March

I can´t decide if March so far has been very busy or very relaxed. I guess I´d have to say both. Between school being done for this year which means that I´m on the longest spring vacation ever, I´ve more or less lost all kind of structure I had when it came to studying or keeping up with my blog. I hope it gets better once the new school year starts, but for now here´s what I´ve been up to lately.

Some time towards the end of February, the classes at school started wrapping up. The last full day of school was February the 27th if I´m not mistaken. During our last homeroom class, everybody decided to go outside and play in the snow. In Norway when we play outside in the snow we usually always make sure to bundle up so we don´t get cold and/or wet. That wasn´t much of a concern for my classmates. We went to the outside court and started wrestling in the snow, throwing snowballs and other snow related activities.

Some kids wore their gym shorts instead of the gym pants. Crazy if you ask me.

Some of my best friends, Mizuho, Sayo, and Chisato. We are most likely not going to be in the same class anymore after school starts again, which makes me really sad. I also look kinda bald in this picture, thanks to wearing a ponytail and cropping it out haha.

The heart is all the girls in the class (30), and eleven in the middle are all the boys in the class (11). The reason why we spelled eleven out, is because that´s what our class is called. First grade first class = 11

 This is our class photo I guess. It´s pretty full of personality I think.

 Everyone wanted our homeroom teacher, Mr. Arakawa to join the picture, but there was no one left to take the picture, so he tried taking a selfie instead.

It was the most fun day in a long time, I laughed so much and I felt everyone bonded really well. It also reminded me of that we´ll change classes soon, which is a good chance to make even more friends and all that, is sad because I just recently started to feel apart of the group.
On the first of March was the graduation ceremony, so of course attending was mandatory. There were a lot of speeches, a lot of clapping, and a lot of sleeping. It was sad to think that I wouldn´t be seeing the third years anymore, even though I didn´t really become close with any of them.

At some point that week I met up with Haruka at this trendy cafe for some tea and cakes. Takayama is a pretty small town, but there definitely is no shortage of cute cafes or delicious restaurants or food vendors. 

 I tried teaching her Norwegian. I used to think that Norwegian was a pretty easy to pronounce language, but apparently it just sounds like mumbling.

 On that Friday I went to this dinner party with my host family and some of their friends, which just so happen to include to of my other host families. It was at this newly renovated guest house, and the food was Japanese with a twist, which is the only way I can think of describing it.

 There was this spanish girl who was working there, she danced flamenco during dinner. We had a nice chat after and she told me she had never danced flamenco before haha.

 My current host mom, second host mom, and fourth host mom

I met up with Haruka again, and we ended up taking puri.

 I bought a Japanese Nintendo 3DS to use for Japanese study. It´s a good study resource if I use it consciously that way, or else I just skip over the instructions without really learning that much.

Even after the graduation, we still had to go to school because of the exams. I studied in the library as per usual, and this is what my study setup looked like. I did end up falling asleep not long after.

For almost a week we finished school really early, and because kyudo club was canceled because of the tests, I had a lot of time off. Which often resulted in me roaming around town trying to get some good shots. I took a lot of pictures during this time, but I´m saving those for future posts.

On the 8th of March we had yet another orientation. My speech went really well, and so did translating the outbound students speeches. I think this half of the year there is going to be a lot more rotary functions than the first half of the year, which is nice because I like seeing my foreigners.

Group photo. this time we filled everyone in on the funny face tradition.

Three more outbounds were added to the group, Azuki, Wako, and Kokoro. They are going to Norway, New Zealand, and the US. I was so happy to hear that there were going to be even more exchange students, they are all really sweet. And I take personal responsibility to teach Azuki everything there is to know about Norway before she leaves.

Our exchange family keeps growing and growing.

The day after the orientation I had a rotary club meeting.

I performed the same speech as the day before, so it was no sweat.

Some day that week my current host mom and some friends brought me to Toyama, mostly cause they wanted to have lunch at this fancy French restaurant. 

To be honest I don´t really know what French food is exactly, especially Japanese French food, but what we had served was pretty yummy. The presentation was also really aesthetically pleasing. 

We had planned on doing some sightseeing while in Toyama, but it started snowing so much we ended up going home early. Look at that wall of snow.

On Friday I met up with the kyudo peeps to have lunch and say goodbye to the seniors. It was a buffet, so I definitely overate. It was fun seeing everybody in their regular clothes.

Me and my best friends from kyudo. We toured around town trying various pickled foods, before we eventually went to take purikura.

The one to the left says "Let´s do our best at practice tomorrow", and the one to the left is everyone making fun of Shino´s boyfriend. It´s an inside joke, so it´s hard to explain haha.

Interesting thing happen when you stuff six people in a photo booth haha.

On Sunday my host family and I went to one of the many ski resorts, so I could snowboard and so the little ones could sled and practice skiing.

This is possibly the cutest thing I´ve seen in my entire life.

 On Monday I went to Nagoya to meet up with the other exchange students. In the picture above you might notice me wearing high heels. I actually wore them the first half of the day, which was not the best idea, because we always end up walking a lot when we´re in Nagoya.

Long story shorty this is what happened to my feet. But at least I looked really cute the first half of the day.

We found this funky hand sculpture.

We also rode the ferris wheel, which is something I´ve been wanting to cross off my list of things to do for a while now.

The view wasn´t as good as expected, cause the ferris wheel wasn´t too tall. It was lots of fun though.

Other than ride the ferris wheel, we went shopping and ate a lot of food. We had burgers, crepes, kebabs, and Starbuck, but not all at the same time of course.

At our little crepe shop, I think this is turning into a new tradition

This is what I´ve been up to lately. I´m headed towards Hakuba for the Rotary ski trip tomorrow, I´m so excited. Stay tuned.