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I have to write more often.  Sorry about that.  When I don’t update my blog for long periods of time, it turns into just a list of what I’ve been doing.  I want it to be more of a peek into what I’m thinking. 

Warning:  I am starting to be bad at being good at English. 

Exciting things!

• I went on a 3 day trip to the south/Shikoku!  Went to 7 different temples.  It was really amazing.  I did lots of chanting, incense-lighting, small-talking with grandmas [there were about 80 old ladies on the trip, a few men, and my host parents and host sister], raw-fish/ unknown substance eating, and a little bit of public bathing.  Lots of new things.  I could write way more, but I’m going to try not to let this post get too long.
• Class Match!  2 days of wandering around watching soccer, basketball, and table tennis interrupted only by 3 half-hour soccer games.  [We lost all of them.  The only point we got was scored by the other team on their own goal.]  But it was still super fun, and no one really cared that we did horribly. 
• Last Sunday was a lot of good things in one day.  In the morning, there was an international festival.  I learned a little Bengal, saw lots of people who I wanted to know, saw a Japanese Swiss horn choir thing, and wished I could’ve stayed longer.  But I couldn’t because I had to go to a Rotary Orientation, which I actually kind of can’t remember… After that, I saw the temple where my host mom grew up!  Super pretty!  [Temple #11.  I’m keeping track.]  Then host mom, host aunt, and I went to Matsumoto castle.  It is about 500 years old, a national treasure, and awesome.  Not so good with me describing words today, sorry.  Steep stairs, little windows, moon-viewing balconies, flat lawns, flowers, black wood.  Rain. 

Yesterday, my host mom was describing some way of doing something [I forget what] and asked if it is the same in the US.  I told her how it [memory not great today!] was different in the US, and for the first time talking about the US felt like I was explaining a memory, not what I am used to doing. 

I can’t decide what I think about my speaking capabilities.  Sometimes I think that I’m terrible and can’t say anything, but other times I think that I am almost as good at Japanese as I am at Spanish.  I think the second one is true.  I don’t have hard evidence of my progress like I did when learning Spanish [test grades etc] so maybe I don’t realize I’m getting better.  And I think I take the things I know for granted.  Also, I’m learning everything at once.  It isn’t like school-learning where you learn basic stuff, and then a new grammar trick, and then a new set of vocab.  In the school-way, you have a limited set of things that you are very good at.  In the immersion-way, I have a lot of things I am moderate at.  I’m trying to master all of Japanese grammar at once.  The rate at which I acquire things that I am super at is slow, but my breadth is great.  So I can saw a lot of things incorrectly, but little-by-little more correctly.  Just know, I thought of “dan-dan” before I thought of “little-by-little.” Yes! 

Usually when I have something to say, I have to think of it in English and then translate it in my head, before I can say it, but there have been a few times where I just went straight to saying it.  On these occasions, I assumed I must have got it wrong, because I didn’t think about it.  But I didn’t. 

Seasons change within 2 days here.  Tuesday it was early fall, Wednesday the leaves started changing, today it is freeeeeeezing cold, like winter.  I kind of wish my school had heating…

That’s all for now.  In the future, I’ll do shorter, frequenter posts rather than rare monstrous posts.  [I think frequenter might not be a word?]

PS  I visited the mandolin/guitar club yesterday.  Super nice people, super pretty sounds, super excited, gonna join.