So this morning I made pancakes! My mom had reminded me about the pancake mix she sent me when we were talking yesterday, so I had asked Yuko last night if I could make pancakes this morning and she said I could and asked if there was anything I needed. But it was this magical mix that only needed water, so I was all set!
So I made the mix and then Yuko helped me turn on the stove and stuff. It needed to be set to 375 and her stove only had low, medium, ad high, so that kind of threw me off. She was all like "how many times do you cook at home?"
Whatever. I made awesome pancakes.
Then later, after I had made the first batch, I went to make the second and wasn't going to slather the pan in vegetable oil because I figured I put enough on the first time, but Yuko told me to put more on and then was all like, "you need to practice cooking more."
She probably didn't mean to be mean, but that sure came out pretty bitchy imo.
I made three batches and ended up with 9 pancakes! So everyone had two and then Ken let me have the last one.
Yuko gave me a jar and I could only fit two baggies if syrup in it and we only ate half of it! She gave me a spoon so we could take the syrup with that. It was funny. I'd never eaten syrup like this before.
I told everyone that in America, we put syrup on our pancakes, not jam or honey (that's what people do here), so they all tried the syrup too! Before they took it, I warned them it's "mecha amai" (super sweet) because Yuko doesn't like really sweet things.
But every single one of them, after they tasted it, said it was amakunai (not sweet)!! Whoa. Weird!
I told them my mom (as well as pretty much everyone I know back home, actually) prefers real maple syrup to this because it's not as sweet.
Then Yuko said that after you eat a lot, it actually does start to taste really sweet. Hm. I guess it's because they don't pool it like I do haha, or maybe because they've never tasted real maple syrup..
We also had bananas! Yay! My peel looked like angel wings, so I showed Miya and she thought that was really cool, haha.
After breakfast, Yuko and Ken left to take Miya to calligraphy class and the doctor. I cleaned my room and vacuumed it. Then I Skyped my parents quickly and then skypes my sister to make an itinerary because she and my mom are coming to visit me at the end of May!!! I'm so excited!!!
And Ribbon sat behind me on the couch!
I also attempted to sign up for classes back home and failed because everything's full. Ugh, more stuff to worry about.
Then Yuko and Ken got back home. They said they wanted to put the light back on my bike and get a look at the repairs that guy had made, so I went outside with them. Ken lifted up the wheel and spun it. He didn't like that it still kind of wavered back and forth. I told them it rode perfectly though, and Ken rode it around a bit and saw for himself. But they still didn't think it was good enough, so they went to go talk to the guy at the shop on their way to pick Miyabi up.
When they came home, Miya ran to my room and lay next to me while I did my homework. It was cute! She made me erase the kanji if messed up on and rewrite them, haha. Also, she showed me the hairbrush her grandma deco'd for her. Look how cute it is!
Then Yuko came in to tell me the bike guy had told them it would cost 8000 yen to fix!! Guess it was more than just the wheel then, unless they were lying to me.
But then Yuko told me I have two options:
1. I pay them 8000 yen and they pay the rest for a new bike.
2. I get the bike from my friend Chris, but I'm on my own for transporting it from school.
This is so unfair!!! They gave me an old, rusty bike in the first place and they obviously know it, since they'd rather spend more for a new bike than fix it!
And I wish they would at least help me out a little bit! I mean, how the heck am I supposed to get a bike from school to home if I can't take it on the trains?
When I asked Yuko this, she suggested taking the bike apart and putting it in a giant bag. Yeah, like I actually know how to take apart and put a bike back together again and where the heck am I supposed to get a giant bag?
Arghhhh!!! They are really pissing me off lately. I've had so many traumatizing things happen these past few weeks and they've done nothing but make life harder and more stressful for me. I really wish I had chosen to live in the dorms.
So then they left to bring Miya to her lesson with the sensei she totally has a crush on, haha.
So I guess we weren't having lunch today? I just used the third piece of bread in the pack of three I bought (I actually really want to know why it's a thing in Japan to sell packs of three slices of bread. How is that okay? You can't make a sandwich like that!) made half a walnut butter and banana sandwhich and ate that as well as a canned meal my mom sent for days like this when I'm home alone.
They didn't have to provide me breakfast today or dinner, because I'm going to dinner with Manaka and her family. And I'm going out for dinner tomorrow night too! So I bet with all the money they saved today and tomorrow plus the other times I ate dinner elsewhere, including the entire two weeks I was in Tokyo and Osaka, they probably saved enough to repair the freaking bike.
Sorry for the rant guys... I'm just kind of fired up lately. Also, I read a bit of the blog of this girl in CJS who has like anxiety problems. And she was having a hard time with her host family as well, because they had a lot of rules that she could never remember and then they scolded her when she forgot them. So she went to school and started crying and had a meltdown and they let her move to a dorm. And she also started crying when they told her she should stay in 500, so they bumped her up to 600!!
Whaaaat??? If only I was a crybaby, I bet my life would be so much easier. But then I feel like I'd have no dignity...
