Amanda has been really really bad at updating the blog this semester. Super bad. This is not because I've been having no fun and therefore nothing to report, actually I've been too busy with adventures (whether good, bad or exciting, it's a mix) to update since I get to sit in my off time with my friends here on the couch instead of being locked away on the third floor at 7pm with nothing else to do but kill time until I could leave for school in the morning. So this semester has been much much better, one for the obvious reason that I'm still here and didn't have to leave again (woo hoo!) and that everything else is great. I have more friends, more freedom, more comfortable futons, etc. etc. :)
As for what I've been up to, I just finished escorting my Mom and James around Japan (we hit Osaka, Hirakata (city I live in), Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, and Miyajima), then I turned around and over the weekend said good bye to Alex (boyfriend!! erm, I mean yeah that guy I'm dating (!!)) because he's in China on his vacation for a week, and then I also had to plan Erica's birthday fun for this Wednesday. All of this is on top of the normal stress of papers, submitting my stuff to Williams Mystic, quizzes, tests, lectures on pet cemeteries, and general chaos. Needless to say I got it all done and I'm closing in on the May 1 deadline for all the Mystic stuff. The folks doing the admissions thing are being very nice and understanding (and I hope) kind of impressed that I'm doing this from Japan.
The boring school stuff is that I can't be late to class anymore because I've been late almost everyday this semester (usually only by like 3-5 minutes and if you know me or work with me you know this is pretty damn good for me) for my Japanese class so now I get up 2-2 1/2 hours early to get to class. I've been good for a week now! I've got to read up on the legal system in China for my law class (which is making me more and more nervous that Alex is there the more I read, not a good thing.), get ready for a role play in my history class of Perry entering Japan, doing a paper for that class on Wako (Japanese medieval pirates) and a paper on Yuurei (Japanese ghost/spirits). Next week is Golden Week, which is normally a week off for the Japanese, but we only have two days of class (Tuesday and Wednesday) so aside from bugging Alex about his trip (he gets back Tuesday) I'll be doing day trips around the Kansai area and hopefully getting some papers out of the way.
I normally don't get to do posts because I'm distracted at home and I want to update everything and start where I left off, which is hard when you have a billion things going on and you stopped updating a few months ago. So I'm going to try to bring you up to speed as best I can. Erica turned 23 this year and has the "aging syndrome" that Tessa has where they both freak out at getting older and normally end up a drunk ball of tears. Erica didn't want anyone to know when her birthday was and it was going to stay that way but I somehow figured it out and committed it to memory months ago last semester and have since tortured her with that fact. Luckily I told a few people a week or so in advance and we got a plan together: we were going to get a few people together, give her a roll out piano and a rirakkuma video game (it's the relax bear that's friends with Hello Kitty and you make hot cakes (pan cakes) in it), and get her drunk.
It was a success on all levels, although word got out and WAY too many people knew about her birthday than she would've liked. Also we had to face the problem that she's vegan and we lucked out on finding an ice cream cake in Japan, but a vegan cake was pushing it. Instead I MacGyver-ed up a "cake" with Tracey's help. I took a bunch of birthday candles, melted them onto a Jack Daniel's bottle and then surrounded that by open bars of black chocolate on a plate. It was awesome and made Erica very happy.
After presents and cake we went over to Daddy's Shoes (the local bar that's a block from our dorm) and proceeded to drink fairly late into the night. Most friends made appearances and even poor sick Maura was a trooper and hung out. Tracey and I both had exams the next day but I got to be around 3am and Tracey at 5am. Luckily I saw this coming so I got up early and had been studying not only at the bar (lol) but a few days prior too. The best part of the night, for me at least, was our RA Misato getting really drunk and wandering around the bar "helping" people study Japanese. At one point I turned to her and said, "Daijyobu Misato-chan? Yopparai desu ne!" (Are you okay Misato? You're drunk!) to which she turned and said, "Amanda, that was perfect Japanese. ... I hate you." Everyone cheered at the last part because slowly but surely I've made her more and more gaijin.
Well more later when I can get my stuff together!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Friday, March 16, 2007
Going to Tokyo
I'm running late for the night bus that leaves at midnight and takes 8 hours to get to Tokyo! I'll be in Tokyo until next Friday.
So I'm sorry I haven't posted, I just finished midterms and now I'm off.
Take care guys I promise more later!!
PS Hali if you could get my a tshirt that'd be awesome.
Email me if you want anything from Tokyo.
So I'm sorry I haven't posted, I just finished midterms and now I'm off.
Take care guys I promise more later!!
PS Hali if you could get my a tshirt that'd be awesome.
Email me if you want anything from Tokyo.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Part 1 of probably 3: The Whole Alex Thing
I'm going to do a bunch of little posts today in the hopes of updating everyone, but killing them by doing on LONG post.
I officially have a boyfriend. This is Alex (above) and as you can see he lets me give him hell and I'm super happy. As to how I ended up meeting him, he doesn't go to Kansai Gaidai, but is really close friends with Erica, who was my first and I guess longest friend here in Japan. They're both from RI and because of that I've gotten a lot of grief for going half way around the world, rooming with a girl and now dating a guy from a state next to mine. They both went to (or in Erica's case still going to) University of RI and he ended up with a degree in English. He doesn't go to Kansai (the whole graduated thing) but he's here working for NOVA an English teaching school based in Osaka. He works most days until 10:40pm, which is crappy for dating, but his "weekend" Monday and Tuesday so we work around it. We actually met before this semester, ironically on Halloween, the first night Pat and I had a huge fight, so Erica took me out to Daddy's (local bar) and Alex came into Hirakata to hang with our group for Halloween because nothing was going on in Osaka. We hung out that night and after the first five minutes I made a Final Fantasy VII reference and we got a long really well. Later when I left he came to my birthday party and talking with me through AIM the whole time I was home.
Apparently he liked me the first night he met me and was bummed that I was engaged, but also everyone else (Erica, Tracey, Nadia, Maria, Kim, Drew) thought we hit it off really well and were convinced we'd get together. Kim and Nadia thought this to the point where when they left and knew I was coming back that they asked the others to "keep them updated" on the Alex/Amanda front. I on the other hand had NO CLUE what was going on. Well, when I did get back to Japan Erica and I hung out with Alex one of our first nights back, in Osaka, where he asked me out. Now, please note I said yes to a few dates because he's a really great guy and I liked him, but I honestly didn't want a boyfriend even though I'd been single for three months. We went on a bunch of really corny nice dates (we went on a Ferris wheel to give you and idea of cheesy), but in my defense I hadn't dated since I was 15 so I was totally psyched. After a few weeks I decided I would like to make it official so we're boyfriend girlfriend now. I have no idea how normal people do this relationship wise, but I'm very happy.
