Back to the simple days!

Not as simple as my sick days though. :p But no dodge ball tournaments or anything exciting like that.

A typical morning.... Drag myself out of bed, get dressed, have breakfast.... Then go to school with the kids.
School this morning started with music! We have to play our song on Friday, so it's time to practice practice practice! I'm on the tambourine, so I have it easy.... We (there's another tambourine player) only have to go off our regular tempo twice. I think... It's easy though... :p I need to get better at catching those two parts, though. Especially the first one...
After music we went back to the classroom and did sewing.... We sewed until lunch time.... Lots of sewing.... Sewing towels. I honestly don't know why.... But we did. We folded old towels into quarters, sewed the edges, then diagonally through the middle... And we did two each. So lots of sewing.
Then we ate lunch. Yay for lunch! After lunch I wandered around with some of the other girls, then we went in for cleaning. We cleaned an entryway kind of deal on the first floor.... I wiped the floors... Not a very complicated job. :p
After that we went back to the classroom.... Some people did stuff, and I'm not sure exactly what.... Then we went outside. Apparently there's ANOTHER competition next Monday.... A jump rope competition. They practiced the thing where you run through while the rope is moving.... Which I have never done in my life, so I pulled out of this contest.... I don't want to make them lose. That would be sad. I haven't really jump roped in YEARS, and I never was able to do the running in and starting thing.... That was always beyond me.

After that I came home. Used the computer, ate a snack, showed Grandma a newsletter-type thing we got.... It looks like the 13th may be my last day, because after that is just graduation stuff.... That means.... SEVEN more school days. That's kind of sad.... But I can't escape the "Summer vacation!" feeling, even though I'd be leaving not too long after that anyway.... It's like instinct or something.
I haven't done much else today, as usual.... Played some Boggle, some Master Boggle.... Kento didn't play with me, but I played anyway.

Shopping and my failure at doing anything with the big tamagochis

I woke up today pretty late.... That's me. :p Maybe about 10:30, though I can't say for sure. I had a quick breakfast of fruit, then messed around on the internet for a while.
Later, Nanako and Yuutaro came downstairs. They asked if I wanted to go shopping, so I said sure. We went (with the adults too, of course) to the... I have no idea how to spell it, but I'll give it a shot.... Jasco? It's a mall kind of thing, anyway. The same place we went to back in January. Was it my first Sunday here? I'd have to go back and check, but it was one of the first.
First thing's first... We had to get lunch! We went to McDonalds! :) McDonalds in Japan is OK. It's better than the American McDonalds by far. I got a double cheeseburger meal, which was pretty darn good..... And that nostalgic grape soda.... ;) Ah, the days when I'd get blisters on the fireman pole at that one park...... Good times. :p (don't worry if you have no idea what I'm talking about.... It was a long time ago)

After lunch, the kids and I went to the place where they have.... DEKAGOCHIS! :) Those would be the giant tamagochis they have in the stores.... A market one and a games one. I bought a couple goofy things from the market one, and lost all the games I attempted on the games one.... Oh well. We hung around that store for a while, then Tomoko came and got us. We went to another store really fast, then headed home.
I got online again.... Boggle and chatting with Kento! :) We do that a lot now. I also went to Tamatown on my computer for a little bit...... I just did online stuff until dinner time.
Tatsuya made hamubagu, so I had some.... It was really good. Hamubagu is hard to explain.... Though you probably recognise the resemblance to the word hamburger.... OK, maybe not. Hamubagu is like a hamburger patty type with with sauce on it.... But it's more than that. I just don't know how.
It was good anyway.... And after that I was picked up for the Sunday night Bible study! :) They finished the Alpha course last week, so we were doing some other stuff.... By request, we were studying fulfilled prophecies. It was cool! There was lots of stuff I hadn't gone into before. Of course there was some goofiness too, as there always is for some reason.... :) It's lots of fun though, and we had some nice discussions. Long discussions.... It was kind of late when I got home..... And of course now it's even later, and since I have school tomorrow I should be heading to bed. Maybe do some sudoku to wear me out.... I haven't read in a while either, so I might do that.

Time to catch up! I mean it!

Ugh.... Still mad at myself for getting so behind....... But I will correct this!

First off, I guess I do have something to write about for Thursday.... I wanted to watch the Olympics, specifically the figure skating. I wanted to watch the short program........ Which NHK (by the way, I was wrong... There are quite a few more news channels, but they aren't commercial free like NHK) was broadcasting live.... Meaning 3:00 AM our time on Wednesday morning. Well, I wasn't going to school Wednesday...... So why not? I stayed up and watched.... In my room, of course. I really liked Kimmie.... The 16 year old skater for the US. She did awesome, but not good enough, I guess. I ended up going to bed after 3 hours.... "Short" program? Not really. I enjoyed watching what I saw though...... Then I slept in, and didn't really do much on Wednesday........

On to Thursday. Back to school after a week long absence! The morning was dull for me... I'm still not totally sure what was going on.... Going over the tests, it seemed.... But the day after the testing? Is it possible? I suppose. I just sat in the back working on my Japanese....
After that we went out to play dodge ball. Practicing for the big tournament. ;) We had until 10:30 to play.... At 10:30 we were off on a trip! We walked to a nursing home to go visit the elderly people! Of course I really couldn't communicate.... But that's OK. I worked on some of those crazy metal puzzles that have two pieces and you have to get them to come apart.... Those are fun. There were lots of different ones, and I only mastered one. I also played Othello with this guy who I think had a really short attention span and didn't understand the rules at all.... Oh well. I kind of felt bad about winning, but that's life.
After that we walked back to the school and had lunch. After lunch I stayed inside and helped punch out these English flash card things. While I was doing so I was "found". I don't know if these 1st graders had been looking for me recently or not, but apparently they "found" me. I think it was the same girl (and friends) who were staring at me while we cleaned the bathrooms..... But anyway, they "found" me and hung around trying to communicate for a while. There was quite a bit of random talk about how to say things in English/Japanese.... And apparent surprise at me being able to speak a little Japanese.... That surprises people for some reason. Seems to me that if I'm in a Japanese school I should be able to at least speak a little, but I guess that isn't as evident to the 1st graders..... Oh well.
After that I helped clean the classroom, then we did.... Umm... What did we do? Oh yeah! We went down to the computer lab! The slow slow PC computer lab! The whole 2-monitors-in-1 thing kind of annoys me, but then slow slow PCs do too.... But hey, it's internet.... Some of the kids looked at my blog, but not being able to understand it kept them from being too interested...... I tried to post, but apparently blogger.com is blocked. So I played some networked typing game with some of the other people.... That was interesting. To our understanding you just punch 1, 2, and 3 really fast and hope for the bests. I also helped some people practice romaji... :p Really typing Japanese, but it's kind of the same thing.
After that I came home, and not much else happened. Just the typical dinner, bath, and whatnot.

