First few days with my host family~

WARNING: I AM TOO LAZY TO GET OUT MY CAMERA AND UPLOAD PICTURES, THUS THIS POST WILL NOT CONTAIN ANY.

So on Sunday I moved into my host family's house!! They came to pick me up at the Hayama seminar house, and that's when I met my host dad! When we got to their house, I was all excited to meet my host grandma, but sadly she had gone out somewhere for a bit. The first thing I noticed? They have an ELEVATOR.

IN THEIR HOME.

...AN ELEVATOR.

My host mom, who let's call HM for short (HM, Host Mom, get it? I'm so clever, damn), told me that they had it installed for the grandmother, since her knees are weak and going up three flights of stairs is tiring and painful for her. So, of course, I imagine my new HG (you got this?) as a really frail old lady. I had already known that she was around 80 years old, but this only confirmed it for me.

They showed my to my room (yes, my own!) and I unpacked, etc etc. Some things to note, and I will be posting some pictures tomorrow, don't fret: I sleep on a futon! Meaning I pull out and make up my bed every night then put it all back in the little closet the following morning. It is surprisingly comfortable, though! But of course these days by the time bed-time rolls around, I'm exhausted anyway. I think it might be the all-day-non-stop speaking in Japanese that gets... a little tiring. But its absolutely fantastic for improving my language skills, obviously. Oddly enough, my English has been suffering greatly these days. Just ask Emily, half of the things I say in English don't make sense. But then again, all the rap music I've been listening to could have its effect too. Gangsta-speak is my preferred form of English these days.

If I wasn't too tired to upload pictures, here is where a picture of my room would go, with the futon all set up.

So anyway, back to the first day with my host family. After a little while of unpacking, my HG comes home! My first impression? Adorable and very elderly, but not quite as elderly as I imagined.

Afterwards, we went to eat at this really nice restaurant for lunch, which was delicious, etc. But as we're leaving the house to go get lunch, someone seems to be missing... where had HG gone?? Oh, it's ok, she's going to meet us at the restaurant. She'll come by BIKE.

...MY 83 HG CAN RIDE A BIKE.

Yeah, I found out she was actually turning 83 soon. It also turns out that the bike is actually one of those adult tricycles, but still. She trikes around town! At 83!!!

After lunch we went to Costco to shop for dinner food. The difference between Japan's and America's Costco? Not a damn thing, except for the fact that Coach bags and Swarovski crystals can be found for sale in Japan's Coscto. And of course a lot more raw fish. But other than that, it was the exact same. Same smell, same overall size, same waves of people rushing to buy toilet paper in bulk.

After shopping, we came back and I talked with my HS (host... sister, that's right!) for a few hours, which was fun! We did some English practice too. Then we had dinner, then I finished my homework, then my HS's friend came over and we drank a bit, then I went to bed. I was sooo exhausted.

A quick word about my HD (oh you know). I thought that since he's a salaryman (company worker) and does overtime all the time, etc etc, that he would be this quietly-angry-I-hate-my-life kind of guy, because that's the kind of image I have of salarymen in this country, but it turns out that he's a really laid-back, nice person. Who is not afraid to cry during epically sad movies. More on this later.

Anyway, the next morning for breakfast my HM made me lots of different little things. I'll just be talking about two of them. One was a bowl of yogurt and fruit. The fruit... was banana slices. Anyone who knows me, knows how I feel about bananas. The other problem-item... a cherry tomato. Oh you all know. But, as I wanted to be the perfect-little-host-child, I girded my loins and ate the bananas and the tomato. Ate those things like a boss. It wasn't horrible, either. Who knows, maybe by the time I come home I'll love bananas and cherry tomatoes.

After that HM walked me most of the way to school, so that I could get used to the route (although they had showed me yesterday, it was nice of her to show me again). I talked to her about how Dad does all the cooking at my house, and he makes excellent Mexican food despite not being Mexican, etc etc.

After class, I come back to the HH (this one is a little difficult... host home) and do some homework, blah blah. HD came home a little late, around 8:30, so we had already eaten. After he had his dinner, we watched this EPICALLY sad made-for-TV-movie, and ended up in tears. Yeah, him too.

Then TODAY after coming home from class, I watched the ending of some epic action movie with Eddie Murphy with my HG. And did the usual, homework, chatting with everyone, dinner, tv. It's 10:17 pm now, and I don't think my HD is back from work. Damn. Overtime in Japan is tough.

But as I just said, it's 10:17...oh, 10:18 now and I'm really really tired. I'll just get out my bed and go to sleep then!

Goodnight everyone~