just came back from watching Star Trek.
really liked it!
Zach and Chris have amazing chemistry! yum =P
maybe i'll download an old Star Trek movie...seeing as how this was my first exposure to the "Star Trek experience", and i quite enjoyed it.
well, ... ok, i did analyze an old episode in Anthropology class once...but that was so long ago...and i did experience the "Star Trek Experience" in Vegas... so i suppose those count...
anyhoo,
tomorrow's agenda...try to wake up for lunch and a baseball game with jesse and his friend. monday i get a late start anyway...so i can sleep later, right??
(my attempt to update more),
j9
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Should I come back?
hey guys,
soo...
i'm thinking about going back to LA for a few weeks...maybe in the summer or xmas break.
kinda miss you guys! and LA life...and music video sets...and good hugs with my brother...=P
....i could probably use the recharge/refresh.
but is it a waste of time and money?
to go back home when home will always be there?
are all of you guys too busy?
will i have no one to go to disneyland and vegas and music shows with?? souplantations and video sets?
what should i do guys? should i come back for a short vacation??
:)
miss everyone,
-j9
soo...
i'm thinking about going back to LA for a few weeks...maybe in the summer or xmas break.
kinda miss you guys! and LA life...and music video sets...and good hugs with my brother...=P
....i could probably use the recharge/refresh.
but is it a waste of time and money?
to go back home when home will always be there?
are all of you guys too busy?
will i have no one to go to disneyland and vegas and music shows with?? souplantations and video sets?
what should i do guys? should i come back for a short vacation??
:)
miss everyone,
-j9
Monday, May 25, 2009
ask me questions...I'm at a loss about what to post anymore...
Well, quickie updates...
The sun now rises before 4am. And sets after 7pm. That's what you get when you don't have daylight savings.
Friday night, I stayed up til 4am talking with Olivia - bitching about work, etc. We opened the curtains and the sun was already out!! 4am! craaazy.
Oh, the minor work drama I had (though as it seems, it's that time of year where everyone is getting antsy at their work)...I had a VERY close panic attack outburst at a 10 year kid during lunch, and then suffered through a horrendous anxiety attack the rest of the afternoon - while sweating my pants off cuz the weather here decided to be UBER hot for just one day, and then go back to rain. My morning started off awful - I'm doing the Elementary School rounds this month - meaning I go to a different ES every 2 days - so it gets old and exhausting quite fast. And my commutes vary anywhere from an hour and a half to 5 minutes. This particular day, the school thought it was keen to give me the most vaguest directions to the most difficult school to find out in the boonies of Sapporo - so I was super stressed and late. And had to call my supervisor - which is always a last resort. And then at lunch, I asked some kid "Do. you. like. spaghetti. ? " cuz that's what we were having for lunch. And spaghetti is the same in Japanese (i think -- or anyway, ALL the japanese kids understand the word). And then this kid proceeds to HOUND me while I'm trying desperately to eat my lunch - immediately after a HORRENDOUS 15 minute DEATH-WAIT staring at my hot yum smelling food - because I had to wait for the damn teacher to just say ITADAKIMAS ALREADY! (in japan, no one can start eating until everyone is ready and you say, "i-ta-da-ki-mas" which means like "thank you for this food). anyway, i'm antsy, and starving, and stressed, and miserable from the heat, and angry, and tired. and FINALLY when the teacher says the magic word, and i try to start a very small simple conversation with the kid next to me - he hounds me for the next 20 minutes saying "do like go?" do you like go??? ho-ra, ho-ra??"
um...i have no idea what you're saying kid.
leave me alone.
i can feel myself breaking. usually i smile and grin cuz the kids are so cute...but today is just not the day.
and usually when i say i don't know or i don't understand - cuz i can't tell if they're speaking japanese or english or both...the kids just sort of look sad and let it go. but this kid wouldn't give up!
HO-RA HO RA!!!!!!!!!!?
WHAT!!!?? no leave me alone. i don't know what you're saying.
LEEEEAVE ME ALONE.
20 minutes later, the teacher finally decides to jump in and help...and turns out..in reply to my question about spaghetti, the kid was asking me if i like ghosts and horror movies.
~sigh~
i just about ripped the spaghetti out of my bowl and rubbed meat sauce all over my face - i was ready to go crazy on the kid.
that's the very condensed side of the story. haha
anyway, i had drama...everyones been having drama at work lately. buuut, only one day left for meee!!! yaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!
safe haven is soooooooo close....
then i won't have to do this again until feb. and then that thought hit me today on my one hour and a half commute...i won't have to do this until FEBRUARY.
wait...
that means...