Friday.... This should be interesting. Friday morning of course I'm up and off to school, after breakfast... The figure skating medal ceremony was on.... Japan showed it with pride, as on of their skaters earned herself a gold (and she totally deserved it too! :)).
When I got to school, it was out for dodge ball practice.... Why? Because it was the day of the TOURNAMENT! :) We played for a bit, then it was inside. People got changed into their gym clothes, then it was off to the gym for the games! :) Some people talked for a bit, then the gym was divided into two with a big net thing and the games began! I was on the girls 6-4A team.... I think I said before that the boys and girls don't play against each other, and the 6th grade has 4 classes (I'm in 6-4). For dodge ball each class had two teams, and A team and a B team. That kept it down to 11 people per team and allowed everyone a chance to play (of course several people were on both teams). To keep it to 12 games the A teams only played against other A teams and B teams against B teams. 6-4A (girls) were in the first game.... We won, though I'm sure I was not very helpful. It was funny when I was running backwards to try to escape the ball, got hit, then fell over though.... The teacher behind me was laughing, and I was laughing.... Some other people asked if I was OK, which of course I was. Falling over is nothing new to me. I ended up out and failed to earn my way back in.....
Maybe now would be a good time to explain the differences between dodge ball in the US and dodge ball in Japan.... First off, there's only one ball here. I love that part. Also, if you get hit, you go outside the boundaries of the opponents area. You basically have free roam outside their boundaries (as long as you don't cross into the outside of your team's boundaries!) and can play from there. It's kind of hard to explain.... Maybe if anyone actually cares I can make a model. Anyway, you play from there and can earn your way back in by getting someone on the opponent's team out. It makes it a bit harder, because you have people surrounding you on all sides... I think those are the only differences I've really noticed. Also, some people start "out".
Anyway. I failed to earn my way back into the main game.... But we still won. I can't remember for sure who we were playing against.... I think it was 6-3.
I didn't really keep track of what games happened when, and who won what... I'm pretty sure 6-4B played a couple games before 6-4A was up again.... I sat back and watched those.... I was tired, though, and kept nodding off a little bit. When I wasn't hacking, anyway. I still had my cough, and playing dodge ball probably wasn't a huge help to that.
My team played two more games.... Not in a row, but we played two more games. I'm pretty sure it was 6-2 that we played against for our second game, and beat. I got out again (I am not a good catcher, and my reflex is to block.... It was an easy catch, but my reflexes didn't agree. Grrr....), but was able to earn my way back in by pure luck.... An attempted and failed catch.... Yes! We won that game, which was awesome!
After that 6-4B played their last game.... I'm not sure if it was directly after or not, because I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the order of things. But I know 6-4B won all their games! YAY! :)
Our last game was game #11 out of 12.... I think it was against 6-1. I got out pretty early on, unfortunately.... I was trying to grab the ball before the "out" person from the other team got it, failed, was hit while trying to get up to escape, and then tripped over myself and fell. It was a strange process that I still don't really understand... I think I tripped over my arm, but I'm not sure how. It was an easy out though, for the other team.... Darn. I once again failed to earn my way back in, and unfortunately we lost the game. That put us at 2 wins and 1 loss, same as 6-3A.
Lucky for us, we already beat 6-3A!!!! :) That put us at #1!!!!! 6-4B also was #1, of course, because they didn't lose a game! That was the girls, of course.... The guys weren't as good. Both A and B teams were #3. Us girls are just better, I guess. ;)
After that some people talked again, then we went back to the classroom.... I was cold, so that made me happy. I didn't bring my coat to the gym for some reason or another, so I ended up being cold... But it was fine.
We did some math for a while.... Yay! :p I did some fraction stuff, then did some compound functions in my notebook, just for fun...... Then I realized I couldn't remember for sure how to multiply polynomials, so I did some trial and error to see if I could or not (I could).
Then it was lunch time.... We ate lunch, then i stayed in again and we played a game.... It started as a game where we try to pull each other across a line.... But then some little kids came in, and it just became pulling people around and stuff.
After that I helped clean the classroom again.... Then they went to home ec. I went too of course.... We wrote letters to the people at the nursing home. I wrote one in English.... Because I could. I didn't really know what to write, so I just wrote some stuff and went with it. The home ec teacher seemed impressed, or something.... I'm not really sure what.
After that we went back to the classroom, I got my stuff, and went downstairs. I found an umbrella in my shoe.... I guess Tomoko dropped by the school with umbrellas for us.... But umbrellas annoy me, and I had my coat (coats protect better than umbrellas, and are more convenient!), so I stuck it in my backpack.... I don't know how many times I'm going to have to tell people I don't need an umbrella.... Oh well.
So I got home, and of course basically did nothing for the rest of the day.... That's me! :p Well, I watched a re-airing of the figure skating finals.... Awesome! And I talked to Kento quite a bit.... Got in quite a few games of Boggle too.... At games.com. That's what Kento and I do while we chat.... :p I finally forced myself to go to bed at 1 AM, after talking with Kento for a while.

Got up today for Japanese class... Was forced up, really. I knew I had to go, but couldn't convince myself to get up... Finally my grandma got me to get up. I ended up running a minute or two late because I had to devour some strawberries really quick.... Not that I mind devouring strawberries... ;)
So I went to the class, and it went well of course.... We worked on some adjectives stuff from my text book.
After that I came home and had lunch..... With Nanako and Yuutaro. I also watched them play Nintendogs.... Fun stuff. :p I'll have to see about getting a DS when I get a job.... :p I'm kind of sold now, especially when I found out there are DS/Nintendogs bundles for about $150.... Not as bad as I thought. I think I'll get one when I go to OSU.... It wont be as fun or cuddly as Ret, but it can be my surrogate, I guess.... ;)
After lunch Grandma went to something.... Something about teaching Japanese, I guess. I talked to Kento, played some Boggle, talked to my dad... The usual. Until about 7:30.... Then it was DINNER TIME!!!! :)
I say that with such excitement.... You might be laughing at me now.... But you must understand, this was no ordinary dinner. This, my friend, was PIZZA!!!! :) But not just any pizza, but the best pizza of all.... Seafood pizza!!!!! :) From Pizza-La. Which is a funny name. But their pizza is fantastic. Expensive, but fantastic. There was a seafood pizza for me and a teriyaki chicken pizza for the kids... I had a piece and a half of the teriyaki chicken pizza, which was pretty good.... Not as good as the seafood though! :) I shared a bit with Yuutaro, and then there was some left over (that Ryusuke ate... And one piece my grandma ate), but I ate a lot of it..... I got pictures too, so when I get caught up on my pictures those will go up.... :) Then I played some Nintendogs (I played frisbee.... Fun. :)), got a bath, then typed this up..... After researching the price of a DS.... ;)

Yes! :) I succeeded in getting caught up, and it' before midnight, so I did it today... Yay! :) It may not have been as thorough as if it were more recent, but that's OK.... I think this is plenty long. :p I hope you managed to read it all without falling asleep a time or two.... Which by the way I should be trying to do pretty quick.... Maybe I'll do some sudoku then head to bed. I'm into the demanding section of my sudoku, so it's getting tougher.... It's taking me a couple days to do some of them.... I'm starting to fear the "Beware! Very challenging!" section.... ;) It'll be fun, I think.... :p Drive me insane, maybe, but fun. :p

Bad Emi!!!!!

Ugh...... Why am I so forgetful??? I forget to write, well, I guess it's yesterday now.... UGH!!!! and now I need sleep..... Bad bad Emi.

I got caught up with some good games of Boggle, chatting with Kento.... And now I should head to bed. I WILL write tomorrow... Today? Whatever. I will! I have stuff to write about! Interesting stuffs! I will. I promise.

Ack!

I almost forgot to post two days in a row! Bad Emi!

Sorry about that.... I guess yesterday I got caught up in finishing Movecast Episode 1, and the same happened today, because I didn't succeed yesterday. Plus I was back in school today, and I was getting Movecast 1 published, and I was listening to podcasts..... I don't know. Not much goes on, yet everything goes on. For some reason I remembered to post as I was having a cough attack while trying to fall asleep.... That's nice.

I really do need to try to get some sleep, so I guess I'll write about today tomorrow.... Tomorrow should be interesting, since we have our 6th grade dodge ball tournament.

In case you're wondering, I really didn't do anything on Wednesday.... I would have gone back to school, but they had school-wide testing (to my understanding), so there was no reason for me to go.... So I got another day off. Good deal. I worked on Movecast quite a bit.... I think that's it.

Mac sweet Mac

My new AC adapter arrived shortly before noon today... Now that's what I call express mail! :)
Sorry about yesterdays post being put up today (though it is dated as yesterday). Blogger was automatically in Japanese, so I guess that was the draft button.... Oops.
So, today.... Still nothing interesting. My cold is getting A LOT better, except at night when I go to bed.... For some reason when I go to bed is when the gagging hacking cough comes. Not cool.

Anyway, blogger is back in English, my battery is charged up nicely, I had to spend $90 on a new adapter.... I'll pay Kanda back when I see her. Kento thinks I may be able to be reimbursed somehow though.... Maybe with Apple Store credits or something..... When I bring my fried adapter to them, of course. Probably do that on the way home from the airport.....
I really haven't done much today.... Been using my computer, doing some kanji, working on Movecast (about 1/3 of the way done with episode 1!), relaxing.... I would be back at school tomorrow, but it's school-wide testing, so I get to stay home. Yay! I'll head back on Thursday.... Even though I intended to drop Thursdays..... One more wont hurt me. ;) I may just decide to keep it up at this rate.....

Today was intersting...

Please excuse any typos I make... I am on my grandma's computer and I'm not a fan of Japanese keyboards. I mean, why is the apostraphey shift+7...　Seriously! And + is shift+;???? It's crazy!

I also miss my spell check... You'll be able to tell when I'm off my Mac... Trust me.

Today for the most part was dull. Another sick day at home. Getting better though. A lot better. Crazy demented cold... But it's going away, so I'm glad.
One interesting thing happened though. My battery on my laptop was geting low, so I plugged it in. I don't know if I told you guys this already or not, but lately my AC adapter has had MAJOR issues. It has always overheated pretty bad, and a guy at the Mac Store said I should probably see about getting it replaced. I planned to do so when I go home. Well, sooner is better than later. A couple weeks ago the part that plugs into my computer started severing from the rest of the adapter. Very strange... I'm still not sure what was up with that. It kept getting worse and worse until a couple nights ago I used some electrical tape to tape it up. THe outside white covering was almost completely severed and all that remained was the gray covering inside. So I taped it up really well and thought it would last until I got home.... WRONG! Not long after I plugged it in it started smoking. NOT good. Scared me to death! I unplugged it, removed the tape, and saw that the grey covering had been completely burnt, as well as some of the white part...... My battery was already below 30%, so this was not good news. I immediatley contacted Kento, who talked to me for a bit, then I shut down computer. Did some sudoku and read a bit (in case anyone is wondering, I'm finally starting to really get into The Hobbit!), until my grandma got home. I then used her computer to look up the Apple AC adapter stuff, look the info page up in the Japanese store, then print it out. We faxed that to Kanda, who said she would try to get one in Akihabara today and get it sent our way. Until then I'm having to use this computer.... I'll live. I wont be on as much.... But I'll live.

