Update from the Rainbow House

Things are great. Like, really great.

This week I thought I would be stressed with my Japanese presentation (ten minutes about whaling in Japan), or my Politics paper (2500 words) or getting all of my stuff organized because I moved (sorting out money, telling the post office my new address, going to the ward office and filling out forms for my foreign registration card and insurance card), but I handled it well. Though, not at all alone.

My land lady, who is super awesome and welcoming and who laughs considerately at my jokes, took me to the ward office and helped me with all my forms and waited with me and was great. The CJS office workers helped me with my postal forms and also handled the money situation for me - so that I didn't have to do a single thing. See, I left my home stay early, so I get money back for that - and the dorms are an interesting situation, where I get half my money back for a month's rent. Anyway, it got all taken care of.

After my presentation, I went to Starbucks with the French and got this new, delightful drink which is called, "Double-chocolate cookie crumble blend with pudding" or something, and yes, it was amazing. The weather has been pretty good in Nagoya - a little rainy now and again, but it's been warming up since the end of February (I hear Wisconsin is not so lucky), but the weather has been absolutely beautiful aside from the occasional rain. Right now its 73 degrees and sunny, and it looks like the rest of the week is in the high 70's. As such, I got a little burned yesterday when Lisa, Valerie, Julie and I spent time outside between and after classes in the Green Area on campus (it's a big grass clearing surrounded by trees, some of which are cherry blossom trees [the blossoms are long gone now] with a fountain and some benches...awesome place to hang out on nice days).

Afterwards, after much complaining on my part because I had been hungry all day, and after making two inchworms fight each other (okay, to clarify, I thought that they were friends because, I mean, same species? Only it turns out they weren't really friends, so instead I held an inchworm championship where I got two inchworms on twigs and then put the twigs together and whoever didn't fall off won. And the little guy won all three times! It was great. I found more inchworms later but I couldn't find the champion so the challenges were called off. It was all very official. I thought it was really interesting, my French friends did not, and accused me of being Autistic) the girls finally decided to feed me and we went to Pastel, a pasta and salad place.

We ate some *delicious* food, and after stopping by the super market for ice cream and umeshu (sweet flavored sake), we headed back to Lisa's dorm and watched Aladdin while drinking and eating a bit more. What a great movie. We couldn't agree on the next Disney movie though, and the Little Mermaid was in Japanese and nobody would have that, so we ended up watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone before we had to leave at eleven (dorms have curfews for guests). Then we all stumbled on home, and Valerie and I hung out in my room having the best girl talk I've had in a WHILE until two in the morning. It was very fun and we laughed a lot and it was just really good to have that, because it's been too long since I've had a good girl talk, giggling and chatting on my bed wrapped in blankets and attacking each other with my stuffed animals (Valerie had Mr. Squishy Ball, but I had my small elephant, whom I named Wumbo last night).

And I'm just in such a good place right now. One of my classmates remarked that I seemed happier and more energetic than usual. I'm walking to and from school everyday (45 minutes one way) and it makes me feel healthier. I'm eating what I want, when I want, and spending my free time how I want (Gilmore Girls, reading, and as of late, playing Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories on my DS, when I'm not out with my friends). And I feel so free. And light. And happy.

I'll be meeting Ayame and her friend to go shopping at three, and then we'll be catching dinner with her boyfriend later tonight. It's been a while since I've seen Ayame, so I'm pumped. Plus I wanna see what her boyfriend looks like, since she's really picky when it comes to Japanese guys, and he is one, so. Should be interesting.

So, if you were wondering, I'm doing great. I'm doing better than great. I'm incurably optimistic, and incredibly happy. I'm exactly what I need to be.