Some frustrating things

I figure I have to include a post about the troubles/problems I've had so far, so as to keep some degree of objectivity here. So the main inconvenience so far has been the lack of internet at my house, coupled with my teacher's frequent decisions to have assignments due by email. For the first few weeks, not having internet access was ok - I could get whatever I needed done at HIF and then not have to worry about it the rest of the day. But for the last two weeks or so, we've been having graded email pen pal assignments. So he'd have us write drafts, bring them in for peer editing, and have the final copy mailed out that night. Or, in even worse cases, we'd email him the compositions by class time, he'd correct/email them back to us some time after class, and we'd correct/mail out the same day. For most people, this wasn't too much of a problem, because most of the host families have some form of internet access in their houses. But for me and a few other people, this has really been difficult - today (Saturday), for example - our speeches (for the annual speech contest) were corrected yesterday after school, and our next drafts are due today by 5. I had to take the train into Hokkaido and find a cafe that has free internet access. All in all, sending the one email took about... an hour of travel (and another one back). Granted, it's not too bad - I'm meeting Thanh and Juan Miguel to climb Mount Hakodate again. And Juan Miguel's going to try the ice cream challenge after that. So it's not horribly inconvenient. I just came in an hour and a half earlier than we have to meet.
Anyway, inconvenience number two: traveler's checks. These seemed like a great idea at the time we got them - can't be used if stolen, so little risk of having them around. Sounds really convenient, eh? False. Almost no places in Hakodate accept traveler's checks, so exchange is only possible at two places: the bank or the international hotel. The bank has a good exchange rate, but is only open weekdays from 9 to 3. Since HIF takes up most of my time between language and culture classes, getting to the bank (which is kind of far from HIF) is not feasible most days. The international hotel, on the other hand, is much closer, but is a complete ripoff (last I checked, exchange rate was in the low 80s per dollar) and is only available to hotel guests. So this last week, I've been pretty busy and haven't had the chance to get money from anywhere. Gah. Little frustrating. Mini rant. Sorry.

But that being said, these are really minor things - I hope it doesn't sound like these really matter. I'm living pretty low-cost, so I don't need to exchange that often anyway, and I've gotten my assignments in on time. It's really not that big of a deal, but I figure I should paint a somewhat fuller picture of my stay. Anyway, I've got to run and meet up with people for our mountain hike.