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Saturday 1 March 2014

The week which I couldn't think of a title for

So this week has been a mixture of great and sick. (Not the popular colloquial term: "Sick!" which means something along the lines of "cool." No I'm talking literally sick. I'm ill as.)

Sunday was D-day for my speech. I was as nervous as anything on my way to that big hotel. I don't know how or why I get so nervous, I was shaking so bad I couldn't eat my lunch. The fact that I had a large breakfast didn't help that either. I delivered my speech and it all went well! I could relax through the rest of the day. Said day was just a big meeting in which nothing too exciting occurred; I even saw some of the Rotarians sleeping through the conference!
There's only one way to go about a serious photo.
We did good.
So Monday was a blur of many things. Mainly: wake up early, train to school, sleep, Japanese study, sleep, sleep. After that I slept. My cold has been reduced from a regular cold to a plain sore throat, it is quite irritating. Quite the eventful day. (But the fact that nothing happened doesn't mean it was boring. I still love it all here.) I better rant on some more about the food! I still can't get over how amazing the lunches are! Back home, I had sandwiches everyday (Nothing against them, Mum makes the best sammies) so they get to be a bit of a bore. But here, everyday is like a full meal and it's always different from the previous day.
Monday's noon meal.
There is a bunch of stuff there and I don't know what much of it is but I eat it anyway.
And yes, it was absolutely delicious.

The events of Monday were nothing in comparison with Tuesday's adventure.

I woke up with a really sore throat and I was in half a coma as I ate breakfast so Rieko said I should probably take a day off. I was all for this idea so I went back to bed and only woke up for dinner time.

Wednesday was magic. I woke up after the best sleep, at 5:45 am and took the dogs for a walk. This was quite nice, I woke up and got a good dose of fresh air; I felt it was going to be a good day. I had lost that zombie-ish feel from yesterday and I had all this energy! Breakfast was great! On top of the great start, it was a hot day. Something like 8 degrees, a real scorcher! I got to school and still had all this energy, I didn't even sleep in form period! 1st period was art in which I finally finished my painting, this was the highlight of the morning so far! After art I went over to calligraphy where I finished a writing piece, this became the highlight of the morning because I've been working away at this thing for a while now.
My finished thing from calligraphy.
It says: 幸せは自分が決めること (Shiawase wa jibun ga kimerukoto)
It means: To be happy is your own decision
After calligraphy I had a Japanese lesson in which everything went just fine. P.E. followed after that and what a good period it was. We went outside in the sweltering heat for a game of soccer. For those that don't know, I'm about as good as legless when it comes to soccer but on this day I wasn't so bad. I even scored a goal! I couldn't believe it! The new highlight of the day! After the game we had lunch. [Obligatory food praise here]
Need I say more?
I am taking these new pills for my throat and my lack of knowledge in the area of Japanese medical jargon restricted me from being able to read the side effects of these pills but they became pretty obvious as I was suddenly sapped of all energy and I just about fell asleep on my feet in chemistry as we watched some transparent liquid change colours or something. I don't really remember what happened!

A short power nap (short power nap is used very loosely here; I turned off for the better part of an hour.) in 6th period gave me some more energy for kendo practice. I was expecting another standard session of failure as was the case last week but today was not so. I got to training and everything made sense! I understood what I was being told and I didn't even muck up the patterns! I was so stoked!

What does kendo actually look like? I took a few photos that will hopefully shed some light on what it's like to be doing it.
Apologies for the dumb face
It's hard to do anything in this thing
So this is the helmet, it is vital in stopping the bamboo sword from mashing my head. It looks kinda cool but it certainly does not feel cool. The neck guard makes it impossible to look down. How is this inconvenient? Say, for example, my feet are all cut up and bleeding, I need to bend at all kinds of angles to get a decent look at my feet. Not only can you not look down, you lose all peripheral vision. The helmet is so tight that it not only covers your ears but also makes it incredibly difficult to hear anything quieter than a scream.
When I first put this on I was like: "I'm not having a bar of this"
 The glorious view from inside. Imagine the above photo but a bit more close up. It still hurts when you get smacked in the head but I'm very grateful for the little protection because when you angle your head right, the sword hits the metal rim of the face guard. When angled wrong, it's just like getting smacked on the head with a bamboo sword. 

That night I taped up my feet as I always do now in preparation for the next day. Little did I know, I had accidentally set an odd alarm. I will get to this in a moment. (Oddly, I stay up later, taping my feet so I can sleep for longer in the morning. I'm still learning this "logic" thing.)

So I was having this really vivid dream, one of those ones where you can hear and see everything as if it were real life. In this particular dream something was wrong with my right foot's big toe. It was like it was on fire! Couldn't shake this feeling of severe pain no matter what I did. In this dream I rolled over in my bed and checked my iPod for the time. Oh, I'm actually awake. It was something like 1:30 am. I'm awake and my toe still hurt. Nothing made any sense to me because I was in a zombie state.

I turned on the light and looked at my toe; it was taped up, just like it was before I went to sleep. I don't know why but I put a pair of scissors beside my bed earlier and I am grateful I did that. I cut off the bandages and it become pretty obvious what was up. My toe was whiter than the snow that had fallen earlier and I couldn't move it whatsoever. Woops. I tried to go back to sleep but the annoying sensation of blood rushing back to my toe kept me awake for quite a while. 

I must of had to much of a good time on Wednesday because Thursday was a huge downgrade.
Semi-unrelated picture: School computers.
Japan is the leading country in world when it comes to robotics.
This still confuses me.

I got up at 5:45 am for the routine dog walk but that was the problem. "5:45 am, dogs, walk" I managed to complete the task and all was fine. I scoffed breakfast and had my pills. School was going fine until I looked at the sheet of paper infront of me. I had four hands and the one piece of paper had duplicated itself and I was seeing double. Better have a nap I thought. This was pretty much the plan for the day. 

Kendo was good but not as good as the previous day's. I had perked up enough to give a decent effort at karate which brang my mood up quite a bit. I got home and went to bed. I was still in a state of exhaustion.

Friday was a repeat of Tuesday; A good days sleep had me back to healthy again. We got some new pills at the doctors. Let's hope that these don't have such adverse side effects!

Saturday was odd. We had to go to school for the graduation ceremony. (The final year students are leaving) This ceremony, whilst interesting, took a very long time and consisted of many speeches. Very long speeches. I slept through a bunch of them. After it all I went home and biked to the barber shop. I got my head shaved and now here I am.

It's been an odd week.

The usual: Comments, questions, criticisms and what not; welcome!

Until next time!
Still smiling!

1 comment:

  1. Hope you are feeling better now Brennan, the food looks great, just like our days in China, as for your nice warm day of 8 degrees, you can keep it. Today is cold and windy and 13 degrees. Have you a mailing address for you next move later this month !! Love your grand parents

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