I'm here...
until FEBRUARY.
and MORE.
AHHH!!
Am i sure this is what i want??
Well...i want to study Japanese more. I like getting paid to travel. I like having money to spend for a change. I think I like my job...still. (nervous look...)
nah, minor breakdown, but all is fine again.
ha.
and besides...going 8+ months without an attack...I'd say, that's pretty darn dandy of yourself janine.
=P
And uh...
hmm...
i never updated about Philippines -- well it was a great trip. AMAZING actually. I think it's where i want to go for my honeymoon - if I'm ever to have one. HA. we'll see. It'll be my..."I'm single honeymoon" - as it seems it's my inevitable destiny.
But everyone there speaks PERFECT english. EVERYONE. ok, well maybe the poor taxi drivers can only speak broken english. but even their country-folk broken english is better than 95% of Japanese people's english. that's crazy. sad and crazy.
The beaches were beautiful. I wish we went to the island where you could swim with 5 foot whale sharks (next trip!). the Rice Terraces were MAJESTICAL! MY GOD!!! I've seen several rice terraces in my day (Vietnam, China...) but nothing can compare to the ones in the Northern Philippines. It leaves you breathless. PURE beauty. AND, they're 2000 years old. And ... the longest underground river cave thing was O-kay. It reeked of BAT POOP all the way through. And once you got over the first thrilling minute of WOAH - I REALLY DOOOO FEEL like I'm on a journey to the center of the earth...you're like...o...great...it's more bat poop and melty cave formations.
but yea, the water was WARM as hell - it almost feels like a jacuzzi, but not uncomfortable. the weather was perfection. it was breezy and sunny and the water was warm warm warm. O and we went snorkeling - WAY better snorkeling then Thailand (sorry Tracy!) -- we saw BRIGHT blue starfish, and stripped fish and THE MOST beautiful intricate huge coral reefs....my my. beau-ti-ful.
O, new thought just popped in my head - going back to the work rant:
Today I got really mean in class too - i think I'm just done with ES for a while. I'm ready for it to be done. I'm tired of trying to teach the kids the "th" sound - of showing them 128 times how to stick their tongue OUT of their month between their teeth - and they think that keeping it IN their mouth BEHIND their teeth is the same thing. And then when ONE kid finally has the sense to TRRRRRRRRRRRRY it, o look! OMFG!!! You can ACTUALLY make the "th" sound!!! and NO, you don't look like an idiot! Jesus lord let's make a monument in glory of your achievement. And then you say "thirteen" again (repeat after me) and the kid loses it. SIGH.
Anyway, the kids at this school I'm at today and tomorrow - they've got no respect for elders - RARE in japanese schools. They just yap and scream and laugh and goof around - where is the discipline! (that i'm so used to seeing here!???)
i dunno, so i gave some kid a really nasty face and didn't half realize it - until the teacher saw it...and then she gave ME a nasty face. and then the rest of the lesson was awkward.
whatever.
haha
and...last week, Summer screamed at her kids, "you're an IDIOT!!!" - but that's quite common among the ALTs i guess. You start reaching your breaking points around this time. Or this time in your second year at least. And of course, the teachers neither the students understand you. but still, you feel kind of bad afterwards. Summer felt really bad. =(
Hmm...friends and I have started a Book Club - so far we've read Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle. And Saturday by Ian McEwan. Our first meeting about Tortilla Curtain didn't go over so well - there was a lot of arguing about immigration and socialism (between Summer - who lived in Manhattan Beach for a while, and Olivia who is from New Zealand). and there wasn't much discussion about the book ='(
it was ok.
I missed Saturday's discussion...it was yesterday - but I fell sick AGAIN over the weekend - i think it's my tonsils, so I'll go in Wed and get 'em looked at.
Our next book is Galapagos by Vonnegut.
