Success!!

I'm so cool! Woo! You won't believe how cool I am. I'm beyond cool. I'm the bomb diggidy. yeah. That cool. I went to a Rotary Club meeting today, which was about the same as normal - a little boring. I was one of the only ones awake by the end of the meeting, which I found ironic as I was probably the only one that couldn't understand what they were saying. I saw my last host father for the first time since I changed families. That was nice. Not as akward as I imagined. The Rotarians took turns asking me the normal questions. How is your Japanese? Do you enjoy kendo? Do you have a lot of friends? What have you been up to? (Not so good yet, yes, yes, and iroirona). I was a little sad because I still stumbled more often than not and I had a plan to impress them. =) The plan failed. But I did get some interesting comments. You look different, one person said. I thought I wasn't understanding him, but then he told me my face has changed. Interesting. I wonder what he means. I'm zittier than I was when I arrived? I was wearing contacts today, which I don't normally wear. And I was in a really great mood. Laughing at everything. My cheeks were red because it was cold outside. Maybe it was one of those.

I went shodo and learned the kanji for "the art of" and then went to kendo and learned the rest of the stuff I need to know for my test on Saturday. After that was the highlight of my day. Oh man. I'm obviously too cool for myself. I went to a Rotaract meeting, which is where young Rotarians wannabes get together and try to save the world. It was a lot of fun. I was so cool! I understood about 99% of everything said to me! It was amazing. I even followed group conversations! I'm incredibly excited! Everyone came up to talk to me and my host sister(/translator) had to go help with something, so I was left alone with all the questions and no English. It was great. I couldn't believe it. They kept saying "Holy cow! You've only been here since August! That's amazing! You're Japanese is so good!" And I kept waiting for them to say something I didn't understand or to want to say something I couldn't, but it didn't come. It even almost felt natural! Woo! Party time! I understood! Woo woo! After the meeting (which felt a little like a church youth group meeting), we went out to eat and man was I cool. I understood! Some people started out directing their questions to my host sis ("What school is she going to? Where is she from? Does she speak Japanese?") but I totally intercepted them and answered them with ease. Man it felt good. It feels good. Some people asked my host sis what language they should speak to me in and she automatically replied Japanese. I was pleased but a little afraid I'd make a fool out of myself (I feel stupid asking people to speak to me in Japanese and then not understanding), but not a problem. It helped I think that my host sister was there, completely confident that I could carry out a conversation. And she was there for backup in case I had any real linguistic problems, but I didn't let myself use her as a crutch. I didn't need to.

This is good news. You know that feeling when you have a test or a speech to make and you completely forgot to study for it? You just decide to wing it and then you start and wonder how long you can go before everyone catches on that actually you don't know a thing about what you're talking about. Your arguements aren't well made, your points aren't solid. You're a fake. Sometimes it feels like that when I'm speaking Japanese. How long until they realize I'm only catching the main idea? How long until they realize I have no idea what's going on? But today I wasn't winging it. Today I was talking. Communicating! Woohoo! I love love love communication. Especially successful communication. What'll it be like to be back home, where everyone understands me? To not struggle over the language? I don't even remember what it's like to talk with ease. I do it every week over the phone with my mom and usually every day at least a little with Nakai Sensei or David. But it's different. For one, my English is more haltering. I'm not so confident that I'm using correct words. And I have to consciously separate the English from the Japanese.

I want to talk more to you, tell you more about how it feels to understand and be understood. I want to scream as loud as I can and tell everyone how cool I am, or better yet, engage someone in a Japanese conversation. Alas, I have school in the morning. Oyasumi.