He's an awesome guy and I'd like to show exhibit B:
Here he looks kinda grumpy because Erica took a million pictures of us that night, but I want you to look at me. I'm smiling. Like seriously "I'm so freaking happy" smiling, which I haven't done in what feels like forever. Sure I've smiled in the past few months but here you can see how freaking happy I am. He's so sweet and if I had to compare his personality he's like a combination of Dan (my old roommate) and O'Neil. He makes me laugh, he's nice and he cleans up pretty good for work. :)
I'll stop now, but I figured I needed to update everyone else who hadn't heard through the grape vine that I have a boyfriend. :3 Okay I promise more posts later on Japan happenings!
I officially have a boyfriend. This is Alex (above) and as you can see he lets me give him hell and I'm super happy. As to how I ended up meeting him, he doesn't go to Kansai Gaidai, but is really close friends with Erica, who was my first and I guess longest friend here in Japan. They're both from RI and because of that I've gotten a lot of grief for going half way around the world, rooming with a girl and now dating a guy from a state next to mine. They both went to (or in Erica's case still going to) University of RI and he ended up with a degree in English. He doesn't go to Kansai (the whole graduated thing) but he's here working for NOVA an English teaching school based in Osaka. He works most days until 10:40pm, which is crappy for dating, but his "weekend" Monday and Tuesday so we work around it. We actually met before this semester, ironically on Halloween, the first night Pat and I had a huge fight, so Erica took me out to Daddy's (local bar) and Alex came into Hirakata to hang with our group for Halloween because nothing was going on in Osaka. We hung out that night and after the first five minutes I made a Final Fantasy VII reference and we got a long really well. Later when I left he came to my birthday party and talking with me through AIM the whole time I was home.
Apparently he liked me the first night he met me and was bummed that I was engaged, but also everyone else (Erica, Tracey, Nadia, Maria, Kim, Drew) thought we hit it off really well and were convinced we'd get together. Kim and Nadia thought this to the point where when they left and knew I was coming back that they asked the others to "keep them updated" on the Alex/Amanda front. I on the other hand had NO CLUE what was going on. Well, when I did get back to Japan Erica and I hung out with Alex one of our first nights back, in Osaka, where he asked me out. Now, please note I said yes to a few dates because he's a really great guy and I liked him, but I honestly didn't want a boyfriend even though I'd been single for three months. We went on a bunch of really corny nice dates (we went on a Ferris wheel to give you and idea of cheesy), but in my defense I hadn't dated since I was 15 so I was totally psyched. After a few weeks I decided I would like to make it official so we're boyfriend girlfriend now. I have no idea how normal people do this relationship wise, but I'm very happy.
He's an awesome guy and I'd like to show exhibit B:
Here he looks kinda grumpy because Erica took a million pictures of us that night, but I want you to look at me. I'm smiling. Like seriously "I'm so freaking happy" smiling, which I haven't done in what feels like forever. Sure I've smiled in the past few months but here you can see how freaking happy I am. He's so sweet and if I had to compare his personality he's like a combination of Dan (my old roommate) and O'Neil. He makes me laugh, he's nice and he cleans up pretty good for work. :)
I'll stop now, but I figured I needed to update everyone else who hadn't heard through the grape vine that I have a boyfriend. :3 Okay I promise more posts later on Japan happenings!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Happy Valentine's Day
Hey Guys! Time to let you all in on the magic world of Manda's Japanese Valentine's Day! You see Valentine's Day is celebrated in Japan, but since this is Japan they can't make things simple so get ready for some confusion. Valentine's Day is today (Feb. 14) and if you're a girl and have a crush on a guy you go ahead and give him some chocolate. Not chocolate or sweets you buy in the store mind you, oh no chocolates you make. At Kiddyland (also known as the place with Hello Kitty stuff galore or where Manda spends most of her time and money) they sell little kits with pans, cake mix, frosting mix, etc. to make these things at home. Another important note is that Japanese kitchens do NOT include an oven. They have a toaster, toaster oven, a fish cooker and microwave, but nothing like an oven. So these little kits are for little cakes for toaster ovens, which takes me way back to my easy-bake oven days. Anyway once the said girl makes and gives her cakes/sweets to her crush the story doesn't stop there. Oh no, a month and a day later on March 15 is White Day. White Day is the day that if the boy likes the girl he gives her a gift of sweets in return.
This is how it's supposed to work, but there's variations on this and basically Valentine's day is just like it is at home with friends giving friends gifts, people going on dates and the rest of us sitting on the couch watching Walker Texas Ranger reruns on the superdrama channel at the dorm (it's the only English channel aside from CNN). What's funny is that you're supposed to give back to the person who got you something on Valentine's Day three times the amount when you give them something on White Day. This means that some people decide to give gifts on Valentine's Day for the sole purpose of getting more candy on White Day. There was only one example of this time, which was this crazy Japanese girl named Mayumi. She sat on our couch and asked us frank questions, such as turning to Drew and asking her if she's a lesbian. Then asking her again later and the next day. Drew is totally not a lesbian, but she can't live this down. It's too funny. Anyway, she was on the prowl trying to give out as much candy as she could so she could get more on White Day (she explained this to Tracey, that's how we know her true motivation) This lead to a game of cat and mouse on campus of Erica and I trying to avoid her for fear of getting caught and being forced to give candy on White Day just because she wanted us to, not because we wanted to. Thankfully it was 5:30pm and we were done with all our classes when we went down to the foreign students' mailboxes when low and behold Mayumi was waiting. Thankfully for me she didn't remember my name and didn't have a gift for me, but Erica wasn't so lucky. The other twist here is that Erica got candy from her Teachers all day but being vegan she can't any of the chocolate if it isn't black because of the milk. Drew reaped the benefits of being with her off and on today and getting to eat all her candy.
