So first off, let me apologize for not having posted anything in over a month. I just really had no motivation to write anything. I haven't done too much in the past month anyway. The past 3 weeks alone were pretty boring:

3 weeks ago: Week before midterms. Review review review, study study study.
2 weeks ago: Midterms week. Cram cram cram, write shitty paper.
1 week ago: Spring break! But I, of course, got sick (for the first time in about 3 years, might I add) right in time for this week. Therefore I spent most of it sleeping.

Going back to class this week was a little difficult, mainly because I needed to re-re-adjust my sleep schedule. It shifted almost 12 hours during spring break due to the odd hours I kept. But I think I've finally gotten it back on track.

I got my midterm grades back for my Japanese classes! Basically, I owned that shit IN THE FACE!
In my Spoken Japanese class I got a 96.4% WHICH! was also the highest grade in all 3 of my teacher's sections.
In my Reading/Writing Japanese class I got a 100%. Yes that's right, I am perfect.

As for my two other "classes":
Visual Anthropology of Japan: I got a 38/40 on the midterm. It was a stupid easy test, but since our teacher always tries to be funny, he tried to make jokes on the test. He also worded things in very strange ways. It was hella unfair to the plethora of non-native speakers of English. Also I have yet to finish most of the blog posts for that class. I have done 1 out of 5 so far. Yay me!
Globalization: Well, I have no idea what I got on my paper, because I didn't go to class yesterday. I took a nap in the afternoon, and I set an alarm. But when the alarm went off, instead of getting up I just went back to sleep. Oops!

Today after class I went to the convenience store and blew 2000 yen on various things; mostly gifts :D
Speaking of which! I tend to have difficulties finding good gifts for people. Therefore, I figured I would try and find things that would be useful to my friends. So if you could leave me a comment here or contact me via e-mail/Facebook/etc. and leave me a list of some things you use on a daily basis (at home, at school, at work, whenever). My goal is to find cuter versions of these things in your favorite color! So make sure you let me know what colors you like, as well.

So this weekend I am going to Kyoto for Ohanami (Cherry Blossom Viewing!!!!) I really can not wait. I know it's going to be amazingly beautiful. So be ready for lots of pictures! The RA's of this seminar house have put together this trip to go to two different temples and a park in Kyoto to view the Cherry Blossoms. And it is going to be at night (Yozakura, it's called) so everything will be lit up and sparkle-y. And to top it off, the school is going to pay for our admission to the temple! I'm really looking forward to this.


As far as life goes, I think I have decided that when I get back home I am going to apply for the JET programme (http://www.jetprogramme.org/). I think that it has recently become rather competitive, so should I get accepted, I will be back in Japan as an Assistant Language Teacher as of next fall. So that would give me about a year in the US to work (part-time, or full-time. I dunno yet) and save up some money. I'm not really sure where I will be during the time I am back in the US, but I shall figure that out soon. I can participate in this program for up to 5 years. They pay for your airfare, provide housing (either free or hella cheap, I can't remember), provide health insurance, and pay you about 3,600,000yen for your year of work (about $38k). Doing just one year would earn me enough money to completely pay off my student loans plus leave me with money saved. I'm hoping to save up enough money so that Steph and I can start our own business. It's just kind of a random idea, but it's fun to think about. We want to have a café/bookstore that is home to books from all over the world as well as snacks and stationary type things from all over the world. It will possibly be in California. All we need is a ton of money to start it up and to learn how to start/manage a business! It's fun to dream...


I think that is about all I have for now. I will be sure to update more often from now on.


<3

OK! So I finally got a card reader yay! My dad sent it to me and I got the package today!

So because my internet is so terribad, I didn't want to post all the pictures here because the page would NEVER load for me. Therefore, I have created an album PICTUREZZZ!! AMG!!

The titles pretty much tell what the pictures are, and most are lacking a description. When I have more free time, I will pick some of my favourites and put them on a post here with more detail!