I'm 2/3's through Cat's Cradle - and it's a GREAT AMAZING book -- so i gotta make sure to finish that in my downtime, WHILE i also continue reading the Sookie Stackhouse series.
which, btw, I'm not enjoying half as much as the Twilight books. hmm...maybe not even a third as much. =(
I'm disappointed. And I have 5 more books on my shelf to read through - just cuz I bought em - so i HAVE to read them now.
and uh...
hmmm
O, i've been going to the dentist like every 2 weeks here - they only fill one cavity at a time - and you have to come in once to get the mold and then another time to get the actual filling and then back again for another mold and then back again for another filling - i dunno...something about, so they can charge you for each office visit. but STILL, it's cheap as hell, and it's better dentistry than I've had in the states. I really like this guy - his english isn't amazing...in fact, it's quite limited, but he draws a lot of pictures and...u know, we get by with his broken english. anyway, so you know how i have this awful clicking with my jaw - and the pain that comes with it. constant pain that i've just endured cuz i didn't know a life without it - well the guy, at the end of my first filling was like, "hey, you have clicking, did you know that" and i was like "yup, i know" and...he was like "ok." and then like a month later, when we were all done with my fillings (only 2, plus a few little tips on the molars in the back), he was like "so does your clicking jaw hurt" and i said "yea...sad face" and he said "would you like me to fix it" and i said..."wait, you can do that???!" "and he said, yea, i'll take a mold and you can come in at the end of the week and wear the sprint i make you" (which in other words means, this sort of makeshift clear headgear thingy.
so low and behold, $50 later...i'm wearing this headgear thingy to bed each night - and it's strange and...might actually work...and the fact that is might work is strange and...scary. cuz it's very unusual for me. (and i realized, that all of this clicking and hurting of the jaw and moving it sideways and backwards and forwards whenever i wanna open my mouth wider than what a spoon of yogurt can hold; is most likely because of the stupid HUGE 90s headgear i had to wear when i was 10, to fix my overbite by which, it pulled my upper jaw backwards or something -- u know, it was one of those funky GEEKY ones that wrapped all around your head and fit into those awful metal tube-y thingies attached to your molers - sheesh). so yup...the first few nights it was tough - cuz what it's doing is holding my lower jaw forward - so that my jaw is more in line - and therefore, the tendons or plates or whatever aren't rubbing against each other. but...it's like holding your arm out in front of you for a really long time - the muscles get really tired really quick. and it starts to hurt if you don't move your arm down - that's what it was like for my jaw the first few nights.
and then...the first morning, cuz my jaw was in this whole new place it had never been before - i didn't know how to work it - so i couldn't chew my food - and for a second i felt incredibly sad for all the people who don't have jaws - cuz it's probably one of the most important muscle bone (whatever) functions we have - that we TOTALLY take for granted. If you can't chew your food, you can't eat! You're left slurping soup and IV tubes the rest of your life. it's horrifying!!! but of course, given an hour, and a few yanks and nudges back and forth - i put my jaw back to its wrongful place and ate my lunch.
o but yea, don't let others scare you about dentistry in japan - it's cheap and quite terrific. each filling only cost me about $15 bucks in the end. While a cleaning runs $22. Japanese people just have bad teeth - cuz apparently a lot of people just don't have insurance, OR...it's just not culturally important to them - they just don't notice (AGHAST!! i know! i don't know how a Japanese guy can NOT notice the second row of lower teeth behind the normal standard row, or the HUUUUUGE ASS SABERteeth growing practically out of their nostrils. or vice versus with the girl and then guy). but...that's just how it is. teeth aren't a big concern for people here. and they NEVER brush.
Mark has a gf with grey grey grey teeth - but she doesn't smoke. they're just grey cuz she's NEVER brushed or flossed her teeth ONCE in her whole life. she's 28 i think? Mark asked her why...and she said, that's just the Japanese way...you don't go to the dentist unless your teeth are falling out.
yucky.
ok well...I meant to post less than this. but i just started rambling.
anyhow, ask me some questions, so i have some topics to write about.
sorry this post went back to work again - but you know, it takes up the bulk of my week here.
Fill me in your lives!!
<3 j9
The sun now rises before 4am. And sets after 7pm. That's what you get when you don't have daylight savings.
Friday night, I stayed up til 4am talking with Olivia - bitching about work, etc. We opened the curtains and the sun was already out!! 4am! craaazy.
