Time for Another Entry

Which I will keep short since I don't have as much to say.

School is fine. yesterday I tried the art club. To say I was out of my league would be an understatement. A drawing like this:

takes me about a half hour, and during that half hour I'm constantly erasing and changing large portions of the drawing, even scale, pose and details. I the art club I was given ten minutes to sketch a girl standing in the middle of the room. I almost finished with even a few details, but I wasn't used to the B4 pencil, making my sketch almost too light to see. Hopefully with some practice (,a new set of pencils, a better eraser and good quality paper) I'll get better.

Yesterday was otherwise uneventful I think (as I seem to be unable to remember anything memorable).

So now we get to today. School was okay. In phys-ed I'm getting much better at ping-pong. I still have no idea what to do in bio, ancient lit, history, health or modern lit, but hopefully that will change when I understand what the teachers are saying (although with how quickly they speak, I don't think that'll be any time soon, it reminds me of my grade four french teacher who showed the class just how quickly the french really spoke. As for physics, well, I'm getting most of the questions right, and most of my mistakes are caused by the difference in equations and the fact that I have to be my own calculator with no backup. In math III however, the teacher offered the opportunity to take the test (exam?) coming up soon. And I'm still a little confused in math II, but I think that's because I lack the basic knowledge of vectors they got last semester. Once I figure out the equations I'm sure I'll be fine. Then there was an assembly. Teachers were shouting what sounded like criticism into the microphone as I left my legs go from uncomfortable to in pain to nearly asleep.

Also, I seem to have made it two two groups of friends, one group speaks a little English which I use to figure out what I should do and what I should say, and another that seems to have similar likes in anime and video games (I wonder if they'd like a certain geeky board game). Also in the good news section, girls are asking me to choose and pose less (activities which make me feel like Holden Caufield is going to walk up behind me and call me a goddamn phony). In not as good news, the class clown is still a little annoying (mostly just through disrespect, nothing that qualifies as bullying).

And tonight I went to a concert put on by my school. I found out that they even wear their uniforms to out of school events. The band was good. They made a few mistakes, but nothing that disrupted the flow, just minor flaws. I recognized the 1812 overture, When you Wish Upon a Star, Friend Like me, Beauty and the Beast, Be our Guest and Prince Ali. All but the first two of which were blended together into one. They also had a good group of dancers and they preformed a skit, which, despite how little Japanese was use, I didn't get as funny (my host brother told me that the Japanese standard of funny is much lower than that of (continental) America).

On the way back home my host mother ran into a friend, who recognized my "Laughing Man" shirt and while we were talking an African man walked up and made a few quick comments in Ebonics, switched to french (that along with his skin colour gave me my guess as African), than (probably guessing I didn't speak that language) went back to English and ask "how old are you white boy?" (after which he even let out a few phrases of Japanese.) Normally this would seem a little strange to me, but wearing jeans, hiking boots, a white t-shirt and a jacket around my waist with brown hair, green eyes and while skin makes my much more aware of how much of a gaijin I am. I answered him and he continued to talk and walk briskly without looking back. Anyway, we headed back home. Present time.

Post Script: Oji-san, aside from what you mentioned, there is also the shounen ai section for girls and the shoujo section, which is ninety percent pink, despite the fact that only half the manga there are pink. It's kind of intimidating to walk through, to say nothing of searching intently for something for fifteen minutes. Also, I don't know if the cicada season is over. I spotted a few, but not recently. And you would be able to see the hills if it weren't for the buildings. Also, as far a paving the river goes, remember, Kanazawa is an old city and has never gone through such major reconstruction, actually, that makes it a popular tourist destination. And that's my favourite GitS episode, I wish I could play that song "I do."