Freezing

I REALLY forgot how cold it is in here.

;_;

At Scott's house we make it so toasty. If we're ever even a little bit cold there are blankets and heaters and cuddling right away. Here at school the air conditioning just blows on me and there's nothing I can do about it except try to wear lots of clothes and, if all else fails, jump into bed early and shiver to heat up my cocoon.

Oddly, the heat in the bathroom seems to function very well. Sometimes it's very nice to have a nice lengthy tooth-brushing experience. I guess it's not always like that though. At least earlier it was. I went through there on my way to dinner and it was very warm. Too bad they can't route some of that nice warmth into my room...

So I just spent all that time looking at acceptance materials for CIEE. I looked at some of the more interesting parts of the handbook and went through the majority of these modules they recommended for students thinking about homestays. THIS stuff is actually helpful. It's all really good cultural information and specific examples are used to illuminate the points they make. They quiz you and everything. This sort of thing makes much more sense to me than Cross Cultural Training.

Tomorrow I will have to print out a whole ton of stuff. For starters, all this new paperwork. Then I need to take a look at all the stuff I wrote over break and see if it still seems acceptable.

GOSH and I forgot. I will probably be finding out the results of my midterms on Tuesday. I'm a little nervous about that. I told Scott that. He says I'll be fine. You know, it's very interesting; most people WOULD say that. I mean, no one will tell someone who is worried that, "Yeah, sounds like you didn't study enough." That would be cruel. But have you noticed that from some people it means a lot more to hear those encouraging words? It means a lot when Scott reassures me. Not just because he's my boyfriend, but because I think he's a smart guy and I respect him. It makes me feel really good that he believes in me. I have a least a couple other friends who fall in this category as well. *sigh...happy* This is the kind of stuff I try to think about when I get bummed out by everything. Of course, it makes me just a big ball of raw human emotion, but it's sort of nice to feel that way. Frustrated, stressed out, but realizing there are people who care about you and people you care about and that things aren't so bad. It sounds really sappy and goofy, I guess, but it's really nice...

Really really nice...

I wonder what prompted all that.

I guess all this thinking about interpersonal relations with these homestay modules. Learning more about the the way the experience works, I'm a little intimidated. In English, I am perfectly capable (ok wait, I take that back completely. It's hard sometimes to know if you are behaving well or not...) of being very humble, polite, etc, but in Japanese it is very (read: even more) complicated. I'm also worried because, while the typical conversation style of Americans is considered direct, I feel like my way of communicating is doubly so. I guess I thought of this because I was telling Scott about it. If I have a problem, I will of course be very honest and as tactfully as possible, point it out and address it. I want honest feelings, straight communication, "heart to heart" or however you want to put it. This could turn into a huge problem in Japan. I'm going to have to come up with some strategies for...talking. *cry* And ok, while this is what I value and how I try to run things, it can often be very tough. Dealing with things the right way is hard enough in ENGLISH. One hardly knows whether one is coming across well or not. In Japanese, not only will it be in Japanese, but I won't even be able to use my American judgement of what the "right way" is. I don't even feel like I have our right way down and I will have to figure out theirs! This makes me very nervous, but I'm also excited, of course. Really, it sounds like I could have my hands full even without classes, just trying to really get into my homestay. In a way, it's like an extra subject.

Wow though, this was supposed to be just a complaint about the temperature and now I've gone and spent another half hour or whatever blogging.

It's 9 and I have math that I haven't looked at in over a week to do...

Brr.