Life signs from Corny

Firstly: MY COMPUTER IS ALIIVEEEEE ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=ε=┏(*´∀｀)┛


So I can post my photos from my camera, blog more quickly (maybe xD) and, more importantly, live my life free from mourning my computer's apparent death!! (人●´ω｀●)
So!!  I've got some nice pics from my school, finally!! :D +other interesting stuffies ^w^
But firstly secondly thirdly (???), a quick report of my recent life!

• Right now I'm kind of exstatic, probably because I've eaten too much delicious junk food (sweet cereal, heaps of ramen, cake, more cake, marshmallows... xDD)

• and because I just went to see The Amazing Spiderman 2 (it was actually a GREAT movie (note: I'm under strong influence from nostalgia and too much cake))..with my deep and funny and terrifically-English-speaking friend Rodrigo from Uruguay! ＼（＾∀＾）人（＾∀＾）ノ

• Aside from that, lately school is super busy, and may get even busier if I join the Kendo club (under consideration due to frequent non-skippable morning practice) - but right now we have a 5-day holiday (so wonderfully looong x''DD) so I've got time to blog!! :D:D

• School is: LONG but fun :D

• School friends are: Many nice pals, few very near friends

• Mood is: (recently realized) swinging heavily xD 

• Japanese goes: Improving slightly every day. I speak and comprehend more quickly. Kanji study is delayed. 

So!! School photos~~ 

(note, being an awkvard, foreign rookie at my school, the mere thought of walking about with a recording device in plain sight gives me chills SO you may enjoy a, uhm, less crowded perspective of the school xD (that is, after-school-perspective))

This is (the last 5 min of) my way to school:

(from left: mysterious woman planting flowers, two girls from my school and, as usual, a person on a bike)

This is the fence that surrounds my school campus:

Sometimes one can hear the university dudes playing tennis on the other side of the fence, other days one can hear the Kendo practice! You can hear them screaming two minutes away!! xD They're so passionate (=´▽｀)ゞ 

The sakura season ended a week or two ago, so there's fallen sakura everywhere~

Like my host father commented, the sakura are beautiful even when fallen... He claimed that it's an ideal that Japanese people strive for, to rather let life go gracefully (like sakura) than to hold on to thight until you're old and withered (like most other flowers).

I always enter through the north gate (a.k.a. the back door), not too interesting, but further inside the campus is the more intimidating Junior&Senior High School (NO: ungdomsskolen & VGS) complex entrance:

In the afternoon sunshine ヾ(*・ω・)ノ゜+.゜★ィェィ☆゜+.゜ヾ(・ω・*)ノ

You can slightly see the school badge in the upper middle of the... Thing xD It's the round leaf with the star in the middle. I'm currently searching for the meaning hahah xD

The stairs to my classroom(s):

Yup.

By every flight of stairs there is a mirror (probably so that the students are at all times able to assure that their skirt is at an appropriate length and their socks at an appropriate height). I tested the mirror:

*approved for dorky selfies*

One of the hundreds of identical hallways: 

On the left is my classroom, and on the wall on the right you can see one of the numerous unintelligible map/signboard/room-list -things xD

My locker with kittie~~

My classroom:

This is after school, so most people are at club activity somwehere on campus and the rest at home. I've got the window seat on the front row. Good for communicating with teachers. Bad for learning the morning prayer routines (I have this perception that turning around during meditation is bad manners, so...)

My view from my desk:

The gym, and behind it, the track. 

The senior high school toilets:

Cozy, huh... I'm never going to complain about the infamous, scruffy and constantly occupied Færder girl's toilet (I MISS THAT LOO SO BAD). Allthough on the other hand, this squatting toilet is very effective. It's very difficoult to doze off on this toilet seat, or do your makeup, etc. It doesn't contribute to making you late for class.

***bonus snaps***

From art club, attempting oil painting (and failing so far hahah)

That unventilated room is so freaking humid omg xD The thought makes me sweat... But the sweet breeze of art keepes us alive hahah~

My favourite part of school, the jidouhanbaki, vending machines <3

You can buy the amazing Japanese Milk Tea, the tastiest drink currently in existence on this planet, and moreover, COFFEE. The coffee is reaaally sweet, almost as sweet as the milk tea =U=

The day I took these photos, the weather was very nice and I was feeling good, so I decided to walk a few of the bus stops. On this little afternoon sanpo, I was distracted by some large trees peeping up above the roofs a couple of blocks off the main road. Upon closer examination I found a splendid little takebayashi (竹林), tiny bamboo wood:

