WHAT. I haven't posted in like 1289472897 years! Why is that?
Well, first I was just waiting for something to post about...but then I just got lazy. Hey, you all do it! So, the day after I got out on winter break, I was awoken by my dad yelling at me as if I was in trouble. I quickly went to see what I did wrong this time, and he showed me the acceptance e-mail from AFS Japan! This was on December 19th, 2013. I was one of the last to get accepted (probably even the last over all) because of my medical issues with my shoulder and the late interview which was the fault of AFS. Oh well. I'm going to physical therapy again, but this time for my back. It bothers me 24/7. But enough of that!
Next, on the 19th of January 2014 (Happy Holidays everyone...only a tad bit late, huh?) I went to my Pre-Departure Orientation. It was weird. The main staff people were trying to scare us as much as possible with horror stories about people being sent home. Some of the rules are as follows: Someone spread a rumor about you doing drugs? Well, you automatically go home, no drug test or anything. You drove someone to the hospital to save their life? Oops, sucks for you you're not supposed to drive, you're going home. They are extremely strict but I'm going to do as they ask for sure! I like being a good kid anyway :)
At the PDO, I met Lexy in person, she's a girl from Seattle that is hopefully also going to Japan in March, and we talk all the time about our experiences. I also met Mallie, a girl I had never talked to before but she's also from Seattle and going to Japan. She'll be in Hiroshima, and at that point Lexy and I both weren't sure of our exact placement. There are a lot of AFSers going to Japan in my area! I wonder why? There are 35 maximum in all of the U.S. I think.
Then, today I got a call from AFS and found out I'll be in Aichi-ken (the prefecture, kinda like a province), Nagoya-shi (shi means something along the lines of "city"). Nagoya is the capital of central Japan, Chuubu region, Honshuu (the main island). It is the 3rd largest city (if you don't count Tokyo as a city since it's actually a special district).
The top 5 list goes:
-- Tokyo............13.23 million
1. Yokohama.......3.68 million
2. Osaka..............2.66 million
3. Nagoya............2.27 million
4. Sapporo...........1.91 million
5. Kobe................1.54 million
Nagoya has over 2,000,000 people! Holy crap! I didn't want to be in the middle of a city but ah well. I'll find out soon exactly where my house is. I'm looking forward to that a lot. The lady on the phone wouldn't tell me that much and she couldn't pronounce Japanese words, which I thought was pretty hilarious even though it was kinda frustrating :)
(Update 2/8/14: The following host family info is old, see newer posts for correct information about my new family)
My host family consists of: parents, a host sister (about 17) and a host brother (about 19). It will be so strange having a brother! I only have one sister in WA and she's 29 so I'm basically an only child. It will be very interesting to have a new family experience. I will get an e-mail with their personal information and contact information soon so that will be very helpful. I know almost nothing about my family now, and absolutely nothing about my school so far!
Oh, also, they can only host me until September, which is very odd for AFS. I don't know why yet, but it's sad to think about. It will be amazing to learn about Japanese culture through more than one family, though :)
Ayyyyyshiteru (Japanese jokes, "aishiteru" means "I love you")
Thank you for reading!
P.S. I also got an article in the newspaper! It's very good and makes me seem really intelligent and deep. Although it got a few facts wrong, they did not quite matter to the story and the interviewer was very nice. The only problem is that the editor took out that I need donations so I don't know what I'm going to do now. I need to make about $2500 more. This is so stressful and I don't know what to do.