Oh, the minor work drama I had (though as it seems, it's that time of year where everyone is getting antsy at their work)...I had a VERY close panic attack outburst at a 10 year kid during lunch, and then suffered through a horrendous anxiety attack the rest of the afternoon - while sweating my pants off cuz the weather here decided to be UBER hot for just one day, and then go back to rain. My morning started off awful - I'm doing the Elementary School rounds this month - meaning I go to a different ES every 2 days - so it gets old and exhausting quite fast. And my commutes vary anywhere from an hour and a half to 5 minutes. This particular day, the school thought it was keen to give me the most vaguest directions to the most difficult school to find out in the boonies of Sapporo - so I was super stressed and late. And had to call my supervisor - which is always a last resort. And then at lunch, I asked some kid "Do. you. like. spaghetti. ? " cuz that's what we were having for lunch. And spaghetti is the same in Japanese (i think -- or anyway, ALL the japanese kids understand the word). And then this kid proceeds to HOUND me while I'm trying desperately to eat my lunch - immediately after a HORRENDOUS 15 minute DEATH-WAIT staring at my hot yum smelling food - because I had to wait for the damn teacher to just say ITADAKIMAS ALREADY! (in japan, no one can start eating until everyone is ready and you say, "i-ta-da-ki-mas" which means like "thank you for this food). anyway, i'm antsy, and starving, and stressed, and miserable from the heat, and angry, and tired. and FINALLY when the teacher says the magic word, and i try to start a very small simple conversation with the kid next to me - he hounds me for the next 20 minutes saying "do like go?" do you like go??? ho-ra, ho-ra??"
um...i have no idea what you're saying kid.
leave me alone.
i can feel myself breaking. usually i smile and grin cuz the kids are so cute...but today is just not the day.
and usually when i say i don't know or i don't understand - cuz i can't tell if they're speaking japanese or english or both...the kids just sort of look sad and let it go. but this kid wouldn't give up!
HO-RA HO RA!!!!!!!!!!?
WHAT!!!?? no leave me alone. i don't know what you're saying.
LEEEEAVE ME ALONE.
20 minutes later, the teacher finally decides to jump in and help...and turns out..in reply to my question about spaghetti, the kid was asking me if i like ghosts and horror movies.
~sigh~
i just about ripped the spaghetti out of my bowl and rubbed meat sauce all over my face - i was ready to go crazy on the kid.
that's the very condensed side of the story. haha
anyway, i had drama...everyones been having drama at work lately. buuut, only one day left for meee!!! yaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!
safe haven is soooooooo close....
then i won't have to do this again until feb. and then that thought hit me today on my one hour and a half commute...i won't have to do this until FEBRUARY.
wait...
that means...
I'm here...
until FEBRUARY.
and MORE.
AHHH!!
Am i sure this is what i want??
Well...i want to study Japanese more. I like getting paid to travel. I like having money to spend for a change. I think I like my job...still. (nervous look...)
nah, minor breakdown, but all is fine again.
ha.
and besides...going 8+ months without an attack...I'd say, that's pretty darn dandy of yourself janine.
=P
And uh...
hmm...
i never updated about Philippines -- well it was a great trip. AMAZING actually. I think it's where i want to go for my honeymoon - if I'm ever to have one. HA. we'll see. It'll be my..."I'm single honeymoon" - as it seems it's my inevitable destiny.
But everyone there speaks PERFECT english. EVERYONE. ok, well maybe the poor taxi drivers can only speak broken english. but even their country-folk broken english is better than 95% of Japanese people's english. that's crazy. sad and crazy.
The beaches were beautiful. I wish we went to the island where you could swim with 5 foot whale sharks (next trip!). the Rice Terraces were MAJESTICAL! MY GOD!!! I've seen several rice terraces in my day (Vietnam, China...) but nothing can compare to the ones in the Northern Philippines. It leaves you breathless. PURE beauty. AND, they're 2000 years old. And ... the longest underground river cave thing was O-kay. It reeked of BAT POOP all the way through. And once you got over the first thrilling minute of WOAH - I REALLY DOOOO FEEL like I'm on a journey to the center of the earth...you're like...o...great...it's more bat poop and melty cave formations.
but yea, the water was WARM as hell - it almost feels like a jacuzzi, but not uncomfortable. the weather was perfection. it was breezy and sunny and the water was warm warm warm. O and we went snorkeling - WAY better snorkeling then Thailand (sorry Tracy!) -- we saw BRIGHT blue starfish, and stripped fish and THE MOST beautiful intricate huge coral reefs....my my. beau-ti-ful.
O, new thought just popped in my head - going back to the work rant:
Today I got really mean in class too - i think I'm just done with ES for a while. I'm ready for it to be done. I'm tired of trying to teach the kids the "th" sound - of showing them 128 times how to stick their tongue OUT of their month between their teeth - and they think that keeping it IN their mouth BEHIND their teeth is the same thing. And then when ONE kid finally has the sense to TRRRRRRRRRRRRY it, o look! OMFG!!! You can ACTUALLY make the "th" sound!!! and NO, you don't look like an idiot! Jesus lord let's make a monument in glory of your achievement. And then you say "thirteen" again (repeat after me) and the kid loses it. SIGH.
