Katie Quail - NSW to Japan

Tue 05 Jan 2010

Katie Quail comes from Lane Cove, NSW and attends Roseville College. She is currently on a Summer Explorer program in Japan. She writes:

Hi SEA,

I thought I would just let you know that I have been having a great time in Japan the past month. The time has passed so quickly!! I can`t believe I am going back in a few weeks.

My host families have both been very nice. I am back with my first family now. I like doing stuff with my host sisters but right now my host sister has a part time job for the next few days so I don`t really have that much to do.

My time at school was great. I am on holidays now though for the rest of my time here. I met lots of new friends and tried out some of the clubs like band, basketball, calligraphy and tea ceremony. Everyone was really nice but the band was very strict and I have to admit a little scary. Not as scary as when I had to do a speech in Japanese in front of the whole school though!

While I was at school I had special Japanese lessons with another exchange student from Finland each week. We learned new vocab as well as lots of kanji. My Japanese has been improving a lot, but at first I found it quite confusing especially since everyone spoke in plain form which I was not used to.

The food is quite different but I like trying new things. My favourite dishes are tonkatsu and yakisoba. We eat a lot of seafood and rice, and my chopstick skills have definitely improved!

I have visited a few of the local sight seeing spots like Lake Shikotsu and the Salmon Aquarium, as well as going into Sapporo several times with friends to go shopping and stuff like that.

The weather is very cold and it snows a lot! I am glad I brought a lot of jackets and warm clothes with me! But inside it is heated a lot so it is not too bad. I enjoyed having my first white Christmas!

I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends back in Australia but I will definitely miss being in Japan. It has been such a great experience so far.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Katie

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