Long time no see

It's soooo cold!! To get an idea, I could see my breath...INSIDE MY HOUSE! It reached 0'C outside this week and there was frost everywhere! So beautiful :3 
My attire for commuting to school is now:
•long sleeved top
•blouse
•sweater
•blazer
•coat
•gloves, ear muffs, muffler, stockings
I never thought you could actually experience pain from the cold >.< my hands hurt so much when I forget my gloves and when I get home and jump in my regular 42'C bath (loveeeee bath times!!! :D ) it feels more like I'm in a boiling hot kettle. 
Luckly it's been raining lately so the temperature hasn't gone that low again even though it surely will by January. I'm now saying "10'C, that's a nice warm day" >.< who'd have thought xD Id like to see snow ^^ no doubts about that :D

There's tonneeesss of things that have happened (this is what I get when I don't write regularly :/) 

In Abacus related news:

I passed my abacus level 3 exam :) I wasn't ready to pass level 2 even though my last practice test went really well. I had lots of nerves -_- I've been working on that.

I had a stage performance with my club in Fukuoka city where we were on stage demonstrating abacus to a room full of people. It went quite well actually and it wasn't boring like most people back home would probably think. We had to do 普通計算 (normal sums, +, -, x, / ), 読暗算 (a series of read aloud numbers we had to plus and minus together in our heads), 暗算 (visably seen numbers calculated in our heads), お土産算 (sums done on a giant novelty abacus), 読み上げ算 (same as 読暗算 but done on abacus) and フラッシュ暗算(numbers flashed on a screen which you must calculate in your head). Then they showed some short video clips of a large abacus competition where people were doing 暗算 which had numbers in their 100 millions !! 
The day was really enjoyable. I had to get up and do an interview where they asked me why I joined the club etc ^^ also I had to do a 読み上げ算 but it was read aloud in English by my friend Haruka :D didn't screw up, yesss!
 
Just recently I had my 珠算大会 (abacus competition). I sucked so bad xD got up at 6am, sensei drove us to 北九州 where we started the competition at 9 and ended at 4:30ish. 
It. Was. Incredible!!!
There were primary, middle and high school students as well as uni students. One of the primary kids (she must have been about 9 years old) was a 10 だん!! For anyone who doesn't know, that's the highest possible level...ever! She was the best there!! She can calculate 15, 3 digit numbers in 3.4 seconds as they flash one by one on the screen! Then she could minus and plus numbers read to her at top speed in the 100 millions in her head and come out perfect every time!!! She's 9!!!!!!! 
Was brilliant!
Afterwards we went to eat pudding and icecream at Mini-stop thanks to sensei <3 caught a bus home which took two hours. Slept all the way thank god xD school was the next day -_-

In other news...

I travelled to Tenjin with mo-chan for a radio interview at Love FM. We were interviewed (LIVE) about the upcoming AFS event; yes, in Japanese. Wow! We were so nervous before hand wondering whether we'd embarras ourselves or not. Got into the studio, no worries. Went smoothly, we talked, we joked, we laughed. It really was a great experience. The lady was impressed too and not a single hiccup, total confidence. <3 of course to celebrate we were treated to milkshakes and a look at the early Christmas lights around the city ^^

The "AFS Day in 福岡", which we talked about on the radio, was a fabulous day! We got to see a lot of our exchange student friends and made some more too. Was great catching up with everyone!! :D that wasn't the main purpose of the event though :P we had to do a stage performance and a short interview. It sucked that we couldn't spend longer together :/ I think everyone wanted to have more time after the event but there were people who had to travel hours home by bus. Was fantastic seeing my friends nonetheless ♥

JLPT...
It's been and gone. Yay!!! It's over!!! In the week before the test I stayed at my Japanese tutors house and did some study. The test day was stressful before the test even began!! Mo-chan came over to study in the morning, we decided to look at magazines instead with Maimi. Then we caught a train to Kurume where we met up with Diane and Paula. There was one bus to the uni which would get us there in time before the doors closed. That sent our hearts racing since we were paranoid we would surely miss it xD got there in the end! 