How did I spend my Valentine's Day? Pretty tired, I was up late on Valentine's Day Eve because I all of a sudden had some sort of maternal instinct kick in. I biked to Hirakata-shi to save the 440yen in bus fare and I figured I needed the exercise. Once downtown I got supplies to make a cake for Alex and some little Tiramisus for the girls, yarn for Drew's present, and to drop off my registration for my alien card. On the way back I stopped at a market that was selling vegetables super cheap. I'd bought some curry packets before except I didn't have the veggies you need to make curry for curry rice (You make curry like a stew and put it over some white rice, I loved it at home stay). This market was selling most vegetables for 100yen a piece or so I thought. I tried to pick out two carrots when they explained it was 100yen a basket for the carrots! Everything looked fresh and in the end tasted wonderful. I was able to get 1/3 a daikon (HUGE white radish), a head of lettuce, three carrots and 9 small potatoes for 380yen (like $3.50). It was awesome and cheap since I only had 1000 yen on me! :) I got home exhausted and cooked up two pots of the two different types of curry, sweet and medium. I had to read the instructions and realized once I got home that I'd misread the ingredients already. I didn't need the daikon or lettuce, but I needed onions. ;___; I totally screwed up and was worried I couldn't make it up without the onions and I knew the closest store was closed (it closes at like 6, it was 6:30pm) and plus I was tired. While I was debating on my mishap my Dutch roommate Myrthe was around and after hearing my problem gave me two small onions which worked perfectly! I was making two pots since I didn't know how to make small portions and so I was making it for the whole flat and so Myrthe got an extra helping and an IOU for some onions. After much chaos of boiling water, cutting veggies, getting the Japanese rice cooker to work, translating instructions, swearing and getting the curry to thicken I had two pots of curry enough rice and a few hungry roommates willing to try my cooking.
Everyone survived and actually really liked it! Success on many levels and if I can find the packets at an Asian market in the states I can officially add another item to my ever expanding culinary repertoir: grilled cheese, tacos, scrambled eggs, shake and bake, and now curry rice. ;) My adventures in the kitchen didn't end there. I stayed up in the hopes that my roommates would go to bed, but Drew and Tracey stayed up until 1am and I just gave in and started on their Valentine's Tiramisu while they were awake. The instructions were far more confusing, but I got most of the way through ti with no problem. Until it came time to start assembling and I realized my little pack didn't come with the clear plastic strips that you make into cones and set in the little tray making a cup to put the tiramisu parts in so it looks pretty and perfect when you're done. So I resorted to using our clear glass cups and started on the whipped cream. Here I misread the instructions and added the egg whites and sugar BEFORE I whipped the cream, which made it not whip at all. Thankfully I had enough cream and egg whites to start again, but no sugar. I whipped it up and then tried adding some of the previous unwhippable cream so I could get it semi-sweet. It worked out pretty good and the end results looked edible. Plus the little bits I tried were good so I put them in the fridge made up little valentine's labels with their names and a note and went to bed at 3am. I wanted to get up at 8 and set them out on the table for them to find that morning, but my alarm went off and I was to tired to get up so when I did get up at 10AM only Myrthe got to see the final product. Later that night though everyone ate them for dessert and said they were really good. Yeay again! I know what you're thinking, Erica can't eat that because she's vegan, which is true. To fix that little problem I got her a handkerchief with her favorite character (relax bear or Rillkuma in Japanese) and put a bar of black chocolate in there.
After going to bed at 3, I got up to a super rainy day and a vocab quiz. I biked to school holding my umbrella (mad bike skills and now I live in a neighborhood so biking isn't as dangerous as before Mom and Dad) and aced the quiz. From Japanese class at noon I had everyone of my classes in a row, after Japanese it was Struggle for Justice where we built our imaginary nation's laws, Japan and it's World and then Death in East Asian thought which ended at 5:30pm. I got to bike home in a little drizzle and chat with Erica. Once I got home I did some homework, cleaned up, and reheated some curry. The only thing else that's excitement is that our garbage didn't get emptied by the cleaning ladies for a few days so it smelled BAD and made the whole flat smell awful. Erica's solution was to take the bag out and put it the hallway. I've been on edge all night fearing Okaasan's inevitable arrival to give us crap, while Erica looks forward to the challenge and Tracey just wants some drama because she's bored. These are the people I live with.
Happy Valentine's Day!
This is how it's supposed to work, but there's variations on this and basically Valentine's day is just like it is at home with friends giving friends gifts, people going on dates and the rest of us sitting on the couch watching Walker Texas Ranger reruns on the superdrama channel at the dorm (it's the only English channel aside from CNN). What's funny is that you're supposed to give back to the person who got you something on Valentine's Day three times the amount when you give them something on White Day. This means that some people decide to give gifts on Valentine's Day for the sole purpose of getting more candy on White Day. There was only one example of this time, which was this crazy Japanese girl named Mayumi. She sat on our couch and asked us frank questions, such as turning to Drew and asking her if she's a lesbian. Then asking her again later and the next day. Drew is totally not a lesbian, but she can't live this down. It's too funny. Anyway, she was on the prowl trying to give out as much candy as she could so she could get more on White Day (she explained this to Tracey, that's how we know her true motivation) This lead to a game of cat and mouse on campus of Erica and I trying to avoid her for fear of getting caught and being forced to give candy on White Day just because she wanted us to, not because we wanted to. Thankfully it was 5:30pm and we were done with all our classes when we went down to the foreign students' mailboxes when low and behold Mayumi was waiting. Thankfully for me she didn't remember my name and didn't have a gift for me, but Erica wasn't so lucky. The other twist here is that Erica got candy from her Teachers all day but being vegan she can't any of the chocolate if it isn't black because of the milk. Drew reaped the benefits of being with her off and on today and getting to eat all her candy.
How did I spend my Valentine's Day? Pretty tired, I was up late on Valentine's Day Eve because I all of a sudden had some sort of maternal instinct kick in. I biked to Hirakata-shi to save the 440yen in bus fare and I figured I needed the exercise. Once downtown I got supplies to make a cake for Alex and some little Tiramisus for the girls, yarn for Drew's present, and to drop off my registration for my alien card. On the way back I stopped at a market that was selling vegetables super cheap. I'd bought some curry packets before except I didn't have the veggies you need to make curry for curry rice (You make curry like a stew and put it over some white rice, I loved it at home stay). This market was selling most vegetables for 100yen a piece or so I thought. I tried to pick out two carrots when they explained it was 100yen a basket for the carrots! Everything looked fresh and in the end tasted wonderful. I was able to get 1/3 a daikon (HUGE white radish), a head of lettuce, three carrots and 9 small potatoes for 380yen (like $3.50). It was awesome and cheap since I only had 1000 yen on me! :) I got home exhausted and cooked up two pots of the two different types of curry, sweet and medium. I had to read the instructions and realized once I got home that I'd misread the ingredients already. I didn't need the daikon or lettuce, but I needed onions. ;___; I totally screwed up and was worried I couldn't make it up without the onions and I knew the closest store was closed (it closes at like 6, it was 6:30pm) and plus I was tired. While I was debating on my mishap my Dutch roommate Myrthe was around and after hearing my problem gave me two small onions which worked perfectly! I was making two pots since I didn't know how to make small portions and so I was making it for the whole flat and so Myrthe got an extra helping and an IOU for some onions. After much chaos of boiling water, cutting veggies, getting the Japanese rice cooker to work, translating instructions, swearing and getting the curry to thicken I had two pots of curry enough rice and a few hungry roommates willing to try my cooking.