THe whole Blogger in Japanese is bugging me though.... Why does it do that on this computer but not mine? Weird.... It:s not redirecting me eitehr... It's still blogger.com. It's jsut all in Japanese....

Chiba Zoo pictures part 2

I just felt like finishing these off.


Bison are funny looking.


Reindeer! :)


That was a FAT camel.



Goat things... Boys and girls!


That's some crazy hair!


How is this thing even real? It's too cute!


Whatever that expression is, it's awesome!


This elephant was crazy.


Organic elephant!


Awww.... It looks sad! :(





I got lots of good giraffe pictures,


Ostrich!


I really don't know what this is....


It looks angry.


Kangaroos


Emu! It's almost like Emi!


Flamingos are actually kind of pretty.....


Tapirs are fat and funny.


The reflecting is awful.... Sadly, it's the best I got. A shoebill that wasn't standing.


Some cute penguins.

There are some sea lion pictures too, but none of them are that great, so I'll leave it at that. Finally I finished the zoo pictures.... Sorry it took forever and then some.

More lazy days of sickness

I basically spent the whole day hanging out in my room..... My grandma works on Sundays, so I was on my own most of the day. My aunt made spaghetti for lunch and brought some down for me... Yum! She also told me Nanako is running a fever too.... So I guess there's two of us sickies now. Nothing really interesting happened today... So yeah.

One thing, I guess, I can talk about.... Have I talked about the bath system here? It's pretty cool, and leads into my strange moment of the day.... So here they have pretty awesome bath rooms.... They are actually bath rooms. Or shower rooms.... I sometimes call it that too. Like half the room is this deep bathtub that's pretty awesome... Nice and deep, so you can be almost completely submerged... Then the rest of the room is the shower, with a drain in the floor and all.... I like it... I think it's very clever. The bath is a community bath kind of thing... You don't drain it every time it's used. At first this is a bit strange, but the thing is that you soak in it, then you get out and take a shower... So you get all clean. ;) That and the water gets so hot (nice hot bath!) that it probably kills any microscopic icky stuff.... ;) So it all works out well.
So anyway, my grandma gets the bath all set up tonight... I missed my shower/bath for a couple days because of my fever... So I got it tonight. Here bath salts are not uncommon, so when my grandma said something about citrus fruit, I initially thought she meant some sort of citrus bath salt... I guess the citrus scent is good for my cold thingy, or something.
Later, I go to take my bath.... After watching the English news. I rolled back the cover thing on the bath (to keep it warm), expecting it to be maybe orange or some citrusy color... And it wasn't. So I was a little bit confused. So I got in, and then I noticed something at the end of the bath.... So I reach for it, and see..... Fruit. When she said citrus fruit, she really meant citrus fruit. So I took a bath with fruit... The poor fruit was all squishy and warm.

So that isn't all that interesting, but something about taking a bath with fruit struck me as odd. Maybe it's just me. Oh well. Nothing interesting happened at all, so that's the best I got. Sorry.

Another lazy day of sickness

I woke up feeling pretty darn awful. At least my fever was down.... Still got a strong cough which terrorizes my throat, though. I'm thinking with the fever down in the 99ºF range it probably isn't the flu though. I'm hoping it isn't laryngitis.... My voice was going off and on today. That's not a good sign....
The worst part is this awful Chinese medicine I have to take.... I thought the first stuff was bad! The stuff I started on today is worse!!!! It is so unbelievably bitter, and the taste lingers. Ech! But at least I have my CC Lemon.... The vitamin C tablets and medicine drops aren't too bad... The Chinese medicine is the awful stuff. Back in the states I'd just take something like Nyquil/Dayquil and be set for the day.... Vitamin C, medical drops, AND a general multi-symptom medicine seems a bit over the top to me, but I'll deal with it. I don't have to go to the hospital, so I'm happy.... ;) I guess hospitals are cheaper here or something, but I guess that was a possibility for a short amount of time... I avoided that, so I'll be fine. ;) In my standards if I'm not better in 10 days, THEN I'll go to the doctor.... Any sooner than that, unless it's obviously something major, seems to be too much for me.... Of course I'm pretty good at getting sick, so that may be why.
So anyway, my day was spent sleeping, hanging out online, and hacking. Not much else.... A lazy, restful day. Didn't go to the Saturday class (third week in a row! Ouch! Other two there just wasn't class...) because my voice was going and I still had a bit of a fever.... Have one again tonight, but it's not too bad. I'll live. I've been through it all before.... If I do lose my voice that would be annoying, but it happens.... Seems to be whenever I'm in other countries (first and only other time I lost my voice was when I went to Mexico), but it happens. Hopefully it wont kill me.... ;)
Sorry for the boring life, but sickness usually isn't all that exciting.

Here's a random observation to hold you over until something interesting happens.... I noticed that 2 of the standard 12 channels in Japan are shopping channels.... I thought that was kind of weird. We're talking BASIC channels here! And there isn't a 7, so it's really 2 of the 11...... Just something I found odd. And then I think there's only one news company, which could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on if they put a spin on stories (as the media tends to do). Like the whole American beef thing.... Have I talked about this before? If not, I'll just give a bit of a summary here....
America messed up and sent Japan ONE wrong meat part in ONE shipment after Japan finally started importing American beef again. The whole mad cow disease thing... Kind of ridiculous. They're making a big deal about it... It's been on the news for weeks. It may have been in the states for maybe a day or two.... I don't know what they said about it there, so if anyone knows, feel free to tell me. Anyway, it's a big deal here. It hasn't been every day like it was a week or two ago, but it still shows up in the news every few days... Today being one of those.
What I want to know is who's reporting Japan's mad cow cases... There was, what? Twenty confirmed cases in Japan, I believe.... And something like three in the US. No human in America has had the human equivalent of mad cow, one person in Japan has.... So what's the big deal????? Shouldn't they be more afraid of their beef? It's ridiculous.

There's my mad cow/BSE rant and my strange TV observation..... The mad cow thing has been going on for weeks, so I may have mentioned it already. I can't remember for sure.... Sorry if I have. It's still going on though... Today they started reviewing America's new beef import proposal.... To my understanding, anyway. It seems silly to get so worked up about ONE mistake.... Maybe they do need to change it a little bit, but completely altering the proposal? Yikes! Maybe it's just me..... But it doesn't seem like something to worry about.

The flu? A cold? Who knows?

Ugh.... If only I brought some dayquil. I might be able to escape the "what do we do?" stage.... Fever, cough, headache.... I'm not having a great day. I stayed home from school and slept.... Then got online. Skyped with one of my friends.... That was fun! :) The highlight of my day.... Because the rest of the day I was feeling pretty icky. I did get the audio for Movecast episode 1 made, though.... Started on the video too. So that's a good thing.

A tiring Thursday

Sorry about the double post yesterday... I fixed that.

Today I struggled to wake up.... I'm not sure why. I got enough sleep.... But I was tired, I guess. I got up, had breakfast, got ready to go, and left. You probably have that whole routine memorized by now... It's the same every school day.
Anyway, got to school and went upstairs. It was wet from the previous night's rain, so no dodge ball practice. School started with a math test... Sounds good to me. :p I was able to do it with a little bit of explanation from my teacher.
After that they did social studies. As I stated last week I am not able to concentrate during social studies, so I worked on Japanese instead. After that was art.... They worked on cards for teachers, since they are graduating soon..... I did origami. I think they might be using some of the cranes, but I'm really not sure.... After art was lunch.... Udon! :) I got an extra helping of udon because I was really really hungry. :p
After lunch we played a game.... We couldn't go outside, so we played in the classroom. It was a game with these cards scattered on the floor, and there's one person who reads from another deck of cards, and the rest of the people try to find the card that says that. It was in hiragana, so I could play.... I got 3 cards. :) Four, really, but the teacher told me which one to get once.... So I didn't really count that one.
After that we cleaned, and I was really cold.... There was a drastic weather change last night, and it became COLD!!!!! And wet... And because we were cleaning at the entrance it was cold there too. There wasn't much to do though, since no one had really gone in and out much during the day... It made our job easy. We swept up the little dirt that was there, then went back upstairs. For the last class all the 6th graders got together in the English room and sang songs.... I guess they were practicing for the graduation or something.... I was really really tired and kept almost nodding off.... I tried to sing along with the last song, and that helped a little.... It's hard though, because they sing too fast. :p
After that I headed home, and got online... Took care of my hand, which looks A LOT better now... The biggest scratch looks a little infected, but I'll take care of that. I'm also getting a bit of a cough, but it's not too bad yet.... Grandma wants me to take some sort of Chinese medicine, but I'm fine.... Coughs I can deal with.

