So things have been pretty settled and uneventful here. My classes are going well and I am pleased to report that I got all my first choices as far as they go (Yey for lottery number 87, it was karma for number 333 last semester). I had my first KGU field trip ever this weekend for Intro the Japanese History. We went to Asuka. Its in the Nara prefecture and has a lot of REALLY old sites to see. Still no camera charger so no photos, but I'll gank some from Leslie later. We spent the whole morning and afternoon biking from site to site, which despite the cold was really nice and invigorating. Today I had a test and am now sitting in the computer room as a means of wasting time till I am not the only one not in class.
btw there turned out to be issues with the homestay that I wont go into, in any case I have moved back to the dorms, but will keep in contact with the family. I am now in a single room in dorm 3, next door to Ann and her new roommate Anna (who is really nice). I'm thinking I wanna buy a denchi jisho (electronic dictionary) both for class and for practical casual purposes. I wanna make sure I make the most of the TEN (yes count them ten) chapters of intermediate Japanese I will be learning this semester. Hopefully by the time I am done with undergrad I will be ready to sit some level of the JPLT (they tell me students at my level can be studying for level 3 in the spring if we like but we'll see). Once I get up to that level I'll feel good about resuming Chinese or taking up a different language. I think it will be my goal to be semi-trilingual once I finish grad school. Back to a day in the life of a KGU student.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Okay so now that I've got some free time I will continue blogging about winter break so I can be all caught up. So after the hell involved in getting to Scribe's apartment the time in Tokyo was very fun. We stayed up till all hours of the night talking and catching up. All in all it turned very silly and we were laughing about things that seem completely less, and yet not less at all, funny now. And we slept in pretty late the next day so we were still loitering around in our pajamas and trying to get ready for the day when Erin arrived, already cute and ready to party that evening. We were able to have a really fun time that afternoon the three of us, and had delicious pasta for dinner. Its really great when we can all hang out like that. So basically we ended up at a coffee shop waiting for Adryn to get there (since she hadn't been able to get off work earlier) taking silly pictures. But then Adryn finally came and it was time for the party to begin!
So Scribe knows this person who works at a bar in Roppongi who wanted us to come and hang out there for Christmas Eve. And so after a pit stop at Starbucks, which we were cutely kicked out of as it closed, we went there and spent the next 6 hours singing karaoke and drinking. Her friend very kindly gave us a discount and much fun was had by all. We took the first train home, which I'd never done before. On Christmas day its safe to say we slept in pretty late. Erin and I were up first and since we were on the air matress in the hall we ventured out for lunch. Eventually everyone got up and we walked around town a little bit, watched Erin's Christmas present Wall-e in a pile on the floor, took about a hundred purikura, and then headed back to the apartment Christmas cake in hand. We had a fun time eating it and generally messing around.
The next day Adryn was off the airport to pick up Darrin and Erin and I went back to her town of Kamisu to spend the weekend. Shes got a nice apartment too and a car which we used to drive around town shopping. Its a cute town (NO Train!?!) and Erin showed me everything that was worth seeing as this time of year. We also went to a very cool little concert that was both classical and rock. That took about two days. After that it was back to the Tokyo, where Scribe's apartment was getting a little tight. But we all managed to have a good time and we all acted as Scribe's house-elves.We took even more purikura
By then it was pretty much New Years and time for the NewS concert. Tokyo Dome was ENORMOUS, and as I got there I discovered that despite my irritation at paying twice the list price for tickets, it was worth it because I had semi-decent seats. Tokyo Dome is so big there really aren't many GOOD seats, but out of the two enormous layers of the arena, I was about half-way down the first floor. Not on the floor with the stage walkways, but still pretty close. Other than being alone and next to the most unethusiastic fangirl ever, we had a fantastic time. After that since we hadn't been able to get tickets for Summery, we went to Shibuya to get dinner and ring in the new year, which we did while eating amazing Japanese food. All the Japanese people in the resteraunt greatly enjoyed us counting down the last seconds to the new year. I called home and wished people there a happy new year, every though it was still noon for them. Then we walked around some in Shibuya observing the festivities and then decided to call it a night. Because of how tight packed it was we had taken turns sleeping in a manga cafe, which is pretty cheap and do-able if yor in the right place. The next day we were all zombies again and Adryn and Darrin left for Tochigi. Erin, Scribe, and I dinked around the rest of that day and had convi-food and doughnuts for dinner.
