Today I went with Amy & her host mom with my host mom to Umeda (its a part of Osaka city) for a PIEE meeting. We had to take the train and the subway, and it took about an hour to get there.
We were in this random building, up on the 16th floor. A bunch of other parents and people were there. In all, there were six of us exchangers there. Me, Amy, Luke, Jeanti, Alex, and Marina. Luke and Jeanti are both Aussies who were from the orientation in Tokyo in March. Alex and Marina have already been here for 9 months. Marina is from Germany and Alex is actually from Ottawa too.
After arriving, we were met by EL1 (Evil Lady One) and taken to a “cafeteria” AKA a restaurant, where we basically talked for an hour or so. It was fun to catch up with Luke and Jeanti. Then EL1 made us go over rules again (bed time, laundry, curfew, computer, etc….rather silly as I have no rules!). It was boring. I despise her.
After eating (most people ordered icecream; I ate nothing), we went back across the street and back up to the 16th floor. But the parents hadn’t finished their meeting yet, so EL1 told us to roam around and be back in 20 minutes. So the 6 of us all went back downstairs. Amy and I decided we were going to go and get some fresh air (Alex responded to this with: “Well I’M not responsible for you if you get lost!”) and wandered around for a bit. We came back to the elevator, and everyone else was still there, so we went back up. Turns out they STILL weren’t done in there, so we stood around in the hall talking for a while. And basically Luke made my day:
“Man, maybe this sounds a little bit gay, but if I were a girl, I’d totally do Japanese boys. They’re hot!”
HAHAHAHAHA. I love that kid so so much. He also admitted to sucking at sports and spending all his time on youtube. Alex gave him constant lectures about this.
FINALLY, we could go in. We all sat in the front row, and the parents behind us. Then there was a speech contest, which was rather silly because only Alex and Marina could really compete. The rest of us just did self introductions. Marina came in first, Alex second, Luke third, Jeanti fourth, and me and Amy tied for fifth. We got prizes, which were pretty dumb, but included yummy Japanese chocolate and fans.
After that, we took the subway and the train back with Ono-San and some random lady. I was really proud of myself for having a five-minute conversation with the random lady, all in Japanese. Of course, she was speaking really slowly, but still! I am proud.
Then me and Amy got off the train at Izumigaoka. We spent some time exploring the station and ate hamburgers at Lotteria. After that, we went and did purikura. They came out pretty epic. Then we took the train to Toga and walked back through the park to Amy’s house, where we watched TV and pasted purikura in our purikura books. At around 9:15, Amy’s host father took me to the station, and I then took the train and the bus home to Mizukidai….by myself. It was semi-scary, and I am always the last one on the bus and it was all dark out. But I did it! And Mama was waiting there to meet me as I got off the bus.