That's about it for today. Not much going on here. I finished my little kanji review book, so probably tomorrow I'll see what I can remember.... I'll review some more after that.

Ouch!

Today was a pretty good day. A bad thing or two mixed in, but it all averaged out in the end. I think the good prevailed, actually....

Up early again for school. GROAN! That will NEVER be a good thing.... Anyway, up early, got dressed, ate breakfast (yet another croissant/pudding thing), got ready for school, then went upstairs to see if the kids were ready.
We left, and I was happy to find that the wind that had been scaring me the night before (it was SCARY!) had subsided, and it felt like a warm mid/late spring day..... In late winter.
Anyway, got to school and went upstairs to the classroom. No one else was there, so I figured there was somewhere else I should be, but I wasn't sure where.... So I waited for someone to direct me to where everyone was.... Turns out they were outside practicing dodge ball.... I should have known.
First class today was interesting.... It wasn't a class, and it took all morning.... It was the 6th grade basketball tournament!!!!! :) The four 6th grade classes battle it out on the basketball court! Guys against guys, girls against girls.... So really it was like two different tournaments. But anyway, we went down to the gym for that. My class wasn't playing the first game, so we watched the guys..... We were in the second game, though.... Against class 6-3 (we're class 6-4). I was in the third rotation (a new group played each quarter). and was asked to do the jump ball, then go wait by the hoop for someone to pass me the ball, then I would shoot. Worked for me..... Only problem was...... The ball never made it to me. Bummer. Obviously we did NOT win that game.... It was something like 3-18.... We lost.
We weren't in the third game, so I just sat out and watched..... We played the 4th game though, against class 6-2. This game was a BLAST! Third quarter again, jump ball then hoop again. This worked out well this time.... I made THREE baskets! One, two, THREE! :) Two of them were in a row (not really in a row, but the next time I got the ball)! If you know me, you know I'm TERRIBLE at basketball... So I was truly amazed! I mean, sure... I was right by the basket.... But still, for me that's good. People kept saying "Emi-chan wa sugoi!" after that..... It was kind of funny. :) We won that game 27-8. I was SO happy! :)
Fifth game we didn't play..... Back in for the 6th and last game. Same routine as before.... Unfortunately I made no baskets this time. Got the ball so some others could, ran into the wall a time or two, but no baskets. We DID win the game though, so that was good. 16-9, I think the score was..... Against class 6-1.
At that point the tournament was over, so we went outside.... They told us the results.... 6-4 got second in the girls games and 3rd in the guys games..... 6-3 girls won 3/3 games, 6-4 girls had 2/3, 6-1 girls had 1/3, and 6-2 girls finished with a sad 0/3 victories. I'm not sure about the guys.....
Anyway, after that it was apparently time to practice dodge ball. Should I have been surprised? No. Was I? No. So we played dodge ball against another class.... I guess that's our next tournament, so the practicing will probably be relentless now!
After that we went in for lunch.... Yay! I was so hungry at that point..... We had gyoza, rice, and some stuff that I still don't know what it was. Being a huge fan of gyoza, I wanted an extra piece..... So I joined in the rock-paper-scissors game over the last few pieces. I was the number 1 victor, so I got my extra gyoza... Only one, of course, and then they played for the rest... ;) I got some more rice while I was at it, too. I was so hungry..... And it tasted so good!!!!!
After that, you guessed it, dodge ball!!!!! I'll take this opportunity to say that it seems hand injuries are some sort of fashion now.... A result of the dodge ball, I'm sure.... So many people have fingers taped up with gauze.... It's actually kind of funny.
Anyway, dodge ball. We played, and I unfortunately almost got hit in the face.... I blocked it with my hand, but then I hit myself in the face (ball knocked my hand into my face), so I'm not sure how much good it did.... It wasn't too bad though. Just the very side of my face, by my right eye.... Nothing to show for it, thank goodness.
Now, I mentioned above the hand injury "fashion".... I've joined that "fashion", but I'm not cool enough to get hurt in dodge ball.... No, I had to get hurt while WALKING. I wear hiking boots, and my left one needed retying today.... I noticed earlier, but didn't get around to it. It wasn't that the knot was untying, but the laces were getting too loose and were in danger of coming off of those tab things that hiking boots have.... Thus staying tied in a loop, but essentially not really being tied..... I really should have stopped to retie it earlier.... It would have saved me some pain. You see, I was right.... And it DID come off the tab things.... And I stepped through the loop (on my left boot) with my right boot, didn't notice, and fell very ungracefully onto the ground..... Which where I was had gravel and some concrete.... Ouch. I was miraculously spared from injury to the right hand, but the left got some lovely chunks of skin sheared off.... OUCH! So one of the kids brought me to nurses office, she put stuff that REALLY REALLY stung on it, and I was sent on my way.... That stuff that stung I do not like..... It made it hurt for so long....
Anyway, by the time that was taken care of and I went to the area where I clean this week, they were almost done..... And there were no brooms left anyway.... So I took the time to retie my shoe. Then I went upstairs with my teacher to help with the English class.... Fourth graders again. Same as last Friday.... That went well. I got to go home after that, because the last class (Wednesdays are long days) was a test.... So I went home at the normal time. Lucky me! :)

After I got home, not much..... Ate some cheese tart things, talked to Kento, talked to my dad..... My grandma put some gauze on my hand, so that's all taped up now.... It doesn't hurt much anymore, so that makes me happy....
So that was my day. The most fun I think, oddly enough, was the basketball. I had a blast! :) Hoping dodge ball is as fun when that tournament rolls around... ;) That's all for tonight. It's almost midnight and I should head to bed.

*yawn*

I'm headed to bed pretty quick... Another not very interesting day here. Got up, had breakfast, had lunch, went to Japanese class, walked home on my own (I feel so trusted :p), worked online a bit, ate dinner, watched some Olympics stuff..... That's about it. Sorry I'm so not interesting now. I have school tomorrow, so I need to direct myself towards bed. Wednesdays are long days, but I've been given permission to come home at the regular time. :) Their last thing is a test, so I was told I don't have to stay.... Yay! :)

Un-dissing my mom

Sorry, Mom!
I guess though she didn't send it to the address they WANTED her to... That is still true. Sorry. :p They still got where they needed to be, and the CAS scholarship application is fine.... Bleh to whoever sent me the e-mail saying otherwise.



And while I'm on, I might as well say that my tamagochi transformed this morning.... It's cute. ;)

15 minutes away from forgeting...

That's cutting it close.

Anyway, there really isn't anything to write about today. I got up, chatted with Kento, had brunch, chatted with Kento and my dad, then had dinner while chatting with Kento (my grandma was at a class)...... Today I just relaxed, chatted with people, played games, worked on my website.... It was all very nice, but not interesting for you... Sorry. ;)

School????

Yeah. School on Sunday was a weird experience..... It felt too much like Monday. Now my mind calendar is all confused.

I didn't get to bed until late last night... I got my podcast set up and started submitting it places.... I went to bed around 1 but couldn't fall asleep for a while.........
Then it was up at around 7:00, of course. A quick breakfast, and then I was off to school with Yuutaro. Nanako had a swimming thing today, so she went to that.
Got to school and went upstairs to the classroom... Sat there until school started. Then we went to the gym for PE.... I was tired.... But I tried anyway. After that was math, then a science test...... In the free time in-between I planned the Movecast website.... Which is still being worked on, but is looking pretty good. I was having a blast planning it.... :)
Anyway, after the science test (I mostly just worked on my Japanese) was the best school lunch EVER!!!!!!!! It can be summed up best with one word.... メロンパン!!!!! For those of you who can't read katakana or have "racist computers" (as I jokingly call them), that says melonpan. Pan is bread.... It's NOT pronounced like pots and pans, incase you;re wondering.
Melonpan was the best part of lunch, but the shumai and ramen were DELICIOUS too. I felt guilty eating the little quail eggs, but they did taste good.... But melonpan.... Man, melonpan! It's called that because it's dome-ish, and kind of looks like the outside of a melon.... Oooh... And it's so good! It's sweet.... And delicious! No clue how to describe the taste, but it doesn't taste like melon... That's for sure. It's sweet and bready and delicious though!
After the best school lunch ever we went back to the gym to play dodge ball.... What else? :p We played for a while, then went in to clean.
My week of bathroom cleaning is over! Yay! Today I swept the entrance place.... The place where we come in and change our shoes. Have I mentioned that? No? Oh... Well, we have to change our shoes.... We have a pair of shoes for in school and a pair of shoes for out of school... My shoes are so American... It's funny. :p My brand new shoes now reside at school, and my boots I wear everywhere else. I have them tied loose enough to slip on and off though, so that's OK.
Anyway, it was really dusty and my nose hurt afterwards..... But it looked pretty good when we were done. :) And I think it's better than cleaning the bathroom!
Then it was the open school thing.... Parents started showing up and lining up in the back of the room.... We did "moral studies"..... Today we had to decide who out of 6 people to save from a sinking ship..... We could save 4 people. It was really obvious who everyone would choose though.... There was a Jr. High student, a pregnant woman, a young actress, a doctor, a 50 year old alcoholic, and a 72 year old guy.... Very easy to choose....
So after that I went home. Grandma stayed to talk to people, so I headed home on my own. Yuutaro and his dad got home a little later.... Nanako was still at the swimming thing.
We decided to go get some linner.... Sushi! :) We found grandma on her way home, picked her up, then headed to the sushi place. Mmm... So good! :) Even if I had to endure a little wasabi.... ;) I am not a spicy kind of person.... Wasabi is too much for me. But a tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny bit is OK.
After sushi we went to a bookstore, wandered for a bit, then came home..... Stopped at a bread place and got melonpan on the way home.... :p Yum!!!!!!! I can't get enough of the stuff now.... It's so good!
When I got home I started working on the Movecast page...... Had dinner (melonpan and chicken), then worked on the page some more..... Then I was picked up for the Sunday night Bible study. That was so much fun..... Tonight was chock full of discussions about the whole Muhammad thing, gay "marriage" stuff, some other stuff, lots of laughs over accents and slang..... Good times! :)
Now I'm back home, of course..... I'm leaving Movecastmv as-is until tomorrow.... I really am tired..... So good night!

