Very very very very very very cold. But nice...like ice.

Coming to you from an icebox far far away...

Several new exciting things have occured, and some more equally exciting things are coming up soon. Let's see....

Last time I checked, I was out of school with a flu for 2 days, postponing my moving for the next week. Now, I am much better and living with a new host family! (My Sweeny Todd plans were cancelled unfortunately, but no big deal.)

I moved this last weekend into the Iino family's home. I was mortified that the amount of stuff I brought to Japan pretty much doubled, in that I came with 2 large rolling duffel bags, a normal sized suit case, and my violin, and moved with those things, plus three small moving boxes. I blame this partially on my ski wear that my dad brought, but I seriously am wondering how I came with just the three bags in September...Anyway, I already like my new host family. I definitely am getting along with them very well already, and my life with this host family goes well! The house I am living in is also very very nice. It is very large, and I have my own room. The one downside is that it is the coldest month in Japan right now (more on this important subject later) and the walls are concrete, so it is very cold if the heater is not on...but I am optimistic, and January is almost over.

In regards to extreme cold, this week was probably the coldest of Japan's winter this year, which is torture when you are riding a bike with a skirt (when I saw you, I imply me. And trust me, it's freezing.) Two days ago, it was snowing all day, and the brave of heart and stout of spirit had snowball fights and made snowmen. Also, two days ago, I finally had the much-mentioned never quite-forgotten dance test...it wasn't as bad as I thought, but it was still really different for me, since generally schools in America don't include dance as homework. Also, regardless of the fact that everyone is shrieking and turning blue with cold, we still have to go outside during Friday's PE to run--which I would enjoy much more if the weather didn't have the same feeling as dry ice. Also this week, I am about to finish "general Japanese grammar" (aka graduate my series of 2 books I have been working out of since September) and move on to bigger, grander things, like...well, I don't know yet, but still!

Right now, in both math and chemistry, the teachers are teaching things that require a large amount of Chinese characters I don't know to explain, so I am very lost. I am working on catching up, but it's a tad tricky when you (I) don't have a clue how to decipher your (my) notes. And--Natsu, who is in my group for my "Ethics and Christianity" class, became conveniently sick on the day we were supposed to do our project on the Vatican that we knew about 2 months ago, but have yet to start working on it. So, we have to get it all finished and ready for Monday, which means I have to draw the Vatican flag and write a speech about Christianity in America. Fun fun. In regards to my other speech, I have a very very general idea of what it's about, but I my homework is to actually write it in full, make it 5 minutes' worth of essay, and then submit and memorize it.

I am super-excited because tomorrow, I am going with my host family to watch Japan versus Chili in soccer. It is guaranteed to be freezing teeth-chattering cold, but it is going to be so fun! I told my school friends, and they were all jealous that I am going--I am looking forward to it so much!

Oh dear, I forgot a very important detail...this is so awesome! Okay, get this--my new host sister, Keito, plays alto-sax! We tried to play together yesterday, aka violin and sax, and it didn't work because the violin tunes to A and sax tunes to Eb (whoever made that up...) but it is sooo cool! I am seriously looking forward to all the crazy possibilities a violin-sax mix has in the future! heh heh heh.

One last thing. Do you remember how my last host family owned and used a set of matching Peter Rabbit plates and cups? Well, as it turns out, it is some sort of secret host-family-sect--because my new host family has them too. I feel like there's some sort of metaphor for life's struggles in those Peter Rabbit plates--they just show up everywhere.