Go read Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

By the time I get into bed every day I'm surprisingly tired all of a sudden so actually getting around to updating this thing as often as I'd like tends to become quite a task. I've now made it through my second week at school and I'm happy to say that it's going pretty smoothly. Hopefully I didn't just jinx it by saying that since it's practically my third home (after the US and host home) and I spend most of my day there. The whole "HERMAGERD GAI JIN" phase has dissipated and I usually just get the occasional stranger saying hi to me (always a girl).

Apparently the boys here are shy. This is a concept that is totally foreign to me, and anyone from the States reading this will agree when I say that many boys in the States have no problem striking up a conversation with a girl (provided there's something to talk about). Not so much here. Even the really loud, cocky guys tend to shy away from conversation with a girl. Weird. And sometimes it gives me the feeling that there's something on my face whenever I'm around or something. Hopefully once I enough of a grasp on this language I can actually start and hold a basic conversation.

At this point I can say very very very basic things mixed with some English here and there. It sounds a lot like that telegraphic speech stuff I learned about in psychology where I speak in mostly 2-word sentences. Sometimes I even revert back to baby talk, where I say one word to try to get across a sentence. It's quite frustrating, and if I wasn't so determined to learn another language I probably would've given up by now because there are definitely some people that I could get away with talking in English with them (as long as I spoke VERY slowly and ENUNCIATED. Everything.).

So there's my language breakdown. Anyone else that may be considering doing an exchange like this: STUDY STUDY STUDY STUDY before you leave! I know it sounds tedious and annoying and troublesome and like it's encroaching on the last few months you have with your family and friends but it will make you feel much more confident when you get here. If I had known that I would've started studying a lot longer than before I did. Plus, you naturally pick up the language faster since you're so much more familiar with it. Of course, this is a theory and I may be completely wrong, but that's my take on things. Now that I said that the other exchange kids from the States that spoke hardly any Japanese will probably end up speaking more than me by the end of this. (Miah and Sam! I expect a conversation in Japanese from you guys.)

ANYWAY. My life. Earlier this week my host dad told me that we'd be going "melon picking" today. Melon picking? In Japan? Didn't know that happened. We left at about 9:30 this morning and drove out even farther into the country than we already live (which is pretty far). Lots of fields, corn, and rice. After about 15 minutes of driving we got to this patch of dirt that looked like it had been used to grow corn or something but then was abandoned to let cars park on it. Japanese cars are definitely not made to go off road. Q, I thought of your Jeep! The cars here basically all look like the Cubes we have in the States. Very boxy and low to the ground. NOT for driving in the dirt. So we get out and walk up this path with a few other families and we see trees on either side of the path with these fuzzy-looking things hanging from them. That sounds scarier than it actually looked; it was obviously some kind of fruit or... something. My host dad points to one and goes "melons". And I'm just like ._.

Turns out he had been saying マロン (ma-ro-n), which means "brown" in French. And it also turns out that he meant to say "Japanese chestnuts". SO MUCH CLARITY. We laughed for a while about that; it's one of the biggest misunderstandings we've had so far. It turned out to be very hot, humid, but fun. The people running the chestnut picking handed us all buckets and these two sticks.

The bucket it obviously where you put the chestnuts and the sticks are what you use to pry the out shell open with to get at the chestnut. They're spiky.

Just like that. They're green when they're on the trees (not ripe) and then when they turn brown and are ready to be picked they fall to the ground. Fun stuff. SIDE NOTE: Japan has a ton of spiders. It might be because I'm in the country but there's hella spiders out here. And they look considerably different (bigger) than in Chicago.

 That's what them chestnuts look like after they're been cooked and cleaned. The family sat around this basket that had a bunch of the chestnuts and ate them. At first, I was just biting them and trying to peel them with my hands. Strug life, let me tell you. So then this woman came over with a peeler and voila!

They taste a lot like a baked potato. Which I totally wasn't expecting but after I got over the initial weirdness of it, I kind of liked it.

Okay, this is where things get exciting.... for me. We made... ぎょうざ！ Aka: DUMPLINGS. Ohmagod I was so excited when my host mom told me that. I don't think she even realized how happy I was because I couldn't express my joy with words, but I think she saw how much I was smiling the whole time we were preparing them.

 There's the meat (pork or beef... I think pork) and the wrappers. The meat was mixed with some spices I think and onions. Ohhhh so delicious.

 You basically wet the edge of the wrapper with some water...

 And wrap it up! I got pretty pro at it by the end of the folding party.

My host mom fried them in a pan in some oil and here they are. Not sure if that would look good to someone who didn't have them but trust me, they were SO. GOOD.

There's my excitement for the week. Oh, and I'll throw this one in just for humor. On Thursday, I'm sitting in homeroom when my English teacher walks up to me and goes, "Yes, Erisa (that's how you say my name in Japanese), you were ummmm involved in a car accident this morning?" This is my face: O_O I told him that no, I didn't remember hitting anyone on my way to school. He rephrased the question to see if I understood what he was asking me and again, I said that no, I definitely hadn't been hit by anyone on my bike that morning. I was tempted to joke that unless the crash had given me amnesia I couldn't remember that happening. But sarcasm doesn't tend to be understood here, plus I decided it probably wasn't a good thing to joke about in English. Yeah... that was an interesting conversation. Apparently a teacher from another school had seen me get hit by a car. I would like to know how she knew who I was. And I don't think I even ride by any schools on my way to mine so... yeah. That was odd. For a few minutes I went through my whole morning in case I really just wasn't remembering correctly. NO WORRIES MOM, I DIDN'T GET HURT.

That's all for now. Hopefully I entertained you for a bit. I'll update within a week, PROMISE!

-Ellie

P.S. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is an amazing book that everyone should read.