Birthday!

Thank you so much everyone who sent me congratulations on my birthday! (And all of you whom I know would have. Maybe you couldn't reach me (I know some of you have trouble commenting here. Why this happens I do not know.) Or, well, being bad at remembering dates myself... :P)

I went to school as usual, listening to W's "17 sai yo sayonara" and "18 sai ~ my happy birthday comes! ~" feeling a little old now that I'm able to drink alcohol and do all that uninteresting stuff in Norway. *sigh* (Except stealing a vote from FrP!! Yay!) Still, I got really happy when I came in the classroom door and the first thing I saw was a blackboard filled with "tanjyoubi omedetou!" (happy birthday!) and drawings (cake and character from Bleach). Francesco had contributed with "NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE PAPER CLIP", since we had a conversation a while back: "awesome Norwegians and their inventions". XD Several people came up and congratulated me. It was really nice!

Also, we got to go home from school early because of a typhoon warning. Hurray! No practice! The typhoon never came though, stupid thing decided to go toward Miyazaki in stead. Ryotaro and I were dissapointed! "We want to go to Miyazaki!" XD

My family had bought cake, and we ate it together. Madoka called from Germany to congratulate, and I got a call from the grandparents as well! I got presents too:

rice bowl with a white rabbit
cloth
chopsticks
Japanese-style teacup w/Kagoshima Hello Kitty
pencil
pink plastic-pearl bracelet ^^
Hello Kitty-figure to hang on your bag etc.
Norwegian chocolate! (Shared some with my family too. 0:) )

And: I got a hug from my host mother before I went to bed! A hug! I know - *gasp!* I was really happy that she did - it's not something that's too common here. :P And as we all know, I'm a person in need of daily hugs. Wether I give or receive them. XD

With my family behind my cake. I'm being all sweet and peace-promoting (or victorious, depending on what you've heard), Momo's trying to eat my cake(?) and Sayaka and Ryotarou are taking pictures. ...kaa-san realizes there's a picture being taken, though. XD

Me and ma cake!

...just ma cake!

Today was tough - we practiced for sports day outside in the sun all day! Fortunately we got to sit under the tents when we weren't doing anything this time. That did not mean there wasn't a lot of pointless sitting around in the blazing sun rehearsing listening to speeches and various people talk, though. Ugh! Still, today was pretty fun. I rehearsed a game where two teams (girls) try to gather as many tires as they can, taking them back to their "base". These big tires are lying on the ground in between the two teams, in equal distance to both. Then you run, grab a tire, try to pull it away from the other team and carry it to you team's side where it's safe. Red (my team) were up against blue. I grabbed a tire and ended up being dragged through the sand by three - four girls from the blue team. All the while screaming "iiiiaaaa!" and pulling in the opposite direction as much as I could, resultig on me falling flat on my stomach to everyone's amusement (myself included). Lots of laughter ensued as I was dragged through the sand on my tummy, still holding on to the tire for dear life and yelling. My friend and classmate Tsuru came sliding to my aid in a wonderful tackling grabbing hold of the tire, but we lost our tire in the end after a long fight. It was great! My teacher was laughing as I came back: "yoku ganbatta, ne!" (Something along the lines of "well fought!" Ganbaru is hard to translate, since there's not really an English equivalent to it.)

Francesco and the boys played a game where two teams hold up a bamboo pole each, some protecting it, and some running to the other team's pole to try and tear it down. They quite litterally climb on each other and climbe up on/launch themselves at the pole, taking it down with them as they fall. It looks like so much fun! I kept saying "I want to join in~!", but I can't since I'm a girl. Darn it! Let me tackle some Japanese boys, will ya?! XD

We also had this huge aerobic-thing where all the students stood out in the baseball field under the sun following the movements of a guy up on a small "stage" (platform, really). That felt pretty silly. Still, one of the most funny things had to be when we watched some of the other students practice and they started playing the music used in "Tetris"... Francesco and I took one look at each other before we burst out in hysterical laughter making my teacher jump where she sat. XD

Also, I've discovered that Tsuru and her friend love anime and manga just as much as I do! They've promised that they'll teach me the "Hare hare yukai" dance from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya! o@(^-^)@o They understand my quotes from anime too. XD (Higurashi and some Lucky Star. Heehee!) It goes something like this: "Hauu~!" or "Omochi kaeriii~!" followed by my them exclaiming "Kawaii! X3". Haha! We were quoting and singing what we remember of the Lucky Star opening on our way back to the school after practice when Tsuru suddely says "This is bad! People might think we're otaku!" well, we are... (Otaku is the term used to refer to anime and manga geeks. It can also mean "your home", so it ends up meaning something like "a geek that never leaves his/her house because they only watch anime." XD) In Norway anime fans use it proudly - in Japan it's more of a negative term. I told Tsuru this, and her reaction was "Oh, I want to go to Norway~!" That was fun.
BTW: Our official morning greeting from now on will be "Oharakki~!" X3

I've finally talked to my Norwegian family on skype too. Yayyay! I brought my Japanese family to the web-cam and we chatted a bit with each other (me interpreting what I could manage). It felt good talking to them again. My sister eventually came on the line too, so we were three people speaking. When I was done we'd been talking for 3 1/2 hours and it was 1:00 AM. ZOMG. The next call will have to be shorter! (Although, admittedly, being the first time we got to talk to each other for a month I guess it's not that strange...)

I've also been to the first Rotary meeting in my club, Ijuin Rotary Club. They weren't as formal, and I felt much more at ease doing my self-introduction this time around. Phew! They gave me my monthly allowance too, which was nice. ^^ I've got to save up to buy some Morning Musume goods at the concert October the 4th... Whohoo!

Location: Japan!
Mood: "it's so hot here!"
Listening to: Odd Børretzen (yes, I've added lots of Norwegian music to my mp3 player. Whoa!)
Eating: Salty plum candy, tastes a bit like "umeboshi". Yum!
Drinking: Water... and some more water. It's too hot... x_x