Hello November! ☆

こんにちは！！

PICTURES IN THE NEXT ENTRY TOMORROW

So, I basically suck at this blog thing. I'm sorry, I have a looooot on my mind all the time, so I guess that's a good enough excuse haha.

A lot have happened and I will probably forget most of the things, but there's of course still SOME things that doesn't leave my mind haha. Especially that ONE embarrassing episode ..... Haha.

As you know, I had my Debate tournament on the 30th and 31st of October (why on Halloween, why God why?). But the weekend before the tournament, we went to an all boys school called Hokurei, in Sapporo, to have a practice match. This team was apparently super strong. So it would probably be good practice, but this team was also very sneaky - that's what we'd heard at least.
So we went to this school and had our match. There was this one cute guy on their team who kept looking at me haha, that was a little distracting. During the match they weren't half as strong as we thought, so we were 100% sure that they used a different speech not to give anything away before the tournament. We also used our old speech, but that wasn't that much different, but they were sneaky enough to look weak and listen to our speech before the tournament haha. After the game we all ate candy, drank some refreshments etc. it was nice - that guy was still looking at me, I was just about to go talk to him, but we had to go home, so yea, I would see him again at the tournament. 

After that I went with my friend to watch the Hunger Games, since the day of Halloween would be the last day that it would be in the theaters. It was super! I can't wait for the next one.

The two days of tournament were extremely long, well, they felt like they were. We went to the tournament in Jozankei, a little city next to Sapporo, on the 30th by school bus. The bus ride was about 70, 80 minutes and during that time we were completely nerve racks haha, I mean, we were just reading up on our data, but we also ate so much sugar that we got all hyped as well. I can tell you that big amounts of sugar and being all nervous isn't necessarily a good combination, we survived though. It was one hell of a bus ride, all the girls were laughing, singing, reading, sleeping and eating big amounts of candy - of course I was no exception. It was amazing haha. We then arrived at Jozankei hotel and the nerves started kicking in x10! I mean, we were facing SOME of our opponents, not all had arrived yet, but even the ones who were there was enough to almost scare my to death. Stage fright and a lot of people you KNOW you'll have to compete against, isn't a good mix. 
As we were waiting for the elevator, this guy from Emma's school, that I met at the tournament we won (his team was the second place, they were strong!) and who I've later talked to on Facebook and got to know, came up to me and said hi. He wished me luck and so on and I did the same. We both hoped to get a match against each other again, since it was really interesting and exciting the last time. He is super good and English - even though I speak Japanese with him - and I'm not going to lie, he's cute, haha.

Before the tournament started there was an opening ceremony, where the president or something of Debating in Hokkaido had to speak for us. He's the coach of the debate teams on Emma's school and he was the one we won over (they had won 3 years in a row, all the years the tournament had been running, we were the first to beat them - so we're pretty sure he doesn't like us the slightest), but this guy decided to make some sudden rule changes. He decided that only 4 people teams could compete - he knew we were a 6 person team - so we had to cut off our supporters, who really helped us before. BUT that's not all, no. This guy changed more rules. He said that you don't just go to the finals by winning this time, you have to get enough POINTS to get there. If your team beats a stronger team then you get more points, my team was an A team which meant we didn't have anyone higher than us to beat to get extra points, we would only get good points by beating other A teams - it also counted on most best debaters and 'communication' points. The last rule change was that you were able to win, lose and come in a tie this time.
The fun thing is, we called in advance and asked if we could compete with a 6 person team and at that time, of course we could. Come on man.

We then got the table telling us who we were going to have matches against and of course, this fucking guy who none of us can stand, made us ONLY compete against B teams, which meant that it would be legit impossible for us to get in the finals, no matter what we did - because we didn't get any freaking extra points. Come ooooon!! It was nowhere near close to being fair. We KNOW he doesn't like us, so these sudden rule changes etc. of course they're made to make us lose to him this time.

Oh well,
Then the tournament started and I was pumped - so was my team mates and we won one game after another - so it couldn't be any better. We won all our games this day. We kind of forgot about the whole point thing. After that we just went straight home and I had to rewrite our speech for the next day, since we got some new info and so on.

The next day, the final day of the tournament, we had two games and then it would be the finals. In the first game we won and the second we got tied. Which was NOT fair. It was our victory, because the other team didn't have an attack NOR a summary - I mean, if you don't have any of these then you can't freaking win!!! You can't get in a tie either, I don't get, it's just not fair. My teacher told me, that it's of course because of him, but also because they might think it's unfair to have a foreign person on the team. Come on man, I've been studying English as long as they have, it's not my fault that I'm fluent - it's not my first language either man. But also, one of the judges of this game didn't understand English AT ALL, so why he voted against us can be the whole foreign thing. One thing that also pissed me off a little was how the judges ALWAYS gave the teams that were against us tips on how to beat us after the game - right in front of us. We never got any tips though. All that unfairness and none of the Japanese people speaks up. I don't get it, but oh well - it was fun anyway.

Then the teams that would be in the finals got announced and sure enough, we didn't make it. We got the paper showing us our ranking, it wasn't bad, but we could see that it was mostly because we didn't beat any stronger teams that we didn't make it. That and the unfair tie. We had enough best debaters (I even won once!! Which doesn't happen for the constructive speaker often) + we had the highest communication points of ALL. Those points you get if you're trying to help the other team understand by explaining and you aren't rude etc. so yea. The unfairness sucked.

Then it was the time of the finals where my beautiful embarrassing moment also occurred.
During the finals the guy from Hokurei (his team won it all) kept looking at me, it was cute haha. I didn't even realize until my friend made me aware of the fact that he looked at me from the stage. While the judges was deciding who would win, there was a break and I sat down on my table - as I had been in all the other pauses - I talked with my friend and they told me that I'm so bad - it's a joke we have - and right when I confirm how bad I am by sitting on the tables etc. the table collapses with the loudest BANG ever. Everybody got silent and looked at me, who was sitting on the floor laughing my ass off, turning scarlet. I sat there for all in all 10min hiding my face and laughing so much that I actually started shaking. Everything fell off the table as well, at least my friends took it easy. They just laughed at and with me while I crawled back onto my chair. Damn it was embarrassing - but still, it's an amazing memory to have hahaha.

After the tournament, the day of Halloween, Misato and I met with Mikko and Miwa in Odori. We took purikura and went to '31' - which is what Baskin Robins is called in Japan - to eat some ice cream. There was over 10% off so there was so many people. It was wild seeing all these Japanese people who dressed up, because they do it good! Like legit. They are always amazing at dressing up.

Yesterday I went to Odori as well, I will go there tomorrow as well. So tomorrow you'll get an update on this weekend + pictures from these other days as well.

Well, thanks for reading aaaaand......

Take care !!