Zoo pictures... Finally! Post 1 of 2

I'm SOOO sorry it's taken so long. I'm such a procrastinater


Tonkatsu!!!!! Lunch... Mmmmm...


Some monkeys... There were lots of them.


More monkeys!


Rafiki!!!!! :) Not really, but it's a natural association, right? ;)


These guys are just funny looking... I like them!


One of my many bad pictures of lemurs.... Unfortunately, it's the best I got.


Some chimps.... Cute! If you can zoom in on the two cuddling on the left... VERY cute!


Orangutan! :)


Gorilla! It was cold... Awwww...


An organic gorilla!


Fluffy penguins!





Capybaras!!!!!! Too cute for just one... Or two... Or three.... :p


This was just a cute cow.... Cuter than the other one.


A cute tortoise... Big, but not as big as a galapagos.


Prairie dog... Funny looking critter, but cute.





This is just for Kento.



The red panda was cute.... :)

Now you see why I put this off? I think I'm going to divide his into two posts.... Seriously. This is crazy.

ARGH!!!!!!!!

A good day, a bad day. A stressful day, a relaxing day. Why is today full of contradictions? Oh well.... I'll talk it out here....

So I get up today about 9:00.... That was nice. I actually woke up at 5 after a really weird almost nightmare-ish dream, but was able to go back to sleep.
Anyway, I used my computer until about 10:00, then went out to see about getting something to eat. I had half an apple and some cheese crackers.... A light breakfast.
Then I went back to my room to use the computer a bit more.... Checked my e-mail.... Got an e-mail saying My college of ag sciences scholarship application is INCOMPLETE!!!! ARGH!!!!!!!!! Transcripts AND SAT scores.... NOT there! No clue how to get the scores sent their way, and transcripts I guess I was right on... I told my mom they were sent to the wrong address! But she said it was OK... Apparently it wasn't. How we're going to get my signature to release a transcript over to WOU and Chemeketa is beyond me. Fax machine here is broken..... So I'm stressed out about that.... Especially because my mom hasn't replied to my e-mail yet! Uuuuuuuuugh....................
Anyway, used the computer for a bit, then my grandma and me were picked up to go to her friend's house for tonkatsu! Gooood tonkatsu! Pictures will come... ;) After lunch we messed around with some image software for a while, then came back home.
I got on my computer again.... My relaxation days revolve around the computer.... Can you tell? Oh yeah, and my tamagochi transformed too... It's an Onionchi now... As you might guess, it looks like an onion.
Some other friend's of Grandma's came over... They're still here. So Grandma's just been talking with them.... I've been talking with Kento and my dad. :p A Skype conference... Good stuff.
That's about it.... I'm freaking out about the scholarship stuff, but it's just after midnight in Oregon, so I guess it'll have to wait.
I haven't put up the zoo pictures yet today, but they should come soon. I will work on that now! I was working on my podcast logo earlier (www.movecastmv.com), so that took up my time... But pictures I'll do now! Really!

Ahh... Worn out!

Sorry I didn't get the pictures posted today.... Tomorrow! And that's final!

So... Today.... Today was a good day. Something about Fridays.... They just feel good!
Up early, of course.... For school. I must have slept well last night, because it wasn't that bad getting up! Then I ate another of those brilliant chocolate pudding croissant things... So good...
So then I finished getting ready for school, and went upstairs to bug Yuutaro and Nanako until they were ready... ;) Something Yuutaro usually gets to do to me! :p
So of course I walked to school with them, then I helped clean the walk again. Then it was upstairs for class. They started with some Japanese and a social studies test, so I worked in my workbook again. Then it was to the music room.... To play the tambourine! I'm having fun with that... :p It's nice and simple, and I don't feel left out. ;)
After music was PE. Dodge ball, basketball, jump rope.... This is a normal PE class... ;) Dodge ball is of course always included.
Then we went back upstairs to the classroom to do math. I did different math, because I guess today's was too complicated to explain in English... ;) So I got to do fractions! Yay! Some ratios too. Fun stuff! Cross multiplication and all that good stuff.
Then it was LUNCH!!!! :) Really good lunch today! Chicken, rice, and alphabet soup.... The soup was upsetting though. ;) It had numbers in it too. 8 is not in the alphabet!!!! Nine isn't either! Or two! Grrr....... It angered me. Not really... But I joked about it a little bit... ;)
Then it was outside for more dodge ball! Of course. We played for a while, then went in to clean. I cleaned the bathroom again... Today we got to pour water all over the floor, add soap, use broom-like things to scrub a bit, then rinse it all down a drain.... And wipe it clean. ;)
After that I helped with the English class again.... today's 4th graders were pretty good. They asked questions for a while, I taught them how to say stuff (pizza toppings, actually... ;)), then they got to "make pizza". Paper, of course.... The point was for them to come and "order" stuff from us... That is, me and the two teachers. We had the toppings, so they had to come ask for what they wanted.
After that it was back to the room to get my stuff, then walk home. :) Play with tamagochis for a while, talk with Kento for a while, eat dinner, get a bath, then bed. Days here are becoming pretty systematic and not incredibly interesting to write about... ;)

Tomorrow we're going to have tonkatsu for lunch! :) Grandma's friend is making it for us. :) And it's a holiday here, so no class in Kimitsu.
I have school on Sunday... It's an open house kind of thing, so we're doing that Sunday and getting Monday off. :)

That's about it from here. I'm exhausted, so I think I'll do some sudoku then turn in for the night.

I really did mean to!

I meant to post the pictures today.... But I didn't.... Oh well. Tomorrow maybe, and if not, definitely Saturday... At least some will go up. Saturday is a holiday, so no class... Yay!

So, today was kind of a struggle for me... Forced myself to get up, ate some breakfast, then rushed to get ready. No need to worry about being late, really, but oh well. Walked to school with Yuutaro as usual.... Then cleaned the walk like I have all week (excluding Tuesday). Then we went in and started with my love, math! A fractions worksheet (easy!) and a page from the textbook (still easy, though a little hard to understand). There was kanji in my math.... Bleh. It was oku and man, so once I understood what they were it was OK. Math was fine, of course. Then we did some kanji.... I worked from my JPN 102 workbook. After that was a very boring time for me.... It was art, which would usually be fine, but they were finishing a project, so I didn't have anything to do.... So I helped a little, watched a little, yawned a lot.... I was tired!
Once that was finally done, it was lunch time. I have NO idea what we ate, but it was alright. After lunch was dodge ball, of course. Then back inside for cleaning.... I think I might be becoming famous or something. Today a group of 1st graders stood around talking with me. One of them, who was the first one to start it all today, kept saying "hello" and "konnichiwa", then getting other friends and doing it again. I just kind of stood there.... Responding, and laughing awkwardly. Yuutaro showed up for a bit too. It was quite funny, really. They seemed impressed that I could do both English AND Japanese.... Whatever. I'm kind of getting used to it... It's really amusing now.
Last class of the day was social studies.... This seems to be my worst subject, because my mind wanders so much during it... I think the other subjects are a bit more interactive.... If you asked me what it was about today, even a remote idea, I wouldn't be able to tell you..... It didn't help that I was exhausted.
So now I'm thinking about dropping Thursdays too.... Three days in a row (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) is a bit overwhelming. I said I'd decide after next week.... But I've talked to several people about it already. Next week we have Monday off (Sunday is an open house, so we go for that instead), then I'm home Tuesdays (for the afternoon Japanese class), so the three days in a row will be the only days I'm at school.... So I said I'd go and decide what I want to do after that.

