It's so hot... milk was a bad choice.

Whew! It's certainly been a lot weekend, and now... Monday again. Back to class. All that jazz.
It's also been quite the exciting weekend! On Saturday, we went to check our placement for Spoken Japanese, and I got into Level 2!! I'm so excited!! That made me quite happy. The rest of Saturday, we didn't have much to do, so explored around Hirakata Station for a bit (and found the biggest bookstore to date!) and then went to a new karaoke place (and by we, I mean Casey, Ellen, Dave, Alex, John and I). Vicki and Laura had already moved into their homestay families by then.
On Sunday, it was pretty much another day without anything to do until 4:30, which was when I would meet my homestay family! So we got some breakfast/lunch and then hung out around the CIE, since we would meet them upstairs at our times. Everyone else had times really close to mine, and Alex was actually meeting his at the same time as me, so he and I went together. I was so nervous though!! It's one of those things where you have no idea what to think or know what to do, so you just have to go with the flow.
When we first went upstairs, we had to fill our our schedule sheets so that our families would know when our classes were, and we also got our two pictures back so we can use them to get our gaijin cards. Then we pretty much just wait until our families get there, while watching a Miyazaki movie that I didn't know what it was. I was still really nervous, ahaha.
And finally... the time arrived. It was rather awkward at first, ahaha. But then again, it always is when you meet new people, especially when you have this little thing called a language barrier. But I really like them so far! My dad and my oldest sister aren't here yet - Otosan is away on a business trip? I think that's what it was. And Rei-san's living in Tokyo right now. So it's just Okasan, Mai-san and I in the house (though I must say, just having us three it's a little cramped, so it will be quite interesting to see how all of us will fit in. ^^
But anyway, we had an interview with a translator there to help us out, and we went over the checklist that they gave us in our homestay meeting that goes over many important things. I think I really lucked out in some regards, for instance... Okasan will do my laundry and clean my room!! Wow! I was very excited, because I don't know if I would be able to run the washing machine. I also don't really have a set curfew, I'm just supposed to call... I think that's what they said. Some of it was a bit confusing. Apparently, though, if I'm out so late that I miss the last bus, I'm just supposed to stay at a friend's house, lol. Hmmm, what else? Oh, the one bad thing is that I have to take a shower/bath at night, which I'm totally not used to. I guess I'll *get* used to it though, ahaha. My hair just looks so awful in the morning after I've slept on it, eheh. Oh yeah, ahaha. And apparently, they don't mind if I have a party at the house or something, so long as I don't bother them. Yeah, I'm a huge partier, lol.
Anyways, though, I also thought it was funny because Alex was having his interview with his family, and it turns out that his family and my family are friends! It made me laugh. So we got introduced to each other's families as well.
After the interview, they drove me back to the seminar house to get my luggage (which was my first time in a Japanese car - it's so weird being on the other side of the road!) (oh yeah, and funny story - the CD they were listening to was Michael Buble), then it was off to their house, which isn't far at all from campus!! I'm so excited. The house itself is really cute. Obviously a bit cramped, but still very cute. My room is on the second floor (up a steep staircase, ahaha), but it's really cozy. I have a couch, desk, wardrobe, dresser, little table, TV, and a cushy chair. Then obviously the futon, that gets rolled up in the closet. I spent part of the evening unpacking my stuff, and then they took me to go get sushi!! Hmmm, well, perhaps I shouldn't have been excited as I was. They really meant *sushi*.
It was a very traditional little restaurant, where they obviously knew the owners too, and it was very close to the house. We sat down at a low table and got some green tea, then they brought out individual wooden plates with one of all these different kinds of sushi. And I was supposed to eat everything on my plate (well, if I didn't want to be rude, though I'm sure they would have understood if I really didn't like something). But... yeah... I ate them all. To tell you the truth, none of them did taste bad. Many of them were a lot better than I thought they would be!! It was mainly the texture. Most of the sushi was just a chunk of fish on top of rice with wasabi in it... so it obviously didn't *look* that appetizing either. And then one of them I was eating and eating... and chewing and chewing... it was very chewy! So I told Okasan this, and she was like "oh that's squid!" and I get these huge eyes and am just like WHAT? Ahahaha. It made me laugh. It didn't taste bad, actually pretty tasteless to tell you the truth... just very, very chewy. The other really weird thing were these little orangish balls. Turns out they were fish eggs. Oh goody!
Anyway, after sushi, we stopped by the 7-11 where we all got to pick out a dessert which we brought home to eat. One other thing I've noticed that's a bit different is how much they've given me to drink!! Ahaha. When we came home from Kansai Gaidai, we all had some juice. Then at the restaurant, we had green tea, and then coffee. Then when we got home from there, we had more coffee. Then before we went to bed, Okasan gave us all some wine. Lol, it makes me laugh. I'm like... never thirsty.
So all in all, things are going pretty well!! I think I'm really going to like it, it's just going to take some getting used to. Okasan and Mai-san speak Japanese pretty much all the time, though if I don't understand something, then Okasan tries to think of it in English. Ahaha. Though yeah, she's definitely not fluent. I'm going to have to learn some more Japanese quickly!
I walked to campus this morning and it was a very nice walk, actually. It takes about as long for me to walk to campus as it did before for me to walk to the East gate from the seminar house. And from the East gate was *another* long walk to actually get to campus, so actually, I'm even closer than at the seminar houses!! It makes me very excited.
Anyways, I have some pictures, but I have to go to the office to pick up my materials for the Sumi-E class that I have in 20 minutes, so I will put them up after class. That's about it for now!

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