Ok so my new blog:

yuunagiharuka.wordpress.com

is my main blog

but AFS told me I need another one for the Chip in thing, so that people can donate towards my tuition.

here it is:

http://yuunagi-haruka.blogspot.com/

Please donate! My goal is $6,000 USD! Thanks so much:)

Tell everyone you know I really wanna go.

There will be no more new posts, or anything. It will be left for others to view.

My new blog is

yuunagiharuka.wordpress.com

This blog is my personal and my new blog for my trip to Japan with AFS this Augst 2010 for 6 months.

Please change your links and view my new blog

if you have any questions:

email me at yuunagi.haruka@hotmail.co.jp

~Haruka

As stated earlier Satoshi Ohno is mine

HE IS SO CUTE!

*TOTAL SPAZ* HE IS SO SEXY!

Ok enough about that

Now back to me being back

Two word… I HATE IT. Wait no that’s 3 words…. I have been extremely unhappy being back. I have now realized how much I don’t like the American Lifestyle. I miss Japanese Food, I miss everything about Japan.

Believe it or not, I cannot speak English without a random Japanese blurt, NO JOKE. Same with Spanish (my native language) and Portuguese. I keep wanting to answer in Japanese, I think in Japanese, I write in Japanese, I can not live like I did before. AND I have developed a serious obsession with Satoshi Ohno and want to marry him (well that pretty normal lol)

Anyways, despite problem I had in Japan and YFU I wanna go back and hopefully I can go back in August. It’s 99.9% final.

I noticed a lot of kids preferred their host families over their REAL families. I found that kinda mean… I mean I care about my host family but I would never place them over my own. I felt awkward when everyone was saying “Oh I wanna go back and live with them.” I didn’t ever feel like that. Maybe I just that one abnormal exchange student.,..

One thing for sure is that I WILL DEFINITELY RETURN TO JAPAN! I am going their for college for sure.

Another thing, I want to start singing (again). I got more into Arashi when I got to Japan. I’ve loved singing for awhile but I never got the courage to do anything about it. When I was a child I would sing A LOT. At weddings, parties, etc I would jump up and sing. Everyone thought I would be a singer or something. It would be fun to go onto those Japanese singing shows. So when I go back to Japan, I shall do that.

I have pictures, I have them on my facebook. I think I can get the link where you can see the album without adding me as a friend on facebook.

It’s a lot to write so I will do this post in parts.

For this post I will post the Pros and Cons of having returned to America.

PROS:

-Central Heating (Therefore, a nice warm shower)

-Being back with my family

-Being with my friends

-My old room

CONS

-No heated toliet

- No Japanese food everyday

-American school… EWWW

-No more speaking Japanese constantly

- No more Japanese anything (just to sum it up)

- No more Japanese TV

-No more Japan.

I keep wishing I could hop on a plane and go back…

My Japanese teacher isn’t helping. Honestly, It is nothing like Japanese and I don’t learn much at all. My old teacher taught me a lot. I miss you Ayako sensei! I will go back to my Japanese school again. Ughh I hate not learning anything. I would be almost native by now. I basically wasted 1 year and a half. I’m taking level 2 of the JLPT and I am not going to be prepared at this rate. Next week or so I might do either private lessons or go back to my old school.

At school, just because I was gone it was like I didn’t exist anymore. I miss everyone of my classmates in Japan and I miss Japanese a lot. I miss it a lot. I catch my self speaking Japanese to myself well I get mad or whatever. My Korean friend thinks I have turned Japanese on the inside and apparently everyone thinks I look Hawaiian?

I bought a bento and some magazines, they make it feel better. But I feel like a total foreigner now, nothing makes sense… Its horrible. I ordered a ton of magazines from an online bookstore, just so I can read Japanese again.

Sorry for the ranting

It happens.

This is it for part one

I leave you with this: If you wanna be an exchange student don’t expect anything. You will be disappointed, well maybe. Don’t go with out knowing what you are doing. ASK QUESTIONS! RESEARCH! Look up where you host family lives, your school, etc.  Make sure you are prepared for the worse.

Please email me if you have any questions

~Natalie

I am gonna make a full post later

ok

im alive

My last day of school was so emotional. My class and the class next door made a big card for me and my homeroom teacher gave me some candies. We took a class picture in Taiku and I went home. We went shopping afterward to Youme Town…and I bought a picture book of Satoshi Ohno. I was freakin out when I saw it in the book section. I was about to push everyone of the way and yell out MINE! It cost me 1300 yen but it was worth it. Then I bought some Rilakkuma stuff and another Arashi Magazine. I have to say, I am obsessed with Arashi and Rilakkuma. My luggage has become so heavy with all the magazines and Rilakkuma stuff I bought.

