Well I had a good time this month, it wasn’t what I expected but nevertheless it was pretty nice. This month included my birthday, Christmas, and New Years Eve. The first part of the month wasn’t all that interesting so Im gonna fast_forward a little.

On my birthday, 12/19, not much happened really. In school at the beginning of the day we have a little period in our homeroom class for announcements. So they announced my birthday and a few people said happy birthday. But more people said happy belated birthday the day after. The whole day kind of had been a set up for disappointment. The night before both of my host_parents had to go to another town that was kinda far away, because my host mother had an appointment with a doctor there. The appointment wasn’t until the next day (my birthday), so the whole day was kinda lonely and a little hard. But things brightened up.

On Christmas Eve I went with my host_parents and my host_sister, who came home from collage that day, to church. We had to drive to a town about an hour or two away from our town.   The church was really small; the part that we held mass in was about the size of a classroom. But the people were nice and the service was good. It was just a little embarrassing, because the minister could speak really good English. So at communion after he said in Japanese "anyone is welcome to participate." He looked right at me and translated it into English and of course everyone else had to look my way. So I did join in communion.

Then on Christmas we went to a Rotary party at this nice Japanese style restaurant. So I was talking with everybody who I hadn’t seen for a while and they were all surprised at how good my Japanese had become. So then after we ate everyone was expected to give a speech. So when it was my host fathers turn to go, I just sat where I was. But then the man by the microphone said through the microphone "please come here."  In English!! It was Soooooo embarrassing. It was like I expect this from shopkeepers and people I don’t know, but not from Rotary. You people know that I am enrolled in a Japanese school, learning Japanese, and you have the audacity to speak to me in English as if I don’t know one word of Japanese. Oh, it was awful!

But I gave my speech in Japanese, which nobody was expecting. They all said "You can give it in English, anything’s OK." Except I hate giving speeches like that so I didn’t put that much effort forward. After I gave my speech I went and handed out some candy canes I brought (after all it was Christmas). Then I sat down next to an exchange student from Taiwan who was visiting Monbetsu from her University in Honshu, Japan. So she came over to me and the first thing she asked was "Can I speak with you in Japanese?" She said it in Japanese though so that was good. And of course I said yes and we had a nice conversation. In Taiwan it never snows so me and her got along real well.

After the party me and my host father went home. A few of my host parents church friends were there. So we held a little service and it was kinda fun. Then the day after my host_parents and sister when out somewhere, and when they came back they brought someone else with. Since he was about the same age as my host sister I thought it was a friend of hers that lived in Monbetsu. Imagine my surprise when they called for him and yelled "Jun". Which is the name of my host_brother. He was at college for Christmas and I guess decided to fly home the next day. Which was a big surprise for me because nobody told me he was coming back that day. He’s pretty cool. Also something I’ve been noticing is that my host_dad is basically a Japanese_version of Homer Simpson. He’s just so crazy/clueless sometimes. He’s really kinda funny though. Well I should stop here.

Bye Bye.

Patrick Sharas