Everyone survived and actually really liked it! Success on many levels and if I can find the packets at an Asian market in the states I can officially add another item to my ever expanding culinary repertoir: grilled cheese, tacos, scrambled eggs, shake and bake, and now curry rice. ;) My adventures in the kitchen didn't end there. I stayed up in the hopes that my roommates would go to bed, but Drew and Tracey stayed up until 1am and I just gave in and started on their Valentine's Tiramisu while they were awake. The instructions were far more confusing, but I got most of the way through ti with no problem. Until it came time to start assembling and I realized my little pack didn't come with the clear plastic strips that you make into cones and set in the little tray making a cup to put the tiramisu parts in so it looks pretty and perfect when you're done. So I resorted to using our clear glass cups and started on the whipped cream. Here I misread the instructions and added the egg whites and sugar BEFORE I whipped the cream, which made it not whip at all. Thankfully I had enough cream and egg whites to start again, but no sugar. I whipped it up and then tried adding some of the previous unwhippable cream so I could get it semi-sweet. It worked out pretty good and the end results looked edible. Plus the little bits I tried were good so I put them in the fridge made up little valentine's labels with their names and a note and went to bed at 3am. I wanted to get up at 8 and set them out on the table for them to find that morning, but my alarm went off and I was to tired to get up so when I did get up at 10AM only Myrthe got to see the final product. Later that night though everyone ate them for dessert and said they were really good. Yeay again! I know what you're thinking, Erica can't eat that because she's vegan, which is true. To fix that little problem I got her a handkerchief with her favorite character (relax bear or Rillkuma in Japanese) and put a bar of black chocolate in there.
After going to bed at 3, I got up to a super rainy day and a vocab quiz. I biked to school holding my umbrella (mad bike skills and now I live in a neighborhood so biking isn't as dangerous as before Mom and Dad) and aced the quiz. From Japanese class at noon I had everyone of my classes in a row, after Japanese it was Struggle for Justice where we built our imaginary nation's laws, Japan and it's World and then Death in East Asian thought which ended at 5:30pm. I got to bike home in a little drizzle and chat with Erica. Once I got home I did some homework, cleaned up, and reheated some curry. The only thing else that's excitement is that our garbage didn't get emptied by the cleaning ladies for a few days so it smelled BAD and made the whole flat smell awful. Erica's solution was to take the bag out and put it the hallway. I've been on edge all night fearing Okaasan's inevitable arrival to give us crap, while Erica looks forward to the challenge and Tracey just wants some drama because she's bored. These are the people I live with.
Happy Valentine's Day!
Sunday, February 11, 2007
It's been a stressful couple of days
This weekend happily is a three day weekend because Monday is a day off too thanks to them founding Japan on Feb 11 660 BC, yep BC. Anyway I didn't make to grand of plans for this weekend so when Erica wanted to go shopping for shoes and a flightsuit at this trendy mall called Hep5 in Osaka I went along for the ride. Plus it gave me a convient excuse to hang out with Alex, and well shoes were involved. :) Hep5 is one of the bigger shopping malls in Osaka and has a HUGE ferris wheel on top of the building. Making the building itself not hard to find since it's a block from the station. Right? Yeah Erica and I screwed that one up too thinking that this sign on top of a hotel was the ferris wheel and walked 10 minutes in the completely wrong direction. Thankfully people in Japan give good directions and we found our way back.
Hep5 is also cool because at the ground level there's a big open area where they have two giant sculptures of sperm whales (a mommy and baby) suspended from the ceiling, except they're bright red.
We wandered around a great many of the floors only to find that everything was very expensive and very much present Japanese fashion. Note: I probably couldn't fit into it and it'd look super dumb, I'll post examples later. Trust me, I tried some "large" shirts on and well, that ain't happening. Thankfully I have enough clothes with me, so I won't go naked anytime soon.
Back to our mission, we didn't find the flightsuit, we didn't find shoes, but we did find socks and a huge Disney store. Although we could've found more, but the mall closed at 9pm and we got there around 8-8:30 due to school getting out late and us getting lost. So we ventured up to the restaurant floors that didn't close until 11 and tried to find a place Erica could eat at (she's the vegan one). No problem though there were plenty of pasta places and we settled on a cute one near the front so we could people watch too. In the end the people watching was great but the food was really really bad. We could put our fingers on it, but there was this weird tang to everything. Not very yummy, plus the chicken in mine wasn't really chicken breast I think it was the various parts. Also not so yummy.
To make up for the bad food and little shopping I convinced Erica to journey to the 8th and 9th floors to play video games and do purikura (print club, those stick photo booths) and she agreed. Here's the thing, I ALWAYS want to do purikura I love it. In Japan every arcade has at least 4-6 of the machines with different borders, backgrounds, lighting, stamps, etc. and they're so much fun to do and the pictures always turn out great. We settled on one that had cool ghosts and stuff so I promise I'll scan them soon and post them. As we divided them up a nice lady worker came over and told us we'd have to leave since it was already 11 and the whole building was closing. We snatched up our stuff, headed out and got on the train. I said goodbye to Erica at Yodoyabashi since she wanted to head home and I was on my way to Tenoji to see Alex when he got off of work. It was right after we said goodbye that I realized that I didn't have my frog purse. In Japan I only use one wallet I put both credit cards, Kansai ID and my money (in this case a newly pulled out 20000yen, $200). I had a train card, but only with 500 yen so I didn't even know if I could get off the train without my wallet! I was glad that in this case I was going to Tenoji where Alex would be waiting right outside the gates in case I needed more money he could lean over the turnstyle thing (they're more like gates here) and lend me the money so I could get out of the train station. I didn't need it though, I had just enough. I kept texting Erica to see if she had my wallet by mistake, but she didn't, which meant I stupidly left it at purikura. Hep 5 doesn't open until 11 and I had a sushi thing at 11 so I couldn't go all the way there and back to Hirakata to make it for sushi.
I worried about my wallet the whole night and even during the sushi rolling party the next day. I tried calling and using my crappy Japanese skills to talk to the lost and found dept. of Hep5 at around 8am, but after a while I couldn't understand and had to give up. They knew I was missing a wallet and I described it, but I think they were trying to tell me that they couldn't look for it until the building opened. So after much stress Erica came with me back to the mall (yeah I had to drag her kicking and screaming) and the game room had my wallet! With all my money inside!!