The best part was… The gift from my host family. My host mom gave me a Rilakkuma Blanket and Rilakkuma blanket. I was so happy! And we bought some snacks for the Shinkansen ride.

Well, I`ll be back in Japan in August so no worries, this blog isn`t done yet!

Last thing, while in Japan I have become addicted to alot of things…

1. ORANGE JUICE! I practically live on Orange Juice now. I love Qoo Juice!

2. Mikans! I ate tons of them!

3. Arashi. and more specifically Satoshi Ohno. I have bought alot of Arashi Stuff.

4. Rilakkuma. Enough said.

5. Gyoza. Yummy in my tummy.

6. Hot sauce… wait no I was addicted to that Hot sauce… wait no I was addicted to that earlier.

Well, Chao everyone!

I make sure to post pictures when I get back in America.

Things today were bad… First off, it was so cold in the morning my shampoo and my washcloth(it was wet from the night before) FROZE! My toothpaste became a jello type thingy? In Japan homes they have seperate Air Conditioners in each room. When you are in the room you turn it on, when you leave you turn it off. Mine takes 10 mins to turn on… meanwhile I`m freezzziiinnnngggg! The bathroom has no AC so I`m taking a shower in freezing temperatures! I`ve gotten used to it but it`s frustrating when my shampoo won`t come out. Japanese Shampoo doesn`t freeze though…

Second bad thing, I injured my self. Yes, I have a injured knee. So what had happened was (I`ve always wanted to say that, ha ha): I was walking back from the library and I slip and fall down the stairs and hit my right knee on the edge of the stair. It hurt (no one was around) and I was about to just break down in tears. I had just had enough but I dragged myself to to class. When I got there I noticed a stain in my tights. I was bleeding, alot. My friend, Estuko, took me to the nurse lady. The nurse said I might need stiches, the wound looked deep. The nurse was nice, she knew my host sister and her brother had lived in Atlanta. Anyways, she bandaged it and I went back to class. I couldn`t walk right anymore and I was in a little pain.

At the station, I put my ticket in the machine thingy and a turn a second and turn to get it and it`s gone. I saw a man run by and then the train came and my host sister said to hurry up and get on. My ticket was no where to be found. I check the machine and it wasn`t there and I was sure I put it in the machine. I think the running man stole it! When we go to our stop, we explained to the Station person and he was nice and said not to worry about it (I would have needed to pay again). He was nice.

Then… the button of my mom`s Calvin Klein, 100 dollar coat, FELL! I was fricken out! I`ll have to sew it back before she notices it. I have no idea how it got loose?

My host mom is feeling sorta better. We are going back to You-Me town for some last minute shopping tomorrow after school. I really don`t want to leave but I really miss everyone back at home.

One side note:

In the library at school, there is no friendly librarian lady or anyone to talk to (lucky you Anita) I basically have to sit there, be quiet and read for 4 hours or so? It is SO BORING! Everyone is so serious. I ocassionally sneak into a nap. The cute english teacher hasn`t said a SINGLE WORD to me literally. I didn`t do anything bad or anything. He basically pretend I don`t exist. Even on the first day, he didn`t say hi or anything. It was as if I wasn`t there. Wtf, is his problem. All the other teachers are nice so to me. The teacher for Old Japanese, gave me some kanji exercise books. They are so cool because they use little fox comics to teach you kanji differences. The books are all in Japanese but I can read enought to understand the questions. She was so nice to me!

I`m going to miss them!

Well, tomorrow is the last full day in Japan! Better make it good.

I`ll post pics on Monday or so.

Chao!

Things have gotten better, we can use the car now and my host mom is feeling a little better. Sadly I have to leave Saturday. I`m going to do final shopping tomorrow or thursday. I am going to end up paying extra baggage fees, oh well…

I can`t wait till August to come back to Japan. Hopefully I get placed in a city area and not another all girls school. I wanna see boys! I havent talked to a boy in ages (I dont have a host dad, he works far away in osaka, I only saw him for 3 days).

Anyways,  I working on the AFS application, it`s really extensive o-o. All I have to do is finish the essay thingy, fill out the forms like health and school, and do the interview and I`m done. I`ll start fundraising when I get back.

