Hey guys, its Andre. I thought I`d throw up a post summarizing whats happened so far in the past two days for me.
This is a long post, and is just about what I`ve done

The first thing we did after leaving the airport was go to Kenta`s (my host) sister`s school field day. She was running in a relay race. There were 3 teams of students, and 1 team of teachers. They ran around the track several times. It was very amusing, but sadly the teachers came in last. Standing outside during the hottest part of the day is not extremely fun, but we got a snowcone, and it was a little better.
Thankfuly my host father speaks English rather well and can communicate things to me when I dont understand, which sometimes happens with the mom, who speaks only a few words. But The whole family is very nice. Kenta has a 15 year old brother named Kenji and a 13 or 14 year old sister, Kano.

The first thing that happened when I got home and had changed out of my jeans into shorts was I was offered food. Mochi (a sticky rice ball) and obento. In the obento was a piece of fried chicken breast, rice, vegetables, a meatball of some sort, an omelette esque egg thing and a hasbrown like thing made with rice. After that we went to Sakiko`s house to have a welcome party with all the students and hosts. The food there was very good. I ate some of the most delicious pineapple I have ever had there. The boys played basketball together and the girls watched and talked.

After the party it was time to go home and take a shower. I don`t think I`ve ever sweat this much. The showers in japan are quite different from america, I`ll try to upload a picture in the future. After a nice cold shower I hit the hay... or bamboo mat rather. Instead of a futon cushion like I had in the hotel in Kyoto, I am now sleeeping on a rather thin cushion on top of a tatami mat. Tatami mats are special mats that are made from bamboo. Luckily I like sleeping on hard surfaces. My bed is in a loft above my room. It seems like rooms in Japan are so much cooler than in America. I may have to design any future home I have after a japanese home.

Kenta and I got up at 6:45 to eat breakfast, and then biked to school around 7:30 so he could make it to his early (before school) english class. There I was asked to introduce myself, but I didn`t have anything prepared so I just kinda said my name, how old I was and that I like all food. Thankfully I`ve hosted students from Ishigaki twice (one of them being my host now) so I know several of the people, which made me feel much more comfortable.

After that first class, all the students from SEHS were introduced to the teachers at Yaeyama high school. After that we went to the gym to prepare for the welcome assembly for all of us. We had to walk onto stage, and stand infront of the entire school as the Principal gave a speech (in japanese, which was translated to english for us) Then we all went up to the mic and told everyone our name and how old we are. Surprisingly, I wasn`t as nervous as I expected to be.
The rest of the day was rather uneventful, aside from being asked to answer a question in the english class (which is surpsingly hard when you cant read the directions) and being asked to predict the score of the Japan Vs. Paraguay game in the world cup. (another thing thats difficult when you`re tired in a class in another country).

After school, several people went to Sakiko`s house to place video games on her ROTATING TV! It spins and is sooooo cool. Doesnt really enhance the game or anything. But it was fun. Also, one of the snacks that Sakiko`s mother gave to us (prepackaged mind you) were just plain hot dog buns with mayonaise on them.

When Kenta and I got home, dinner was almost ready. Dinner that night was sashimi-ed Ahi. (cut pieces of raw tuna) That was the first time I had sushi, and I thought it was rather good. There was also a salad esque item, with cooked tuna, hard boiled eggs and some other unidentified, delicious red thing.

The TV seems to always be on in this house, which I dont mind, because japanese Television is very amusing. So after dinner we watched some game shows, where I could kind of figure out what was going on. They seem like they are much easier to win than american ones.

Another cold shower, and a nice tatami mat sleep later, it was back to school for an early math class. The amount of work done in said class is questionable. I was looking around and it looked like several people were falling asleep. Not very good with final exams starting tomorrow. Luckily, the math class/homeroom had moved from its previous location in a room with a broken airconditioner, to the coldest room in the school. Ive never appreciated air conditioning that much. PE was the first official class of the day. Kenta even had a spare set of gym clothes that I could change into (the actual school ones that everyone wears). On the way to the gym/field several girls said my name from behind me, and I turned around to wave. This caused them to start saying `kawai` which is the japanese word for cute. Anyways, in PE I played soccer with kenta and a large group of other kids. It was fun, despite the heat, and my team won. But it was fun even when no points were being scored.

Once again the rest of the day was uneventful, until homeroom period at the end of the day. I saw several kids wrestling and chasing each other around the room, with the teacher watching and laughing. It was amusing. I was also asked to help come up with sentances to put on their class t-shirts. I was little help with that, but since the sentances they want to put on are in english, I corrected their grammar.

That was the last thing I did of any interest today, aside from eating a good, green apple flavored popsicle. Thats pretty much what I did before getting online to post here. Tomorrow we meet the mayor, and get to go swimming at the beach. I`ve been looking forward to that for quite awhile now.

Well, Toodles.
-Andre