Time flies when you are having fun. It’s been 100 days since I’m in Japan! Time to look back to the past months. 100 days ago I went to Japan with the knowledge of the first 10 pages of a Japanese language ‘How & what’ booklet. Learning a new language is not easy, but after 100 days I can have a nice conversation in Japanese! Every day I learn Japanese in class and I get private lessons 7 times a week! I feel that I am getting better, that makes me even more perseverant.
Now I’m in my third host family. It’s not that I’m a problem child, but it was simply a mismatch with the first family. And of course it is not easy to match stranger like I am with a family. I’m don’t see as a failure. With Tanaka-san, I could get at rest. Now I am in the third family and I’m so happy here that I do not want to leave anymore. But AFS has already arranged a permanent family for the rest of the year for which I am happy they want to take care of me. I now have seen different lifestyles and families and I think that were good learning moments. I also feel that I am stronger than at the beginning of my exchange. I feel confident of myself and I am not giving up!
School is still fun! Yes, school is perfect! It can’t be better! I do not really remember the first few weeks, everything went so fast and everything was so new so it overwhelmed me. Now It feels like I am on this school already for years! I feel very much at home at school and everyone is very nice! Now I can finally remember the names! (with the faces, that’s handy 🙂 And I also joined some girls with whom I have lunch or take me out!
When I think back to the time I asked the tennis group if I could join them I often think that it was an idiot move! I only knew 10 wordt Japanese and these were only boys! Now I am a 100% member of the club and they expect that I attend the training daily. It is still very nice and especially because I now also speak some Japanese, I can chat with them. Even though not everyone is always nice to me because sometimes my playing skills are perhaps a bit boring, but I will do my very best and just keep on going!
The last weeks I did have a lot of fun with Erika, she is from Denmark. We are really close friends. We share everything and there is no day without a message from Erika about how cute the guys are she saw in the train! She is like a sister to me, maybe because we experience the same things and we support each other when we have a less day! We already decided to visit each other in Denmark / Netherlands!
I think most of you also wonder if I’m not homesick now and then. I feel no need to go home. I don’t miss you! : P No, just kidding, of course I miss you, but actually I hardly have time to miss you! Until now I had two moments where I felt really sad and really wanted to go home for a short moment.
But I tell you, it’s not that easy to be away from home for such a long time.
Fortunately I feel very confident and happy and I not stressed anymore. I am still very tired, but I think I keep that for the rest of the year. Each day takes so much energy! I cannot describe how tired I sometimes am. But I found a solution! Well .. a sort of solution, it is more like an emergency solution to prevent collapsing after school. The 6th hour at school is really the hardest of the day, I can barely keep my eyes open and I do not know what it is, but I just fall asleep. Fortunately, teachers have little sympathy for me so that’s a bonus.
What else can I say, time flies really fast here, it is already July and I still have a 8 months to go! But I’m still counting the days that I am here, not the days until my return! I live here no more than a week ahead, I should do that at home too!
Everyone still thanks for all the nice comments! Really like to read them! : D