<3

So far I have received two care packages while I've been here. They were both filled with amazing things and the senders are really too kind (espcially since postage/shipping costs are a bitch). I don't think saying thank you is enough, so I want to write about it and share it with other people! I have some free time between classes so I'm writing it up now, and once I get back to my room I will take pictures with my cell phone and post them on here! (Updated: pictures added!)

The first package I got was a large box from France! I picked it up before my evening class that day, so I had to carry it with me. In class, Carlos was like 'what's that!? let me see!' so I passed it to him. When he saw it was from my sister, and upon feeling it's weight, he said 'oh she probably sent you a dress.' I'm not exactly sure where that comment came from, but anyone who knows me would know that the mystery box did NOT contain a dress. Then he tried to read the contents list, but it was in French. But next to him was a girl who said 'Oh I am from France! I will read it!', and so she did. As she read the list aloud, she wondered why a good deal of these things were shipped to me (mainly the cereal box and bags of chips)





But yes, in this box there was a beautiful necklace! It's 3 silver keys of varying sizes on a black ribbon. There is also a watch ring! It is a puple star and I wear it on the middle finger of my left hand because it looks extra fabulous there! Along with these things, there were also 2 bags of chips (MONSTER MUNCH! Ghost shaped chips OM NOM NOM SO GOOD), a pack of this vanilla cream cookies (also delicious), and a box of Special K. Of course, there was also a hand written and decorated letter.

The second package I got was an equally large box all the way from Texas! This one was a little bit heavier, and it had the shipping fees listed on it (gosh, Mary must really love me) which made me feel sooo bad. Now, I knew that she was sending me a pair of boots and slippers, but there was sooo much more! First of all the boots are super cute black rubber (I think rubber, anyway) with colourful polka dots on them! The slippers are these little pale pink knit-like slippers with a bow (super cozy and comfortable). But wait, there's much more! There were also 3 pairs of socks picked out by her son (how he knew the kind of socks I like, I have no idea! Go Collin!), a hand-knitted green hat, M-shaped post-it notes, tiny school supplies (stapler, tape, etc), some embroidery thread (for bracelets), a bag of Pop Rocks (contributed by her daughters), and a card with beautiful words (and washing instructions for the hat!) I am still in awe that she knitted me a hat (which I wore today and received several complements on it) and sent me all of these things!




So thank you to both of you! You are amazing and kind and generous and I love you!

I also plan to take pictures of the results of my shopping spree at the 100 yen shop since everything is extra cute.
[PLACEHOLDERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR]

Oh yeah, there was totally an earthquake this morning. It was at like 7:15~ish am. There I was sitting in the kitchen, eating a bowl of Special K, when all of the sudden I feel this shaking. At first I thought that it was just some kind of large truck or construction outside shaking the building. But it lasted for a good 15-20 seconds and was a bit too intense to be caused by a truck or whatnot (but it still wasn't that severe). Nothing fell; no damage was done. It was a little scary, but mostly confusing and weird. I mean, if you're gonna bother to be an earthquake, you should at least be strong enough to wake people up, shiiiit. Shalonda was the only one woken by it; everyone else was none the wise. But I survived my first (and hopefully last) earthquake! New experiences every day here.

Time for classssssssss~

It seems every time I go to class, I come away with something new to rant about. Ok here goes!

Attention all females in my spoken Japanese class:

Not knowing the answer to a ridiculously easy question is, despite what you think, NOT cute. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not an elitist or anything like that. There is nothing wrong with not knowing an answer. But every time you make stupid guesses and giggle about it, it's just not cute. You may think it gets you attention, but all it does is make people think you are a moron. If you want attention, try studying and getting every answer right in order to wow people. It will have a much greater effect. I promise.

End rant.

After lunch we took the bus back. I got off at school; as I still have another class at 4:40. Shalonda just went back to the seminar house.

I think that's about it for now!

