September 8th, 2018

4 days ago (4th), I had my first day of school. The day before my hostfather, my Area Coordinater (Ayusa employee) and I were shown around after class (only some clubs were practicing e.g. the dance club and the handball guys and girls) and had to sign some papers. I was also introduced to my so-called "partner", a fine young lady, which is learning German at our school and is meant to help me, which was a huge relief. I also tried on the pieces for my school uniform that were my size (things I could borrow therefore). I had a really great first impression and since my consultant teacher speaks both English and Germany I couldn't have felt luckier. My partner and I met the next day at the nearest station to go to school together and inspite of my poor Japanese skills, I guess we got along.

EDIT (Sept. 27th, 2018): Just wanted to state (I asked my teacher for permission because of privacy reasons): I'm in class 2-3 of the Yamato Nishi Senior High School in Yamato, Kanagawa.

QUICK INTERRUPTION THERE: About my way to school

It's actually not that difficult, but it kinda is:

I have to leave the house and walk about 7-9 minutes to the nearest station. I can only take the blue or the green line. Then I have to get off after 3 stations (I think) and walk some stairs to transfer to another line (only red and blue, perhaps) and get off after 3 stations again. I really have to watch out to stand on the right side and read the screen which shows the color (and therefore the speed of the trains: Express, Local, etc.). I believe, the travel time is about 15- 20 minutes? From the nearest station to my school it's about 15-25 minutes on foot. It's less a problem than a difference to Germany, where I had to either ride 6 minutes and walk 4 or just 3 minutes (quick shoutout to my Gääääng <3, ihr wisst, welcher Weg 3 Minuten dauert! ).  So in conclusion, it is about 37-49 minutes, I guess, but estimating time was never one of my talents.

OH AND AGAIN: It was so damn hot (and still is) in a school uniform, although the trains had AC! Unfortunately I lost my totally awesome League of Legends-Fan that I share many dear memories with after I had arrived at school!!

Okay, I will try to recall my first impressions and fears and stuff on my first days of school:

People clearly noticed me (and btw there were two other exchange students also having their first week, I think, but I only saw one). I had to introduce myself to the teachers (in the teacher's room), then through a microphone (for the whole school, I guess), to my (homeroom) class (2-3, "ni-nen san-kumi") in Japanese .and to the English class (in English). It was kind of fun, but I must've looked liked I'd run a marathon (especially to the teachers). But I had prepared a speech during the orientation days with Ayusa Japan.

My first lesson was World history (せかいし) and I understood nothing except for names of people (Louis, XVI? Marie Antoinette), single words and that it was about the French revolution or something like that (I only know it from the pictures in the book). The teacher seemed like a fun person though. We'll see how that will go. After that I had English with the teacher, that is kind of responsible for me and speaks German and English. It was very enjoyable because after I introduced myself the students could ask me anything (but like in English) and so I had a moment of being able to communicate well. But there are so many students who then introduced themselves to me with their names and a hobby, but remembering about 40 names, hobbies and faces is a little challenging.

Okay I wanna sum the rest up, because I really gotta go eat dinner.

• Maths was okay, although I couldn't understand the words, I found out what the calculation task was (and got it right, because we had that stuff in 11th grade, too, I guess) but one time the teacher asked me something and I didn't understand what he wanted, and my partner couldn't explain (because no Japanese textbook would teach you the words for to count, gradient, vertical, horizontal) 
• Japanese history (日本し) didn't go well, because I could barely get single familiar words; it was also all about people, whose names I've never ever heard of
• during Old Japanese (another subject) my partner excused me to the library so I could study Japanese on my own, which was a relief
• biology (next day) was also hard, because of the lack of vocabulary, but I kind of got that it was all about cells and (ATP and ADP) which we had in 10th and 11th grade I guess (shoutout to Mr. F. and Mrs. J. you were great! Chosing biology over chemistry and physics was a good call)