Mistakes Happen Yo

So laugh it up heauxs: I am the first one to not post a week. I posted my punishment below much to my chagrin 

I am extremely tired from the weeks I have been here. It’s definitely sounds privileged but all the things I have been doing has left me little time to rest. Almost everyday after school I would do something. For example, just last week I ...

Went to a Summer Festival

Ate dinner with my host family every night

Went to my host family’s cafe

Went to the cup noodle museum

Went to Yokohama Bay

Went to Karaoke that served ice-cream

And went to a Gudetama themed Onsen

Anyway, I have been thinking about my experience here in Japan and I realized that I don’t think I like big cities. They are nice for a bit but the coldness makes it unbearable. I was actually telling Erin the other night that I don’t think that I like Japan. But after spending time outside of Tokyo and in Chigasaki City (a small city in Kanagawa préfecture near the beach) that Japan is in fact nice.

Idk why but Japan have themed sewer covers for each city, this is the one for Chigasaki

And I know I couldn’t go into things last week, but my week at my first high school was rough. The kids were extremely privileged and were trying to get out of the program because they felt like they were “above” it since they could speak English okay and were already“empowered”. And in some ways they were right, but they weren’t really willing to try to take anything from the program so most of the week was a bust. They had the head of ISA (the Japanese government sector that’s Responsible for the program) to come and see how things were going because of the amount of complaints from the kids. But all in all it was only three groups of kids who were deemed “advanced” that were doing most of the complaining. So on Thursday, ISA made special arrangements for the three groups of kids and had them have a new facilitator. This left the other seven groups with me and the rest of the group leaders and the old facilitator. That’s when things got fun. I started getting close with the students and by Friday, the final day of the program for this school, it was what I expected. The students presented on what they gained and how the program helped them. I was genuinely surprised by how much the program seemed to influence them: not only because of how they said the program changed them but also by how differently they presented from the beginning of the week. I actually cried when my specific group presented because of how proud I was of them. They were all really shy and quiet but were super smart and creative so seeing them be able to express themselves better and open themselves to allow people to see their great qualities really warmed my heart.

My group :’)

But I say all this to say that the start of my week at my new high school is much better than my last! Things are completely different. The students are fun and engaged! They really want to gain something from this program. And after the first day we went to a shrine and got boba.

The place I got boba

I accidentally drank the water T-T

A cool pic of us at Kamakura

Me and my host sis

Found this cute Ghibli store

They took me to get ramen today because I told them that was my favorite Japanese food, which I thought was really nice of them.

Me and one of my students <3

Also Erin was able to join us!

But this is what I imagined when I joined this program and the fact that it’s becoming a reality fills me with great joy and hope.