The Month of May

I returned to Norway a almost two months ago, but I haven´t written any blog posts  since May. The last half of exchange really flies by compared to the first half. My last few months in Japan just flew by, and I was busy trying to make the most of every moment. That of course meant limiting the time spent on the internet. To be fair, I was so busy with school, club, being social, and writing speeches I hardly had any time to relax. the last three months. But now I´m home, and I have time to write about all the cool stuff I experienced before I went home. There were too many great things that happened, so of course I must share all of that with you. This post is mostly about the volleyball tournament at school, the Rotary trip to Gifu-city, and the prefectural kyudo competition.

Cherry Blossoms, Kyudo Examination, and Taylor Swift

A little (big) post about things that happened in April and the start of May. 

Tea Ceremony, Spring Festival, and Kyoto

This post is long-ish, mostly because I took so many pictures during my trip to Kyoto that I just had to include. This is about the month of April up until the 19th. Yet another really busy month, there were a lot of schedule clashes to put it that way. I love being busy, although it can be hard to find time to study.

A Post About The Ski Trip

I know everytime I post something on this blog, I end up talking about how late it is, how busy I´ve been, and a lots of excuses about why I haven´t posted anything in such a long time. This time, I feel like it´s pretty damn justified. After coming home from the ski trip over a month ago (yikes that is a long time), I have changed families, started schools and adjusted to a much more active school schedule, Rotary meetings and such, plus kyudo practice everyday in preparation for my examination, plus a whole load of other things. Anyway, I had a bit of down time today, so I decided to write for my blog. This is mostly about the Rotary ski trip that I went to in March. It was a blast!

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.

Disneyland Birthday Extravaganza

Welcome to this instalment of "Victoria in Japan". This post turned out to be longer than expected, so bear with me. This week (or was it two weeks?), have been filled with fun events, including my Birthday. I barely had time to take a break, which is good since I love to be busy.

New Kids, Monsters, and Lots of Cake

Introducing the new exchange student gang.

Goodbyes, Snowboarding, and lots of Kimonos

I´ve been a little lazy on the blogging front lately, and I can´t blame it on the lack of internet this time. I just felt like I was tired all the time this month, maybe that´s because I stopped drinking coffee 

(I´m considering starting again). Anyway, I´m pretty much half way through my exchange at this point, which is weird to think about. It´s hard to decide if it´s going fast or slow, I think it depends on my mood. Right now I think that it´s going pretty fast. I look back at all the things I´ve done and I know I´ve accomplished a lot, but I can´t help but think that I could have tried a little harder, or focused a bit more. I guess you could call these feelings a mid-exchange crisis? Whatever it is, I´ll use it as a motivation to work even harder! 

Fall Festival and other Adventures

This past week has been filled with much fun, I kept thinking "I can´t wait to blog about this", so here goes!

Nara

This weekend my host family and I drove down to Nara City, to have a look at some old temples, buddhas, and deer.

The Great Purikura Adventure

In my first week of school, I befriended a group of eight girls in my class. We always eat lunch together. One day in my first week at school, they asked me what my favorite Japanese food was, and somehow it came up that I had never been to purikura (Japanese photobooth). Apparently this was surprising to them. The next day at school they suggested that we go take purikura, and then go out for okonomiyaki (my favorite food) after. It was just such a sweet idea, so I kinda have to share the outing. 

学校 - School

Warning: Lots of peace signs

Kyushu Trip Part 2

I finally got around to writing about the rest of the trip! I started school a week ago, and I´ve been busy adjusting to my new schedule. I start school at eight and don´t come home until after six because of Kyudo club practice, so this last week I was perpetually exhausted. I´m getting used to it, and I think it´ll force me to be more efficient.

Nagasaki

Takayama - My Home Away From Home