So I spent my time today doing homework and watching Free! I finally started watching it and I'm obsessed!! It's the first time I've watched anime since junior year of high school and I can understand so much more of it now!! It's amazing!
And then it was time to go to church. Everyone had come back and Miya told me she'd play the strategy games while I'm gone. Yuko asked me what time I'd be home. I had no idea. She was like "9 o'clock?"
And I was like "yeah, probably 9 o'clock" and then she made sure I didn't need dinner. And I was off.
The mass was really interesting! We all ga went outside the room where mass is held and were given candles. Then we lit them by passing the flame down to each other. When I got the flame, people said "sumimasen" before they touched their candles to mine to take my flame.
Then we brought our candles into the dark church for Mass. The lights stayed off until the Gospel, when we blew out our candles.
Yesterday was a the gospel where there are a bunch of different parts and different people read it. I got to practice my Japanese on the "all" parts, so that was cool!
By tonight's was short with a short homily as well. I was kind of unnerved when this lady in front of me kept turning around and staring at me. It was making me feel uncomfortable, like she disapproved of the fact that I, a foreigner, was here. So I read along with the book to show her that I was capable of following along.
We lit the candles again later on and passed down the flame again. The lady who was staring at me came over and asked, in English, if I could read Japanese. When I said I could, she shared her songbook with me so I could sing too! Then she asked where I was from and stuff and later told me my Japanese was really good. I told her get English was great!
After mass was over, as we all walked out, we were each given a hard boiled egg! They were so cute!! This guy showed me the lady who had made them all and told me she'd stayed up until 3 am boiling them! Then the lady said she had made 500 of them!!! Whooaaaa!
(Mine had a cute furry bear sticker on it!)
I stood with Manaka and her family while they waited for something. Father introduced me to this girl from Myanmar, who's English name is Irene. She was pretty good at English and has been living in Japan for a year. Her Japanese was about the same level as mine.
She and I talked a lot while we waited. She's twenty four and works as a fabric dyer.
Then I'd realized I forgot to bring the chocolate bunnies from my mom and friend that I was going to give everyone. I let Manaka's family know I wanted to stop by my apartment, because I knew it was on the way. So they let Manaka and me go ahead. I stopped by and grabbed them and then Manaka told me we were going to a Chinese restaurant. Ohhh I thought we were going to their apartment again!
The Chinese restaurant ended up being right around the corner from my place. Like, two minutes by bike. So we got there early. While we waited, I told Manaka about how I had started watching Free! and really liked it so far. Then her mom called and told us to go ahead and go inside because they were almost there. We went in and were showed to our tables, and right after, the rest of Manaka's family, Irene, and Father showed up, so we pushed the tables together. They were the low tables where you had to sit on the floor while eating.
We all ordered and although misokatsu was on the menu, I opted for shrimp rice. Manaka's parents ordered a bunch of sides to share, so those of us who had ordered meals, shared those with everyone too! It was fun because Manaka's parents kept ordering more and more and then passing it all around, so we all got to eat so much food! Father ordered Chinese sake to celebrate Manaka's sister entering middle school, and I got to try some. It was really sweet but also pretty strong!
Then because Manaka and I were talking about how much we loved gomu-something or others (the anko filled dumpling balls covered in sesame seeds I ate in that Chinatown in Yokohama), Manaka ordered them. When the waitress brought them over, Manaka and I were talking about how they have anko inside and the waitress heard and told us these are different! They had something else inside that I forgot the name of.
I was so shocked when I ate it! It was soupy grayish-black stuff! But it was really sweet and good. The texture was weird though. It felt like it had a bunch of grains of sand in it.
Then it was time for dessert! Father ordered everyone who wanted one this dessert that I forget the name of. But to me, it tasted like vanilla pudding. It was delicious!!
Mmmmm. Father left pretty quickly after dessert because he had a First Communion to do tomorrow that he needed to prepare for.
The rest of us hung around for a whole talking before we headed out. I gave everyone a chocolate bunny and discovered I had exactly six left, one for everyone! It was perfect. :) They all loved them and exclaimed over and over how cute they were. Manaka's dad thought it was awesome that the wrapping was so perfectly wrapped (as in the face was placed over the part of the bunny shaped like the face).
When Manaka's dad went to go pay, he found out Father had paid for everyone!! I kind of expected that since I knew he wasn't the type of person to just leave so the check was left in someone else's hands. He's such a nice guy. And I told Manaka's father that. That Father's a totemo yasashii hito.
Manaka's dad and brother went home and then us girls all went the opposite way to take Irene home. I broke off when I got to my place and said goodbye to everyone!
I ended up getting home at 10:30!! Whoa! I hadn't realized it had gotten so late so fast! Everyone was asleep already, so I headed to bed.
I got a text from Irene thanking me for the chocolate bunny and she sent me this cute picture she took!
Sounds like the honeymoon is over. Guess you're more of a family member now than a guest! Hang in there and good luck figuring out how to handle the bike issue.
ReplyDeleteOh, you betcha it's over.
DeleteThank you, I'm trying! Hopefully it'll be done soon...