あと１週間

本当に久しぶりだね

この前ポースとした時からいろいろあった！姉と日本を旅行して、友達がイギリスから来て、本当に素晴らしい時間を過ごした。でも日本めっちゃ暑くなったね！（ごめん、いつも天気について話してるねｗｗ）けど京都このごろ超暑い。蒸し暑い。がまんできない...８月ここにいなくてよかったｗでも最近話題になったのは…台風！ここ２・３日間風と雨やばかった。服、靴、靴下、全部濡れてる！来週帰国しちゃうからもうすぐ天気よくなるといいんだけどね。私の留学もうすぐ終わるって信じられない。本当に１０ヶ月くらい過ぎた？９月はずっと前のことみたいんだけど、一方で早く過ぎたように感じるんだ。おかしいよ…

どうしよう？？あと１つ日本での週末しかないんだよ！ぎゃあああ。すごく複雑な気持ち。ついこの間友達と話してて、思ったようにみんな同じ気持ちだ。帰ったらきっと日本に戻りたいと思う。この留学はここまですっごく楽しくて、たくさんのとてもいい友達ができて超うれしい！みんな私と一緒にイギリスに帰ってくれない？お願いいいいいｗいや、実は家族や友達に本当に会いたいけど、日本にいる友達と他の国から来た友達もめっちゃ会いたくなる。それに…帰ったら、日本語を絶対に使わなくなるｗやばい！ペラペラになりたいんだ。日本に戻るよ。いつか！

今日はCOSMEDIA（私が入ってるサークル）の Farewell Party だった！みんなとまた遊んでうれしくて、 花とお手紙をもらうのもとてもよかった。（ありがとう、みんな！大好き！）実はその手紙を読みながら泣けたんだ。笑　そんなにいい友達ができてすごくうれしいよ。

今週末は私の最後の週末だよ。今から予定いっぱい！来週の土曜日はとても辛い日だと思う。でも、帰ること考えられない。その日まで、友達とたくさん遊んで、最後まで日本での残りの時間を楽しむね！

Basically, I'm gonna bloody miss it here and all the awesome friends I've made so I'm gonna make the most of this final week here in Kyoto..see ya soon England..!

留学もうすぐ終わる。Half-way point (ish) of Year Abroad.

（日本語が下に書いてあるよ～～！あまり上手じゃないから、ごめんねｗｗ）

So, I'm at the mid-way point (kinda) of my year abroad here in Kyoto (eek). Proper weird feeling, hard to explain..part of me really does not want to leave - my friends, my University, my life here - and part of me does want to. Second semester, for us exchange students, began at the start of April, which is the start of a new academic year for normal Ritsumeikan students. After a couple of months of travelling, to Korea, to Hokkaido for the Snow Festival, back to the UK, and back to Japan with my sister, for a month of fun-filled sisterly travelling, I settled back into my life at the dorm and began my final semester here. I still can't believe it's been almost 8 months since I first came here. It feels like so long ago that I arrived that day, entering the dorm absolutely cacking it about not being able to understand owt!! But...it also feels like it's gone so quickly. Weiiiiiirdddddd.

OH. Just reminded myself of something funny! After having period 1 and 2 of class the other day, my friends and I sat outside to eat some dinner together (yea that's right, dinner, not lunch) and got to talking about accents. I brought up how some of my friends back at my home uni who I lived with (*cough* Bec) sometimes just DID NOT understand what I was trying to say, being from the North and all. Similarly though, I didn't always get some of the words they were using! But..anyway, one of my friends was all 'I understand you well :)' I explained how when I'm here I tend to sort of tone down the Northern-ness within me, but when I'm home round my people (lol), the Yorkshire lass will come back for sure! AAANYWAY, so they asked me to do an impression of what I'm like when I'm not actively trying to enunciate my words and avoid Yorkshire-isms...so I obliged. It went something along the lines of:

"Ere right Daiiiiisy (that's me best mate yea Daiiisy), im proper ungry like, me! Gonna get right mardy if a dunt eat owt...Can wi gu' shop? Let's gu' t'shop, wanna get mesen an ice-cream!! You wat, dun you want one, like??" 

And in that moment, I was back in Yorkshire. Hahahahhaha, so yes this was probably a highlight of the day. I then proceeded to the library to kill time until period 4 when I had my final class. To my dismay, Ikebana class was cancelled the next day - I was proper looking forward to that.

Aaaanyways, so yeah my first month here is pretty much over and it's going too quicklyyyy!! I KNOW when I'm back, while it'll be awesome to see everyone again, I'll miss it here and everyone I've met, and want to return. But it'll be time to move on and let the next group of UEA students go on their year abroad! For now, gonna make the most of the rest of my time here. Gonna Karaoke til I have no voice and Japanese til I can't even English anymore (well this has happened before but yea).

LATERZ

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少し前毎回日本語で書くつもりって言ったのに、、今まであまりしてないね。だから、、！！

もう留学の中間点で、もうすぐ帰ることについてどう感じるかわからない。ちょっと不思議な気持ちなんだよ。けど今までめっちゃ楽しみにしてきたから、これからも帰るまでどうなるのか楽しみ！確かに、帰ってから京都が懐かしくなって、ここにできた友達にもすごく会いたいと思うんだけど今そんなことについて考えられないね！

最近京都めっちゃ暑くなってきたんだね！時々何もしたくないほど暑い。けどこれからもっと暑くなるでしょ？！うわ～７月絶対だめ。日本人すごいねｗｗイギリスで２０度くらいさえだったら、ショーツやTシャツが出てくるんだ、、笑　日本の夏を経験していてから、今ちょっとおかしいと思う！帰る時にイギリスでは夏だけど、日本に比べて多分寒いと思うね！まあ、実は日本の７月はそんなに暑いから、たぶんうれしい。

じゃ、今日早く起きたし、授業もいっぱいあったし、もうすぐ寝たほうがいいかな～
おやすみ！！

久しぶり！It's been a while!