I love Japan! Now it's Sunday and we're all heading to Nara to play with fuzzy deer!
Hep5 is also cool because at the ground level there's a big open area where they have two giant sculptures of sperm whales (a mommy and baby) suspended from the ceiling, except they're bright red.
We wandered around a great many of the floors only to find that everything was very expensive and very much present Japanese fashion. Note: I probably couldn't fit into it and it'd look super dumb, I'll post examples later. Trust me, I tried some "large" shirts on and well, that ain't happening. Thankfully I have enough clothes with me, so I won't go naked anytime soon.
Back to our mission, we didn't find the flightsuit, we didn't find shoes, but we did find socks and a huge Disney store. Although we could've found more, but the mall closed at 9pm and we got there around 8-8:30 due to school getting out late and us getting lost. So we ventured up to the restaurant floors that didn't close until 11 and tried to find a place Erica could eat at (she's the vegan one). No problem though there were plenty of pasta places and we settled on a cute one near the front so we could people watch too. In the end the people watching was great but the food was really really bad. We could put our fingers on it, but there was this weird tang to everything. Not very yummy, plus the chicken in mine wasn't really chicken breast I think it was the various parts. Also not so yummy.
To make up for the bad food and little shopping I convinced Erica to journey to the 8th and 9th floors to play video games and do purikura (print club, those stick photo booths) and she agreed. Here's the thing, I ALWAYS want to do purikura I love it. In Japan every arcade has at least 4-6 of the machines with different borders, backgrounds, lighting, stamps, etc. and they're so much fun to do and the pictures always turn out great. We settled on one that had cool ghosts and stuff so I promise I'll scan them soon and post them. As we divided them up a nice lady worker came over and told us we'd have to leave since it was already 11 and the whole building was closing. We snatched up our stuff, headed out and got on the train. I said goodbye to Erica at Yodoyabashi since she wanted to head home and I was on my way to Tenoji to see Alex when he got off of work. It was right after we said goodbye that I realized that I didn't have my frog purse. In Japan I only use one wallet I put both credit cards, Kansai ID and my money (in this case a newly pulled out 20000yen, $200). I had a train card, but only with 500 yen so I didn't even know if I could get off the train without my wallet! I was glad that in this case I was going to Tenoji where Alex would be waiting right outside the gates in case I needed more money he could lean over the turnstyle thing (they're more like gates here) and lend me the money so I could get out of the train station. I didn't need it though, I had just enough. I kept texting Erica to see if she had my wallet by mistake, but she didn't, which meant I stupidly left it at purikura. Hep 5 doesn't open until 11 and I had a sushi thing at 11 so I couldn't go all the way there and back to Hirakata to make it for sushi.
I worried about my wallet the whole night and even during the sushi rolling party the next day. I tried calling and using my crappy Japanese skills to talk to the lost and found dept. of Hep5 at around 8am, but after a while I couldn't understand and had to give up. They knew I was missing a wallet and I described it, but I think they were trying to tell me that they couldn't look for it until the building opened. So after much stress Erica came with me back to the mall (yeah I had to drag her kicking and screaming) and the game room had my wallet! With all my money inside!!
I love Japan! Now it's Sunday and we're all heading to Nara to play with fuzzy deer!
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
I think I was missed
I know it's ironic that when I didn't have internet I updated far more frequently than now when I have internet all the time. The past two weeks here in Japan have gone by so fast. I'm having a great time and school is picking up. I dropped Reading and Writing and added another English class, Japan and It's World to 1860. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that, but oh well. Today was my death day, not just because I had death class, but because I had class from 12 to 5:30 all in a row, no breaks, all subjects. I survived and tomorrow I just have Japanese, which I need to go to the language lab to hear the assignment to do. I'm probably going to get to bed in an hour so I can get up early and get that done before class.
Aside from school the big excitement is that I have officially been to a club and I've been twice. It's okay I'm so glad that I have Alex and Erica to hang out with because the way clubs work here is tricky. You see there are bars around campus, but if we wanted something that was bigger than a bar the size of a bread box we have to head into Osaka. It's easy to get into the city I used to hop on the train right in front of my house, but now I have to get on at Hirakata Shi with is a five minute bus ride away from the Seminar house. It isn't a huge deal everyone goes in a big group when we go. Anyway the last bus to the seminar house is at 10:30pm and the last trains go at midnight. This isn't conducive to going to a club and heading home at 2 or 3 am. So what most people do is go in groups and stay at the club until 5 or 6am when the trains start up again. If you get super tired you can rent a room at a karaoke bar for 2000 yen (20 bucks) an hour, which isn't awful if you split it five ways. Or you can take a nap in one of the big comfy internet cafes. There are also places in Tokyo I've heard about that are like lounges where you can read all the manga (books) you want and they have comfy chairs or cots, but I haven't seen them here.
Anyway I never went before because I was at homestay, plus the idea of being out ALL night sounds like a pain. Here's where Erica and Alex come in. Erica hates clubs but she goes because everyone goes and it's a good time either way. She also can't stay up until 5am and neither can I, enter Alex to solve this problem. Alex (who I'll talk more about later) lives in Osaka because he works for NOVA a company that has English teaching schools across Japan and has his own apartment in Osaka. We know him because he's a good friend of Erica's from home (Rhode Island) and he lets us crash at his place when the three of us get bored at the club. Erica gets the vinyl couch and Alex sacrifices a mat from his three-four layered stack of futon mats (lucky bastard, if you remember me struggling with my TWO at homestay). Anyway I get a mat from him and we all hang out at his apartment playing old Final Fantasy games on the Super Famicom (Japanese SNES) until we fall asleep.
We've done this for the past two Fridays and every week Erica and I sit on the couch as people start making plans to go to Pure (yes that's really the name of the club) and promise we'll be going somewhere else. But there's no where else we know of that's as good or that anyone else is going to so we go off with Tracey, Drew, etc. and we have a good time. Pure has a pretty good set up, it's in Osaka a few blocks from Namba station and is next to location its next to a Karaoke bar (good for the afore mentioned reasons) and has a convenient (conbini) across the street, which is an added bonus if you get hungry. The layout is even cooler. You go down stairs, show your ID (for me my Kansai ID works because it has my birthday with the word birthday written next to it in Japanese) and then go to the window to pay you 1500 yen (15 dollars approx) and you get an arm band and a cup. This means you can go in and out of the club and you get unlimited drinks as long as you keep bringing back your cup. It's a sweet deal coming from the land of $6 cocktails on Nantucket.
