First Day of School!

School today was actually pretty fun! Shion woke me up at 4:50 this morning so we could get ready for school. I told her to wake me up if I wasn’t already up. I didn’t realize that her version of waking me up was to bang once very loudly on my headboard! It scared me so much! But I was up and moving in no time, so it worked really well. :)

We left the house around six, got to the train station, dropped off Shota, then went back to the house because Shion forgot her train pass! It is only the second time in three years though, so I don’t blame her for this one time. After we had picked up the pass, we drove back to the train station and rode the train to the second train station. There, we met Mina and Migiwa and rode the train with them. We got off the train and met up with Meg and Mihoko, her host sister, and walked to school. Doesn’t actually take too long. Only about half an hour or so.

We had homeroom first thing in the morning, then a period (each period being 45 minutes with a 10 minute break between each class) of no school work so that Ms. Hayashi could show us around the school. I wasn’t really paying attention to where we were going though, so I got lost many, many, many times today. :) I then had English with 3B, where we worked on combining sentences, English with 4B, where we read a story about a girl with cancer who wrote an inspiring poem, PE with 5A, where I got to see all my friends who came to SMS this year. I was so happy to see them all! We did this dance warm up thing (Mina and Claudia couldn’t get it, but I picked it up quickly), threw bean bags into a hoop 15 feet in the air, skipped rope (ha ha Claudia!) and watched them do something called “Rabbit”, where someone runs on everyone else’s backs! So scary to watch! If we did it at our school, there would be looooooong risk assessment forms to fill out, and permission slips. Sigh. But it looked like fun, so that is all that matters!

Lunch was next, which was dee-lish! The rice Kenken made for me was amazing! I could eat so much of it! After lunch, Mina, Claudia and I (who are in Group B) had a break, where we sat in our classroom and played school, where Miss Illis (Claudia) taught Willis (me) and Phillis (Mina) how to draw sloths and hippies and stuff on the chalkboard. After a while we ended up just taking photos of each other’s eyes. Some pictures are so pretty!

We then had Calligraphy with 1B, where we learned to draw... Wait for it... Straight lines. Honestly. That’s all we did.

I tried my first “Magical Animal Juice” today. It was superb!

Yummy!

So all in all, it was a great first day! I can’t wait until tomorrow. Everyone in the school is so nice. They wave at you in the halls, and smile. Too bad SMS isn’t like that. :’(

Thank you all so, so, so, so, SO much for voting me your Grade Rep to Council. If you don’t mind me asking, who was I running against? Or was I the only one who wanted to do it? Probably the latter.

Silvina, I’m sure once Victoria gets into the swing of things, getting up in the morning will be a ton easier!

Vicky, we are 16 hours ahead. When you posted your comment at 7:36 am, here it was 11:36 pm. Close though! I hope that I will be able to take more pictures with Shion. It was so much fun!! I wish we had one in Canada too! Or maybe fifteen or sixteen... :P

Tracy, I will be sure to show Elianna any Tinkerbell things I buy in Japan. So far, I’ve only bought the one. I will probably add a few more to the pile, though. :)

Jean, I’m looking forward to trading stories with the girls from SALTS. Sounds like they will have quite the adventure too! And I’m glad you like the blog.

Rheanna, I will be sure to tell everyone you say hi. And I’m glad you also like the blog. It is actually really fun to write!

Meghan, we didn’t end up going to Karaoke, because we ran out of time. Probably this weekend. We have Monday off again, as it is a National Holiday. I would post more of Mount Fuji, but usually it is surrounded by fog and clouds. I was lucky I took that picture when I did! And I plan to do more Pukura, believe me! Miss you too, buddy! xoxoxo

Maureen, I spoke with Claudia at school today. She said that she doesn't use the computer often because it is hard. Everything is in Japanese! I will let you know how it is working out for her, okay?

That’s all for now, folks! Catch ya on the flip side.

xoxo Riley

PS: This is for Phillis and Dillis - “Three pounds lighter my bag will be.” HAHAHAHA!