After school I walked home (by myself again). I beat both Nanako and Yuutaro to the house. :p Not that we were racing.... But I was the first home. Grabbed my tamagochi, fed the poor thing, then waited for Nanako to get home... And Yuutaro, of course. They were going to do some of the infrared stuff with the tamas.... So I waited for them. Nanako got home first, and started doing the stuff.... They basically sent me lots of presents... :p Woohoo!
After that, I went back to my room. Decided I wanted to try the whole wifi thing.... So I found the tamatown website, and got hooked up. LAter Nana and Yuutaro walked in and were really impressed that I had done that all on my own.... I had already been playing around with it for a little while. That's about all I did this afternoon.... Played around with Tamatown. It's pretty cool.... I almost have 10,000 gochi points now! :p
Great use of my time, I know. I did some more kanji review tonight, after my bath.... Now I'm SOOOO tired... I really need to get some sleep. G'night.

Big news in the OR department

How did I forget mentioning this??? It's like the biggest most important news of the day!

I got an e-mail from my mom today. It said "I got the job!". Well, that means we're moving.... Again. Not that I have much to miss in Independence. I love the place, but that lack of friends was kind of sad. I am really going to miss the house though... And being so close to grandma... And we're going to be even FARTHER from the people who ARE my friends... But as long as I have Ret, I should be able to adapt. I have a lot of questions right now, and hopefully I can chat with my mom sometime and get those worked out. A lot of things she probably wont have answers for, but that's OK.
Since I'll be spending the majority of my time at OSU starting this fall, I guess it doesn't matter much... Ret is the number 1 priority for me as far as houses and stuff go. He'll be living there year round, I wont. My mom needs to love it too, of course... But it has to be Ret compatible... Otherwise all involved will go insane.
This makes my need to learn to drive even greater... I can get my permit when I go back, so I'll be planning for that. Kento has offered me a room in his apartment so I can still get a job at WOU if I want... I'm NOT taking classes at U of O, and that is final! Imagine transferring duck credits to the beavers? Ick! A community college down there, maybe.... But NO duck classes for me!
So that's the big news back home..... My mom needs to get on AIM or Skype sometime so I can chat with her.... That means you, mom... ;) Maybe Saturday.... When I don't have classes. Yay for a national holiday. I don't know what holiday it is, but that's what I was told. Yay.

Tamagochi!

OK.. So it's Wednesday. Wednesdays are exhausting! And here's the inside scoop.......

Wake up early, as usual on school days. Groan...... This morning I got up without a problem though. Although I was cold..... Anyway, got up, then went to have breakfast. Part of an apple and a croissant-like thing filled with chocolate pudding-like stuff. Yummm.... Got dressed, got stuff ready for school, then left.
I walked to school with Nanako and Yuutaro, as usual. My teacher was at the gate when we went in, so she got me started cleaning up the walkway again (volunteer week). I did that, then went in.
First we did some Japanese stuff.... I basically just wrote what was on the board.... It amazed me that I could read it from the back of the room, if I had my glasses on. That's the 7th row! I remember not being able to see from the 3rd row....
Next thing we did was study kanji.... But since they're obviously way ahead of me, I worked in my Japanese workbook for JPN 102. After that we went down to the gym for an all-school assembly. Of course I have no clue what was going on.... But that doesn't matter much. After that, we played dodge ball. I'm telling you... These people LOVE dodge ball!
After dodge ball, we went back in. It was time for math. Have I ever mentioned that I'm not fond of decimals? Well, I'm not. So I just turned them into fractions and went from there. I tried not doing that, and got several problems wrong.... So I just stuck with the fractions. It only backfired once.
After that was science. I just copied what was on the board.... With a little help from the person in front of me (translating things to hiragana for me). That was good.
Then it was lunch time. Definitely a good time. Food is ALWAYS a good time. We had some soup, some rice with really good furekake, and a thing that I'm still not 100% clear on what it was.... But it tasted alright. After that it was time for another game of dodge ball.... So outside we went to play. We played a couple games of dodge ball, then it was time to go in and clean. Cleaned the bathroom again.... But this time it accompanies what was to me a strange experience.
So we're cleaning the girls bathroom on the second floor... That's the floor with the 1st graders, and I'm not sure what other grades are there. But anyway, we're cleaning, and this girl, probably about 1st or second grade, walks in, asking if someone (not sure who) was there. Whoever it was wasn't in the bathroom, so the girl left. A few minutes later she comes in, uses the bathroom, then leaves again. After we finished cleaning, we walked out of the bathroom and there was the girl, standing by the corner with a group of friends, just watching us. When I glanced over at her, she started giggling... She said something to the friends, but I didn't understand.... Though I have a sneaking suspicion it had to do with me, and they were there to see me..... Weird. They giggled whenever I looked their way. It was VERY strange.
So after that it was music class... I was totally at a disadvantage because I haven't learned to read music yet. Well, a long long time ago, and I have forgotten... Not sure if I ever really grasped it anyway. So we go to the music room, where they have several keyboards, xylophones, and cool stuff like that. I was given a tambourine.... Let me tell you, I play a MEAN tambourine! :p
After music class I got very very confused..... Usually e get out at 2:35, but I guess Wednesdays run late. We went back to the classroom, and started planning teams for the basketball and dodge ball tournaments I guess the school is having. I'm in a dodge ball tournament.... Interesting. I was very confused by the whole ordeal though... The whole team assigning thing. It seemed very complicated. And I was also wondering why I couldn't go home yet........... But it ended up OK. After they finally assigned teams and stuff we had some time to kill, so we went outside to practice. I was still trying to figure out why I couldn't go home yet...... But that's OK. My team won, and I could finally go home! I went upstairs, grabbed my stuff, then started home. People seemed concerned about me walking home alone, but it was fine.... I found the way easily.

It was probably about 4:30 when I got home.... Sheesh! Long day! So I decided just to kick back for a while. Talked to my dad and Kento on Skype, surfed the net, played boggle on games.com, good stuff like that.

Ryusuke gave me my tamagochi today.... :) Probably about 8:00 PM. I remember setting the clock, so yeah... It was right around then. It's red, white, and blue! Nanako and Yuutaro helped me get it started up, and then I played games and took care of it for a little bit.... Those things are demanding as babies! I got my bath, then hurried out to make sure my tamagochi was doing OK. It was fine... Of course. So I played more games. Then Nana and Yuutaro came down and did some stuff.... My tama transformed into a thing that to me resembles takoyaki.... Yum. But hopefully now that it's older it wont be as demanding! :p Seriously, I was feeding it every several minutes.... Crazy! It's asleep now... No more games tonight, I guess.
I'm enjoying it though. Goofy, I know... But I've actually been wanting to get new batteries for my old ones, recently.... New ones are so much cooler though. Looking forward to figuring out the wifi thing!
I guess Kanda payed for it... So we called and I thanked her. If I were there I would have INSISTED I pay, but I wasn't.... Oh well. At this rate I wont be able to buy anything for myself.... Kind of makes me feel bad. I have plenty of money..... I wish they'd let me buy things for myself sometimes.
I'll get a picture of my tama up sometime... It's not as cool as my #1 choice, the black one, but it's not a bad looking plastic egg! :p

Bad Emi! Bad bad Emi!

I forgot to post AGAIN! Grrr... Yesterday, of course. Then I've been putting it off today. Not sure why.

Anyway, first off, Sunday. Since I didn't write much on Sunday. Sunday was a lazy day for me. I really just hung around the house all day. Slept late, got up and ate brunch, used the computer.... I think that's about all I did. Until the evening of course, when I went to the Bible study... That was fun. Allen (one of the crazy British guys. :p) couldn't make it this week, but the guy that missed last week came... He's from the Pacific Northwest too. :p
Anyway, we talked about sharing our faith.... I ate lots of peanuts.... I couldn't stop eating peanuts. They were so good...... And then I got home around 10:00. Went to bed, some internet stuff, sleep.