Then you go past the little counter and through a GIANT WOODEN DOOR that would make Bilbo proud. The ceiling in the little hall way leading up to the door is low, even for me. Once you get into the club itself you're greeted with the dulcet tones of loud hip-hop and rap music. Trust me past this point things start making less and less sense. All the music is English and LOUD and there's a dance floor, but right to your left is the bar where all the staff speaks English and some of them are even Gaijin (foreigners) along with most of the clientell, which is a major reason Erica and I want to find a new place since we can hang out with Americans any damn time. Either way there are some Japanese folks and they're a hell of a lot of fun. There's a locker room where you can pay 300 yen to lock up your coats, purses, etc. I recommend taking out your cigarettes because you can light up anywhere in the club, which is awesome just for the novelty of it. Outside the coat room there's a little room across from the bar where you can play pool. This room also has a bookshelf that slides to the side Scooby Doo style to reveal a staircase that goes up to the VIP room. The VIP room sits on top of the locker/pool rooms and has glass windows letting anyone down by the bar able to look up at you like a giant fish bowl. It's a neat design and I can't do it justice with words. Anyway continuing straight past the bar there's a place for tables and straight head is the bathroom and if you go right there's the dance floor. We spend most of our time near the bar, in the pool room or in the hobbit hole. The hobbit hole is this little area where they've made a cave out of concrete and put a little table in there. It's tiny and I have a ton of pictures of us in there. On top of the hobbit hole is a stair case so that the stripper-esque dancers can go up on and dance on. You can't tell when you're in the hobbit hole, and when you're outside the dancers are just amazing. I just can't get over the fact that they get PAID to dance in the club up there for atmosphere. Yes guys, there are pictures of this on flickr. No Mom they don't get naked and NO I haven't gone up there, it's employees only and they are hiring.
Our first trip to Pure (at least my first trip) had me and Erica hiding in the hobbit hole from the loud music and sipping on our girly drinks. The entrance is a little below the floor so you have to step down into it so we were at about knee level and saw these cute Japanese girls in construction boots that were seriously boots. They went up to their knees! I thought they were so cool that I snapped a picture from our hideout. I wasn't secret squirel enough and they saw the flash and came to see what was up. They sat down with big smiles on their faces and we explained how much we loved their shoes and we chatted away for a good half hour. Alex showed up from work at some point and it was the first time I'd seen him since I left in November. So everyone was so happy to meet one another and we really hit it off with them here's a picture of Erica and the two girls (Aiko and Natsumi):
Aiko is in school to become a hairdresser and Natsumi is an English major at a college in Osaka (I couldn't remember the name) They were so nice and gave us suggestions on where to shop, etc. Erica got their cellphone addresses and we still text them back and forth. Heck we saw and hung out with them for a majority of the time we were at Pure this past Friday too! I love making random friends :) I still text Yuri (the girl I met when I got lost on the train) and I might get to go see her house in Kyoto!
The club is fun, it gives us an adventure. I'm going to leave my post here because I have to get up early tomorrow, but more on my other adventures later!
I know it's ironic that when I didn't have internet I updated far more frequently than now when I have internet all the time. The past two weeks here in Japan have gone by so fast. I'm having a great time and school is picking up. I dropped Reading and Writing and added another English class, Japan and It's World to 1860. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that, but oh well. Today was my death day, not just because I had death class, but because I had class from 12 to 5:30 all in a row, no breaks, all subjects. I survived and tomorrow I just have Japanese, which I need to go to the language lab to hear the assignment to do. I'm probably going to get to bed in an hour so I can get up early and get that done before class.
Aside from school the big excitement is that I have officially been to a club and I've been twice. It's okay I'm so glad that I have Alex and Erica to hang out with because the way clubs work here is tricky. You see there are bars around campus, but if we wanted something that was bigger than a bar the size of a bread box we have to head into Osaka. It's easy to get into the city I used to hop on the train right in front of my house, but now I have to get on at Hirakata Shi with is a five minute bus ride away from the Seminar house. It isn't a huge deal everyone goes in a big group when we go. Anyway the last bus to the seminar house is at 10:30pm and the last trains go at midnight. This isn't conducive to going to a club and heading home at 2 or 3 am. So what most people do is go in groups and stay at the club until 5 or 6am when the trains start up again. If you get super tired you can rent a room at a karaoke bar for 2000 yen (20 bucks) an hour, which isn't awful if you split it five ways. Or you can take a nap in one of the big comfy internet cafes. There are also places in Tokyo I've heard about that are like lounges where you can read all the manga (books) you want and they have comfy chairs or cots, but I haven't seen them here.
Anyway I never went before because I was at homestay, plus the idea of being out ALL night sounds like a pain. Here's where Erica and Alex come in. Erica hates clubs but she goes because everyone goes and it's a good time either way. She also can't stay up until 5am and neither can I, enter Alex to solve this problem. Alex (who I'll talk more about later) lives in Osaka because he works for NOVA a company that has English teaching schools across Japan and has his own apartment in Osaka. We know him because he's a good friend of Erica's from home (Rhode Island) and he lets us crash at his place when the three of us get bored at the club. Erica gets the vinyl couch and Alex sacrifices a mat from his three-four layered stack of futon mats (lucky bastard, if you remember me struggling with my TWO at homestay). Anyway I get a mat from him and we all hang out at his apartment playing old Final Fantasy games on the Super Famicom (Japanese SNES) until we fall asleep.
We've done this for the past two Fridays and every week Erica and I sit on the couch as people start making plans to go to Pure (yes that's really the name of the club) and promise we'll be going somewhere else. But there's no where else we know of that's as good or that anyone else is going to so we go off with Tracey, Drew, etc. and we have a good time. Pure has a pretty good set up, it's in Osaka a few blocks from Namba station and is next to location its next to a Karaoke bar (good for the afore mentioned reasons) and has a convieint (conbini) across the street, which is an added bonus if you get hungry. The layout is even cooler. You go down stairs, show your ID (for me my Kansai ID works because it has my birthday with the word birthday written next to it in Japanese) and then go to the window to pay you 1500 yen (15 dollars approx) and you get an arm band and a cup. This means you can go in and out of the club and you get unlimited drinks as long as you keep bringing back your cup. It's a sweet deal coming from the land of $6 cocktails on Nantucket.
