little mid-wk update

So I decided to update a bit earlier b/c I might get busy later this week, as I am leaving for Kyoto for the mid-break. I am leaving on Thursday after the midterm/big-test and then coming back on Sunday afternoon. Hopefully, I won't spend too much money, b/c surprisingly, I've spent way too much already even though I am not buying a lot of food since my host family cooks them. But I guess I've bought too many small things, that adds up to a big amount. 

But anyways, so today is Tuesday, and I've gotta review hard-core tmr. since I haven't really put as much time into study as I should. But the good news is, I've found myself understanding more as I watched TV tonight, surprisingly a good feeling. And also, I think my speaking might have improved by a tiny bit. Now at home, I can understand my host dad too, well, kind of, not completely, as he still speaks heck of fast. 

So I guess I am just excited here to report how I finally come to understand a bit of television w/t my okaasan explaining to me and my otoosan while he is speaking. But I definitely feel more comfortable living w/ this family. And now, a lot of times, I don't need to plan out what I talk about over the dinner, things just come out. Somehow, I always manage to talk about something over the dinner or while I am studying in the living room (which is most of the time...) So I learned new vocabs. everyday. But then again, we talk about the very small things. Like one time, I was explaining to her how there is a huge gay population in the US, and then somehow I switched to the topic of how in some old Chinese drama, the moms would decide that they would want their babies to get married together. It's quite funny. But then again, since both my mom and I like to eat, we can just look at the food advertisement (there are a lot of them in Japan that come w/ the newspaper) and talk about food for quite a long time. Wow, I am glad they pair us up. 

Also, I've realized that I've only thanked light fellowhship once in my blog, which is really ungrateful of me. So I definitely need to emphasize my grateful feeling toward this fellowship! Things are so great here, (ok, I mean there is some hard time, but still, I cannot imagine doing anything that is more fun than this in the summer.) 

What else? I am just sad that while other program just started, mine is half-way over. What shall I do???? Ah, I wish mine still has like 7 wks left like the HIF and Tokyo program, but too bad...

Oh, the pictures were taken when we went to the beach, men, I got so burned that I seriously turned a bit dark that day. oh,  since the angle of my pic is weird, I myself don't look like that, but I like the clams that I caught (see the pot I hold), there were many different colors.

wk 3? I honestly have lost count of the wks...

So guys, next wk is already mid-break. Somehow, time seriously FLIES BY HERE. I guess times goes by really fast when life is easy and happy. Of course, we have homework and tests, but we are also having quite a lot of fun daily. I don't know, at least I do. It's kinda sad that it's already mid-break next wk. 

well, light emailed us again, two questions 1. where have we visited and another question that I don't have an answer for, b/c nothing is too hard here, thank god. (ok, maybe besides speaking Japanese, but that's not a problem for me, I just talked, talked, and talked, I have no shame w/ my bad accent. I swear all that talking burned off quite some calories. Kinda bad, I know.) But anyways, I have gotta tell you guys the amazing noto trip that we went on the past weekend. It WAS UNBELIEVABLY FUN. I don't even know how to describe it, we went to the best and very expensive hotel, ate some very very good food, bonded w/ other PII fellows. I also entered an onsen (yeah, naked...ha, didn't thought i would do that. but then again, everyone else was too, so...) But the onsen experience was very interesting. Didn't thought I would be able to do that, but I did and I had fun. So for the future PII fellows, definitely do it, it's really fun and worth entering the onsen naked. But anyways, we also gotta wear yukata, and it was my first time. Woooo, it was sooo fun~haha. Besides that, we also went to tons of other places, saw a lot of sea, some rice field, some otera (what's the english name for it? I forgot, it's a place w/ all different kinds of god and stuff...) But anyways, I was so happy to see the sea and stuff, I guess I was quite hyper the entire time. 

Oh, the night at the expensive hotel was amazing, first we got to wear yukata and looked pretty, and then we got to eat this amazing (I don't even know how many courses) meal. Wow, really amazing, but since I was wearing yukata, I couldn't eat that much b/c it was kinda tight. Oh, there were even performances during the meal. Seriously, I wonder how much they pay for this?!?? and then we even got to dance w/ the dancers and witnessed first-hand how they make fresh mochi and then ate the ones that were just made. AMAZING. wow, words cannot describe that good feeling. Later that night, we went to a fellow's room and had a little party and I got to know those people better, which I am glad. Well, we are going to Kyoto together for mid-break again next wk, I am quite excited.  We ten people booked the same hostel, 5 people in a room in two rooms. 

The next day, we saw more sea and stuff.

anyways, this week, we also visited Kanazawa college and made some Japanese friends, which is quite nice. They were all so nice, and I am glad that they understood my Japanese fine, thank god. But anyways, so now is friday and we went out for Karaoke tonight, a group of American students and three other Japanese friends. Well, it ended up fine. I hope they had fun, well, I had fun. Before the Karaoke, we went to eat okoniyaki and talked about North Korea, haha, interesting. Of course, in english. But before that, we went to game center and played some games, it was fun. I don't know, I have been having fun w/ these PII people, it's quite amazing. This program is very well planned. PII always plan some activities for you in the afternoon, it's interesting.  For some strange reason, I think I talk more here in Japan than in America, I didn't know I was so talkative before. 

I haven't found anything that's unexpectedly hard, at least not yet, maybe when I got to Kyoto and get lost, I will write about that experience. But let's hope that that doesn't happen.

Oh, there are tons of pictures that I took, but I've posted quite a lot of them on facebook. So I will just upload 2 here.

ok, till next time w/ more stories?

