Quick update.

Hi-lo.

I was at orientation until about 11:00 on the 24th. I made lots of friends, especially a girl from New Zealand and a girl from Australia. We laughed at our different ways to say things, like jaggers or.. something..
Then, we all went to the train station and caught a shinkansen, except for the people who flew and a few people took trains. A lot of people took the shinkansen to Kansai, including me. It was about 13:03 when the shinkansen left, and it was 16:03 when it arrived at Shin-Osaka station. I got off the station and said good-bye to everyone and met Moe and Keiko-neechan (aunt.)
We took some trains and got to the circus, where I met Yocchan(aunt), Otabechan(uncle), Onee(Rina), Obaasan(grandma) and Ojiisan(grandpa). Mama and Shin were at home because Shin wasn't feeling well.

After the circus, we dropped my stuff off at Yocchan's and went out to eat delicious, delicious ramen. I have pictures but I don't have a camera cord so I can't update them :(
Then we went to Keikoneechan's, after I got my stuff, and she had two cats. It was awesome. I had a bath for the first time, you go into the room and shower, then you enter the bathtub. It's awesome, baths feel so good. Haha. Yocchan and Otabechan went home and I went to bed right away and woke up around 6:00. I helped Keiko-neechan make tamagoyaki and cut strawberries, and obaasan made omiso soup and gave me two sweaters, and told me to come back anytime. I was so happy! :)

Took about an hour and a half taking trains and shinkansen to get to Kyoto, but Mama was waiting at the station for us. Shin didn't arrive til later at night.
I walked in to find a huge sign that said "Wellcome to Fujino Family" (welcome spelt wrong, so cute) and other stuff written all over it. :)

Yesterday, I helped make dinner and every morning I help Moe hang the laundry outside. It's pretty fun here. We went and took purikura yesterday.

Today I'm going to the movies and probably just studying. I don't start school until April 12th.

Thanks for reading!

I have arrived!

Hello all!

Daniel and I arrived about 20 minutes earlier than our scheduled time, so we only had to sit on the plane for 11 hours. Only...

But I'm here! We arrived at the hotel and met some other exchange students, and then went to our rooms. We were given packets by JFIE, as well as meal coupons and a t-shirt. I went to bed around 20 after 10 after taking a shower and doing the homework. It's currently 4:55 and I've been awake for roughly 40 minutes, not tired at all. Today we have breakfast at 7:00 and I am going to tell them I am not a beginner at Japanese, because I looked over the things... hiragana charts, telling time, greetings, introducing yourself.... uh huh... lol. xD

My roommate is a girl from Saskatchewan, we're province neighbours! There is a lot of exchange students from Australia here.

I'll update in a bit!

Almost There...

Hey guys!

Where I am it is currently 7:19PM as I am writing this. Where am I, you ask? Los Angeles, of course!
I left for Winnipeg on Monday morning and spent the day there, then woke up at 3:00AM local time to get ready, left for the airport at 4, and caught a plane to Denver, Colorado at 6:00AM. We had a 2 1/2 hour layover in Denver, but at 10:03 local time the plane took off for Los Angeles. We arrived a bit early, too :)
LAX was kind of confusing(getting a free shuttle thing), but we found our way and all is well :)

I got to touch the ocean, ya~y! We went on a bus tour that went around LA. We went to this marketplace, and then drove to Hollywood and we got off for 45 minutes at Hollywood Blvd., and then we drove through Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, and we got off again for 40 minutes at Venice Beach and I got to play in the ocean, woot ! Haha, I like the ocean. Although it's rather cold :(


I leave tomorrow at 3:15pm LA time, but I'm going to be at the airport meeting Daniel, another exchange student(American) from ASSE, at some... gateway place? My mom's still going to talk to his dad. And we're meeting at 11:30AM. So about four hours after meeting Daniel, our plane will take off and almost 11 hours later we will be in Narita, Japan! :)

I hope the plane ride goes fast... 11 hours is horrible >.< I hope I can sleep for like, 9. :) Maybe 10... hehehe.

I'm super nervous and all of this is coming so quickly... but I'm really excited, too.

Just General-ness.

Hello :3

First off, here are the two photos I got of my host family from the last post that I was too lazy to edit in.

Just the five of them~ :)

Everyone!!

I also recieved an e-mail address so I sent an e-mail, and apparently on the 24th we're going to the circus! (Everyone, like grandma and all! :D ) I'm so excited!! This is my first host family, until the end of April. Although, Myrna(area rep) said that she was going to take a look into it, because she thought I would only have one host family. Also, there's no orientation, but I go to my host family on the 24th, but they're supposed to pick me up at the airport apparently..? But I arrive on the 22nd... lol... I have no idea what's going on. Okay, scratch that, there is a 3-day orientation, but I don't have to go for the first day apparently because I arrive like at the very end of the first day, lol

On another note, I've started packing! I have my one suitcase with a few things in it, a few things in my carry-on bag from ASSE... I'll take my purse on, and my laptop in a laptop bag, too. Also, I'm probably bringing one more piece of luggage, although my second-biggest one is too big, so I'll just bring the smaller one... can probably fit a lot of clothes in there! :) When I come back, anyways~. I also bought a lot of the stuff that I'll need to take for the first few days, and lots of socks haha. Couple new shirts, and capris. I need new shoes. I just have one pair of boots here, which is good... for Canada, haha.

I only have two weeks left until I leave my city... I still need my visa, they should be processing that this week, and it should arrive next week.. I need to book my flight to LA still, should be done.. soonish. I only have two more Saturday late nights dealing with drunk people! o.O It's going to be weird, haha. I'll probably cry on my last day of work. >~< Time is going by really fast. It feels like I have so much to do but I can't do a lot yet, but I still don't have enough time.. if that makes sense.

I have been slacking on Japanese lately, been so crazy at work and trying to hang out with friends as much as possible (o^^o) oops. Well, I'll be okay. x3 I hope ><;;

Thanks for reading!
~Ashley

More Information!

Hello~

Recently, I've been getting more information about my host family from Moe, and I received a form from my area rep.

So, turns out the family I have is only hosting me for a month :( So sad. They seem like such nice people!! Makes bringing gifts harder, lol.
I also found out that school starts on the 9th of April, and it starts at 8:45AM and goes until 4:10PM, and then club activities. There's no classes on Saturday, only if I have club would I have to go to school then. I will go to school by bicycle, and it takes about 20~30 minutes.

In my first host family's house, I have my own bedroom. I got a picture with all of the 5 family members, then another picture with all of them plus grandma, grandpa, uncle, and two aunts. :)
Maybe I'll edit them in later...

I sent an e-mail to the e-mail listed in the form, since the only person I've been communicating with is Moe... It's 10:20PM here now, and like, 1:20PM in Japan so... hopefully I'll get a reply soon. :)

I think that's all for now~

Thanks for reading!

Ashley.