March 11, 2011

Before you read this, I'm sorry for the bad writing, grammar errors, and all that jazz. I'm still a tad bit lazy and lacking internet time. I think typing this on my phone would take several months. :P 

March 11, 2011 began like any normal school day.  I woke up, ate breakfast, and headed off for school. It was test week, so school would end early at noon. I had planned to go to basketball afterwards. Because I am an exchange student, I am not required to take school tests. Ariane (the exchange student from Germany, who is also my best friend) and I decided to go shop around the store for lunch and possible gift ideas to take home. We always spent at least an hour looking around because when you can’t read, buying food juts takes that much longer. You don’t want to buy something gross, right? As we were walking back from Yokomachi store (a 15 minute walk) we felt the first small tremble. The small earthquakes are always a surprise and get your heart racing a bit, but we were almost used to them. From the first month of living in Japan I had experienced a number of small earthquakes. They always seemed harmless, if not entertaining. It’s funny to watch the girls scream and overreact. Even the first earthquake didn’t really phase me. I just accepted it as part of Japan. I’m sure I was more excited than scared. I digress.

About an hour after the small earthquake, I was studying with Ari on the top floor of the school. St. Urusula’s has three stories; one for each grade level. Since the third years graduated, we found the third floor to be a place for us to study and mess around while we didn’t have class; we didn’t have to worry about bothering anyone. Again, we felt a small tremble, nothing to worry about. Ari was always a bit frightened by any earthquake, but because I didn’t freak out, she stayed calm. We continued to talk and eat lunch unaware of anything about to happen. Ten minutes after the tremble, the big earthquake hit. 

It began as a small tremble, but soon began to shake violently. Because we were on the top floor, we went through the worst of the shaking. It wasn’t like we were falling down as the building collapsed, but those are the thoughts that cross your mind. Earthquakes make a person very dizzy, and we had never experienced one very high on the scale, so we didn’t know what to do. We decided to sit on the floor where nothing would fall on top of us. I screamed a couple of times because I didn’t know what else to do. As the earthquake continued, I began to feel calmer about the situation. I convinced Ari to get up so we could find someone else. Luckily as we were headed for the stairs, we were met by a teacher. The shaking stopped for several minutes, but the aftershocks continued. Everyone in the school met in the newest gym (which by American standards would be far too old) to count heads and make sure everyone was OK.

Many students were crying, boys and girls. Everyone was worried about family. The biggest problem was the lack of electricity and phone service. We couldn’t get in contact with our families and no one knew about the tsunami. It’s hard to sit in the dark wondering what to do. Teachers decided to get everyone home, but trains don’t run during earthquakes and maybe 70% of the students take the train. Slowly parents came to collect students, but my host mom could not. I live an hour’s train ride from Hachinohe City and the train station is a 45 minute walk from St. Urusula’s. Usually walking isn’t a problem, but teachers were worried about safety because the traffic lights weren’t working and there was no guarantee we would get home. After several hours in the gym my English teacher decided to drive another student, Sakiko (my host sister) and myself home. The weather was terrible, a mix of snow, hail, and wind. With the traffic it took about 3 hours.

At home the electricity was out. Everyone arrived around the same time. No one was expecting anything like this, so we didn’t have a lot of food or water prepared for a night like that. We ended up eating sweet potatoes, baked in the fireplace, and miso soup (water with miso flavoring. It’s kind of gingery J). We listened to the radio to try and figure out how things were going. Mostly we got static. It sort of felt like a horror movie; dark with the sound of radio static. The next day was basically the same. It was lighter of course, being day, but we didn’t really leave the house and weren’t able to cook like normal. As funny as this is, my host mom couldn’t cook rice without a rice maker. She tried and it…burnt. And we ate it. It was gross.

We didn’t suffer for days or go hungry, but those thoughts cross your mind when you don’t know. Most people didn’t even hear about the tsunami for at least 4 days. Our town got electricity first. After that, it gets less interesting. Mostly sitting around and staying inside due to bad weather.

Hachinohe, Aomori

 

Just when you thought you were comfortable....

Alright. So pretty much changing host families is always weird and a little bit awkward. I mean, mostly I've learned to ignore that part and just sort of go with whatever, but sometimes...I just don't know. haha. You start getting used to a certain life style and boom, you're somewhere else. The rules always change! Some families are more traditional in a certain way, and the next with throw their own version of western culture into your life.

Sannohe. This little town is freezing. It's 10.5c below. I finally feel like wearing a coat. I don't usually get cold, but it's ridiculous. I had to walk to and from the train station with my last host family, but it was only 20-30 minutes without snow. With my new host family it's an hour (if not more) with snow. I'm afraid of frost bite. I mean, I'm sure it'd have to bee a lot colder, but it takes about the whole night + a bath to thaw them out. baths are painful when you're this cold. As for heating....well we are all relying on the fireplace. Which doesn't really help at all.  By morning I can see my breath. Most other families have individual heaters in their rooms, but here we are eco friendly (more so than the rest...I guess). I just kinda wonder how they think masks will save them from getting sick when we are sleeping in negative temperatures. Who knows. :P

This current family lived in Holland for three years, so they do have some idea of western culture. however, when they think they have an idea about our culture, it's somehow morphed into something...well completely not like ours. It's just the way we think; our entire mind set. So I'm probably interrupting their culture wrong too, it's just how it looks from me perspective. I'm just saying....like if we have a sandwich for lunch it's like...hamburger, spaghetti, shrimp, mayo, and cabbage. We eat cabbage instead of lettuce. It's crazy. Weird. I miss lettuce. Haha. No, somehow it works, but it's just strange. Because my host mom actually thinks we eat like that....now I wonder what a sandwich in Holland looks like.

I'm memorizing a dictionary. It's....well something to do. It seems like I should be further along by now, but Japanese is hard!!!

I'm going skiing hopefully this week. And my family is taking me to do kimono pictures. I'm excited. :) Should be fun. I've been super tired, but in a great mood because I'm drinking green tea all the time. my host sister is on a diet or something, so everyone has to drink it too!

I have more to write, but it's time to go! Haha.

It's a family thing...

So it seems like you can count on the following things in any country:

1. Someone is always making the little kids scream.
2. All the adults are yelling shut up, but no one listens.
3. There is always a "kids" table and an "adults" table. (The 17-21 year olds will go back and forth.)
4. An elderly person always makes a dish no one really wants to eat. Except the adults...kind of. :P
5. Before a family get-together, mom will run around yelling at everyone to clean. Breakdown.
6. The children will whine while doing a half-a**ed job.
7. Everything turns out fine anyway. No one notices the dirty parts.
8. You always eat too much!
9. That pile of dishes....you know the one.
10. Everyone falls into food coma.

I had such a long list. Haha. But getting together with families is a lot of fun here. Mostly because the adults always drink and they are really funny. We play card games until we have played all of them at least 5 times. :) I miss everyone, but I am really enjoying my time here.


Sara <3s