One of my friends came over and spent some time with me this weekend. She is from Hungary and not doing so well with her host family or school. She's not happy here and is considering returning home early. She asked me what my secret is. Why am I so happy? How did I get so lucky as to end up with two really great host families? She told me "You do your things very well," referring to living here. It was really surprising to hear that. I absolutly love it here, adore my host family, and pretty much want to marry the world, but I didn't know that it was so obvious or that everyone didn't share that feeling. I feel like I'm living an exchanger's dream. I'm not homesick. I'm learning the language. I'm on my second really awesome family. I made really good, patient friends on the first day of school and go out with them whenever we have time. I'm not in any really difficult classes. I have one of the few large houses in Japan. I have a laptop. I have supportive teachers. I was automatically accepted into the kendo club and am expected to participate like any of the members. My Rotary club loves me. My trips are fun. My country is amazing. My family is fairly wealthy (okay, admit it, it is a plus to anyone's exchange). My commute to school is fun. I've tricked the world into thinking I'm a good student. I keep thinking this happy feeling is fake and looking for the real feeling underneath, but it's not fake. I really am happy. It's not "fake it till you make it," it's absolutly happiness. And everyone I'm with knows it, which makes them like me more, which makes me happier, which makes it show more. I ran into a kid from school whom I didn't know at all, and she asked to take a picture with me. I love it.
And I've gotten myself kind of a reputation of a happy person. My friend came over just to see what advice I could give her on being happy. I was talking to my english teacher about my new family and how I now commute to school. He said "Man, that's going to suck. You have a bus and two trains? That'll take forever. Maybe we can figure something else out." I said, "It's not too bad. I can sleep on the bus and I like taking the trains. Besides, if we worked something else out I wouldn't be able to go through Kyoto Station, and that's like my favorite place to be." He shook his head and replied "Why don't you ever complain? If I was you, I'd be b**ching up a storm right now." The other day I was trying a new food and everyone was watching me to see how I'd react. I tried it and smiled, pronouncing it delicious. Every laughed and said "Man! She eats anything! She does anything! Is she Japanese?" So yeah, thanks for the advice, Renie. Not complaining works.
Oh, and I decided on my career, finally. I'm going to be a monk when I grow up. I'll live in a temple and run around in the woods surrounding it and tend to the gardens and shave me head. I could get up every morning at 5 with the other monks and pray to the gods of health and love and eat tofu and make the world beautiful. Which college specializes in that?
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