Tadaima

I'm home!
And I miss you guys already.
And the humidity.

Ó mæ god, isshukan! And not one time that!
The clock ten minutes in six after week will be I up in the high airs somewhere for above Europe. God mine almighty.
In last week went we to Fukuoka. Chou tanoshikatta!! It was so good weather! It was very hot and the sun shone, and the sweat slid in strong currents down the chin and the back.
Ok I give up. It's too difficult to write like that. Back to proper English now. Yosh!
I don't really know what to say. Last two weeks or so have been really good, and the trip to Fukuoka was a great success (even when we had to walk for three hours around the city to find the club that we never even entered)(and even though I was stuck with three Norwegian guys known for their pessimistic (and/or) I-don't-care attitude [yes, all of you] during the time planned for shopping) (and even though me and Karsten were left behind by the rest of the group three times during those two days). It was awesome. It was so hot, and I loved it. I think I was the only one though. Oh, I am so going to miss the heat and the humidity here in Japan when I'm back in the 10°C of Iceland with its 100% dryness. X-(
I wonder if my speech has been affected by the nihongo. The fact that I speek eigo all the time here mus also have its effect on my mother tongue.
Tomorrow, I have kaiwa shiken. I should have taken it last kinyoubi, but my own teacher send me an email and told me to come at goji instead of around three. I hope I get lucky and it all goes well. Maybe I get to talk about aisurando ryouri.
Anyway, it is time for me to go to bed now. I hope you enjoyed my random writings. I just felt I had to post something today because today is Sunday and I leave Japan next Sunday.
Scary stuff.

Japanese Fashion

Yoga & Sencha & Dragon Pearls

Me no like rainy season.
After rainy season comes summer. To read on summer in Japan click here, I highly recommend it. It explains a lot :) It tells you what it was like when I came here last September, and what it is going to be like when I leave. And about Japanese fashion. "no shoulders, no waist, no armpits"
That link is my post this time, so you have to read it.
I got my first mosquito bite last night. My wrist itches.

On Festivals and Aircons

Kinou was the World Festival. It was absolutely tanoshikatta! I didn't expect it to be, but I had a great time! The World Festival is a festival that APHouse holds every year, where each floor of the two dormitory houses has a performance, cooks food, or hosts some kind of event. Suz's floor made green curry, the Jojis' floor made spicy shrimps, Mylène's floor danced, Morten's all guys floor dressed up as girls and danced, Nika and Yogie's floor held a wedding ceremony!! One of the floors made a short movie about the ghosts at APHouse (there are a few, and I have heard that they are the reason for why there is no mirror in one of the elevators. The story goes that late at night, when you were alone in the elevator, you could see a girl in the mirror. As if elevators aren't scary enough as they are, closing you inside this tiny box, moving you up and down and you never really know where you are in the building... Anyway, the they had to get a shinto priest to come and exorcise the ghost with some paper strings on a stick. And they removed the mirror to be on the safe side.) My floor offered people to win prizes by bowling, using a volley ball and water bottles. The girls used an inflatable beach ball and got smaller bottles with less water in them. I had nothing to do with that decision. I find it offensive to all girls who do sports, and most others as well. But then again, when I think of the Asian girls, they are too sweet to bowl with force. :-O It's strange but it's true. (that is what I mean when I say that people (me) get more racist by going on an an exchange programme like this) So it is for them. It was girls who made the decision by the way (along with the boys).
By the end of the festival, prizes were handed out to the floors that ranked 1st, 2nd and 3rd in each of the three categories; food, performance, and event. And guess what, my floor, R3, won the number 1 prize for the best event! :D We got 3000 yen to use int Tokiwa, the department store, and a shopping bag full of snack and candy! :D :D
I wonder what happened to that bag...
After the festival, people who were in party mood went down to par-tey! I somehow convinced Nika at the last moment to skip her kitchen duty and come with me to dance. She used her immense powers of persuasion to find someone to clean the whole communal kitchen in her place, changed into shorts and net stockings, and we ran out to catch the last blue bus at 22:32 from campus. We went to a place where we had to pay a thousand yen to get into the tiny, extremely loud and non-airconditioned smoky little thing that played bad music, called Roots, a favorite of APU students. I found out that the music didn't really matter when I was in a mood for dancing. you just wave your hands up in the air when everybody else does, and jump jump jump when the DJ shouts "Jump! Jump! Jump!"
And then you go outside after an hour because a room this small, with that many people, way too many of whom are smoking, just makes you call for fresh air. And my ears were numb from the noise. But it was fun. And the day after, I slept the whole day, was awake half the night, and fell asleep, just in time to miss my first class. And I kindof feel like the day before yesterday was yesterday. I mean, that yesterday was the day before yesterday. I mean.... ah, I feel like yesterday was the day with all the fun!

