Before getting into my actual blog, I would like to make a quick thank you to my dear friend Kitra Moeny for convincing me two years ago to join the speech and debate team. Without all of that practice speaking in front of others, I would have never been able to do the speeches I did this weekend and 17 other times during my exchange. How very ironic that I would be asked to speak the district conference the very same weekend that she and I competed in the state speech tournament exactly one year ago! Anyway, before moving on to my recent adventures, I thought I should give thanks where it is due. I love you kitra and can't thank you enough for forcing me into something that has ended up helping me a ton during exchange!
The last month and a half has been incredible. When my mom came to Japan and incredibly surprising thing happened to me, my Japanese got better!! Perhaps it was all the translating I did during those ten days or just the amount I've been speaking recently. Whatever the reason, my exchange has reached its highest point in every way. School is incredible. I have a close group of friends that I hang out with everyday and continuously make new friends as more and more people realize that I can speak comfortably in Japanese! My closest friends and I hang out everyday and now they even give me hugs, which took around seven months for them to do. They weren't sure if it was okay to really touch me in any way. It's really nice now that I can hug them or grab their hand and its okay. Also side note: they are absolutely adorable. I love them so much.
Club activities are also fantastic! I'm currently very busy because I made the crazy decision to be in badminton, tea ceremony, english, AND cheer club. I love it though. Sometimes practices in cheer and badminton are very hard, but it always is a ton of fun. Sometimes we get distracted from actually practicing and just end up talking about the differences between Japanese and American schools or they like to just compare their bodies to mine. This is actually one of my favorite things because they are so sweetly fascinated by how different I look! Sometimes they'll stand next to me comparing height or stare at my freckles or how long my eyelashes are and be in total awe. It's almost childish, but I don't care one bit! I've grown to like being alien in some respects .=)
Recently at school we have been preparing for a big sports event we have next month that includes relays, tug of war, three legged races, and also dancing! Each grade is learning a series of dances that we will all perform at the event, my grade is learning a waltz and a tango! It's quite a funny experience because the boys and girls are extremely shy about holding hands and dancing together. It's very fun though and it's giving me an opportunity to get the shy guys to talk to me. Little by little, they are realizing it's okay to talk to me and that I don't bite. At least not usually. ;)
Two weeks ago I was lucky enough to go on the exchange trip to Kyoto for two days along with some of my favorite people in the world. There were around 10 inbounds and 8 outbounds from my island and the district across from us on the main island of Japan. We weren't sure what language to speak in, which was rather hilarious, but ended up communicating and enjoying many famous places in Kyoto. It's incredible to me how quickly we exchange students bond with each other. Some of them I have met only twice but I feel like I've known them forever! We all have experienced the same joys, difficulties, successes, and failures here and that has helped us all create bonds that we will have for the rest of our lives. That is just one of the few blessings that come with being a part of rotary exchange and makes me all the more proud to be a rotary exchange student.
Yesterday I was given the honor to speak at the shikoku district meeting in Matsuyama to around 2000 Rotarians from my district. This is why I thanked my speech partner in the beginning of this blog because honestly, because of my time spent in speech, I felt as though I was just at another speech tournament. I just thought of all the things Kit would say to me to calm my nerves and walked to the microphone. The second before I started my speech a yell from the back of the auditorium. 「サマーがんばれ!」which can be translated as "You can do it summer!" My club president, a very sweet white haired man, had yelled it. That sealed the deal. With a deep breath, I began my speech and it went perfectly. I am extremely proud of that moment. In my speech I introduced myself and my fellow exchange students to the Rotarians and explained how difficult the beginning of my exchange had been because of the language barrier. I told them how much I appreciate everyone's kindness and how because of their help I was able to make this speech. I told them how much my fellow exchange students and I were studying the culture and language of Japan and said that we would continue to try our best. I finished by giving them one last thank you and the lowest, most respectful now I could muster. With that, it was over. It only lasted about two minutes, but I was so honored that they asked me to speak at all, that no matter how short I was lucky. That very morning my fellow exchange students and I also did a fifteen minute speech covering all of our exchange, so I was glad to only have to speech for two minutes in front of the people who gave me this experience.
After the meeting, my shikoku ladies and I explored Matsuyama and had a ton of fun discussing the usual: weird food, school, Japanese, and attractive Japanese people. Also deciding whether to buy more pins for our jackets, even though they are almost too heavy to wear. I'm so lucky to have them around and can't wait until the next meeting.
All in all, this is the best time and in think it can only keep going up from here. I'm thankful for everyday and look forward to the next few months. Until next time, this is a very, very happy Summer.
Quick note: a video of my speech was taken by a rotarian so in case anyone would like to see it, I will upload it as soon as it is sent to me!