Anyway, the kids at this school I'm at today and tomorrow - they've got no respect for elders - RARE in japanese schools. They just yap and scream and laugh and goof around - where is the discipline! (that i'm so used to seeing here!???)
i dunno, so i gave some kid a really nasty face and didn't half realize it - until the teacher saw it...and then she gave ME a nasty face. and then the rest of the lesson was awkward.
whatever.
haha
and...last week, Summer screamed at her kids, "you're an IDIOT!!!" - but that's quite common among the ALTs i guess. You start reaching your breaking points around this time. Or this time in your second year at least. And of course, the teachers neither the students understand you. but still, you feel kind of bad afterwards. Summer felt really bad. =(
Hmm...friends and I have started a Book Club - so far we've read Tortilla Curtain by TC Boyle. And Saturday by Ian McEwan. Our first meeting about Tortilla Curtain didn't go over so well - there was a lot of arguing about immigration and socialism (between Summer - who lived in Manhattan Beach for a while, and Olivia who is from New Zealand). and there wasn't much discussion about the book ='(
it was ok.
I missed Saturday's discussion...it was yesterday - but I fell sick AGAIN over the weekend - i think it's my tonsils, so I'll go in Wed and get 'em looked at.
Our next book is Galapagos by Vonnegut.
I'm 2/3's through Cat's Cradle - and it's a GREAT AMAZING book -- so i gotta make sure to finish that in my downtime, WHILE i also continue reading the Sookie Stackhouse series.
which, btw, I'm not enjoying half as much as the Twilight books. hmm...maybe not even a third as much. =(
I'm disappointed. And I have 5 more books on my shelf to read through - just cuz I bought em - so i HAVE to read them now.
and uh...
hmmm
O, i've been going to the dentist like every 2 weeks here - they only fill one cavity at a time - and you have to come in once to get the mold and then another time to get the actual filling and then back again for another mold and then back again for another filling - i dunno...something about, so they can charge you for each office visit. but STILL, it's cheap as hell, and it's better dentistry than I've had in the states. I really like this guy - his english isn't amazing...in fact, it's quite limited, but he draws a lot of pictures and...u know, we get by with his broken english. anyway, so you know how i have this awful clicking with my jaw - and the pain that comes with it. constant pain that i've just endured cuz i didn't know a life without it - well the guy, at the end of my first filling was like, "hey, you have clicking, did you know that" and i was like "yup, i know" and...he was like "ok." and then like a month later, when we were all done with my fillings (only 2, plus a few little tips on the molars in the back), he was like "so does your clicking jaw hurt" and i said "yea...sad face" and he said "would you like me to fix it" and i said..."wait, you can do that???!" "and he said, yea, i'll take a mold and you can come in at the end of the week and wear the sprint i make you" (which in other words means, this sort of makeshift clear headgear thingy.
so low and behold, $50 later...i'm wearing this headgear thingy to bed each night - and it's strange and...might actually work...and the fact that is might work is strange and...scary. cuz it's very unusual for me. (and i realized, that all of this clicking and hurting of the jaw and moving it sideways and backwards and forwards whenever i wanna open my mouth wider than what a spoon of yogurt can hold; is most likely because of the stupid HUGE 90s headgear i had to wear when i was 10, to fix my overbite by which, it pulled my upper jaw backwards or something -- u know, it was one of those funky GEEKY ones that wrapped all around your head and fit into those awful metal tube-y thingies attached to your molers - sheesh). so yup...the first few nights it was tough - cuz what it's doing is holding my lower jaw forward - so that my jaw is more in line - and therefore, the tendons or plates or whatever aren't rubbing against each other. but...it's like holding your arm out in front of you for a really long time - the muscles get really tired really quick. and it starts to hurt if you don't move your arm down - that's what it was like for my jaw the first few nights.
and then...the first morning, cuz my jaw was in this whole new place it had never been before - i didn't know how to work it - so i couldn't chew my food - and for a second i felt incredibly sad for all the people who don't have jaws - cuz it's probably one of the most important muscle bone (whatever) functions we have - that we TOTALLY take for granted. If you can't chew your food, you can't eat! You're left slurping soup and IV tubes the rest of your life. it's horrifying!!! but of course, given an hour, and a few yanks and nudges back and forth - i put my jaw back to its wrongful place and ate my lunch.
o but yea, don't let others scare you about dentistry in japan - it's cheap and quite terrific. each filling only cost me about $15 bucks in the end. While a cleaning runs $22. Japanese people just have bad teeth - cuz apparently a lot of people just don't have insurance, OR...it's just not culturally important to them - they just don't notice (AGHAST!! i know! i don't know how a Japanese guy can NOT notice the second row of lower teeth behind the normal standard row, or the HUUUUUGE ASS SABERteeth growing practically out of their nostrils. or vice versus with the girl and then guy). but...that's just how it is. teeth aren't a big concern for people here. and they NEVER brush.
