The other tests were ok I guess, 89 points for General English and 97 for Current English; I don't remember how I did on the Japanese one because it was just too random and pointless.
After the exam period had finished on Thursday (week before last one), we went on an 遠足 (ensoku -> "trip") to a big aquarium in Nagoya. Actually I can't really remember having been to one and I didn't expect it to be that great, it turned out to be a lot of fun because I somehow got dragged along by the girls I had lost contact with and this finally got us back to talking to each other again. There was even a dolphin show, which was pretty lame because the "be happy" music playing all the time was too loud and kinda ruined the experience for me. They had a really big flat screen in the background, and before the show started the camera man would just randomly zoom at people from the audience; the funniest moments were those when they didn't even notice xD Also I learned another useless and random word, 反響定位 (hankyô teii -> echo location). At the end I also finally got to do my first puri-kura^^
What then started five days later was the long awaited English Camp. It was held in a place called 青年の家 (seinen no ie -> "house of youths"), and on entering the building everyone was giving their best to use as much English as they could. So far, so good. We then sat in a kind of class room and listened to a compelling speech by our principal how he started learning English in his young days with nothing more than a dictionary his father had given him. After the speech, right when the "English Mood" was at its peak, the youth hostel's head came in and destroyed it all by giving a long and boring explanation about every detail of the place, even as how to fold used sheets correctly so their dirty side doesn't show, in Japanese. What a great start, I thought. Then our "Language Teachers", the AETs (forgot what the abbreviation actually stood for) introduced themselves to us: 2 women, one from Kanada with Chinese ethnicity and one from the US with Vietnamese ethnicity, a guy from Jamaica and finally Justin, the half Chinese American whom we already knew because he works as an Assistant Language Teacher at our school. Our class was then divided into four groups each following one of the AETs. Then we read our speeches in front of the group and decided on two people from each one who would deliver it in front of the whole class, and finally the AETs decided on 3 winners. Somehow the teachers had totally forgotten about the exchange students who were supposed to give a speech in Japanese, so me, Tsutomu-kun (formerly known as "Ben") and Ari-san barely managed to do it after lunch due to the strict time table. What we would do next is the so called "Show and Tell": You basically explain a random object that has some sort of relation to you in front of others (I talked about my NDS ^^v).
Well, all in all a lot of stuff happened, later on we wrote so called "skits", short, humorous plays, which all turned to be hella funny, except for my group's one, which was kinda weird. Basically it was the story of Yûji who went to a place called "Wonder Island" to find a girlfriend. Now guess what wonderful roles I was playing in this awesome masterpiece: First an ATM, then a flower and finally a dog. Although I climbed the ladder of evolution quite high, I didn't make it to a human role. Or something like that. At least people laughed at some parts that were unexpectedly funny, so it wasn't a total failure. Hopefully >.>" But besides this there was some other cool stuff, like the RPG-like Quest Game on the second day where the AETs and exchange students were turned into NPCs with two quests each for the 4 groups to conquer, while 2 bosses (Justin and Ernesta, the guy from Jamaica) were waiting for them. Another fun moment was when the Japanese teens were exposed to "Truth or Dare". I don't know too much about the other groups, but nobody in my group ever chose Dare, and at some point someone actually got asked "What did you do on the weekend?" like wtf? xD At night me, some AETs and a few girls would always play NDS games wirelessly, everyone being in their rooms. On the first morning it rained heavily, so morning assembly was held in the gym. What happened was the usual stuff I was used from school, standing in rows at attention and greeting the hostel's head, when he suddenly brought a big speaker and played the national anthem 「君が代」 (Kimi ga yo). I was like "shit, I completely forgot to memorize the lyrics before coming to Japan", but luckily in the end nobody actually sung, simply listening to the music. After that we even did the same lame radio gymnastics we do at school (some of the AETs even bursted out laughing, and I couldn't blame them in the least). On the second morning the sky had cleared up and we finally met on the outside assembly ground. Basically the exact same stuff happened as the day before, except for the fact that I, Ari-san and Kôta-kun ran up the flags at the front, with me doing the 日の丸 (Hinomaru, national flag), while the anthem was playing. It was an interesting feeling I must say, different from national pride I never felt before though^^
The camp was fun, but short. Way to short. My expectations of everyone trying their best in English were mostly disappointed; most of the guys didn't really bother most of the time to use it, there were only a few girls who did, but they again tried with all their might. Don't worry, you can include me in the bunch that never bothered. At first it was easy because we were joking around a lot, but when we really needed to communicate I didn't try once to use English >.<
One thing I am absolutely happy about tho is that I was able to meet Weija, the Chinese Canadian who was our groups AET. Through some coincidence at the beginning of the camp I found out she's into all that Visual Kei stuff as well, and she was the first person I was able to have a real conversation about almost any band I know. Even better, she told me lynch. (one of my absolute favorite bands) is going to perform in a newly built hall in Toyohashi(!), which compared to Nagoya(1.5 hours), is only about 20 min away, and she'd even help me with getting the ticket. I still can't believe I've run into her, but now that concert at the end of July is something I am looking forward to all the time.
So, that's it for the "long anticipated" English camp; I was planning to stop here, but this was about a week ago as I haven't been able to finish writing because of club activities, homework and tiredness. Anyway, I went to Nagoya again yesterday (6月8日) for an orientation that was held for the Japanese exchange students going abroad this summer. At first we (the foreign xstudents) were told to hang somewhere outside because they'd have some information session for around an hour or two, so we went to a gaming center together with two returnees (former Japanese xstudents) taking purikura and wasting our money on impossible games (I spent 15 bucks trying to get a Evangelion bed sheet, in vain T_T). Then we went back to the building YFU was using and did some exercise with the other students, like introducing somebody else or having an "English Shower" where one Japanese student would have to try to get the attention of a whole group talking and bring himself into the conversation (which I found pretty good). The funny thing was that we (the foreigners) were told we were basically supposed to let the Japanese students realize they absolutely suck at English and it's completely different from what they're used at school, and for some reason the returnees were totally surprised I knew the word 無慈悲 (mujihi), which I used to describe them xD (it means "merciless").
After everything had finished we all went to 大須 (Ôsu), a kind of shopping district in Nagoya, taking more purikura, eating dinner and just playing around. I talked to the two students who are going to Germany most of the time, telling them about school, mindset, food, and a lot of other random things that came to my mind. From what I heard one thing they're already looking forward to is beer, and they almost shit their pants when I told them they might end up drinking every weekend depending on the friends they make xD (c'mon it's true isn't it).
That's one we took in Ôsu (the upper left 2 guys are the ones going to Germany). Oh by the way, take a look at Mami-senpai (a returnee) in the lower left corner. How old do you think she is? My best guess was around 24, and till now everyone I asked said the same, but she's actually a friggin' 3rd grader in high school (!!).After eating dinner at a Chinese restaurant we then returned home, and again there was no time left for that crap load of things I wanted to do on the weekend (Kanji training, HW, reading those Zelda mangas Hina-san lent me). Right now as I am typing my sleeping time is steadily sinking below 5 hours, so I'll just cut off here. Bye =)
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