Ready, Set, Review like Crazy!

Today I woke up with a bit less stress, since I know how to get to school now!  Yay! Being from Los Angeles, public transportation is not too familiar, so the bus (in another language too!) made me really nervous! I just like to jump in a car and drive! However, today I felt pretty good about the whole commute thing! It's also really fun to wake to a house full of energy! The kids were playing and running around while I was getting ready, so they forced me to wake up right away! 

Ohayou!

While I was washing my face, Kaho even wrapped herself around my leg as protection while she was being chased by Kaho! It was a pretty funny sight. But an even better sight? My breakfast!

Today, my mom prepared a Japanese western-style breakfast! I was once again SO impressed. Just look at the presentation! My mom made the bread herself with mochi flour! and look at the little dots of Kewpie mayo on the hot dogs! It's all in the details. And the details were perfect. Yes. 

She also made this tamago yaki herself! So pretty and yummmmms. 

With this breakfast and coffee in my system, I was ready for my first day of real class! It's getting more real everyday. Eek sauce! 

This year, Princeton in Ishikawa has fifty students (Grad and undergrad) from various schools, including Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Wesleyan, and of course, Princeton. Because of all the natural disasters in Japan last year, PII had an uncertain future, but this year has the second largest group of students! (There were 51 students two years ago). Twenty eight of us are 2nd year Japanese students, while the rest are 3rd year. Today, we got split into our sections of 8-10 people each and reviewed various grammar structures that we should know before going ahead with tons of new lessons! Even though I already learned everything that we reviewed today, it still made my head spin! We were speeding through the review so fast for three hours! By the end, my brain felt FULL. Thanksgiving full. It was all good though. No complaints! 

Me and Pudding-chan. We are kind of besties. 

However, after class, we were all ready to be outside! So, after our stop at Family Mart, we walked to the Kanazawa Station to eat under the Motenashi Dome. 

For lunch, I got various nimono (above) and tako wasabi (below). The tako (octopus) wasabi looked kind of strange, which is exactly why I bought it! I like trying weird sounding/looking food...and it was really good! The small green pieces are diced wasabi root, so it was spicy and really fresh. I've never had anything like it! 

 Look at that model behavior. 

かっこいい会社いん　見たい！

 I also got this coffee drink, since ya know, I was feeling pretty uptight from class and I needed something to take the edge off! haha. This coffee seemed to have me covered, with its promise to "Keep You Relaxed." Lolz. Answers always seem to come from bottles.....I kid, I kid. 

This may be the mother of all acrostic poems. The "Keeps" adds a nice, jarring dramatic pause, don't ya think? Such lyricism. 

After lunch, we took a courtesy visit to the Ishikawa Prefectural Government Office. Since we got there a bit early for our ceremony, we had time to look around the art gallery!

The Princeton students of Princeton in Ishikawa with the famed Makino sensei! He's so chill. Just look at his pose. 

At about 3 o'clock, our informal ceremony commenced with a welcome speech by Chief Officer of the International Exchange Division. It was interesting to learn more about Ishikawa since I didn't do any research before arriving here!

Some pictures of the handouts that we received:

 We rode the bus back to Kanazawa Station, then returned to the Rifare building to do some homework until 6 pm. Time to go back home! 

Dinner time! 

Haruki loved the おみそしる！早く食べました！

Wow! I am getting so spoiled here! Oden, cucumber tsukemono, rice with chirimen tsukudani, grilled aka karei, and miso soup! Many of the ingredients are local specialities, including the Anko fish (anglerfish) inside the miso soup, and the aka karei, which is a type of turbot caught here in Kanazawa!

Today at the ceremony, I learned that the fishery industry in Ishikawa brings in about 21.4 billion yen, ranking 1st along the Sea of Japan coast for the largest catch value of flying squid, yellowtail, pink shrimp, and more, meaning that I get to have delicious seafood for dinner! Winning!

Dinner time, then a little play time...

...then it was time to say お休みなさい！I better rest my brain, since tomorrow is the first day of new material! I can do it! Right?!