Mark has a gf with grey grey grey teeth - but she doesn't smoke. they're just grey cuz she's NEVER brushed or flossed her teeth ONCE in her whole life. she's 28 i think? Mark asked her why...and she said, that's just the Japanese way...you don't go to the dentist unless your teeth are falling out.
yucky.
ok well...I meant to post less than this. but i just started rambling.
anyhow, ask me some questions, so i have some topics to write about.
sorry this post went back to work again - but you know, it takes up the bulk of my week here.
Fill me in your lives!!
<3 j9
Friday, May 1, 2009
Stuck in the Philippines?
An email from my supervisor...
___
To everyone,
Some of you are going to abroad this week, but as you know the news says about the “swineflu” everyday. The latest news reported that in US Texas, California had recognized the infected person there. Korea , Canada ,too. the WHO announced the current condition is “phase 5” (their scale). *phase 6 is the alert of the “pandemic” and all moving of people between countries will be prohibited. They say we are in serious condition now.
Japanese ministry also announced in response to this WHO’s message, they’ve just started quarantine at the international airport (flight from US, Canada , Mexico so far…).
Please check the news all the time and update the information (especially about airport and flight info.)
My guess is that if this goes worse, the Japanese international airport (Narita, Nagoya, Kansai) will be so crowded and have influence on the over-sea flight schedule, (delay or cancel).
In case you find you can’t back on the scheduled date due to the flight delay or other problems, let me know soon. I’ll let your school know if necessary.
Best regards,
Ito
___
Personally, I think it'd make for an awesome story if this N1H1 Flu reached Level 6 and we were 1) stuck in the Philippines for an undetermined amount of time. 2) quarentined in Korea (our layover)
I'd like to see Mr. Ito's face when I miss elementary school days - that he persistently reminded me NOT to miss, 3 times in 2 days. Heehee. (Don't say that out of meanness, it would just be slightly amusing)
Philippines are great. The weather is perfect - how'd we get so lucky! Not half as bad as we expected. We're in manila for the night. Waiting to go to Palawan.
I'll update again soooon.
-j9
___
To everyone,
Some of you are going to abroad this week, but as you know the news says about the “swineflu” everyday. The latest news reported that in US Texas, California had recognized the infected person there. Korea , Canada ,too. the WHO announced the current condition is “phase 5” (their scale). *phase 6 is the alert of the “pandemic” and all moving of people between countries will be prohibited. They say we are in serious condition now.
Japanese ministry also announced in response to this WHO’s message, they’ve just started quarantine at the international airport (flight from US, Canada , Mexico so far…).
Please check the news all the time and update the information (especially about airport and flight info.)
My guess is that if this goes worse, the Japanese international airport (Narita, Nagoya, Kansai) will be so crowded and have influence on the over-sea flight schedule, (delay or cancel).
In case you find you can’t back on the scheduled date due to the flight delay or other problems, let me know soon. I’ll let your school know if necessary.
Best regards,
Ito
___
Personally, I think it'd make for an awesome story if this N1H1 Flu reached Level 6 and we were 1) stuck in the Philippines for an undetermined amount of time. 2) quarentined in Korea (our layover)
I'd like to see Mr. Ito's face when I miss elementary school days - that he persistently reminded me NOT to miss, 3 times in 2 days. Heehee. (Don't say that out of meanness, it would just be slightly amusing)
Philippines are great. The weather is perfect - how'd we get so lucky! Not half as bad as we expected. We're in manila for the night. Waiting to go to Palawan.
I'll update again soooon.
-j9
Friday, April 24, 2009
Doo Doo Doo
So....it's 1130 pm Friday night...I've got a flight tomorrow at 2pm, but I gotta stop by the Apple store in the morning to turn in my laptop to get my speakers replaced. Turns out, the volume is low compared to other similar models...which was found out on a fluke, cuz i THOUGHT that the left speaker was busted...but of course, I bring it in to the store, and play music, and ta-da...half my computer that wasn't working before, miraculously sounds beautiful and brand new. and i look like an idiot in a language i can't speak. o dear. anyway...they said, since my 3-year warranty expires Sunday (woah, I've had this laptop for 3 years!)...they'll change the speakers anyway, for free. but there are no guarantees that anything will be improved. but hey, new speakers are always better than 3 year old speakers, right? especially if it's free!
