Japan Exploration and Host Family!

So I took my Japanese placement test yesterday and... let's just say it'll be interesting to see what level I get placed at. Oh well. No matter where I get put, I'll stick get credit at Beloit College as if I were taking third-year Japanese. I'm actually kind of hoping I'll get put back in second year Japanese. I could use the review. And if I get put in first year Japanese (which would really suck), they reevaluate our placements a week into it and I can ask my sensei if I can move up a level.

Finally got word on my Japanese host family yesterday. I received a little profile sheet about them in my mailbox and they pretty much sound perfect. The only way they could be better would be if they had a dog! (They have a cat which is cool and everything, but I love dogs just a little bit more.) I'm going to have a host mom, dad, little brother and little sister. The sibs are in elementary school, which is a good age and hopefully they'll want to play with me and teach me some Japanese! The host family expects me to help them out with their English (particularly my host mom, bro and sis - I think otousan already knows English pretty well), but I'm a-okay with that since they're going to help me with Japanese!
And, here's the best part: they're only 10 minutes by bicycle from campus! That means no hour long commute by train for me! And even if they prove to be awful (which I doubt), I'll at least be able to escape them. Ha ha.
I'll be meeting them this weekend and moving in to their house, so I'm really excited. Hopefully everything goes well!

Last night I went exploring the local neighborhood with another girl from my dorm. We just sort of took random turns whenever we felt like it. It was really fun to just come across stuff out of nowhere like a Japanese Buddhist shrine in a random back alley and a traditional-looking archery school. The students there were practicing in traditional Japanese garb, so that was really cool to see. Then we stopped by the grocery store where I bought some more instant noodles to last me until I get to my host family and start getting home-cooked meals (I can't wait!). I also bought some green tea ice cream, which I haven't tried just yet and some bananas, which I'm going to eat for breakfast today. I also had my first successful all-spoken-Japanese interaction with the store clerk, which was a good boost to the self-confidence. My Japanese speaking skills are really lacking, but I can feel myself slowly starting to get more comfortable with attempting to speak in Japanese.

It'll be interesting to see how good my Japanese gets after doing homestay and living in Japan for 4 months!