Monday morning... Up early for school. Ugh. School is all right, but the word early is evil. Ate some melonpan, which is delicious. It's bread, and it's so so good... Sweet, round.... Delicious!
I walked to school with Yuutaro. When we got there I found out it's volunteer week, so everyone was out doing stuff.... So I went and helped sweep the walkway. Then it was inside for class.
They started with talking... Teacher talking, students talking, I'm not entirely sure what was going on. Then they moved their desks around... I stayed in the back, and some people were "arguing" (jokingly, I think) about who could sit in front of me. ;) I feel loved.
Then they did social studies.... This was immensely odd for me. I THINK they were talking about 9/11.... 9.11 was written on the boards, and I heard "terrorist", "America", and "New York" a few times. So after coming to this conclusion in my mind, my mind wandered.... To 9/11. And I relived some strange memories.... I didn't know what the WTC was before that.......
Anyway, I have been finding it hard to concentrate, as demonstrated by my mind wandering after hearing 9/11... I know I have to listen to pick up the Japanese, but it's hard.... It's hard to pay attention when I can't understand... At all.
After social studies, the students made cards... In groups.... To teachers. I think.... Something to do with a farewell party, but I didn't catch what (6th graders graduate from Elementary school.... I think in March). I just sat and doodled... They were drawing food, so I grabbed my notebook and just started doodling stuff.... In my special style that I call "8 years". My art looks like it's done by an 8 year old. Everything has a happy smiley face.... And looks very cuddly. People thought it was cute, I guess.... I could probably draw better if I wanted to, but I like "8 years".
After that was science. The air cycle.... It's not called that here, but from the handouts, it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out... ;) A scientist, maybe, but not a rocket scientist. :p So I filled the stuff in with the help of the person in front of me (because even though the teacher was writing in hiragana for me, I couldn't see that far).
Then we ate lunch. Lunch was fun.... The ALT (American Language Teacher), who is from Hawaii, came and had lunch with us. :) She has family in Salem, so she's familiar with Oregon... ;) And with OSU too! :) So we talked for a while.... It was fun.
I'm now remembering a dodge ball game before lunch, but I don't remember when.... It was too cold for me to care much anyway. ;)
Anyway, after lunch was another dodge ball game..... These kids LOVE their dodge ball. This dodge ball game was AWESOME though. We had a TON of people playing.... I kept getting run into. But it was lots of fun. Teachers were even playing! My team won both times, though I'm sure I was no help. I put the word "dodge" in the name "dodge ball".
Then we went in and cleaned. I like cleaning stairs A LOT more than bathrooms... I'll put it that way. It wasn't bad... But still. I also said hi to Yuutaro, who was helping clean his classroom (which happened to be right next to the bathroom I was helping clean).
After cleaning, back outside! Cold... I'm not a fan of cold. It was PE time though.... Not my favorite subject. It is kind of fun that they do monkey bars and stuff for a warm up... too bad I have 0 arm strength. I did climb the rope thing they have, and the jungle gym.... I'm a climber. No doubt about that. That's the only place my athletic skills exist. The soccer was no fun to me... Not enough coordination to control the ball... I kept going out of bounds. :p The game of dodge ball (ANOTHER one) wasn't bad though....
After that it was back upstairs to get ready to go home.... Get our stuff... And go home. Yay. Even though school is alright, it's always fun to finally be able to go home.
No one told me the plan for what to do though. Yuutaro's class finished earlier, so I wasn't going home with him... I didn't THINK I was going home with Nanako, but I wasn't sure. I would have been able to find the house alright, but my teacher was concerned about it.... So we found Nanako and I did end up walking home with her. Tomorrow I'll be fine though. I kind of tested myself yesterday (telling myself where to turn before we got there, to see if I was right), and I did fine.... So not a problem.
After we got home, I basically got to relax. I was tired, so that was good. My grandma wasn't home yet for some reason, but she got home not long after us, and then I ate a snack. Gotta love the deliciousness of a cheese tart! And then some takoyaki... Yum! Yuutaro played MarbleBlast Gold a little bit (he loves that game), then I got my computer back and basically messed around on the internet for the rest of the day. Filmed my pilot/intro for my podcast.... Tried getting that to Kento... Messed up Mail, had to set up POP mail again..... It was interesting. :p

Well, it's getting late, so I better make my account of today quick. Not a problem, since today was quick. Got up late again... Yay for Tuesdays and Sundays! Used my computer for a while, then had brunch. Computer for a few more minutes, then we left for my Japanese class. We walked! :) For the first time in a while. I'm starting to like all the walking... I'm not wimping out as much anymore. It makes me feel good about myself. ;)
Japanese class was alright... A bit frustrating for me though. Saturdays are better, because they're 1-on-1, and my teacher is an English teacher. I'm a question asker, so it's rough when I can't really communicate with my teacher. It doesn't help when I'm having a bit of trouble understanding what we're doing anyway. I was doing alright near the end though, so it was OK. I'll admit I was pretty frustrated though. I really need to understand things, or I get annoyed with myself. I am so determined to understand, and if I don't, I want to ask why, and be able to understand.... At least in a class. That may be why I'm so ahead... I'm not afraid to ask questions.... In fact, if I don't get it, I pester and ask questions until I do... :p So this Japanese class has been something new. I don't mind not being able to understand Japanese in general too much.... But when it's a Japanese class that I should be able to understand, it's frustrating.
So, enough about me and my quirks that frustrate me.... After class my grandma and I walked to the store.... And bought chocolate. Strange thing.... I had a dream about chocolate cake last night. I know there was more to it than that, but that's all I can remember. So after class we have tea and some snacks, and today we had chocolate cake........ It seemed a bit odd to me. So I told my grandma that I had a dream about chocolate cake last night, and she decided we should buy chocolate... Or something. I'm not sure what was up with that.... It was interesting.
So anyway, we bought chocolatey stuff. I'm certainly not complaining. I guess I'm having chocolate stuff for breakfast tomorrow.... Good plan. :)
So... We came home... And... What did I do after that, anyway? Oh yeah! I had told my grandma I wanted to buy one of the really cool tamagochis they have here now! It just so happenes that Ryusuke was going to Kanda today, so we asked him to pick one up for me. I got to pick out the color and all that good stuff from a book Nanako and Yuutaro have.... Fun. :p So I'm getting one of the awesome tamagochis with wifi and stuff. I'm excited about that. :) I don't know when Ryusuake is coming back, so I'm not sure WHEN I'll get it.... But eventually!
After that, I got online. Talked to Kento for a bit, then did an IM chat in Skype with Kento and my dad. My dad is buying a mic tomorrow (which is today there now....), so hopefully we'll be doing group conferencing soon!
I also tried to get my pilot/intro for my podcast to Kento.... He'll be hosting it on his iDisk for me. And setting up my feed.... It didn't work though, so I guess we'll be figuring it out tomorrow. Which is today there. Whatever.
After that... Well, we ate dinner, I got a bath, I did some kanji, I goofed off online.... Good day. :) I also joined the podsafe music network, now with an official OK from C.C.Chapman to make my very unique and strange podcast! I had to clarify some rules to make sure I could do what I want to do with the music.... If I said what that is, I'd spoil my secrecy... ;) But it's very unique and is yet to be done. Yay! So I joined the network, and have been listening to and downloading some songs I want to use. I've got some GREAT ideas and am really excited about them! :) So stay tuned, and hopefully I'll be sending people in the direction of my feed soon!

That's about it for the past few days. Sorry I haven't put any pictures up in a while. I'll try to do that tomorrow, if I don't end up having a long conversation with Kento and my dad or something.... Maybe I'll at least put a picture of my tamagochi up. The one I'm hoping to get looks awesome....
So yeah, that's it for today. I need to head to bed so I can get up early again tomorrow.
G'night!

Heading to bed

I didn't do much today, so I'll tack it on to tomorrow's post.... I know I've been lagging these past few days... Sorry! But I really need sleep now....

Ack!

I forgot to post yesterday!!!! I guess I got caught up in talking to Kento, submitting something to ATH, then planning my podcast.... But that's no excuse.

Yesterday... Saturday! Got up, had some breakfast, then got ready to go to the potluck. The potluck was fun... They had it at a really nice place... It was kind of lodge-ish... I liked it. :p First we listened to some people speak (students...), then we got to eat. Yay! I ate some really good food yesterday.... Just a lot of different things. Really good different things. My favorite was probably the fruit salad.... So good!
After we ate, we played games. Some group games in which my team lost badly. And I had to explain through a language barrier why it was logically impossible for us to untie our human knot (the two circle thing....). Not sure if anyone understood... I was able to manage to point out that we had two circles instead of one though. Then we played Bingo... I got one of their various mystery prizes... Woohoo. A bag (that doesn't really appeal to me at all, but OK). Then we played musical chairs... Twice... I lost the first time and didn't play the second.
After that it was time to go home. We got a ride back (we got a ride there too), and then we got to relax... Relaxing is good. I got online, chatted with Kento, had some dinner, made an episode for the Audio Trash Heap (Kento's podcast... It'll be today's episode), started planning my video podcast (details will come when I get it set up)..... Yeah. A nice relaxing day. I was up late listening to music on the podsafe music network.... There's lots of good stuff on there.

EXHAUSTED, but good!

