First impressions

Well...
Where to start...
School here is honestly painful in my opinion. But only because I'm used to walking between classes, and actually understanding what the teachers are talking about (more on that in a bit).
It feels so weird to stay in the same room all day; even during lunch break! I was itching to move by the end of it, so karate was a massive relief!
I didn't end up using my PowerPoint presentation, unfortunately, but I had to verbally introduce myself twice. In Japanese and english. The teachers were great and seemed to want to get to know me, at least a bit.
The class was what really made me uncomfortable. All through high school, I havent been anything special. I'm not overly pretty, or athletic, or artistic, or anything like that. I've needed to prove myself as worth someone's time. But here, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE is talking to me! Well, ok, there are some people in my class that don't, and my maths teacher didn't, and most people out of the class room don't, but it sure feels like it! So many people say hi in the hall ways, or the courtyard randomly. Tsumu says that foreigners are really rare around here, especially with blonde hair! I stick out like a sore thumb.
But it does make it easier to become friends with people. I think I've already got a few friends, but it feels weird that they're mostly girls... I'm used to hanging out with guys...
But then I started karate and started talking to Matsu! He's great! Enough said.
He's in my class, so grade 10, but he's our instructor. He wears a black belt like a badge, and refused to take it off in place of his jacket. I do t know if it's a black belt, or a teaching belt, but it looks important. He doesn't mind that it's been a few years since I last did karate, and he's teaching me just like the others.
I've missed this kind of physical activity these past few years without realising. There's no way I'm dropping this just because I leave the country in January.

Teachers. Yikes...
Most of them are great! My PE teacher (I think) says she loves my energy even though I can't run the 2 laps that everyone else did (she doesn't speak English, and my Japanese is so poor that I'm guessing from the few words I picked up on). I managed to mimic most of the warm-up dance that Tsumu says took a whole 50-minute lesson to learn.
My English teacher was great, and he challenged me to do the class work reversed. He was nice and got me to introduce myself in English.
Physics was odd... I'm pretty sure that heat and the reactions of it being applied to minerals is chemistry, but what do I know? I took science 21 ;)
Maths was just... You know that feeling of a teacher talking gibberish, and writing nonsense on the board? That was this lesson. Sometimes it seemed to be finding x. Then it was finding the tangent. Then it was graphing. Then tables. Then the area under and above the curve respectively. Then back to tangents! This guy took no pauses, so chances for me to ask anyone, or even distinguish the words!
But that's all my complaining. All in all, it was actually pretty fun. I'm sure that I'll use the power point at venturers, and I look forward to classes tomorrow. And karate. Ooh, karate, where have you been these last however many years it's been...
Anyway, it's 10:10, so in my head, it's 11:10. I need to go to bed!!






(seriously? 8:40 to 7:00 every day, Monday to Saturday?  Who came up with this? I may as well set up a bed in the library, and I'll be set to live at school!)