November 11th, 2018

I have been busier than ever before (including studies for my final exams). Well, anyway. Also I don't have much time for studying :(. Sorry for making you wait.

Monday (November 5th, 2018):

• November 19th the ESS (English Speaking Society) club will visit the elementary school across the street and hold an English lesson (divided in 3 groups/classes) for the students. For that purpose we went to the school to get to know the kids a little. We ate lunch and then played tag on the playground. The kids were real sweetpies and I just can‘t believe how they can read books with Kanji (of course they had some years of study (I think they‘re 4th graders?) but still). It‘s kind of hard for me to get a long with kids since I grew up as the youngest child of our family so I‘m not (yet) used to being around kids that are younger than me and entertaining them. Also, again, the language barrier is indeed a barrier. I feel like it‘s just no fun talking to me since I sometimes barely understand things and they‘d have to repeat what they said for like 4 times and using easier vocabulary. [Btw sometimes I also feel like this with the high school students. As long as they use easy vocab or talk about a topic I know well, everything‘s fine. But once they switch the difficultythi or topic or they think I‘m so good at the language it‘s a downward spiral to me becoming the most boring person, like ever. Seriously, I‘m very boring.] But some girls were real cute and kids are simply curious and less hesitant than teenagers and adults. I just hope the lesson will go well and be interesting/fun for kids. We‘ll see.

Tuesday (6th):

• Was appointed for the class register duty. Since I still don‘t know everyone‘s name (we are 40 in our class) so noting done who was absent was a little difficult but my teacher helped and it worked out.
• I will join a music festival with other foreign students. My hostmum, who also introduced me to the event, was so kind as to research how to get to the practice venue. Not having much experience with taking trains in Japan other than my way to school, which – as you might know – was kind of a struggle for me for the first 2-3 weeks, I was a little nervous. But it worked out. And though I was quite exhausted already from chorus club the practice turned out to be fun. There were 4 non-Japanese and about 10 Japanese people. We will perform a dance and a song together and some people get to perform solo (instrument, song, dance, etc.) as well. I can‘t dance. Furthermore and unfortunately I also wore school uniform, which is quite uncomfortable. And I didn‘t know the song. But people were all nice and I hope I‘ll make friends with some of them :D Making friends with foreigners seems so much easier… But I came here to make Japanese friends. I still can‘t dance. But like I wanna learn. Another fact I noticed. There are many people in Japan that can dance. It‘s quite popular. Don‘t know why I didn‘t expect that, since many Japanese are into J/K-Pop. It obviously makes you look cool. Anyway. I returned home at about 22.10 (practice‘s from 19.00-21.00 o‘clock and it‘s a little far from my hostfam‘s place so, yeah). Ate dinner and went to bed late, which doomed me to two horrible days of tiredness afterwards.

Wednesday (7th):

• In one of the English classes I managed to talk more to one of the students. Yay. But it‘s difficult to become friends with many people at the same time. Because to become friends I feel like you need 1 on 1 conversation time, but obviously if you wanna be friends with many people you have to decide with whom to talk first, which makes the other potential friends feel left out or something. So, yeah.
• In ESS I‘d‘ve liked to rehearse our group‘s English lesson for the elementary school kids. But the people with the script were absent, so we couldn‘t do it properly. And honestly, I feel like it won‘t be as good as it could be.

Thursday (8th):

• Ate lunch pretty much alone, again (I think it‘s the 3rd time). But on the other hand I managed to finally free my head a little at chorus club practice. Ask one of the guys why they wanted to go to Germany and it turned into conversation and a few jokes and fun. I‘m thankful for this moment. But I want it to be like that for most of the time. And I know that‘s my responsibility. It‘s possible, but I have not yet acquired the key to perfect exchange-studentship. Anyway. But by the way: We‘ll sing at Zama High‘s winter concert! YAY! I really loved it the last time. And I seem to get along with Americans quite well (finally the hours of watching American movies, hearing the music and hours spent on League (English skills) pay!).

Friday (9th):