Wow, it's Thursday night of wk 2 already

Honestly, I don't even know how the time just FLIES by so fast here. I have no idea. This is quite an excellent program, to all the fellows who are reading this, PICK PII, you will not go wrong with your decision. At least, so far, I am liking it  A LOT. (I was worried before b/c there are only 2 people from Yale, including me, doing this program. But this turns out to be quite a benefit, b/c I got to meet many new people from different colleges, it's quite fun.)

Anyways, the two questions that the light fellowship emailed us are: What preconceptions have you begun to shed?  What images, stereotypes or preconceived notions have been hard for you to relinquish?

For the first one, I guess that the food here is not so expensive after, at least not in Kanazawa. But it differs depends on the place you live. Of course Tokyo is expensive. Here, you can buy a rice ball for around a dollar, and some other good sushi for 3-5 dollars at the supermarket. But if you were to go to restaurant, then a meal can cost from 5 to 10 dollars, or more, depends on the type of the restaurant you go to. Also, people here are mostly very nice, if you asked them question, they would respond. Another preconception I had was that girls here are all very skinny and dressed up. Well, that's only partly true. They are not bony as I thought, and they do dress up. But not to an extreme level. I still wear shorts here, even though people keep saying that no one wears shorts in Japan. Well, just do what you want, it's Kanazawa. Also, Kanazawa is a VERY cute city, it has people and places for you to go to have fun, have good food and take nice pictures. It's a good place for a language program. So pick PII, and you won't have regrets. 

As for the second question, I don't really have a stereotype that is hard for me to relinquish. So I don't know how to answer this question.

It has been fun so far, of course there are hard times, but I am glad that I begin to hear more and be able to communicate/speak more w/ my host mom, at least I think so. (Well, my speaking Japanese is kinda weird, since I usually memorize the words wrong, and thus, people having a hard time understanding me...haha. But it's fun. I don't really care whether they understand or not, as long as I practice enough for my speaking in order to improve somewhat.) 

Also, when fill out the host family info. form during application, be careful whether you really want a kid in the house or not. I have come to realize that having a kid is quite tiring. At least this 5 year-old is quite attention hungry. If I talked to the mom for too long, she would start making loud noises and cry. So I can't talk to the mom for long. But being me, I just talk to the little girl as well, even though it was hard for me to understand her. I like the mom quite a lot, she taught me many new words and has been very nice. The dad is kinda scary....but oh well. I guess I am quite annoying at times...

Maybe time goes by fast only b/c there are many activities at the first two wks, but I don't know. Now I am trying to write my report. Let's see, this week, what funny things have happened? well, the class is always fun itself, a lot of language-related jokes. Oh, Lee Yun san, a girl whom I go to school w/ b/c we live near each other, always cracks me up. There are not many people who can really make me laugh really hard besides my mom, sister and dad. I guess she's the first. She makes some really funny comments while we were at the festival, and other ones while we were going home from school. Interesting girl indeed. Who else is quite interesting? Oh, Xinyue san, she has a really high voice and sings very well, like a walking human iPod. Alan san's Japanese is sugoi(very good), I don't know how he manages to do that. 

Anyways, I shall continue writing my report (or start writing my report.) It's nice to have wireless internet at the house. 

First week update

light festival
spaphetti ice cream?
okaasan made some western food...ai...
Kenrokuen, a park
me w/ Mr. Obama (obama-san, harvard student, smart, math major. half french, half black.)
Some girls from the program, all Asian.
When we went to the ninja otera, we went into a gift shop and saw a big cute cat. Jordan-san is from Princeton, half mexican. 
Tea ceremony. 
The first week somewhat flew by surprisingly fast, and now it's already Monday night. So a short update will be: 1. I got settled in Mizukami-san's family. 2. I got placed into 2.5 level class. 3. I participated in some interesting activities that PII planned. 

Mizukami-san's family is quite nice. I am the second student they have hosted, so they are not the type of very experienced host family, but they are nice enough to teach me many things. Usually, after I got home from school, instead of spending tons of time studying and doing homework (the homework is actually not that much, especially compared to Yale's Japanese class homework. Everyday, homework can be done in 1 hour, including lots of talking/zoning-out time. So the PII program is not as intensive as I thought it would be, at least not yet.), I would be sitting in the living room, asking questions. Since Mizukami family is not very experienced host family, they sometimes have a hard time explaining things, but we have wireless internet at home, so we can always use dictionaries. Da kara, everyday I learned some new kodoba(vocabs.) but I can't really memorize them all, especially since Japanese words are long and confusing. Also, the reason why I kept asking things b/c I always want to talk...haha. Sometimes they would talk to you first, but I usually just ask whatever that comes to my mind. I guess it's quite hard for them to understand my Japanese since my pronounciation is kinda bad. 

The one thing I don't really like about the family is that the mom doesn't really make traditional Japanese food. The family likes Italian food and like to eat carbs.--rice, noodle, and etc. Also, the mom likes to eat dessert a lot (But okaasan is very thin.) Anyways, I still haven't eaten fish since I come, which kinda disappointed, every other students I asked, their host family has made many times of fish, but my family...ai....so sad. Fish is quite cheap here, I don't understand why they wouldn't make it. 

Anyways, I attached somes pictures, some of festival, and some from other places. Ah, one thing: the food in Kanazawa is actually not that expensive, usually lunch, I would buy a rice ball (onigiri) for around 1 dollar, but then again, it's kinda small.  PII is a pretty good program. So far, so GREAT. 

Really, I have to thank Light fellowship for giving me an opportunity to experience all these!