Feelings are boring, perfectionism is awesome

So this morning I had my presentation, and it was epic. My sensei said she thought mine was the best in the class. And I got a perfect score. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. (Also, my host mom came, which was awesome.)

But seriously, everyone's presentations were really good. SO PROUD OF EVERYONE.

After presentations, we had meetings with our senseis to get feedback. And most of my feedback went something like this:

Sensei 1: Stop being such a perfectionist.

Me: Right. Sorry.

Sensei 2: It's impossible for humans to be perfect. I gave up years ago.

Me: But it's okay to try, right?

Sensei 1: NO. Stop being so critical of yourself.

Me: Right, yes, I understand. I'm sorry.

And then they said that I try really hard. YAY, SOMEONE NOTICED. Also:

Sensei 1: So anyway, you get an A in the class.

Me: Um, thank you, um... *bows awkwardly*

Sensei 1: And the only reason it's not an A+ is because we don't give A+s here, okay? So stop worrying.

Me: Um, okay, I wasn't...

And then I got a handout with detailed feedback, and mine went something like this:

AWESOME JOB. YOU WORK REALLY HARD. YOU SUCK AT SPEAKING CASUALLY.

Yay?

(It was actually more detailed than that. And not phrased quite so bluntly. But I do suck at speaking casually.)

After that we had to suffer, erm, sit through a presentation on reverse culture shock, and how when we come back to the US, no one will care about us and will think that our experiences in Japan were boring. And then we got to talk about our feeeeeeeeeeeeeeelings. And how we feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel about things. And whether we'll feeeeeeeeeeeeeeel the same when we come back to the US.

To quote Daily Dinosaur Comics:

(Actually, the second part doesn't really apply to this situation.)

So then I went home and danced all over the place.

Host mom: You're really...happy when you're not stressed.

Me: YES~~~~~ *dances all over the room*

Anyway, after that, I went out AGAIN to Gion Matsuri, which is a huuuuuuge festival that's taking up a million blocks in the middle of Kyoto. And it was awesome, if ridiculously crowded, and I ran into some of my classmates, so we ran around and spoke butchered Kansai dialect and marveled as someone was brave enough to try a ramen burger. (He said it was good, although I'm not entirely sure I believe him.)

And then I took the subway home, which was an experience in and of itself, because it was SO CROWDED. I thought I was going to be crushed to death. But I wasn't. Yay.

And then I got home and watched a random chunk of Howl's Moving Castle with my little host brother. Have I mentioned how much I love that movie? I love that movie so much.

In other news, my host mother is trying to convince me to marry a Japanese man. And so are some of my classmates. [cue flailing at the world]

Okay, I am suuuuuper tired, so I am going to go sleep now. I'm going back to Gion Matsuri for the parade tomorrow morning. And then we might be going to see the new Studio Ghibli movie. We'll either be going tomorrow or Sunday. WHOO.