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!

EXCITING updates!

Ok, maybe it is not so exciting.

Today, I checked my Yale email account and PII emailed me regarding my host family information! I will be living with the Mizukami family, and they have a 4-year-old daughter. I am not sure how well a four-year-old can speak Japanese, but hopefully, better than me so that I can practice my Japanese with this little kid. I remember when I was filling out the host-family forms, I checked that I wanted a little kid in my host family, but I was thinking more around the age of 6 to 7, an age where they should be speaking fluent Japanese...

Both my host mom and dad are 32 years old, a fairly young couple.(Come to think of it, the mom might be looking very young since Japanese women don't age until they are 40.) Since they are quite young, I hope that they speak some English so that they can understand me better. 

Receiving my host family information suddenly gives me a lot of motivation to review vocabs and practice Japanese more, since I am afraid that all I can say when I meet them would be, "Nice to meet you. My name is...." and then followed by long silence. That will actually come true if I don't start practicing now. Oh, the horror... 

Also, I took the online placement test yesterday, which consists of four parts, listening, culture, reading, and grammar. I did the best in reading part, b/c I can read Kanji, and I usually am very good at guessing their pronunciation and meanings. (Some Kanji, interestingly, sound similar to Cantonese, which is my native dialect. So I can get by fine.) I did poorly in the listening part, which means watching all those Japanese dramas doesn't really help a whole lot. 

I also checked google map to see how far my house is from the school. I don't understand it completely b/c it is all in Japanese. But seems like I will be walking around 40 minutes daily to just get to school. I guess it won't be too bad since I need to lose some weight before heading back to China at the end of this summer. Speaking of weight loss, I have been trying to exercise these few days before going to Japan, aiming to be able to buy some clothes that fit me in Japan. Exercising is, just like popular belief, very hard.(But I have to keep doing it since my sister called me "blowfish" after I called her "monkey." I am not so sure if "blowfish" is even a real animal, b/c I first encountered blowfish in Finding Nemo.) I think my aging might have contributed to my lack of mobility. 

One final thing, I also bought souvenirs from the Yale store for my host family: a cup that has "MOM" on it, a shot glass that can serve as a tea cup, and a deck of playing cards. 

One more final

Yes, Helen Guo. You can do this. Don't fail. And then I shall be blogging happy thoughts and thoughts about how to prepare for the summer.

first blog test?

woooooo, blog set up! wah, finals time!! 

wah, this thing is quite hard to manage, not gonna lie, I guess my ability of writing blog is not that high.  

Should definitely go back to study right now!!! Nooooo, why why why? 

Wooo, Japan, though not Tokyo, but Kanazawa sounds quite close to my ideal town. I have always considered the option of becoming a farmer in a little village like Kanazawa--self-sustainable option like the Yale dining hall/grass-fed burger.(i never understood that term, cuz the burger looks quite meaty to me.)

 Though someone told me that Kanazawa is not actually a village, quite disappointing. I guess my rural dream can only go so far.