So here is the list of foods that I have been craving since I got here:

• Chicken from Publix with rice and cheese
• Cookie dough
• Chips (anything cheesy or greasy)
• Good milk
• CHEESE
• Anything deep fried
• Anything that will clog my arteries

Mmmm yeah. I could reaaally go for some unhealthy foods. Though I have to admit, the rice here is really good; almost addicting. I think perhaps the secret is that it is laced with crack.

On another note, today I skipped my first class! 2 weeks in and I already don't feel like going to class. So this class that I missed today was Visual Anthropology of Japan. My reasonings were the following:

• It's raining
• I'm sleepy
• I still have to set up the blog for this class
• I forgot to do the assigned reading (and by "forgot to do" I mean "chose not to do")
• I don't want to go

I think these are all pretty valid reasons.

Other than that, tomorrow is a National Holiday which means no class! I think some of us are planning to go to Nara. Apparently deer just walk around and aren't afraid of people because they've become so accustomed to them. I think that sounds amazing and very cute! I can't wait to seeeee them. Hopefully the travel there won't be too long or take too much money.

<3

So, apparently after the review tests on Friday, if you didn't pass and had to go down a level, they had put a letter in your mailbox around 4:30. I finished class at 12:50 and was not about to wait around for 4+ hours. So I figured I would just go early Monday (today) morning before the first possible class to check my mail. No mail! I passed the review test! Yay! Interestingly enough, about half of the students previously in my class were not there anymore. It was old material, but they still failed and dropped a level. We also had about 3 new students who dropped down from level 4 to level 3. I was happy that I passed. I'm also happy that the class moves at such a quick pace! No getting bored for me anymore.

After class was over, I walked back to my room. The combination of the good news + listening to good music + beautiful weather made me feel like an absolute rock star. I was out to conquer the world and a'int no bitches gon' be gettin' in my way! Does anyone else ever get like that from time to time?

Anyway, for now I'm just making some rice for lunch and then I plan to take a nap until I have to leave for my next class at 4ish.

As for my weekend! Well, I went out and tried new things. Saturday night, our RA (Hiroshi) invited the girls in my apartment + 3 of the guys from his apartment to go to dinner and karaoke. In total there were 11 of us. Here are the names just for reference:
Rebecka, Elin, Camilla (my 3 Swedish roommates)
Ogilvie (She is from Chicago and shares a room with Camilla, I think)
Shalonda (My roommate)
Hiroshi (Our RA)
Carlos, Mike, Austin (3 of the guys who live with Hiroshi)
Shoya (I think that was his name anyway...one of Hiroshi's friends)

Ok so we were going to go eat at a restaurant first that is by the Hirakata-shi station. Most everyone had bikes, save for myself, Ogilvie, and Shalonda (we're cheap, what can I say). So they all ride their bikes and the 3 of us catch the bus. We get there at about 6:15 and everyone else is already there, seated (at 3 tables all next to each other). I go to sit down with Ogilvie and Shalonda, but Carlos is like "I don't feel like moving all these coats, so go sit over there". So I go to the other end and sit with Camilla, Elin, and Hiroshi. That was fine. So anyway, this place was mainly chicken and stuff served in chunks on sticks. We had no idea what most of the menu was, so Hiroshi ordered a bunch of plates for everyone to share. I didn't eat too much. I had maybe 2 pieces of chicken, 2 pieces of beef, an onion ring, and this cheese croquette thing (which was really good!). Elin is a vegetarian so he also ordered some stuff that she should eat (corn, cabbage, salad). Shoya showed up a little late and came and sat at our table. He ordered some more stuff. Some of the food seemed very strange to me: hearts of various animals, cartilage, etc. Since I had yet to try anything new since I had been here, I decided to try something. Shoyu put a piece of the cartilage on my plate. Well...it didn't taste particularly bad, but the texture was just awful. Imagine that you are eating a chicken wing, and then imagine eating the joint. But at least I tried something.

