For the past two weeks I've been hanging out with a Japanese student. She's from Hyogo prefecture, so I got to learn some Kansai dialect slang. A few are honmani which is an adjective meaning very. So, honmani acchi means very hot. Acchi is short for atsui meaning hot. There's also egui which has the same meaning as yabai. They both are said in response to something very bad or good. The boys also kept trying to get me to say erotic phrases, but the only one I repeated was maji de kusa. So basically, you're shit! It's crazy how many times I've said kusa in the past few weeks.

My friends and I sent off the six japanese students earlier today, there were a lot of tears because of how close we had become. Everyday after school we were going to clubs, starbucks, playing soccer, going to the movies, concerts and a lot more. All of the 4 boys on the trip are in their school's soccer club, so playing soccer was super fun. We called it bluelock practice. As a group we went to the city a bunch, and just with my student and family as well.

Some of my favorite memories were being squished into my friend's car. Going home from the gym, we may have fit more than legally allowed, but it was a bunch of fun. The other day we went to see Princess Monoke remastered in theaters, and they were so surprised that it was in Japanese. We took a photo in a photo booth, which is similar to the Japanese Purikara. Except purikara is much more kawaii.

One of the girls on the trip, the best friend of the student I hosted, is a mind gyal. So her attitude is gyal, but looks not much. When I wore my makeup, my student said it looked like heisei gyaru. Which is the older style in general terms. 

To put it concisely, I had a ton of fun, practiced my japanese speaking for my AP exam, and made new friends. I'm really grateful for my dad, even though we don't have a ton of money at the moment, he still set aside a budget so that I could have fun with my host student. In his words, he still wanted me to experience Japan in some way. My high school and their high school have an exchange program. Last summer, I was supposed to go to Japan and attend their school, but I got really sick. Even though I discharged before the departure, I wasn't recommended to travel. Since then, I've worked so hard to stay healthy. I've had all A's in every single quarter this year. I wake up at five to go to the gym and do cardio after school. And work with my care team so that I can be stable. I'm so glad that I was able to enjoy this experience without breaking down. Now, my confidence is really high, better than ever. And I think I'll be okay.

If it wasn't for my family or friends, I wouldn't be able to do all these fun things. So I'm really happy. Thanks for reading:)