So it's been a while since I've done a post. So, sorry if this gets rambly..I do ramble.

The past couple of months since Christmas have been not only busy but quite difficult! Christmas itself was a weird one, what with being away from home and it not really seeming like Christmas. Then I had a visitor, just for a week, but it was one of the best ever! We spent New Year's in Osaka, went to an Onsen, did a bit of sight-seeing, and tried lots of food together. It was fab. After the Winter break, I then had two weeks of school (weird I know) before a two-month break. I've had a bit of trouble explaining this to people back home, but Feb and March are basically the July and August for Japan, academic-wise. So their academic year starts in April, as opposed to our September! See, rambling already. Anyways, so I've been doing some travelling!!

I began with a trip to South Korea with some awesome friends! And can I just say..KOREAN FOOD IS AMAZING. Now, I do love Japanese food, but man...Korean food? Just. Yum. I especially love Kimchi, and love the fact that one of my housemates (shout out to ピョンヘ！！）makes this quite often. It is beaut. Actually, the night I got back from the UK (get onto that later) she was there to greet me and was, to my delight, making some Kimchi! So yeah, Korea was super cool. We were there for around 9 days, so managed to fit in quite a lot! It was well cold out there, apparently even colder than Hokkaido in the north of Japan. Which brings me on to my next bit!

Kimchi soup!

Following Korea, we got back and the next week went to Sapporo, Hokkaido, for the Snow Festival! (札幌雪祭り）So, as you can imagine, there was a lot of...snow. I remember arriving and getting a taxi to our hotel - the back roads were so icy, we were worried if we could even get there! But luckily it was just round the corner. And we had quite a nice chat with the taxi man, practising our Japanese over the hols yea! We only spent about 4 days here, but, again, managed to fit quite a lot in. The sights were amazing (but I will say, I'm SO glad I took a big coat!!).

Here is a car buried in snow..

So, I returned from Sapporo and I think pretty much the next day, I flew home. As excited as I was to go to Korea and Sapporo (which were brill), this was the thing I was most desperate for. I had missed my family, friends, and partner so much. I had a lot I wanted to do, and only three weeks to do it, of which the final weekend I was flying back to Japan. So, two weekends. I split my time between my hometown, and my Uni city. For a start, it's very hard having two families at a time like this, especially when I can't drive yet. There were a lot of people I wanted to fit in seeing, and didn't manage to see everyone. I got time with most of the people I wanted to see, though, and in the time I had I think it was okay. I mean, it's not like I'm coming back to Japan forever right? 

So I saw my family, and a couple of friends in my hometown. I had a fantastic time with everyone, so thank you again to all you wonderful people back home :) I'm sorry I couldn't have more time, but all I can say is there will be plenty of time after the next few months when I return for good. I only have a few more months here, but a lot longer to be around home so I'll make the most of it! So, following this, I went to Norwich. It's strange because, not only do I miss the people there, but I miss the city. The colourful market, the castle, the puppet man (who I managed to spot on my visit haha), and my University. Don't get me wrong, I miss my hometown for what it is too, but there's something about Norwich and UEA. If I didn't say before in a previous post, I feel so happy and lucky to have ended up there. Anyways, I got to see quite a few friends there as well and had a wonderful time. Thank you to you all - especially to Alex by the way for putting up with me living at his for the week and making some yummy food for me. OH that reminds me, I also bought myself Tomb Raider: Underworld..(!!!!) I have been waiting to play this game for so long. I had Legend for ps2 and then..obviously couldn't play the next one as I didn't have a ps3. But I finally played it (well some of it!) and looking forward to playing the rest of it and other TR games when I'm back ^^ YEY

Sooo, here I am. Back in my dorm in Kyoto. After a proper long coach ride, flight, another flight, and taxi. And my sleeping pattern is sooo dodgy. And I've been feeling quite poopy. I miss everything and everyone already, and I've only just gotten back. Luckily, I'm meeting my sister in Tokyo tomorrow to start some travelling. Then next month, back to Uni! While I'm really glad I got to visit home (I really think I needed it), I have to wonder whether it was in fact entirely a good thing. I suppose after just returning to Japan, I was always gonna feel a little sad, until I get back into the routine of things. But, it really sucks missing home and the people there.

I know, for the 2nd years at UEA who may be reading this, that many of you are planning to come home. And I say great! But be aware, because, at least for me, having that feeling of being home again and then having to come back out here on my todd once more (while I love it here) was quite difficult. It still is haha! I was used to visiting home when I felt like it back in 1st and 2nd year, but when you're in Japan it just can't happen like that. So going home was something I wanted. At the same time, it was maybe bad for me. Or at least, for my year abroad in general and studies! But I'm so glad to have seen everyone and to have done the things I did. It has just made being here harder than it was, which I'm sure will fade in time for me to have to leave Japan for good - at which time I will be devastated to have to leave my life here! Isn't it great..!? For now, I'm gonna enjoy my travels with my sister here in Japan (yeyeye) and then get back into the swing of things at Uni. もっと漢字練習は必要ｗｗ　がんばりまーす！！

Oh and one more thing..I HAD CHIPS AND GRAVY!!! (plus battered sausage)

Sheringham ♥