Then you go past the little counter and through a GIANT WOODEN DOOR that would make Bilbo proud. The ceiling in the little hall way leading up to the door is low, even for me. Once you get into the club itself you're greeted with the dulcet tones of loud hip-hop and rap music. Trust me past this point things start making less and less sense. All the music is English and LOUD and there's a dance floor, but right to your left is the bar where all the staff speaks English and some of them are even Gaijin (foreigners) along with most of the clientell, which is a major reason Erica and I want to find a new place since we can hang out with Americans any damn time. Eitherway there are some Japanese folks and they're a hell of a lot of fun. There's a locker room where you can pay 300 yen to lock up your coats, purses, etc. I recommend taking out your cigarettes because you can light up anywhere in the club, which is awesome just for the novelty of it.
Aside from school the big excitement is that I have officially been to a club and I've been twice. It's okay I'm so glad that I have Alex and Erica to hang out with because the way clubs work here is tricky. You see there are bars around campus, but if we wanted something that was bigger than a bar the size of a bread box we have to head into Osaka. It's easy to get into the city I used to hop on the train right in front of my house, but now I have to get on at Hirakata Shi with is a five minute bus ride away from the Seminar house. It isn't a huge deal everyone goes in a big group when we go. Anyway the last bus to the seminar house is at 10:30pm and the last trains go at midnight. This isn't conducive to going to a club and heading home at 2 or 3 am. So what most people do is go in groups and stay at the club until 5 or 6am when the trains start up again. If you get super tired you can rent a room at a karaoke bar for 2000 yen (20 bucks) an hour, which isn't awful if you split it five ways. Or you can take a nap in one of the big comfy internet cafes. There are also places in Tokyo I've heard about that are like lounges where you can read all the manga (books) you want and they have comfy chairs or cots, but I haven't seen them here.
Anyway I never went before because I was at homestay, plus the idea of being out ALL night sounds like a pain. Here's where Erica and Alex come in. Erica hates clubs but she goes because everyone goes and it's a good time either way. She also can't stay up until 5am and neither can I, enter Alex to solve this problem. Alex (who I'll talk more about later) lives in Osaka because he works for NOVA a company that has English teaching schools across Japan and has his own apartment in Osaka. We know him because he's a good friend of Erica's from home (Rhode Island) and he lets us crash at his place when the three of us get bored at the club. Erica gets the vinyl couch and Alex sacrifices a mat from his three-four layered stack of futon mats (lucky bastard, if you remember me struggling with my TWO at homestay). Anyway I get a mat from him and we all hang out at his apartment playing old Final Fantasy games on the Super Famicom (Japanese SNES) until we fall asleep.
We've done this for the past two Fridays and every week Erica and I sit on the couch as people start making plans to go to Pure (yes that's really the name of the club) and promise we'll be going somewhere else. But there's no where else we know of that's as good or that anyone else is going to so we go off with Tracey, Drew, etc. and we have a good time. Pure has a pretty good set up, it's in Osaka a few blocks from Namba station and is next to location its next to a Karaoke bar (good for the afore mentioned reasons) and has a convieint (conbini) across the street, which is an added bonus if you get hungry. The layout is even cooler. You go down stairs, show your ID (for me my Kansai ID works because it has my birthday with the word birthday written next to it in Japanese) and then go to the window to pay you 1500 yen (15 dollars approx) and you get an arm band and a cup. This means you can go in and out of the club and you get unlimited drinks as long as you keep bringing back your cup. It's a sweet deal coming from the land of $6 cocktails on Nantucket.
Then you go past the little counter and through a GIANT WOODEN DOOR that would make Bilbo proud. The ceiling in the little hall way leading up to the door is low, even for me. Once you get into the club itself you're greeted with the dulcet tones of loud hip-hop and rap music. Trust me past this point things start making less and less sense. All the music is English and LOUD and there's a dance floor, but right to your left is the bar where all the staff speaks English and some of them are even Gaijin (foreigners) along with most of the clientell, which is a major reason Erica and I want to find a new place since we can hang out with Americans any damn time. Eitherway there are some Japanese folks and they're a hell of a lot of fun. There's a locker room where you can pay 300 yen to lock up your coats, purses, etc. I recommend taking out your cigarettes because you can light up anywhere in the club, which is awesome just for the novelty of it.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Another exciting Friday Night
I'm sorry I'm a week behind in all of this! Tonight I have a bit of a lull before more excitement. I'm in the flat waiting for Erica's second phase of hair dye to finish dying and so we can rinse and run out to Osaka. She went from kinda blonde to totally blonde then to black with a pink streak. And I helped!
No I didn't dye my hair although the pink was tempting. :) Well we're running out the door to go meet our Kansai mates and the two girls we met last week. I promise more pictures later and more of a post.
No I didn't dye my hair although the pink was tempting. :) Well we're running out the door to go meet our Kansai mates and the two girls we met last week. I promise more pictures later and more of a post.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
More fun in Hirakata-shi
Another day, another batch of craziness. A good example of how funny this place is, I'm sitting in the computer lab next to campus' international playboy. Yes, we have one. Apparently this guy was only known in infamy a few days after getting to school. He's homestay but was living in Seminar House 3 (my seminar house) when he invited a Japanese student over and was having "extramarital" relations in the shower when a roommate called Otoosan (dorm dad) and he came up stairs and caught them in the act. Poor Otoosan, I can only imagine that it took years off the guys life, but I'm more amazed the roommate called that in. Typically you'd let something like that slide or give them a warning or something. Just common curtosy, but then again I have no clue what the Emily Post protocol is for this.
Anyway, so this guy was just talked about around town for a while and all we knew is what happened and that he was from Princeton, NJ, was rich, traveled the world and ontop of being fluent in Japanese was as truth would have it, a playboy. After our late night on Friday (trust me I'll get there, super swear) Erica and I sat delirious on the bus with our stuffed animals from Kiddy Land when this guy from Kansai sat next to us in the back. We started up a conversation since we're the only white people on the bus going to the college so we must be classmates. Plus it was early so we all had fun stories to tell. After a short while Erica and I finally look at one another and realize that this dude is the international playboy. Nice enough guy, which sucks because you're supposed to hate a sleazy ball like that. He makes for good stories so I'm sure he'll popup again in the future. I just brought him up now because he was a computer or two down from me in the lab and asked how far we were from Nara.
