Busy As A Bee

The past month has been absolutely crazy! Ill try to be as brief in this blog post as possible and maybe touch on a couple of these topics in greater detail on another day.

MARCH
- I switched host families. At this point my new host family, Kitanaka's, feels like my family. I have seen my other family, Akegami's, a couple of times since I have moved which has been really nice.
- I had my last day with my class, the school year in Japan runs from April to March. We took a class photo on the last day and we all receive a DVD of photos from the past year. It was a strange feeling knowing that the next time I came back to school for actual classes, after my month long spring vacation, I would be in a class with completely different kids.
- I attending my schools graduation ceremony. It was more or less the same as in the US. There were a lot of speeches, the students who were graduating were recognized, and afterwards everyone who attended got cake to take home.
- My host dad took me to a diving shop and surprised me by saying that he is going to be taking my diving as my birthday give in April.
- I was invited to a takoyaki party at my friend's house- Takoyaki is a wheat flour-based batter cooked into a sphere with a piece of octopus in the middle. It was a girl and boy party! This really surprised me because in school boys and girls rarely talk to each other. The girls at the party made the food, culturally girls always make the food but the boys at the party were good and at least helped clean up after eating. After everything was clean we went outside and played soccer.
- Jaimee (Australian), Mai (English), and I went and toured Osaka University.
- My host brother from Tokyo came to visit. Jeevan (American) and I made dinner the first night my host brother came. We made a bbq chicken, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and chocolate drop cookies.
- I dislocated my knee while doing aikido.
- I went to Akegami mom's kindergarten and helped teach English.
- Jaimee and I spent the night at Mai's house, pulled an all-nighter, and went fishing really early the next morning.
- Jaimee and I gave a presentation at our school about Australia and the US to host families, teachers, and friends.
- Even though I couldn't participate in aikido, because of my dislocated knee, I still got to watch practice then go out to dinner with the group at an Indian Restaurant.
- My host dad took me to one of my school's band concerts.
- Mai's English family came to visit. My entire host family took the train to Namba together to watch Mai's dad play saxophone and give a discussion/debate.
- I celebrated my birthday with my family- we ate my favorite foods for dinner. My host sister also made me an apple cake because she knows I love apples!
- I had an amazing weekend at RYLA! (There will most definitely be another post just to talk about RYLA)

APRIL
- Went to Kyoto with Mai, Mai's family, Jeevan, and Jeevan's host mom.
- Tia, Jaimee and I met up in Namba to watch Oz in theaters.
- Had a takoyaki party at school with Sakamoto-sensei, Jaimee, and ESS club.
- Attended a Rotary meeting.
- Went to Namba with my RYLA friends!

Sayonara from Osaka, Japan.