And a solitary samurai xD

Hahah, this was indeed an interesting encounter. This old man was performing kung-fu on invisible enemies all alone in the little bamboo cluster with his wooden katana. I asked for a photo (just because), and he introduced himself as Tommy, a (possibly self-acclaimed) martial arts sensei. He actually taught me some fancy methods to avoid being hit in combat, should I ever come across a ill-tempered samurai.  Also, he knew a lot about vikings, I think (he started talking about that when I said that I'm from Norway. We had an interesting talk comparing samurai and vikings). I'm not quite sure wether he was very wise or very, uh, mental, but I'm really glad to have met him. Made my day. xD

To conclude this flooded blog post, I'd like to add some snippets from my mail correspondence, about my timetable and Kendo~~ 

It's in Norwegian though, sorry to all o' you fancy foreigners :''3 (tho you ain't missin' no uplifiting stuff anyways! xD)

Min dagsplan!~

(Hvis jeg joiner kendo: Står opp ~04:50 noen dager)

05:30 - står opp, uniform, hår, frokost, blablabla 

07:05 - tar toget (+buss) til skolen

08:05 - ankommer skolen (hvor vi hverken har nett eller mob btw)

15:15 - skolen ferdig 

(Man-Tor + lør:) 15:45 - after-school club (friidrett/kunst (kan hende jeg begynner med Kendo isteden for friidrett))

~19:00 - kommer hjem

Gjør lekser

22:15 - sjekker AFS-sidene på Facebook (holder meg oppdatert på events o.l.)

22:30 - Sove

...Pluss tørking av tallerkner, dusjing, etc... Min unnskyldning for lack of communication, sry x''3

Og for dere som ikke vet hva kendo er! Dette er mitt intrykk so far!! xDD

- Det er Japansk fekting:

Meget fancy =U= (bilder fra Google images, men det kunne like godt vært vår klubb for rustningen er alltid prikk lik)

- De SKRIKER OG ROPER HELE TIDEN

- DET ER SOM OM NOEN HAR SKRUDD PÅ CAPS-LOCK NÅR DE SNAKKER

- F.eks. Så har skolen en universal oppvarming, sånn light sirkeltrening/sirkeltøying type ting, der de teller til 8 for hver øvelse: ich-ni-san-shi go-rokk-shich-hach, men i Kendo-klubben sier de EEIIIIIIIICH NIIIIIIIIEEE SAAAAAAN SHIIIIIIIIEEE GOOOOOO ROOOOOOOCK SHIIIIIIIIIIICHI HAAAAAAAACHI xDDD DE SKRIKER DET SÅ HØYT OMFG xD

- Og hver gang man utfører et slag må man skrike høyt hva man gjør, eller bare skrike høyt. F.eks. HYAAAAAA MEEEEEEEN som man skriker når man slår noen på hodet.  Den lærte jeg da jeg var med på prøvetrening ^u^ 

Ja, og alle Japanere påstår at det er helt utrolig slitsomt og fysisk krevende :D:D:D Jeg som er så liten og lavmælt og forsiktig og helt uten koordinasjon har helt skrekkelig lyst til å ta på meg denne utfordringen ;u; Men de har morgentreninggggg x''D 

***

And that concludes it!! Hope you enjoyed my post!! :D:D

To all my fellow AFSers who may be reading this: I HOPE YOU'RE DOING GREAT, MY AFS BROTHERS AND -SISTERS :D:D

To all my people in Norway: JEG SAVNER DERE ALLE SAMMEN DERE ER VERDT SÅ MYE FOR MEG unnskyld hvis jeg virker teit hahahhh MEN JEG TENKER PÅ DERE HVER DAG, ALLE DE FANTASISKE UNIKE VENNENE MINE OG FAMILIEN MIN <3<3<3

And whoever the rest of you might be: THANK YOU AND GOOD LUCK WITH LIFE

You shall hear from me again...

The long awaited school post ☆☆☆

This is what you have all been waiting for!! The school post!! Finally xD

....all though I don't have any photos =u=""" Phones are strictly forbidden in this private school, and even if they'd allow a camera, my PC is as dead as always so I can't move my photos anywhere anyway. (But I'm working on it, and I stand strong in my belief that my laptop shall be reincarnated within the end of next week)

So! I'll try to compensate with some photographic descriptions of my school(life).

- Every morning I take the train to Nerima, change for Kotezashi and go off at Hibarigaoka, then I board the bus headed for Musashi-Sakai, ride it until Mukaidaichou Ichi-chome and walk for 5-10 minutes. The entire journey usually takes about an hour, if I get on the right trains.

