus talking about how we won't see eachother for a while and planing a day when we can all hang out before we leave... I guess we might be going to China Town. The bus got to my stop and we said goodbye to everyone. All the inbounds who are going home soon cried and the rebounds were talking about how they would cry later... mainly because its all over for them. The outbounds didn't react as bad, we all know we will see eachother next year, and some of us wanted to cry, but couldn't. I don't know how I'm going to handle this when its all over... oh well. 

I hope I will keep in touch with everyone... I love you all. <3

Konnichiwa. =D

Well I"m feeling much better now. I found out that the hives were a reaction of having ammoxicilian with mono. Yepp, thats right I have mono. Not fun, but its not that bad. As long as I don't share drinks or anything like that.. it will all be fine. The doctor even said I"m all good for Grand Rapids, which is in like 2 days!! Super excited... I just hope everyone doesn't treat me weird cuz of the mono >.<

Well the days just keep getting numbered lower and lower. I almost cried today. Not because I'm THAT nervous about going (although I will admit that I am nervous), but more becuase my emotions are just getting really confusing. I'm soo excited to leave and I really can't wait to board that plane, but I just started thinking about everyone I'm leaving behind. The one thing that I can't seem to grasp is that I'll be having really difficult times in Japan, but everyday will be different for me. Back here, the the U.S everything will be the same for my friends and family, except there will be one person missing. They will realize that I'm gone too. Its just natural for my family to go out to eat and ask for seating for 6, but when I'm gone, how long will it take them to get used to asking for 5. My brother is going into highschool, and my sister is continueing it, how often are they going to be walking down the hall and having people ask how I am (considering the entire school knows I'm going). I love my family, and I spend a lot of time with them, not always all of us together, but I have moments with my sister and my brothers, and even my dad and mom. I'm going to miss them soo much, but I'm wondering, is this going to be more of a shock with them rather than a big culture-shock with me?

Worst of everyone is going to be my boyfriend. He is really stressed about me leaving. He knows that I would never give this up for anything, and he told me that he won't let me give it up. But as the date gets closer, its like he gets more nervous. He wants me to go, but its going to be so hard for him, because as it is we spend as much time together as possible. So he goes from spending every day with me, to not seeing me at all. He's a strong boy, I think he can handle it, but he's been hurt so many times before that I don't want him to think that I'm leaving him for good. I won't be here for our year, and I won't be here for his 16th birthday, but when I get back I will be there for him for every other day that he will need me. I just hope he knows that.

I've been reading other blogs, and I really just can't believe how much everyone changed from the beggining of their exchange year to the end. I keep telling myself that I won't change that much, but then I rethink about it. I'm spending a entire year away from home, with people I don't know and in a language I don't understand, there has to be at least one moment where I'm going to change. Maybe in looks or in personality, maybe I'll even grow. Who knows, but the future looks bright. I can't wait to actually get on that plane and experiance something that most kids only dream of. This is my chance, my oppertunity. I won't let anything stand in my way of making this my year.

Ja Ne. ^.^

Ahhh.... this has just not been my week.

I just got over strep like 4 days ago, and I wake up this morning with hives! There is no reason for them... I haven't done anything differently to get them, and I've never been allergic to anything before. >.<

I just really hope they go away before Grand Rapids, which I am super excited for.

These things really itch and are all over the place! not cool. =(