Home Sweet, Foreign, Home.

Hajimemashite. Atashi wa Rideia (Lydia) desu. Douzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
How are you. I am Lydia. Nice to meet you. (lit This is our first time [meeting]. I am Lydia. Please take care of me)

Here I am. I have moved into my new home and met my family. They are super nice and, because they have hosted so many students in the past (15, my host mother said), they seem more open and playful than your average, 60 year olds.

Here are some quick facts: My mother is a traditional housewife. She does the shopping, cooking and cleaning (Except for mine, apparently. Ha!!). My father is a retired policeman turned 'government worker.' I'm not sure what he does, but he probably is behind a desk all day. My brothers, ages 33 and 29, are both policemen AND they still live at home. Take that, mom!

Right now, I'm chilling in my room, listening to someone play some sort of recorder (that instrument all of us learned in 4th grade). One thing that is similar to my home-stay experiences in Osaka and Tokyo is that the houses are squished together. They are all about three stories high but, using my house as an example, the bottom floor is used for the car. I think my family has a pretty sweet gig: They have a nice kitchen/dining room, a tatami mat room (6 mats in size), four bedrooms (mine, parents, brothers), a sweet entertainment area FILLED with manga, a bathroom and a shower/sink room (i think each floor has this, but I don't use the third floor, since that's where my brother's rooms are so I am not so sure).

Here are a few pics. I don't want to post too many, since it's kind of an invasion of my family's privacy:

View from the top of my house, main street, facing.....right.
My sweet, sweet dining area. You can't see the whole table where we eat, it's hidden by the small counter. This photo is taken standing in the kitchen area. It's a cute little double room. Heeh...
My little room. There's a little closet tucked away in the corner. I managed to shove all my luggage in there!!

Well, there you have it. That's a slice of my new little life. Sorry, no rhyme intended.

School starts Monday, and once I get my class schedule, I'll post that. Until then, I need to find a way and place to withdraw money. Tomorrow we go to Kamakura, then Friday I go to Waseda to have a final orientation/ home-stay language lesson AND get my Japanese cell-phone. I will also try to get the health check so I can use Waseda's gym and other facilities. Then this weekend, I will try to withdraw money, if I have not already done it Thursday or Friday. I am almost out!!

I'm outie!

Lydia