Last night I started this post: Right now I'm sleepy and want to go to bed, but I can't since my temporary roommate Maria (new from Columbia and hence different person than last Maria) is talking on the phone whilst sitting/lounging on my bed. So to avoid awkwardness I'll just wait till she's off the phone. It's not a huge deal it's just that I've been on a weird schedule since coming back on Thursday night and going at a weird pace ontop of being jet-lagged to all hell. Friday morning I got up at 7:30am unable to sleep and spent the whole day doing paperwork, paying fees, taking tests, meeting up with people, thanking people, looking at clubs, etc. I had to take my placement test whilst the teachers graded everyone else's and I sat out in the hall. They said I just had to pass section B to get into level 4, but it was kind of easy to I tried section C too. It wasn't too terrible, it was all stuff I'd seen before in my level 3 class, but since I didn't study quite as much as I should've it was pretty fuzzy. I had to take Kanji reading sections too and during that one teacher came out and asked how I was doing and reminded me that I shouldn't guess if I don't know the answer, this was as they were grading my previous sections. Yeah. Total vote of confidence there. I also had to do my listening with one teacher all on my own, while he stared at me and I strained to understand what in the hell was being said on the tape. This was followed by an interview with another teacher who wore one of those damn face masks you wear when you have the plague so I couldn't understand him for most of it. The final result was that I ended up in level 4. Yeay! But I'm section A, not so yeay. Level A is the LOWEST level of 4 in existance and therefore I think they just bumped me up to get rid of me. I'm actually okay with that since level 4 for them is the start of level 3, which I survived Uotate (evil Japanese professor at UF) for two semesters and passed so, here's to hoping it isn't going to kill me.
Post from Today: As for my English classes I got two that I really wanted. I registered after everyone else so I didn't get into painting, but since I'm a nerd the classes I wanted were no where near full. Yesterday (Monday) I had Death in East Asian Thought for the first time and from now on I'm just going to call it Death. I love the name it's so damned angsty it's fun. Death was great though, the teacher seems nice and we have to write a few papers or we can take a test or just add 4 pages to a paper. It's a nice system and the topic seems fun. We're studying everything from medical definitions of death, to pet cemeteries, ghosts and cremation. Skippy! Tomorrow I have my other English speaking class for the first time. This one's called: Struggle for Justice. Another great class title. This one is taught by my Japanese Law professor from last semester and focuses on criminal justice systems complete with a trip to the court house and prison! :) This semester is going to rock.
As for my daily life thus far it is also going very very well. I live in Seminar House 3 (with the crazy militant Okaasan) and got switched from floor 5 to floor 2 so I could live with Erica (RI girl, vegan), Tracey (British), and Drew (Ohio) who were my original roommates last semester before I did homestay. I get the added bonus of a new roommate DJ, she's Korean, but from Canada and very very quiet so we don't know much else. I'm just hoping she's not an ax murderer. Oh, and Drew's new roommate and my new flatmate is Myrta (I'm probably spelling it wrong), she's great fun and fits right in with the rest of us chilling in the lounge of the flat. She's from Holland and lived in Tailand for 8 years from when she was 5 until she was 13. She's really nice and fills us in on little things from Holland. Example: Miffy is not called Miffy in Holland, but instead is Nijntje and since she's from Holland that's her name. Either the Americans or Japanese changed it to Miffy at somepoint and she just thinks that's weird. Another added bonus was that she knew who Tin Tin was and loved the calendar I got. :) I couldn't explain Tin Tin to Erica so I'm so happy she was there to back me up. His name isn't Tin Tin either, it's Ga-fee-ya, which is the name of his hairstyle and a sound on the end making it sound cute. So I guess he's Cowlick chan or something in Holland.
I promise to update you about Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and today later on. I have to run to class, but I will leave on an up note: I couldn't be happier. I am so happy to be back in Japan, I love my friends here and I love my living situation. I watched the temporary roommate leave on Saturday and Sunday to go with their host families and I thought I'd miss it. I thought when I had to do laundry or cook I'd regret not going off with a Japanese family. I don't. I love being in the dorm and although we speak English there I'm learning a lot in other places. I'm planning on joining the archery club and maybe the art club to get out there and practice more. I already have Yoko and Yuri texting me to see when I can meet up to chat.
More later! :)
Friday, January 26, 2007
I have arrived
I'm here! (again!) I got in at around 5pm Japan time last night and I text messaged Erica as soon as I got off the plane because I was so excited. I'm so glad I did because she was in the airport too. She got in an hour before me and what's funny is that I didn't know she was there, since I thought she was texting me from the dorm. So you can imagine my surprise as I'm just getting out of customs trying to find the bus and I get side checked by a blonde Erica. Later that night I was jumped by Tracey, hugged by Drew and today I was full on body checked by Maria. So needless to say I've had a very warm welcome.
Erica and I chatted like crazy while we waited an hour for the bus, then we chatted like crazy on the bus, then I hung out in her flat for a good portion of the night. I filled out the paperwork and I'll be moving from Floor 5 in Seminar House 3 to Floor 2 where Erica, Tracey, Drew and my new roommate DJ (she's Korean and from Canada) and flatmate Mareta (from Holland, no clue on the spelling) are going to live it up this semester.
I'm so happy to be back, the niceness and warmth I get from my buddies here makes up for all the awkward coldness I get from the staff at Kansai. Because you see, I missed registration, my placement test, everything because I didn't know everything was on the 23rd and 24th. So I'm registering at 2pm, I've spent the morning getting my ass handed to me on the placement test (because I was the ONLY one taking it I had to sit in the hallway outside the room where they were grading it and get a personal interview). Now I'm going to go pay more fees and hopefully get my laptop registered. I have it hooked up to the coffee shop's wifi, which is a super blessing since I had to renew my Norton anti-virus and they wouldn't let me register until it was done, but I couldn't use the internet until I registered. So it's an endless cycle of Japanese b.s. that I thwarted with my advanced knowledge of the internet.
Erica and I chatted like crazy while we waited an hour for the bus, then we chatted like crazy on the bus, then I hung out in her flat for a good portion of the night. I filled out the paperwork and I'll be moving from Floor 5 in Seminar House 3 to Floor 2 where Erica, Tracey, Drew and my new roommate DJ (she's Korean and from Canada) and flatmate Mareta (from Holland, no clue on the spelling) are going to live it up this semester.
I'm so happy to be back, the niceness and warmth I get from my buddies here makes up for all the awkward coldness I get from the staff at Kansai. Because you see, I missed registration, my placement test, everything because I didn't know everything was on the 23rd and 24th. So I'm registering at 2pm, I've spent the morning getting my ass handed to me on the placement test (because I was the ONLY one taking it I had to sit in the hallway outside the room where they were grading it and get a personal interview). Now I'm going to go pay more fees and hopefully get my laptop registered. I have it hooked up to the coffee shop's wifi, which is a super blessing since I had to renew my Norton anti-virus and they wouldn't let me register until it was done, but I couldn't use the internet until I registered. So it's an endless cycle of Japanese b.s. that I thwarted with my advanced knowledge of the internet.
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