• I am always a little uncomfortable with Friday‘s music lesson not because of the teacher but because I‘m not good at playing the traditional instrument and I don‘t have any friends to talk to. (As opposed to other classes where the desks are so far that students tend to talk less, this barrier is not much given in music class.) I gotta pull myself together.
• ESS club: Our group could finally rehearse for the English lesson for the elementary school students. It lacked adjustments, thoughts and confidence. But in the end it‘s just 50 minutes of our lives so… I just don‘t feel like I‘ve done enough. Ugh.
• ON THE OTHER HAND lunch was a blast since I managed to have an on-going conversation with one of the usual girls. Also noticed that some of my classmates were playing a cardgame, which means potential for me to introduce them to German „Mau-Mau“ or „Watten“ even! [Can‘t even dream of teaching them my favourite Schafskopf (you bae!) SHOUT OUT to the gängbäng crowd was already made, though...]
• I joined the practice for the foreign students music festival. This time there were only 3 foreigners and about 10 Japanese. We only speak in Japanese, which is nice. But, as always, sometimes leads to misunderstandings. I still can‘t dance. Everything‘s way to fast for me and I don‘t have the „feeling“ for how to move. I (not the usual process) also had an audition since I wanna try also performing solo on stage. It was supposed to be me and two people of the staff but unfortunately, when I sang the other participants were finished with their singing practice in the room next door so they „interrupted“ me. And I just kept finishing the song. But like. Ugh. It was awkward because they were all became quiet when they noticed I was having my audition. But like. Ugh. Anyway, the two staff people and I went to the room next door and I did the whole thing again because the first time I sang to the original song (not karaoke, but with the singer‘s voice also audible) and my voice was too quiet. I hadn‘t really decided on a song until that practice. But I thought like: „They will barely get to hear a German singing a German song“ so I picked one, which I also sang in kindergarten [SHOUT OUT to the best kindergarten in the world! I really miss it and if I could go back in time I‘d relive my kindergarten time forever. Also SHOUT OUT to my first best friend: I regret that I didn‘t push harder for staying friends with you. If I could choose again, I‘d choose you.]. One of the best memories of my life btw. Maybe exaggerating, but you know how good childhood memories are the best kind. [Maybe being listening to a sad Ed Sheeran song right now isn‘t quite smart T.T] ANYWAY; I‘d prefer a different song, but I guess performing a German song is a better experience for a Japanese audience. So now I‘m stuck with it.
• Also bumped into one Zama American High School student on my way home, which was kind of creepy, since it was like 10 o'clock and I really wasn't prepared for it. But we talked a little and the student is real cool. But suddenly switching from Japanese to English knocked out my brain, lol. 
• Took the same train as one of the other foreigners and we talked in JAPANESE, not English! It‘s the first time (well, actually the second because I talked to an American at a playpark in Japanese and English; but like this time it was only JAPANESE, except for one word („research“) because I wasn‘t sure if I‘d understood her Japanese correctly)! YAY! Some of the Japanese people participating are so energetic and positive! It‘s really refreshing (I don‘t mean that there are few Japanese like that, there are actually many compared to Germany, in my opinion) and I somehow would like to be one of those persons but on the other hand I don‘t. Because people will expect you to be like that for most of the time.

Saturday (10th):

• Went out with my first friend, the girl I walk to school with, to a University fair (? festival? Open day?). But because we were early we went to a very cheap shop called Donkihoote (Don Quixote). And I again bought way to many sweets (two of them matcha products; I‘m trying to find a matcha sweet that‘s better than KitKat; not found yet). I recommend checking out the pics in the gallery below.
• #hatingmyselfforbuyingandeatingwaytoomuchbutit‘sdeliciousandI‘monlyinJapanforalimitedamountoftimesoIguessIcan‘thelpit.
• The campus is so goddamn huge. And the weather was too goddamn hot for people who expect Japanese fall/winter to persistently be cold. Japanese weather – GRRRR! STOP IT ALREADY! I tried Hottoku (? Sounds similar to Hotdog (I think on purpose)) which is a Korean (?) dish and like dough filled with a sweet peanut cream. Delicious. I don‘t wanna go into details, but like we had fun, talked, ate things. (Also matcha ice cream). Yeah.
• In the evening I joined hostmum and -brother going to a restaurant which had life music performance for that day. The food was good, I bought a purse with a dog and the music was delightful. Especially when the drummer and the guitarist had a solo part battle! I will never be as good in anything as they were in playing their instruments.

Sunday (11th):

• Went out with my partner for the exchange, which I unfortunately kind of pushed away, but I feel like we became closer today. I think we actually have a lot in common, but we‘ll see how it will work out. We went to a game center, which is just as lively, a little crowded and loud as you would expect from the gamefreak Japanese. She beat me in Mario Kart (a seat, steering wheel and pedals) 2 out of 4 rounds (one round for 200 Yen btw (~1,50€)) not having played the game once before. She showed me her skills in rythm games, which are unbelievable (at least to a noob like me). Though the guy next to her was more experienced and played… quite enthusiastically (that means he hit the buttons so hard, that my friend‘s box constantly was shaking XD. He was a professional, though. So well, it was just fun. And I hope we‘ll continue having fun and conversation (or even fun conversation :O). We both would like to see „Venom“ or the new Disney Christmas Nutcracker movie, that I didn‘t know will be coming out soon. AND SERIOUSLY, JAPAN: GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER WITH THEM CHRISTMAS DECORATION AND PRODUCTS. I‘ve never ever in my life seen so many Christmas-featured articles in one day. Like, for real. And I‘d been to the mall like the week before. It‘s like: IT‘S HALLOWEEEEEEEEN click CHRISTMAAAAAAAS IS HERE. Stop it, Japan, it‘s too much ;) Of course it‘s all sweet, but like – why so much ;D?