And then it was time for me to catch my plane home, which I did without too much train trouble this time. And that began to next chapter of my whirlwind vacation. Needless to say I spent a few days at home recovering from my cold which really hit my on the plane home, then a few days in Winston with Corey, and then my family went for its long awaited cruise which was a blast and such a nice break (the warm weather was fantastic too) and then I spent most of the next week in Boone visiting and doing some job hunting/feeling out. And then a few more days at home and it was time to come back.
Wow, I did a LOT. But it was really fun and totally worth it, I just think I'll stick to Kansai for a while. Pictures will come later when my camera charger comes in the mail.
So Scribe knows this person who works at a bar in Roppongi who wanted us to come and hang out there for Christmas Eve. And so after a pit stop at Starbucks, which we were cutely kicked out of as it closed, we went there and spent the next 6 hours singing karaoke and drinking. Her friend very kindly gave us a discount and much fun was had by all. We took the first train home, which I'd never done before. On Christmas day its safe to say we slept in pretty late. Erin and I were up first and since we were on the air matress in the hall we ventured out for lunch. Eventually everyone got up and we walked around town a little bit, watched Erin's Christmas present Wall-e in a pile on the floor, took about a hundred purikura, and then headed back to the apartment Christmas cake in hand. We had a fun time eating it and generally messing around.
The next day Adryn was off the airport to pick up Darrin and Erin and I went back to her town of Kamisu to spend the weekend. Shes got a nice apartment too and a car which we used to drive around town shopping. Its a cute town (NO Train!?!) and Erin showed me everything that was worth seeing as this time of year. We also went to a very cool little concert that was both classical and rock. That took about two days. After that it was back to the Tokyo, where Scribe's apartment was getting a little tight. But we all managed to have a good time and we all acted as Scribe's house-elves.We took even more purikura
By then it was pretty much New Years and time for the NewS concert. Tokyo Dome was ENORMOUS, and as I got there I discovered that despite my irritation at paying twice the list price for tickets, it was worth it because I had semi-decent seats. Tokyo Dome is so big there really aren't many GOOD seats, but out of the two enormous layers of the arena, I was about half-way down the first floor. Not on the floor with the stage walkways, but still pretty close. Other than being alone and next to the most unethusiastic fangirl ever, we had a fantastic time. After that since we hadn't been able to get tickets for Summery, we went to Shibuya to get dinner and ring in the new year, which we did while eating amazing Japanese food. All the Japanese people in the resteraunt greatly enjoyed us counting down the last seconds to the new year. I called home and wished people there a happy new year, every though it was still noon for them. Then we walked around some in Shibuya observing the festivities and then decided to call it a night. Because of how tight packed it was we had taken turns sleeping in a manga cafe, which is pretty cheap and do-able if yor in the right place. The next day we were all zombies again and Adryn and Darrin left for Tochigi. Erin, Scribe, and I dinked around the rest of that day and had convi-food and doughnuts for dinner.
And then it was time for me to catch my plane home, which I did without too much train trouble this time. And that began to next chapter of my whirlwind vacation. Needless to say I spent a few days at home recovering from my cold which really hit my on the plane home, then a few days in Winston with Corey, and then my family went for its long awaited cruise which was a blast and such a nice break (the warm weather was fantastic too) and then I spent most of the next week in Boone visiting and doing some job hunting/feeling out. And then a few more days at home and it was time to come back.
Wow, I did a LOT. But it was really fun and totally worth it, I just think I'll stick to Kansai for a while. Pictures will come later when my camera charger comes in the mail.
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