Welcome to I got the internetz.

さしぶり、ね？　I got the internetz.
But not in the way I wanted to.

What? Uh? Da' fuck you talking about?

Let's rewind and start from the beginning. So much has happened in the past two weeks. SO MUCH. Every day is a fucking adventure. Japan is definitely different from the States, to the point that it makes my head spin. The streets? Are fucking ridiculous. I almost got a heart attack riding my bike here for the first time. Side walks? What side walks? They might as well not have sidewalks, I mean holy shit in the motha' fuckin' can. I almost got hit by a truck, a car, several middle- schoolers (who wanted to practice their English on me while I tried to get back on my bike. UM. STFU, NOW'S NOT THE TIME), I almost fell into a ditch, etc. I got lost on my way home from school. It was dark and it was raining and I wanted a long, hot shower. Instead, I got to practice my crappy Japanese on the locals in order to get directions and after so many failed attempt, FINALLY God was like "fuck it" and decided to have a really nice person help me out by actually taking me to my destination.

The people? Kind. Some are asses, but there are asses everywhere. However, I do feel safe at night riding my bike or walking in the streets late at night. You definitely can't do that in my hometown.

Orientation week was a blur. I met so many people and managed to maintain their friendship even after I moved out of the dorms. Throughout my first week, I went to downtown Osaka, Kyoto, and of course walked randomly throughout Hirakata while getting lost several times in the process.

Then I met my homestay family. First meeting was awkward (for me) because I had to enter a room and see my family for the very first time. The whole family was at one side of the table and me and the CIE staff member was on the other side. While the staff member was introducing me to the family and telling me the rules of the family's household, I kept thinking "'Ho shit, I feel like I'm getting adopted." I didn't know if the family knew English or not since the information sheet told me they didn't, but I've heard you can't believe everything the sheet tells you. Turns out that the dad can speak English (ok, not the best but it's a helluva lot better than my Japanese. A billion times better. A trillion and one times better.) The mom can speak a little, but communication between the two of us is actually quite smooth since the mom can understand enough English but has a heard time speaking it. So we usually have our dictionary at hand. The two boys (two and six years old) are too adorable for words.

The parents are young, both being 34 years old. The dad works for Panasonic and works long hours. He'll leave the house early in the morning (before anyone wakes up, really) and won't come home until 9 or 10 or even 11pm. However, the host dad is truly freakin' awesome. I love his sense of humor (it's cute when he tries to be funny and it sometimes ends up WTF-ish when he tells a joke in English but it's so much love. It really really is.). He likes to drink and doesn't hide the fact that he does. He once came home drunk and was like, "Aisha, I be getting drunking tonight!" to which I replied, "Uh. Yeah, you sure did." EVEN BETTER, the next day he came up to me and APOLOGIZED not about being drunk BUT about speaking bad English while he was drunk. I just went WTF and told him it was okay and totally understandable. He'll offer to help me with my homework, and sometime he'll try to teach me a really complicated kanji for the LOLZ to which I go LULULUL I'M A BEGINNER, TEACH ME BEGINNER THINGS bu then he'll try to teach me another complicated kanji. Regardless, I learn a lot when he helps me with my homework and it really really helps.

Even though the dad comes home late at night, he really does care about his family and it shows. Every night he'll come downstairs and play with the kids, talk to the wife, ask me how school was, and after about an hour he'll head to bed. And when he's off, his whole day is pretty much dedicated to his two children. Sometimes the family "picture moment" gets too fluffy and gooey for comfort and I'll have to leave the room or silently try not to throw up but other times, I try to stop myself from going "AWWWW".

This family. UGH. TOO CUTE.

The mom is the sweetest ever. She's a housewife and does... housewife things. Her cooking is THE SHITZ. SO GOOD. OMG. She's very patient and caring and. Just very very nice, okay?

The six year old is perfect. He's smart and likes to solve math problems for fun (LOLWTF?). He knows how to read a helluva lot more kanji than an average six year old, much less my whole level 2 Japanese class. He's very approachable and amiable and likes to meet new people. He never fails to correct my Japanese (I kid you fucking not) and even though he doesn't know how to speak English, the communication between us two is improving thanks to my crappy Japanese. The two year old... is going to take some work. He usually sticks to his mother or father and only comes to me when he wants candy (I shit you not) or during some rare moment when he's bored.

So yeah, that's my host family in a nutshell. They live a 20 mins. bike ride from the school and they even gave me a bike to use as my main source of transportation (um, FREE BIKE HELLZ YES). So I feel like I really got lucky compared to the other homestay students who live 1-2 hours away from the school and got paired with host families not to their liking. Sure, my host family doesn't have the internet but I realized I don't really need it. I can get my fangirlin' on while I use the school's computer. Besides, by the time I get home, I'm too tired to do anything so what I end up doing is take a quick nap, eat dinner with the mom and kids, take a shower, play with the kids, do homework, watch TV with the family, then go to sleep.

But in the beginning I mentioned I got the internet. That's because I'm not living with my host family right now. Everything is okay, just a family emergency arised and the mom and kids had to go to the mom's hometown and will be there for a week. The dad is on a business trip and won't be back in a couple of days. Which means I get to live back in the dorms for another week or so. AWESOME. But more on that on a another post. And pictures next time too.

つづき