A side note. The girls in my homeroom are so funny! We were talking about heights today and I am taller than everyone else. We have the strangist conversation but it`s funny. Today I met my host sister`s crush. I was funny because I did`t know it was him until we got into the car. I hope she can get him. I`m trying to convince her to give him chocolate on valentines day.

It snows a little bit after school.

We off to sleep!

Let`s just say I`m extreme frustrated with YFU at the moment.

Turns out the school I was going to wasn`t the one I thought. YFU said it was Sanyo Girl`s High School. There is one with the same name in Ooyama. The school I am going to is Sanyo Jyogakuen! Not Sanyo Jyoshi (As YFU stated)!

 Also, YFU didn`t metion that I need $80 dollars for a train pass, leather shoes, or that I need to bring my own denim skirt,  special v-neck sweater, tights and long socks? I only brought $380 dollars and there are like $150 of extra expenses YFU failed to tell me. They also had said oh just bring like $250 dollars .TOTAL LIE! I already spent $200 on my school supplies for school in america, stuff for me, and presents for my family. I only have a little less than $80 dollars left and $100 dollars than apparently cant be exchange, according to the lady at the bank. I still have to pay for the calls I have made (about 10 dollars), the tights my host sister gave me, the dry cleaning for my uniform (YFU didnt tell me), the train pass and the money for lunch that my host family gave me.

The girls at school don`t wear their uniform. They wear denim (jean skirts), sweaters, and tights. After school they change back to the uniform.

The skirt for the uniform I got was probably used by every exchange student that has come to this school. The skirt was old but everything else was ok. It`s a little too big. Next, I was placed in the 11th grade when, WHEN I AM IN 10th GRADE!!! So I look like a total idiot in math class because I have no idea what math the teacher is talking about. They are all 16 and 17 and are going to start 12th grade in 2 months. Why would YFU place me in 11th grade?! It would be something different if I was in the 11th grade in the same homeroom with my host sister but I am not in any class with my host sister and don`t see her till the end of school.

To make things worse, my host mother has H1N1! I feel so sorry for her, the first 2 weeks she took me to different places and I had so much fun. Now she sleeps all day because she is so tired and has to clean everywhere to make sure I dont catch H1N1. So in result we can`t use the car anymore, meaning we are stuck at home all day and cant go anywhere for my last week. We now have to walk to the station in the freezing cold and walk back really late. My host sister has to study  because she has exams on Tuesday. Basically my weekend is stay at home and do my own homework.

My host family and me had fun the first 2 weeks and they have been so kind but with all these things that have happened. I feel like an extra worry to them. I still get to go to school which is fun.

1 week to go. Better make the best of it! Who knows? Maybe things will get better.

There were some good things.

Since there are no guys, the girls talk about the teacher. My english teacher, Nanba-sensei is SO CUTE! Every moment in class is like KYAAA! He called the house today because my host sister forgot to do something? I answered the phone and froze. My Japanese just flew out the window. All I could say is ‘‘Chotto Matte Kudasai“. 

The biology teacher is really cute too. He is really nice to me and explains things pretty well. I can understand most all the classes at least to the point I know what is going on. My classmates help simplifiy things in Japanese and I look the kanji up and then things make sense.

The girls here are really nice to me and they all say I am `Mecha Kawaii`.

`Mecha` is Kansai-ben for `totemo`.

Yesterday we went to a mall attached to the train station so my host sister and friends can get the stuff for their graduation trip to Okinawa. Meanwhile, I did some shopping. We ate at McDonalds and went home.

It was fun and I was happy my host sister brought me along.

Hopefully things get better.

My host sister`s friend has a Arashi DVD and we might watch it Monday (we don`t have school Monday).

I still love Japan and I am definetly going to come back for a semester with AFS (I am not liking YFU at the moment).

I have some AP World History homework to do.

I went to the Haruya Bookstore and bought a magazine with tons of Arashi posters. I LOVE ARASHI!

I LOVE SATOSHI and whats his name

Also, I saw the VS. Arashi TV special thing. Every moment was like KYAAA!

My host mom is sick so we can`t go out unless I go with my host sister. We might do something today.

Anyways, I`ll let you guys know how school is tomorrow.

Oh one more thing…

IT`S FREEEZZIINNNGGGG DOWN HERE!!!

Well it’s my birthday today and time for me to eat breakfast. I’ll update later
Bye bye.