school begins

So it seems as though i pulled it off, despite my clawing for the right language during my interview evaluation. I am in the highest level class, called SaiJouKyuu (Highest Level, go figure). I am happy with this, as it is the appropriate level for me, but the teacher speaks with machine gun speed and there is nearly no English in the textbook (which makes sense).

I'm in the computer room with the jerky blond kid, who I shall now call Soyana (Kansaiben, or western Japan dialect, for "is that so?"), and some other kids i don't know. It's pretty late. Soyana got his name because i heard him once again to spurt out some more obnoxious Kansaiben, this time the ever-popular "so ya na!" Inappropriate, as it was to a teacher to whom one must use only respectful language, and out-of-place, as it is spoken by punk kids, comedians, and old people from Kansai--not by stupid foreign language students, even if they're trying to be cool. It really bothers me and Justin, a Puerto Rican New Yorker from Forest Hills in my class. He gets even more worked up about it than me, and professed his hatred for Soyana over and over throughout the day. When we had "tea-time" between classes we looked into his classroom, and lo and behold, he was jumping in place with his headphones on mouthing the words to his music, as if he was jumping rope with an imaginary rope. He then proceeded to do some obscene and fast-paced calisthenics, stretching one leg out while balancing low on the other, and Justin and i were inspired with uncontrollable detestation, not to mention it made us laugh. How could someone so unlikable exist? At least i have the satisfaction of knowing he is in the lower class, and therefore that i am far superior to him.

Besides Soyana, things are looking up. Although i was riddled with hundreds of linguistic bullets by the end of the first hour of class, the sheer density of unknown words that were thrown at me today only entices me to study harder. I want to know all these words like the backs of my hands, which are browning in the Hokkaido summer sun. I think they're also a bit dirty too, and i need to wash them soon.

So just some more tidbits of life in Hakodate:

1. My host mom, Okaasan, keeps worrying that because i don't eat chicken and red meat i won't get enough protein to survive each day. So she has begun giving me a separate bowl of beans with my meals, thinking that this small offering might just fuel me enough to help me to remain alive for the rest of the day. I reassured her that if i was having any bodily energy problems, i'd notify her at once, but she still worries.

2. I played PS2 at my host cousin's house yesterday because Okaasan didn't know what to do with me on a Sunday. This guy is the husband of Okaasan's daughter, so i guess he's my host cousin. He introduced me to a yakuza-themed fighting game, where you're a bad-ass cool-natured yakuza fighting expert who manages to get into fights with nearly everyone he bumps into. Unfortunately, most of the game is listening to the characters talk to each other in what must be the most unnecessarily complicated and long storyline ever. I should mention that yakuza language is nearly undecipherable to the average Japanese student (i'm guessing Soyana is proficient), and host cousin kept trying to teach me words like "interest on a loan," "big brother (gangster style)," and numerous terms for "beat someone's ass down." He loved every second of it, even when we switched games to soccer and he ruled me twice without losing a single point to me. He even served me coffee. Then he took me down to meet my host brother, who was bailing hay in the barn. They started asking me what anime is popular in the US, and were shocked when i mentioned Sailor Moon. I asked him about a cow with bulging eyes, worried that it had a disease, and he simply stated that its eyes were bulging because he punched it in the face. Only after i had sufficiently expressed my horror did he admit that it was a joke, then laughed uncontrollably. Good people. Still don't know about that cow though. In time.

3. My class is pretty cool. It consists of: me, Prieto-san the Puerto Rican from Forest Hills, Kwa-san the Chinese-American from NYC, Choi-san the Korean-American from Chicago, Alverez-san the skinny gay indie kid, some Taiwanese doctoral student who can't pronounce Japanese but knows all the freaking kanji, some red-haired white girl named Kate, some Korean girl who acts way Korean, a Korean guy named Jei who is cool and mellow, and a nice white fellow with messy hair. My teacher, Sakakibara-sensei, wins the award for longest-named sensei in history.

4. Three wasps managed to get into my room yesterday night, probably through the wide-open window that helped dry my bath towel. I got the first two out my trapping them in a plastic tea bottle then shaking them outside. However, i initially tried grabbing the first one in my hand, thinking it to be a soldier ant, and got stung for being dumb. The third one could be anywhere, even under my pillow.

That's all i can stomach right now. I should be getting home, as it's nearly 5:00. More later.