- When entering the school gate, I bow to the gatekeeper, then to the headmaster when he's around, and then to the school. 

Sometimes the kendo - Japanese sword-uh-combat?? - -club has morning exercise in an run-down old building right by the entrance gate. The building has very thin, very old walls. And the kendo club is LOUD. Like seriously, they're like a freaking.... Something VERY VERY LOUD!!! They're all screaming and running and clashing their wooden swords hysterically and you can hear them two minutes away!! (If the windows are open) And it sounds like SO MUCH FUN, I'm planning to stop by one day :D

- Then I enter the school. I arrive 20 minutes before school starts, in case I miss a train. I sometimes chat with my classmates, but it's hard to enter their conversations @-@" 

At 08:15 the get-your-asses-to-yer-classrooms-bell rings. It means that we must go to our classrooms. Then, at 08:20 the ceremony-kinda-sortof-begins-bell rings. It means that the morning ceremony starts, and that everyone should be meditating already (but that usually doesn't happen before 08:22). The ceremony goes as follows: stand, listen, sing Buddhist hymn, bow, sit, meditate, stand, bow, sit. And we must never do anything without being told so by Miss. Creepy Voice On Speakers or Harima-Sensei. 👍👍👍

- We have 6 fifty-minute-classes every day Monday-Friday, and 4 classes on Saturday. There is a 10 minute break between each class (just enough time to sprint for your life down to the vending machine to buy coffee and sprint up again and save it for the next break). After 4 classes we have the lunch break, 50 minutes =U= Usually I eat bento with everyone else in the classroom (provisory long dining tables are assembled with desks), sometimes I eat in the delicious cafeteria where they serve an array of mysterious Japanese meals, also 6 types of noodles, heaps of unhealthy bread and a selection of deep fried chicken. 

- This is my timetable: 

 (Is the resolution as bad as I think it is? Gotta fix this....soon...)

The white classes are with my home room class, the grey ones are with other classes or private tutoring ☆. As you can see, in addition to my own homeroom class H2 White (high school second yr color-code white), I also have certain subjects with: H1 green, H2 purple, H3 blue, M3 green (middle school), M1 green and H2 red. And they ALL want me to learn all their freaking names omg it's impossibleeee x''DDDD Tomoka, Haruka, Konoha, Kotone, Mami, Momo, Moe, Miki, Miki, Miki, Mariko, Maiko........@~@"" But it's fun! And they're all incredibly adorable omg x'D

Oh and btw, the letters at the bottom of the timetable are for after-school club activity. R is for rikushoubu=track and field/running/athletics club, and A is for art club (really Bijutsubu but anyways). When I have club activity, which is every day except Friday, I come home around 7. And I have homework. And I have school on SATURDAY, peoples. I dare you to complain about Norwegian school once more... xDDD

I reaaally have to go to bed now so here's some quick random notes:

- Japanese girls are very cute and sweet and everything but VERY NOISY x'D They scream all the time! I don't mind though. God stemning, like we say in Norway (= good mood/atmosphere)

- Also there are very many tomboys at the (girls only-)school!! They look so much like boys it's inhuman xD And some of them are quite handsome too. I'm confused. xD

- About handsomeness. They guys from the neighbouring university. Wow.

- One of my teachers is sort of strict sometimes, but usually quite nice and the rest i very nice!! They smile all the time and many of them treat the students like their own kids, playing and telling jokes and teasing and stuff. About that, my math and science teachers tend to wander off the subject... FAR off the subject... Having open discussions about soccer, for example. Or teasing the students, or bragging about their swimming club (and they're very nice and funny, I enjoy listening, but anyways). Agnes, fellow (but Swedish) exchange student, said they do it to give the students a break. When looking at their schedule, most of them having cram school in the evenings too, I can see that the students need a break, but it still seems kind of strange... Teachers journeying far away from their subject purposefully... x3

- Last comment, uhm... It's FREAKING ICE COLD in the mornings here, no talk of fresh breeze around privaties here!! (Harry Potter pun, Karoline, mother) For once I actually wish I could wear pants, or at least wool leggings, but all they allow here is our wonderful whoosh-whoosh skirts and knee socks. =~=" Hahah and btw Japanese women are incredible, while I'm freezing to death in a wool skirt and old women wear five layers of winter coats, the young women all as one stride about in mini-shorts and dangerously short mini-skirts and ankle stockings. I'm impressed by what they sacrifice for their looks.

But now I'm retreating to my bed! The sleep I missed by blogging, will probably be retrieved on the bus tomorrow... If it's not packed...