Oh, but I cannot forget the greatest news of all! We have got the aircon! They turned the aircon on! Hurray!! We've been waiting for that. In APU, as in all of Japan, they like to preserve energy, recycle trash, and save money (and children). One of the great ideas to save energy is to only have the airconditioner available to APHouse residents during certain periods of time, so that we do not overuse them. What that means, is that after I came here, sometime in October, when the heat was still waaaay above 20, (and never got so low as 20), they turned the aircon off, so we could not cool ourselves down in our own rooms. Then the weather got cooler and bearable. And then the weather got cooler and cold. And then we were shivering in our rooms, because winter had arrived, and the temperature was only about 14 degrees, which is fine outside, but inside the house, it feels like freezing! We didn't get the aircon/heater turned on until sometime in November, if I remember correctly.
When spring came, we went through the whole thing again. One day, the aircon was turned off. They had even put up signs that said that they were going to turn it off, and that we should "enjoy the heater while you can". Bastards. And everyone was freezing again. Then the weather got better. Then it got hotter. Lately, we have had about 25 degrees every day, and for some people, who's rooms face a certain direction, the sun shines into their rooms all day long, and they have had no way of cooling them down. I don't know how they could sleep in there. We could all hear them complain, and I once visited one of those rooms. All I can say is that I am glad that my window doesn't face the sun. Yet I keep my window wide open almost all the time.
Windows in Japan are different from windows in Iceland. They're bigger. They are much much bigger. 131x85 is the part you can open. Two people can easily go through it side by side (on the first floor, hopefully).
But of course on the day they turned the aircon on, it was rainy and cold. Cold meaning anything below 20 degrees, in this case, 17. I am pretty sure it is the coldest day we've had for over a month.
Oh, and before I forget, the 40 points I talked about in my post before last, it was out of 40! ;) I got a 100% score on the midterm! But since then, the term has ended and I have written a final report/exam for the same course, and I think I did well on that one as well, but I won't know for a fact until September. September is when I get all my grades and my credits for this semester. This semester is divided into two terms calles Quarters, and the courses are quarter based. That is why I have taken final exams, but am still in school. The first week just finished. This quarter, I am taking Intermediate Japanese, Introduction to Programming, and Urban and Rural Studies in the Asia Pacific. I am thinking of attending Progler's Peoples and Religions of the Asia Pacific as well, even though I couldn't register for it. The topic is interesting and the teacher is great. And even though all the seats are taken, half of the students don't show up, so I can easily find a seat anyway.
I also finally joined the Tea Ceremony circle. And my Japanese teacher said to me "you are pretty good at Japanese, aren't you?" to which I couldn't really reply, because that came eins og skrattinn úr sauðaleggnum. How could she possibly think that when I have failed more than half of the chapter quizzes? Then I realized it might have something to do with the fact that I got over 90% correct on the reading part of the midterm, and I got a 100% on the listening part. On the other hand, my grammar and kanji was not so good. But now my teacher thinks I can understand Japanese. I do know a lot more Japanese now than when I first entered her class, svo ég tali nú ekki um síðan ég kom til Japans en fyrr má nú aldeilis vera. I'm still only getting barely 70% on the chapter quizzes. I have one tomorrow, and I'm not sure I'll even get that much. We'll see.
I want to go to the yoga class, but it will only be twice a week for me +weekends, if I feel like it, and I have to buy a yoga mat. Is it worth it, for such a short time?

I'm really short on time.

Um ellefuleytið

Tveir mánuðir og tveir dagar.

Too Much to Say, Too Little Patience to Write

Solveig has a tan.
Solveig, stúlkan sem stafar nafið sitt rétt!
Solveig recently realized you don't always have to wear socks.
Solveig got a 40 on her mid term on Cultural Anthropology, but doesn't know out of how many.
Solveig is skipping class a lot.
Solveig is still a good girl.
Solveig saknar skyrs.
Solveig saknar Heklu.
Solveig doesn't want to go home.
Solveig is so not going to miss APU.
Solveig is watching This is My Life, the Icelandic song for Eurovision.
Solveig goes to a school where the teachers say "shut up" to students.
Solveig goes to a school where where office ladies sleep with students.
Solveig goes to a school where they hang up giant posters with sculls on them to warn students not to drink alcohol.
Solveig's direct quote from the Student Office: "All students at APU are expected to be very careful not to have an easygoing feeling"
Solveig goes to a school where the teachers tell students to download books and movies using torrents if they can't find them in libraries or stores.
Solveig veit ekki hver Yann Tiersen er.
Solveig and friends were asked to leave the bar where we were celebrating birthdays, half an hour after the all-you-can-eat-and-drink finished. At 23:30 on a Saturday night.
Solveig and friends say sentences like "Let's meet at the eki, and don't forget your obento!"
Solveig is writing lots of statuses (is that a word?), as if she were on Facebook.
Solveig will be returning home in less than three months.
Solveig hates APU with passion.
Solveig had creamy chocolate today.
Solveig went to cheer for the Ritsumeikan team in college sumo and watched them loose almost every single match.
Solveig's room is messy.
Solveig loves the sun.
Solveig is doing very well in Cultural Anthropology and in Japanese Culture.
Solveig can spy on the smokers, gyehehehe. (That was an evil chuckle.)
Solveig has many good friends.
Solveig has written her name so often now that she feels like she's being narcissistic.
Solveig and friends say sentences like "Can I have one of those please? Kore mo. Hai, thank you arigatou gozaimashita! EEH?! Okane ga nai! Can you lend me some?"
Solveig believes "Hnefill" must be a hard name to pronounce for foreigners.
Solveig knows so many French speaking people, but only speaks English.
Solveig has to pay 208,000 yen for the ticket home.
Solveig has to pay 148.200 krónur til að komast heim.
Solveig has to pay 2.071,57 francs pour son billet pour rentrer à la maison.