ok, well, Night guys!!
so, well anyway....with a stop at the Apple store...I gotta be at the train station by 11am...and...anyway...blah..specifics that aren't important to you. MY POINT IS, it's 1130pm, and I haven't even taken my backpack outta the closet...I haven't started packing. ah! And I gotta be out the house at 10 am...but I still have to clean my apartment too cuz people are coming over while I'm away...to HOPEFULLY (big cross of the fingers) acknowledge that yea, my apartment is a piece of dilapidated shit, and it needs some renovation.
well...poooooooint is point is point is....it's late. and i'm tired. and of course, i haven't started packing. but I ALWAYS do this. it's never been any different. so i've decided to just be dumb, and head off to bed. and wake up early to pack.
and then of course forget something "really" "important".
I don't even know how to pack tho! Weather report says 90 degrees with on and off storm showers. YUCK! Does that mean....bring shorts? Jeans, just in case? Bring my puffy waterproof green jacket? Or a light sweater? I swear, you do this 50 times, and it never gets easy or more sensical.
I can't even remember what 90 degree weather is like though. Can you wear jeans without wanting to shoot yourself??
oy.
well...that's my attempt at an update. =P
I'll try to write something while I'm in the Philippines!!
<3, j9
Thanks for the comments guys! Always love em!
Sarah --> what's Ayameno? I haven't heard anything of it til now. Is it an elementary school or JHS? haha...well...if that IS where I'm going, then I'm glad it has a good reputation! =D
Tracy --> Yea, I'm almost finished with Dead Until Dark and I don't like it. The show is WAY better! Who knew! Maybe I don't like the book cuz I know what's gonna happen, cuz the show ACTUALLY follows the book WORD for WORD for DETAIL for DETAIL ALLLLL the way THROUGH! HOLY COW, right!??
So maybe, book 2 will be more fun to read. if i can just geeet through and finish the first one. Can't wait for season 2!! :)
(But yea, I feel embarassed to admit it, but so far, I think I enjoyed Twilight as a read, better than Dead Until Dark. Come on Sookie!! Shape up!!) =P
Nancy --> Sookie Stackhouse is the character from True Blood (which is based on a series of books written by Charlaine Harris). And yes, finish Dexter!! Season 3 is amazing! Can't waaaait for Season 4!!!!!!!!
o yea and Tracy, I wanna hear about the table reads!! There's already new scripts fully written!?? That's wild!!! What's it about? (of course, I'll keep the secrecy under lock and key, all the way here across the pacific ocean).
ok, well, Night guys!!
Friday, April 17, 2009
O yea...And I'm totally obsessed with True Blood.
and sad there's only one season.
Have you guys watched it!? You need to.
It's SO addicting. if you can get past the first awful pilot episode, it's well worth your time.
and ive caught up with Dexter -- though i know you guys probably did that ages ago. What'd you guys think!? I liked the third season much better than the second.
heehee.
ok just had to add that in.
o and I just ordered the Sookie Stackhouse book set - am I a geek???!!!!
But it fits into my awesome new year's resolution of managing to read and finish a new book about every 2 weeks - i'm so happy and proud of myself!!
Just had to give myself a little gloat pat on the back too. ;)
ok night for reeeals!
<3
The slowest quickest longest update to date. maybe?
haha, tracy, you're right, that last title was incredibly misleading and random...so it's been changed! ;)
___
nearly 2 months since my last post!ahh, how embarassing! the 3 of you ;) need to hassle me every so often to keep me motivated and active with this thing!
ok, quick recap...and i swear i'll come back later in the week and put in some filler.
went to south korea last week. it was AWESOME. not what i expected. but pretty fun. ok, it wasn't "AWESOME" but it was fun. food was good. but I'll still choose Chinese and Japanese over Korean any day. But, I DID enjoy that sweet cold noodle stuff EVERY meal (**tracy!**) - and boy it was deeliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicious!!!! =D (and cheap! Seoul is really cheap!)
and, the nightlife is AMAAAAAAAAAAAAAZING. and that, i mean in caps. by nightlife i mean...clubs and bars and live music and karaoke, and beer halls, and street food and atmosphere and lights and activity and music and alcohol and the people! all of it! amazing! seoul's nightlife is unparalleled to any other i've ever seen in the world. And, I've been to a fair amount of places. :) By the end of this month, my "country count" will bet at 20 :) yay!. and that's ... "i've actually stepped out of the airport, hiked the local trails, eaten the local food, taken public transportation" country count. not like..."o my plane landed here so i'm gonna count it".