The test itself wasn't that bad. I took N3 and I knew my grammar would let me down. Kanji and listening were easy enough I thought. For anyone taking next years N3, buy a good kanji book that's aimed at both N3/N2. The kanji that was in my test I at least recognised all of it from the one book I studied which was good. I wasn't nervous at all surpringly. I usually freak out before tests though that day I felt fine. If I fail it's because of grammar but at least I know what to study for next year :)

I've been to the movies again :) went to see Harry Potter after the JLPT with the mates who sat the test. OMG IT WAS AWESOME!!! I'm so excited for part || !! when the snake jumped out I got scared nearly to death xD was such a great movie!!! On Friday I'm going to see Tron with some friends and I'm pretty pumped! :D

Recently I went with my family to a mountain side and we looked at the autumn leaves. So beautiful !! The colours were spectacular ! We climbed a lot, A LOT of stairs. At the top were a few temples and shrines and I prayed there and paied for my fortune. It's looking very good and so I tied it to sone string and went to the temple and prayed that it'd come true. Walked for some more and we found a smaller shrine for women who couldn't breast feed their babies. Hanging beside the shrine was a wall covered in breasts women made as an offering in the hope that they could produce milk. It took me by surprise at first but when you think about it, it's quite sad. 

It's so cold that it snowed yesterday!! I was so excited. This was my first time ever seeing it and sensei had told me it was expected to fall sometime in the next few days. Luckly it snowed at lunch time so I grabbed my friends and ran outside xDD couldn't stop giggling like a lunatic. I was that pumped! I always thought snow was small, soft and somewhat star-shaped. This snow was kinda big and looked like the ice-buildup you get on the top of the freezer. Can't wait to it snows enough so it blankets everything :D!!

School finishes soon and then I have Okinawa, Korea and New Years to look forward to. But I'll leave this for my next blog. 

No regrets!
Live for the moment!

K x 

   

Tips/advice before going to japan

The last two months are upon us and one thing there isn't enough of is time. This exchange really has been the best experience of my life and luckily for me the good times have far outweighed the bad. 
I'm not going to lie, you will feel at times (hopefully few :) ) that you are under pressure and wanting to have a moment to compose yourself, maybe even contemplating of going home, but you just have to push through. The next day will get better if you make it so. Believe me, you want everyday to be better than the last to get the most out of this marvellous time abroad.

Before you leave:

I came on scholarship so for almost half a year I was in the dark wondering if at all I was going away. From what I know from people who pay their way through, it's a lot less of a surprise but nonetheless exciting!! They do have the upperhand with preparing not just packing but also preparing mentally (I'll come to that later). 

Either way, it's completely sane to run home everyday from school and check the mail box, emails, AFS account and whatever other sources of telecommunication you own for any possible "new information" from AFS/your exchange student company. Hehe, I did this. Everyday, perhaps twice...or more.

So when you finally get the letter of approval and you finished not-keeping-still you're faced with the questions:
•what do I pack?
•what do I do about the language/cultural differences?
•can I leave my family and friends behind?
And a verity of others. 

Packing really depends on where you're placed so until you find that out there's no point worrying. Obviously the people who get placed in Hokkaido will have a different wardrobe to those living in Okinawa. You will be going in Spring however so do take something warm as their Spring is quite cool. Do pack light! A couple pairs of jeans, a weeks worth of shirts, shorts, nice pair of going out clothes, two pairs of shoes and the necessities. 

AND DONT FORGET THE SOUVIENERS!! xD you'll be giving a lot of them away to EVERYONE!! anything is good. Doesn't have to be expensive. Something that screams where ever you're from and they'll love it. 

It really is important to prepare mentally before you go away. You'll be leaving everything and everyone you know behind for a long time. Go through with your family what support you have, go to the camps organized by the exchange student organisation, read up about the culture and language and discuss money, what you would do if a family member got sick or passed away...be realistic, you don't want to be in the country and have to make a split second decision over the phone to your parents.   

Language....it does help to learn at least your greetings, pleases and thankyous before you leave. I have friends here who have come with absolutely no Japanese skills what so ever and with a bit of study they can easily communicate with friends and family by the half way mark without much difficulty. Don't let the language put you off from going, you WILL pick It up

Hmm... I think that's about it. Do make contact with your host family :) I contacted my on skype. Keep continuing to ask me questions and I'll do another one of these. 

No regrets!
Live for the moment!

K x