first weekend

So I have some stuff to catch up on. I got placed in Level one, which is really unfortunate and for four hours every day I’m bored out of my mind in a class that is way under my level. My Teachers are good though. Matsui Sensei is my main teacher. She is short and very thin and very adorable. She is only 26 and she is very nice. Obata sensei I don’t like as much. She is very nice but she is a bit loud and she never teaches us anything, she only reviews. Melville sensei (yes Japanese) is amazing! She is a little quirky, which I like in a teacher, and she makes you get it right, not close, which I love. She is the only one I really feel like I’m learning from.
On Saturday we went to Kyoto. I went at first with a big group of people on the train to Kyoto but when we got there they went to get sushi and go to a night club and I went to see Yasuko at the Nijo Castle, which is right by her house. It was really cool to see her again. We toured Nijo Castle, window shopped and got some hirogohan (lunch). I had some delicious fish and chips with fries and a donut. JAPANESE DONUTS ARE THE BEST! Do you all remember that time that I went to New York and spent the rest of the year talking about and wishing for a New York Bagel? That is what this is like! They are a lot more like bread, but a little sweet. They are a lot less sweet than American donuts but they are very tasty and you don’t feel like crap after. Sooo good! We didn’t get to see each other long though because Yasuko had to go to work. She works as a teacher at a cram school. I had to ride the trains by myself through Kyoto and then home again. It was a little scary. I never was certain I was on the right train and I always had to ask someone “doomo sumimasen, kore wa Kyoto eki desu ka?” The Japanese people were really nice though, I think that they liked that I asked in Japanese. Once, on my way back to the Kyoto eki (station) from Nijo I got on the wrong train. When I asked a woman if it was the right stop, she realized that she had taken the wrong train too. We both got off to wait for the right train (the nice thing about Japanese trains is you pay to get where you are going, not to get on the train, so we didn’t have to buy a new ticket). While we were waiting she asked me a bunch of stuff about myself, all the stuff we had been going over in class. It was really cool because I understood it and could answer.
On Sunday we had a cooking lesson (ryoori no curasu) we learned to make yakisoba, spinach and sesame seed salad and miso soup. It was Really tasty. I was in a group with my number one (me and the Jessica’s have identified our choices for best looking guy, they both choose the jew, who is admittedly good looking, but I picked their number 2, the blond. (It should be noted that when I say number one I don’t mean YEAH! I mean, well.. I guess that one)) but they all spoke more Japanese than I did so I didn’t talk much at all.
Today, Tuesday, we went to visit Shinga University, a small Daigaku (college) nearby. It was only about a 20 minute bike ride which is really close (our grocery store is farther away, as is the train station, but not by much). I was in a group with the Jessicas. We had a really nice tour guide, her name was bochisan, I think. We had hirogohan in the cafeteria, which was okay. Then we walked around. We went into a store and after about 2 minutes of language barrier issues I managed to ask her if they sold soy milk in japan. She pointed out a juice box sized soy milk, so now I can take it to the store and by cereal and milk! We stopped and listened to this Japanese band that were practicing. Four boys. They were REALLY good, which was surprising but sweet! Utasan was there, I met him earlier, he was showing everyone else around Kyoto when we went. He is one of those Japanese boys with the long bleached hair that looks kinda red. He seems really nice but he swears a lot and says lots of really bad things in English, which I think he doesn’t realize are as bad as they are 0.o
I’ve decided that I need to hang out with the Jessicas. They are nice people but we are not alike. They are loud and obnoxiously American. They don’t care at all that they are representing our country and they don’t care at all about the culture. Everything about the culture is what they hate about Japan. I really don’t know why either of them is here. All they want to do is go home, which they talk about all the time, eat American hamburgers and go get fucking wasted every night which is totally fine but I don’t know why they are here. I feel kinda bad for my roommate because she hates everything about Japan and she wants to go home so bad. Every day she counts down how many days left. This morning talking to her mom on skype she cried. I felt bad but I couldn’t help but laugh a little because she started crying and then said, “There aren’t any cute guys here!” which is really all she cares about. She bitches about everything which is started to make me angry because most of the stuff she “can’t believe” is stuff they told you about in the student handbook which she clearly didn’t read. We bought all of our groceries together and then instead of eating them she went out to eat like every day. Now she is like, well you’re eating all the food so we’re going to buy stuff separately. She is making Yakisoba tonight, and I asked if I could have some, and she is like, “well you’re eating all of my orange juice anyway” –direct quote (by the way, I asked her to pick US up some orange juice, but now it’s hers). I offered to pay for the food of hers I eat, but she said she didn’t want my money and the fridge is full of her food and water, there is no room for me to buy milk, orange juice of my own or food because of all her shit! I’m sorry I told myself I wouldn’t bitch on here but I need to vent. I really want her to go home so I can have the apartment to myself!
Next weekend everyone is going to Osaka, I might go, or I might go see Yasuko again, we will see. This Friday I’m signed up to do this thing at 3 where we play games with Japanese kids, and then we are having a birthday party at 4 and movie night at 5. I don’t know what the movie is yet. I don’t really miss America and, in fact, the only part of this trip that I hate is the small part of America I’ve brought with me (battlestar galactica, which I am now addicted to, not included). I miss my friends, especially here where I don’t really fit in with anyone. They are all either too nerdy and unwashed for me or too normal for me.