My report this month, will be more of an update, than anything on the multitudes I`ve learned this month. It all started about 1 month ago, one night when my host parents went to an onsen. I had my own agenda, and went by bike, as usually to go get something I needed, to make a long story short, was hit by a car. The driver had been drinking, and I was crossing at one of the bike crossingways, while it was green. The car turned the corner and struck me in my side, I was unable to walk at first, but regained my balance and my feeling. I was taken to a large hospital, where the doctors, and emergency staff were not there, so they brought me to another hospital, and there the doctor took an X-ray of where I said it hurts me. The whole incident took me by surprise, and I didn't quite know what to do, except try to contact my host family, but they went to the onsen and couldn't be reached. To make an extremely long story short, I don't believe my first host family dealt with the situation rightly, and the idea here is to not go to the police over such menial things as running someone over. If I died, or I had been severely injured that is another case. That idea coming from my first host family. I was rejected a ride from the people in mention, and was forced to take the bike to school. This was two days after the accident. That day, when I came home, my host mother gave me about an hour and a half to pack up all my belongings, and my fourth host father came and picked me up, and brought me to his house for 2 weeks, where I did most of my recovering from my large black and blue spots and healed even more taking the street car those two weeks. Towards the end of my 2 week stay with my host family, I played a little joke on my host brother, which didn't turn out as I expected, and they got very mad at me. All was reconciled thereafter, and I had a meeting to discuss all my problems at a hotel cafe, it seemed, where my host president, district host counselor from Sapporo, Japanese teacher, fourth host father, 3rd host mother, etc, came and talked everything out in something like a ho'opono'pono. There after, that same day, I was scheduled for transition to my new host family. I am currently living in my new host family (second host family's) house, and going to school, in the snow, by bus. A 30 minute ride. Yesterday, I went to Sapporo were I went to a chocolate factory, and then to the hotel, for a going-away ceremony for the Aussies. It was heart-wrenching, but fun in the long run. After going to the Chocolate factory though, it soon went from sweet to bitter, when I soon lost my bag with around 500+ dollars of things, (i.e. my electronic dictionary, and my new MD player) along with some of my friends things, like her tickets back to her home in Hakodate, luckily she got a new ticket, and it home but me, my stuff still has yet to be found. So my experiences in the last month have brought me down a bit, along with a few other things, like a scheduled trip to Tokyo cancelled and my having found out that the Japanese culture regards life in a quite different way than I would have ever expected. No books have mentioned one thing of this, so it was quite of a shock for me. Aside from my experiences this past month like rotten apples, a was able to save a few along the way; like, I joined a fitness club, which I've been in for about 2 weeks, and I've started catching up close behind the other students after the past 4 months of intensive Japanese classes. I am concurrently taking almost all classes with the other students as well as Japanese classes, at school and at the youth center. I am able to read the texts with great trouble; but I can; and though, I can't respond as well, I can understand most of what's said, and say a great deal myself. Therefore, with the new year, comes renewed faith. As long as I have my health, my happiness is soon to follow! I wish everybody back home a happy New Year, and happy holidays!