Gods Bless Us, Everyone!

Guess what I'm doing?

I am sipping strawberry tea, snacking on my mother's homemade banana bread (world's best), and enjoying my shiny new iPod Nano. Christmas is usually on the 25th of December, but for me it's today because I got my winter box from my mom!

In addition to my winter clothing, she sent me my Christmas present (the iPod), a badly-needed computer game, a 4GB flash drive, and waaaaay too many baked goods. I asked for banana bread, and instead, she sent me the bread, a huge tin of peanut butter cookies and another giant tin of brownies. Why? I've no idea! But at least I have something tasty to share with my dormmates. Food shared with friends tastes better.

I used the promise of food to bribe one of my girlfriends to help me carry the box up the stairs (another good use for baked goods). She is trying to persuade her own mother to send her a package from America. Out of everyone in the dorm, I probably get the biggest boxes from home, but I know I'm not the only one that gets them. Packages from the home country are necessary for survival, especially if you're on medication. But when my friend asked her dad to mail her medicine from home, he said, "Can't you just go to Walgreens and get it there?" Uh, no!!

Not only are there no Walgreens here, but medicine is different in Japan. They of course have different brands, but more importantly, the strength of Japanese medicine is much less than Western medicine. It's also more expensive here. So when I had a cold in October, instead of going to the pharmacy and paying too much for weak medicine, I just weathered through it and had my mom ship an assortment of American meds for the rest of winter. Someone also told me that it's best to ship toothpaste from home as well; apparently, they don't put fluoride in Japanese toothpaste. I don't know if that's true, but I'm not taking any chances.

I also always have her include a jar of organic peanut butter and my favorite preserves. Not essential, I know, but we all have those comfort foods that we can't live without, and natural peanut butter is mine. Spread some on an apple slice with a sprinkling of cinnamon: it will become your favorite snack ever, promise!

On Tuesdays, I meet up with my Japanese conversation partner, Shoko, and some other girls for lunch at school. It's a great opportunity to chat with students my own age and improve my casual Japanese. We usually bring our own lunches, and today I brought a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich and a pear. Pretty normal American lunch, right? But Shoko had never heard of a pb&j sandwhich before! Her friend, who usually eats with us, knew what it was on sight, so together we explained what was in it and how popular it is in the US. Everyone was especially impressed that the ingrediants had been shipped over from the States by my mom ^^. They thought it was so strange and cute that I brought such a foreign lunch with me, they made me pose with the sandwhich and pear for pictures!

You may be wondering what they, the Japanese girls, bring for their lunch. Sometimes they buy premade salads, sandwiches (like egg salad), or onigiri (rice balls) from the University co-op. But they often bring homemade bento, their term for boxed lunch. It's usually half rice, some fish or cooked meat, and pickled vegetables. I've also seen them bring homemade salads. In contrast, I've brought homemade stew, steamed veggies, pb&j, but also onigiri and always a piece of fruit. When Mina came to visit, she bought me a bento bag with containers to take to school with me (shown here). She thought it would help me fit in better with my Japanese friends ^_^. She always encourages me to spend more time with natives.

I'm off to play with my iPod. Cheers!