It was a close friend's birthday recently.
She's an exchange student from Japan and probably one of my favourite people that I have met this year.
She's a bit reserved (but I say this with my Western European goggles on so take that with a pinch of salt), very polite and incredibly thoughtful. She also works hard and tries her best at things which I really respect.
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How did we meet?
I introduced myself to her briefly at the beginning of October at another Japanese student's birthday. I always remembered who she was (Saki, Hiroshima University, here for a year) but never really got the chance to speak to her properly after that.
However, she messaged me in January wondering if I would like to come over for some Japanese food.
Um. Yes please!
I hadn't realised but apparently she hadn't felt like she had fit in properly and had gone home to Japan for the Winter holidays. There her friends told her to keep it up and she decided to try harder. Hence inviting little old me for dinner. Along with two other students we spoke quite a while about the differences between international students and home ones. I realised that I thought most exchange students or international students kept to themselves mostly by choice when really, I had never properly made the effort to welcome or get to know them.
Thinking back, I wish I had made more of an effort to invite people out. Even for mundane things such as shopping at the market or going to the pub. If I was an exchange student I think I would be glad to be included in anything, even if it was just going to the post office.. And if I wasn't I would just politely refuse! Thanks to meeting Saki I was able to realise and think about quite a few things differently. She also encouraged me to use the university's resources more (free gym lessons, free bouldering lessons, surveys paid in pizza, free Swedish massages... who knew Sheffield University offered so much!)
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Anyway.
It was her birthday and we (Japanese exchange students and Japanese studies students) decided to surprise her! I invited her over as casually as possible for dinner but..
With my french timing I was running a liiiitle bit late and with her Japanese timing she came a liiitle bit early. So when she arrived we were still all in the middle of making sandwiches and sushi..
We tried to stall her as much as possible but by that time it was pretty obvious we were acting suspiciously.. (imagine three girls *casually* blocking the doorway with their arms)
It was really nice anyway. We ate our snacks and had some cake and gave her her gifts :)
Later we all became children again and spent quite a surprising amount of time playing with bubbles!
One year older and five younger?
咲ちゃん、誕生日おめでとう！
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