lucanus cervus.

just a quick update. we're on a tight schedule and i almost can't find the time to write here. at least i've finally uploaded some pictures over at my picasa webalbum. so far it's only the pictures from osaka but i'll add the ones from tsu maybe this weekend.

the lessons at university are ok, the weather's still unbearable though and the permanent change between the hot/sticky outside and freezing cold inside of buildings/stores/restaurants is quite exhausting and i feel like i'm finally coming down with a sore throat.

the relationship to my host family is getting better day after day. yesterday we went to eat ramen at a restaurant (i had never eaten ramen and i didn't really like it either). on the way to the restaurant i made my first little joke everyone laughed about and also, the boy talked to my directly for the first time. also, i had quite a chat with my okâsan this morning at breakfast and this evening, her, the kids and me played some cute game on nintendo ds together. it sounds strange but it's those little things that make me feel better. i'm not much of a chatty person anyway and i still have to get used to the fact that they're so much different from my other host family.

in japan, they eat a LOT. i'm just happy that i started eating again properly a few weeks ago otherwise i couldn't keep up with all the food at all! all those side dishes and the sugar-filled drinks you get every few hours for 100¥ because of the heat and those tasty green tea chocolates and pocky they all already made me gain a few pounds! and i've only been here for a week!!!

which is why i especially like the fact that i'm going to university by bike. julian and me (since he is practically my neighbour we go there together) have to ride for about 20 minutes through rice fields every morning. tsu is quite a grim place, all grey and bleak, but those residential areas we ride through every morning are quite beautiful with old houses and those typical japanese blue roofs and pines in their gardens.

tomorrow we're going camping for three days in..."green park"?...or...whatever, where we have lessons and have to cook german dishes for our tandem partners amongst other things. we decided to make "schwäbischer kartoffelsalat&würstchen" and chocolate cake. i'm all on edge because i never made kartoffelsalat and cooking for over 20 people is difficult anyway. at least we're doing karaoke again in the evening.

yesterday i had my first real karaoke experience and it was so much fun. first i didn't dare singing alone and sang fun stuff like "barbie girl" by aqua with saskia but then i dared to got for it alone. they didn't have songs by tori amos so i mostly sang weird stuff like "it's oh so quiet" by björk, "wuthering heights" by kate bush (omg! ^^) but also "don't speak" by no doubt for example. also, isabella sang "supermassive black hole" by muse which was pretty cool! i can't get that song out of my head since.

by the way, hobbes found some new friends: belle & genie. i'll post a picture soon. well, that was more than just a quick update but now i've gotta go get some sleep.


ps: what's the deal with all those stag beetles here in japan? like they wanna piss me off on purpose or something, y'know? like it wasn't hard enough already...stupid.