Tidbits.

Hello!
Sorry I haven't written in a while.  I haven't really felt like writing... sometimes keeping a blog makes it feel like a vacation, when it should just be life.  So when it just feels like life, I don't want to write.
Life has been good!  School is pretty boring, but I'm making friends, which is fun.  There are windows in my classroom!!!  Such a new idea, after dwelling in the caves of Conval for three years.  School is just starting at home and I am SO GLAD that I am no longer stuck there.  Yay.
It's starting to cool down slightly.  It's still really hot, but I could see all of the mountains for the first time yesterday!  I really am excited for autumn.
I went to my first Rotary orientation.  There are only 2 other exchange students in my district!  Only one was there though.  I'll meet the other next month.
Swimming class at school is so bad it's funny... They have all been taking swimming classes in school since the beginning of time, and I never learned how to do all the fancy strokes.  I don't even know the names.  It should have been embarrassing, but once again, my tendency to not be super emotional helped me out and I was fine.
I've been playing guitar.  Please don't tell my banjo... I feel guilty enough already.  I don't like it nearly as much as the banjo, but I like it more than not playing music, and I am making progress!  I have new calluses on the fingertips of my left hand.
I've gotten 3 letters so far!  They really brighten my day [hint hint...]  Getting an actual letter is completely different from getting an email or some internet type note.  It's so much more personal.  I feel like I am looking over the person's shoulder as they're writing it.
I feel like I should be writing about living in a temple.. there is so much to tell! But it is also hard to describe it well enough.  I don't know how to relay the experience fully.  I think I'll just have to do it a little at a time.  Often, at 6:30 pm, I'll go out with my mom to the bell nest to the temple.  There is a large stone base, with steep stairs leading up to a platform.  The platform has a large decorated roof, held up by pillars.  Hanging from this roof is the bell.  The bell is gigantic.  It is maybe a meter across, and its sides are maybe and inch and a half thick.  Hanging next to it is a heavy hexagonal log.  It always makes me a little worried... it is held up by a rusty old chain and some wire.  I feel like it's going to crash down at any moment.  There is a rope hanging from this log, and I pull it back and then let go to ring the bell.  The bell makes a wonderful noise.  It is deep, and it seems that the vibrations set other objects around it vibrating too.  After 11 strikes on the bell, the whole atmosphere is vibrating.  It's like swimming in sound.
Interesting food stories:  shrimp cookies, barbecued wild boar, green tea ice cream [in the box labeled "Classic."  The other flavors in this box were vanilla and rum raisin.] and eggplants... they show up often and are only 4 inches long.