March 3
Last night was a fun night, for the most part. I went out with a group of friends for our friend, Megan's birthday. We went out to dinner at this little restaurant across the bridge from where I live. It's really close and we got SO MUCH FOOD for only 550yen (or like $5.50). It was beef and chicken on top of this weird spaghetti noodles, then some miso soup, and a PILE of rice...seriously for the amount of food we got, plus the fact that it was chicken AND beef...it probably should have cost at least double what it did. Sooooo freaking good too!!
Then after that we headed to some guy's house to just hang out a bit before going out for the night. He used to live in the seminar houses, but the Okaasan (=Mom in japanese, but more like the "house mom," you know?) was SUPER strict and psycho in his sem house...so he moved out and got his own place. It's pretty sweet...I wouldn't choose to live there, but if I had no other option, then sure. So yeah...we hung out there a while and had some drinks.
Then we all decided to go bowling by the station. It was soooo fun!! We started bowling around 1:30am and were done with two games in about 2 hours. It was well timed. Then, right next to the bowling lanes was a place where you can do karaoke. We were all kinda cranky because it was early in the morning and we'd been up all night, but we went anyways. It was kind of an ordeal trying to figure out how much it was going to cost exactly...but we worked it out and got our karaoke room. I think it would have been more fun for me if I was with more people that I was closer with and if it wasn't 4am when we were there. I think it was more about staying out all night than actually FULLY enjoying the karaoke by that point. You see, trains in Japan all stop around midnight...so no one could get home except those of us that live in the sem house. A bunch of the people I was with though live in homestays...so we had to stay out until at least 5:30ish, when the first train starts.
So after some semi-annoying, but still semi-fun karaoke, we all headed home. Lucy, Leah, and I walked back to the sem house just as the sun was rising. We decided to change into comfy clothes and go up to the roof to watch the sunrise. It wasn't that spectacular because it was so cloudy...but it was still fun to be up while it was become light out. Then we went to bed. Haha.
I slept until 2:30. It was awesome. And tonight, Drea, a homestay friend, is staying in the sem house because her host family is traveling somewhere this weekend. So we're going to have a slumber party in her bedroom! Yay! Also, Akiko and Ashley had sent me some brownie mix for Valentine's day, but since I don't have an oven here, I'm going to make them into brownie pancakes! Yess! Should be delicious!!
More to come later, folks!
March 12
Hey! I haven't written in a while...I'm doing much better than I was last week. Really.
Yesterday was Abby's birthday!! Happy birthday, my roomie!! At midnight here, it was still like 3:00pm on the 10th in Ireland, but I CALLED her anyways! According to me it was her birthday already, so yay! We talked for about 2 minutes because it costs me 15 yen per SECOND to call internationally...and her phone died. But it was so fun to hear her voice and just chat on her birthday!!!!!!!!!! Yay!
Hmm...anyways...Saturday I went to Kobe AGAIN! My favorite city of all time!!! I went with my friend Leah and her class. The fieldtrip part of it was stupid, but then we got to go around by ourselves at the end of the day. Here's some pics from the day...
When we first got there, there was a group of Japanese people giving out free hugs...how sweet!
This is me in Chinatown square...can you find me?? The pineapple may give me away....
Me and Leah...I look kinda goofy. She says I always look like I'm on crack in our pics...boo.
Now this was fabulous! We found a foreign food store and I got a diet Dr. Pepper! Leah got an A&W rootbeer. We were so happy...Then we went on the ferris wheel and ate Kobe beef!
This week is midterms...I'm not too worried, except for Japanese. All my other classes are such a joke...but Japanese is gonna be soo scary.....ick.
Oh well...I'll get through it. Plus I keep on forgetting that my classes really don't even count back at home...phew. How weird.
Well, I guess that's all for now. I'm all out of money at the moment (I need to go to the bank and change another travelers check) so I'm gonna skip lunch and just eat after I get home this afternoon. I've only got one class at 1:00 so I should be ok...but I might spend my last 111yen at the combini on something small to tide me over. We'll see!
March 13
Here's a sample of some late night seminar house 1 bonding...
Alex, me, and Leah...we're trying to teach Alex how to be goofy.
Check out that awesome hair...back to the 70s!
This is what we do instead of studying...notice the pen tangled in my hair...oh yeah.
Where did my head go?? And why does it look like there's a floating brain made up of Xavier's hair hovering over my nonexistant neck??
Photo booth is how I make friends. Yay!
Me and Drea at school.
This is me being a creepy stalker and taking pictures of people that walk behind me...hehehe...
Ok, well that's all for now. I was just bored and avoiding studying for my oral exam tomorrow.
Ooo tomorrow is White Day! I wonder if I'll get any chocolates from any boys....
Incase you don't know, White Day is connected with Valentine's Day here in the sense that on V-day girls give chocolates and stuff to boys...but boys don't do anything. Then one month later, March 14th, is when the boys give chocolate and stuff to the girls. Kinda weird...but it seems nice to spread the love again a month later. There should be a love day every month. Oh, and it's not just for couples and things...they give chocolates to friends and their bosses and stuff too. The bosses is what's funny. They have this idea of "obligation chocolate" called "choko" that is pretty much always assumed to be given to the boss. But all that is on Valentine's day anyways...so funny.
Ok...well I guess I need to buckle down and get some studying done...maybe after a short nap though...hmm....
March 15
I had my Japanese oral exam yesterday...it was......ok. I was doing great actually until she offered me fake cake and fake coffee with sugar in it...then I got thrown for a loop!!! Ahh! Later on I figured out what I should have said in that situation, but whatever. It's over. Then today I had my written exam. It was a synch (oo! I haven't used that word in a while!)...I know a couple of mistakes I made, but for the most part it was really easy. Yay! And now I'm DONE with all the real midtermy type things. Happy.
Now I think I'm gonna write some postcards...send those out...and hang around until my Buddhism class. We're watching a movie in that class right now about Zen that is in German with English subtitles but taking place in Japan. It's sweet. It really is a good film too.
The end. Postcard time!
March 16
What a fun night!
Watched Friends down in the lounge with the crew of Alex, Leah, Nico, Lauri, Daniel...and some other random kid. Good good times. Leah and I are working really hard to get Nico and Lauri to clap during the beginning credits. We're so close!
Haha...anyways...I'm still awake so I thought I'd write.
The end.