After a while we went to pay the bills (each table split their bills). When they told me the bill was 1400 yen I thought it was a joke. I basically ended up paying for other people to eat, and drink, too. I drank water, but everyone else got soda, juice, alcoholic drinks. So yeah I wasn't too thrilled with that. At most, I ate 600 yen worth of food. Now if Carlos had just moved those damn coats, I could have sat with Shalonda and Ogilvie like I originally wanted, and the bill would have actually been fair.

So after that, we go right upstairs and there is a karaoke place. We had to fill out some form to get a card (I guess for people who go there often). Then we went into one of the rooms. It was actually pretty cool. There was a long U-shaped booth-type seating with a table. And at the front was the TV. There was this remote thing you could use to search for songs and choose them to play. People chose songs, sang, blah blah blah. Some people decided to just take the remote thing and choose every single song and sing/shout very loudly. Was kinda annoying and made it not so fun. I sang once. My song was totally Journey lolol. The whole karaoke endeavour was moderately fun, but I feel as if you just need to do that kind of thing with the right people. If it was Me + Steffi + Vi + Ashley we would have torn that shit up!

At about 10:20, I'm like 'Hey, so when is the last train?'. Those not riding bikes needed to catch a train home, since the buses stopped running. So Shalonda, Ogilvie, and myself left (had to pay 1000 yen for that) and caught a train. We got of at Makino station which is semi-close to the seminar houses, but Shalonda and I had never been there and it had been several months since Ogilvie had been there. So it was a bit of an adventure. It was dark and slightly creepy on the walk back. The following conversation ensued:

Ogilvie: So who knows karate?
Shalonda: Ummm I can cut a bitch.
Me: If we get attacked, someone's gonna end up in that canal and it's not going to be us.
Hypothetical Attacker as portrayed by Shalonda: Damn these American ho's is strong.

Shalonda is rather hilarious.

Anyway, we made it back home safely! When we got back, no one else was there so they were probably still at the karaoke place, I assume. I went to bed pretty soon after.

Sunday was just another day. I got up, had lunch, took a nap, and then hung out for the rest of the evening. Sometime during the day one of my other roommates accidentally broke Shalonda's laptop. I'm still not too clear on the details.

I think my rice is ready! More later <3

As of 12:50pm today, I will have successfully completed my first week of class at Kansai Gaidai!

I have almost 2 hours now to study for my review test for Spoken Japanese. So of course, instead of cramming, I'm here procrastinating. Vocabularyvocabularyvocabularyvocabulary.

Another observation: I greatly appreciate my Spoken Japanese teacher's (Miyauchi sensei) sense of humour. He acts almost animated, if that makes sense. He does the hilarious thing where he will ask you a question, and while waiting for you to answer he stands there all expectantly. And when you give the wrong answer he falls over in disappointment (like actually falls to the side, not to the ground, of course) almost as if something heavy fell on his head. I find it incredibly amusing. Also, he can appreciate the students' humour. We were reviewing how to give advice and he pretends to be a sad international student named Han. The conversation goes as follows:

Han: /sigh
Students: どうしたの？ (What's wrong?)
Han: 彼女がほしいんですね。どうしようか。(I wish I had a girlfriend. What should I do?)
Students: ええと・・・・あきらめる。　（Ummmmm give up.)
Han: /falls over

That wasn't exactly the answer (or grammatical structure) he was expecting, but he found it funny none the less.

Ok I'm gonna go study for real now!


Update!


So I did my studying, went to class and took the review test. It wasn't toooo bad. I knew all the grammar, and understood all the listening stuff, but I just couldn't remember all the vocabulary. I explained this to my teacher when I handed my test in. I said that I pretty much learned 5 chapters of the book on my own in the past week, etc. I'm pretty sure I'll still do better than some other students for whom this was actually a review.  We shall seeeeee! 


It's only 1:30 now so I have the whole afternoon/evening to do who knows what! I'm sure there will be a nap in there somewhere. Should anything exciting happen, I'll be sure to share it here!