1st day of practice/1st pic of me from August 1st 2010 summer festival :D

 Today after yet another tiring day at school I had to stay behind and rehearse for the school musical. Every year I like to switch off from singing to playing my clarinet in the pit band and this was the year that I chose pit band. The musical right now is Hairspray and let me just tell you that no one wanted to be Tracey.  Practice I have to admit was crazy and the notes I have to play fly right off of the scales. Today too while I was walking a kid walks up to me and says "your the girl going to Japan right?" I shook my head yes and he's just like "ya right". People at my school tend not to believe in such a thing as "dreams" or "ambition" but I guess I'll just have to live with it. I haven't taken any recent Japanese online courses but I do practice with my friend Gilbert-san ever day. She may only have a rudimentary grasp on Japanese but shes still good practice. Everyone in my small town is preparing for the big snowstorm that's supposed to hit tomorrow. Were all guessing that schools going to be out on Wednesday, and if it is I'm heading over to my best friend Emily's house. Shes Chinese and her whole family treats me like I'm there daughter by teaching me Chinese, letting me stay for dinner every night, and just making me feel completely at home. I think it's funny that when ever Emily, my friend Molly, and I get together we all randomly go AYEESH like Koreans in Korean dramas do. I found out from my friend Sarah (who happens to be Korean) that it means crap. After finding that out I started saying it more often haha. I wanna quickly post a pick of me now before I got all crazy and dye my hair when I go to Taiwan. Omg I forgot to mention that Emily's family is kind enough to take me on a trip with them over the summer to Taipei in Taiwan. So as of right now I've been studying my Chinese as diligently as I study my Japanese. Well then....here!!! see u all next time! ありがとう！　こんばんわ！

1st day of preperation

Hello to anyone reading my blog, I would first like to say thanks for reading! I made this mostly to record my efforts to achieving my dream, and then record as I live out this dream. That is being an exchange student to Japan. I plan to leave March 2012 in the midst of my freshman year, but first I have to earn enough money to go. My mom is against it and won't pay a cent to help me go and I understand that since she doesn't want me far from home. So over the summer I have to work hard. Very hard. I will take part time jobs babysitting, working at farmers markets, and now I will be caddying which I hope pays very well. Something I also have to prepare for is learning the language of Japanese. So far I know all of the 1st basic alphabet which is called hiragana and know almost all of the 2nd alphabet which is katakana. The trouble I have is with Kanji which has thousands of characters. Today I was crying because I thought about how I would be away for a whole year. It would be the first time I don't spend Christmas, New Years, Easter, My Birthday ECT. with my mom. I know to some that may sound "lame" but since my dad passed away my mom is all I have and I'm all she has. This will be a truly emotionally trying experience I would have to say. Other than that though I'll probably talk about school. School for me is one heck of a ride that I definitely think people will find interesting, I also may post a few pictures that I've drawn before :p hmmm that's all I have to say for now....more to come tomorrow!!! ありがとう　ございます！！！ おやすみなさい！：D　P。S　わたし　わ　かのじょ　です　＜３　I'm a girl :]