Up at 7:00 this morning.... SEVEN! EEEEEK!!!!!! I am NOT a morning person... If you can't tell.
Left at 7:30 for school. Grandma's friend who volunteers at the school (I think...) went with me. She stayed the whole day, which was both kind of weird and kind of nice. There's a group of girls, seems like a nice group, that accepted me in almost immediately. We played dodge ball together in PE... And they ate lunch with me, and helped me understand what was going on. Good stuff. We played freeze tag after lunch too.... Even the teacher played. :p I like our teacher. She's really nice.
Today they had a kanji test.... I kind of jokingly tried it.... Which was good (that it was jokingly), because I couldn't answer anything. :p Then they went to the computer lab for a while, where I was given permission basically to roam the web... Man, those computers were painfully slow. It was awful. But hey.... I'll live. I have this connection here (at the house), so not a problem. After that was PE, where we played dodge ball, jumped rope, played basketball, then played dodge ball again. Quite a wide arrangement of things. Then it was back upstairs for math... Now THAT was talking my language! And best of all, FRACTIONS! I love fractions.... So I did the work, just because I love fractions. :p
After that was lunch... Yay for lunch! It was good too. Bread with chocolate spread stuff, salad (with cheese in it! And ham!), and stew.... It was really good! :) Then we went outside and played tag. And then it was back inside, for a time of the day that truly amazed me.....
This is why Japanese have such better work ethic than Americans. They're raised with it. After going outside, we came back in and CLEANED. Yes, the students clean the school. They don't need janitors.... They use a resource already at hand. The STUDENTS! And you know what? I liked it. There was something kind of gratifying about it... I'm not sure what. Something about being on the floor, in-between flights of stairs.... And having people walk past and apologize for walking on the cleaned area.... There was something oddly gratifying about that. It helped that a little kid suddenly said "Kiree!" when they saw the part that I cleaned... That means "clean" or "pretty".... That made me laugh, and feel good at the same time.
After cleaning, the 6th graders did calligraphy... And I gained the strange roll of assistant English teacher. My teacher (6th grade teacher) is also the English teacher, so she invited me to join her instead of doing Japanese calligraphy... I also helped in an English class on Wednesday, so I went ahead and did it again... Man, those 4th graders were scary. Todays group was really rowdy! They seemed very... Excited, I guess. That was insane.... They were all standing up and yelling at me to throw the ball their way.... The ball was to give them permission to come up to the board and answer the question. I got so confused I just started throwing it and letting whoever gets it get it.... Not trying for a specific person.

After that, I went home... I was TIRED! But still, I was happy. I agreed to start going every day but Tuesdays. Tuesdays are my Japanese class at that place in Kimitsu.......
So I got home about 3:00... And Yuutaro wanted to play MarbleBlast Gold (the Apple game... He's basically addicted to it), so I let him... And I showed him my Chiba zoo pictures (they WILL get on here eventually). Then we had dinner (tonkatsu sandwich)... And grandma and me got ready to go to a think known as Dondonyaki, I think.... Yeah. Just googled it... :p Anyway, essentially it's a big fire. It's more significant than that, but you know me... To me it was a big fire. We were being picked up, and so we did that... Went there, ate some soba and a sausage (a GOOD sausage!!!! I'm so American.... But I didn't have it with ketchup!). Then went to watch the big fire... I got some great pictures that will also get on here eventually.... But it was windy, so the fire never made it up to the top of the thing they were burning (tall tall thing).... Flames were still taller than me (A LOT taller... It was huge!), but it never made it to the top... Oh well. It was still awesome. Very very cold though... That wind takes all the warmth right out of you!
So after the big big fire, we had some yakitori, stood by a small fire (in a barrel... With holes in it), and ate stuff.... Then we came back home. I took my bath, and now here I am.

Long day, and I'm exhausted. Tomorrow I'm going to a potluck... The place I go for my Japanese class is having a potluck...

Stuffs!

Up at about 9:00 this morning, too the zoo at about 10:20!
Met Kanda at Chiba station, then ate tonkatsu. Yummm... Then off to the zoo! :) We took the monorail, which I'm still debating whether to call a "flying train" or an "upside down train".
When we got to the zoo, almost no one was there. Well, there was a big school group, but they were leaving. We wandered around, and came across the monkeys. Many many awesome monkeys! Pics will come later....... But there were lots of monkeys, and I got some good pictures. Got lots of bad ones too, but those don't matter.
Then we went to the "Children's zoo" area. That was the most guinea pigs I've ever seen in one place.... Woah. The capybaras were adorable too... And the cows. And everything else there... Turtles, chinchillas, and whatnot.
The giraffes at this zoo were the best, I think. The red panda was great too. Very cute, There was lots of stuff, and the only way I will adequately be able to document it is with pictures.... Which will come later. Might be a few days, because I have some busy days ahead of me. But it might not... So just stay tuned. The only thing I didn't get a good picture of that should be mentioned are the shoebills... There were lots of them! But they were all inside, and I couldn't get a good picture through the glass.
So anyway, we spent quite a while at the zoo... Good time! :) I think we all had fun... And we went to the gift shop afterwards to get something for the kids.... And I got a couple things for Kento and a stuffed penguin (which Kanda bought me... But it's cute! :)). I haven't named it yet.... Any ideas?
Anyway, after the zoo, we took the "upside down flying train" (that works!) back to Chiba station... Then we went shopping... But I was getting tired, so I basically just followed mindlessly. Finally we were able to go home.... I was sleepy, so it kind of became a blur at the end. I took a nap on the train.... Sleepy. Then we walked back to the house, I had dinner, took a bath, listened to some podcasts.... A kid in Corvallis does a pretty good podcast that I'm enjoying. :)
And nnow I should probably try to sleep. Maybe do a couple sudoku first. Helps tire my brain... ;) Not really... I use them as brain breaks sometimes too... But oh well. I have to get up early for school tomorrow... Sixth grade.... Creepy. So g'night. Wish me luck.

Today one of the most interesting yet.... I'm a bit shaken!

Well, it started out fairly ordinary.... Got up, ate some breakfast (half an apple), then went with my grandma to her English class. That's always interesting. Today we played a treasure game. I finished first, then helped the others... My "treasure" was a pile of newspaper ads.... :p Oh boy! I donated them to the "Sam-chan uses shredded newspaper as kitty litter sometimes" cause. A great cause, I'm sure. So then they talked a bit about left and right, "where are you", and things like that.
After that it was back home. I had to submit my CAS (College of agricultural sciences) scholarship application, which I did. Then I ate lunch.... Then I went to..... Elementary school. I met the 6th grade teacher, who seemed very welcoming and nice. It was clean-up time at the school, and while going to talk to the vice principal, we passed by Nanako (and said hi). Then we met with the vice principal (I think...), I was OKed into the school, and we went upstairs. We went up to the English room. The 6th grade teacher was also the English teacher.... And the 4th graders had English today. So I got to help out with that.... We did the hokey pokey. The hokey pokey is SO much more fun on roller skates. It's just kind of weird otherwise... But I did it anyway. There was a boy in a wheelchair, and I felt really bad for him.
But anyway, 4th graders are crazy.
I agreed to try a day of school on Friday, and see how it goes. We'll see.......

After that, it was back home. I got online... Big surprise there. At 7:00 we had dinner. After that it was online for about a half hour, then some kanji review.
I finished the kanji review at about 8:30. Then it was time for me to take a bath/shower..... But then my plans changed slightly. You may or may not have heard about this in the states... If you haven't, you will now.
I turned to grab my pile of laundry to bring to my room. Suddenly I heard some noises.... Being from Oregon, I thought at first that it was heavy rain. It had been raining all day, so that wouldn't have been too unusual. Then the room shook a little, and I'll be honest, I was listening for thunder.... That is, until my grandma said "Jishin". THEN I knew. It was an earthquake. I had never actually FELT an earthquake first hand, so it was a strange experience. Strangest of all my experiences in Japan so far. I honestly didn't know what to do. So I just sort of stood there.... I was thinking "Well, there's a table here.... I was taught in grade school to go under a table.... But this is almost over... It's not that bad...". It was strange. It was pretty fast, but it seems like there was only one big jolt, and I'm now associating that with right around the time I realized it wasn't thunder.
After that we turned on the TV. I got o my computer to see if any of the "real-time" sites had it yet.... USGS was my main source, but they're obviously in the states, so they didn't have anything on it yet. The news was talking about it, but they don't use the richter scale here (theirs is just full numbers), so I was just more confused.
So finally at around 9:00 I got my bath.... Got out at 9:30 and checked online again. Found out it was a 4.8 at the epicenter... 8:35:54 PM our time. It was centered in Chiba prefecture, where I am... But it was north quite a bit.

Here are the pages I found... I'm trusting USGS more than the other page, thoguh....
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/usiqak.php
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=164152006

Only one news site that I could find has picked up on it so far.... Of course, that's sites in English.... It wasn't a huge event... No damage reported yet or anything.... But it was an interesting first for me. I did the "did you feel it?" thing on USGS' site, and they gave me an estimate of about a III.... Good enough for a first. :p I think I can handle one a bit stronger then that, but it's still exciting enough for me. ;)

That is my "exciting story" here.... One I didn't ask for, but I got. :p Tomorrow we're going to Chiba Zoo... Expect a lot of pictures! :)