i want to eventually be at a point where i've been to as many countries as how old i am. my original goal a few years ago was to just travel to a new country at least once a year. but that's too slow for this new goal. ;)
anyway, i'm getting off track. so granted, i'm sure nightlife in beliz or... (insert some crazy european beach city) MIGHT beat out seoul - but....it was a shock and an adrenaline rush if anything, probably because of the complete lack of nightlife here in Sapporo - or at least a complete lack of it for people our age.
but, there are also a SHITload of foreigners in Seoul. I dont know how keen i'm on that one.
haha
i'm silly that way.
so anyway...
also, we took a tour of the DMZ. AMAAAAAAAAAAAAAZING! got me some north korean goods. got to DANCE on official north korean soil while a north korean army man was eyeing me through binoculars - only 100 feet away.
you know, cuz they've gotta make sure that the "cookie party" logo on my sweatshirt isn't really actually just propagandic flair giving the north an excuse to siege the south. those north koreans know how to stay on their toes and one step ahead!
we got to walk through a tunnel built by the north to try and invade the south. there are 4 found (each along the lines of like 50-80 km long if i recall correctly ??? ). but the south believe at least 17 exist. so this tunnel....you just go deep deep deep down underground. HUNDREDS of feet down. and then you're in the actual tunnel. and it's only 5 feet tall, cuz apparently north koreans are short. and it's only 2 people wide. and its painted black so that the north could claim they were mining for coal when the area clearly contains nothing of the sort. and you just go deeper and deeper and...a family was running past us cuz their children were having panic attacks inside - the tunnel isn't for the faint of heart, and its VERY easy to get claustophobic inside. its crazy cool.
but literally, this area - this fortified border....it's just MILES upon MILES upon MORE miles of brown WASTELAND. surrounding by a wall of barbed wire and then another wall of barbed wire and then...o wait...6 more walls of barbed wire. and then an outpost every other 200 feet or so.
it's absurd. and tense. and amazingly aweeee-some. :)
i'll post a pic or two on here, and then more on facebook this weekend.
annnnnd....
next weekend, i'll be heading off to the Philippines for 2 weeks. I'm excited! Never would have considered traveling to the Philippines, but the flights are super cheap here and we get so much paid vacation - i had to go SOMEWHERE. there's a 5 day official holiday weekend, so my friends and i are able to take off work for 2 whole weeks, and only use 6 paid holidays. sweeeeet.
annnnnnnd, finally, here are some AWESOME photos of the kit kat bars that i'm obsessed with here. and some other random stuff.
i'm always taking pictures around town on my phone - cuz it's easy to email to myself and then post later. but i just never get around to actually posting it. but i am always thinking of you guys! and the blog!
i'm happy and lucky that you guys care. :)
To my lovely left: Here we have Matcha Tea Tiramisu Kit kat bar. This is my #1 favorite flavor thus far...but i only found this one tiny one at a 7-Eleven one lonely night, and i haven't been able to find it again ever since. I've searched far and wide....convenient stores and grocery markets all around the city. nothing.
That's the thing with these flavors...there are SO many random ones...its rare to find the good ones more than once.
Above: here's my friend Chris -- he looks like Edward Norton. See! (that's a screen shot, behind him, of Edward Norton from the Hulk. haha.) Chris says he used to be stopped back home, because people would ask him if he was Edward Norton. Instead of a test tube, Chris improvised with our rented copy of "ToppuGan" (Top Gun, heehee). We rented the movie cuz I've never seen it before! Yet i IDOLIZE Tom Cruise's inspirational Thumbs Up, nearly everyday!! But the weekend we watched it, i got really sick and so I fell asleep half way through. :( so, i've technically still never seen the movie. sigh.
Sorry, this is sideways - but here's another kit kat flavor -- Chrysanthum Tea. It really tasted like flowers and tea! I don't know how they do it!!!! BLOWS MY MIND!
i've been spoiled with kit kats by the way now too. the sight of a plain kit kat bar disgusts me. i'll never be able to go back. it's silly, but true.
haha
Annnnd lastly, if you take a look to your left --- When I first saw this at a convenient store, i thought it was the weirdest grossest thing ever. I still think its weird and gross...but apparently it's a quite common "home-made leftover" recipe with...well at least one of the New Zealanders here.
it's just sticking spagetti or soba noodles inside a soft roll. $1.
I'll never try it. that is WAY too many textures to even ponder getting involved with. ew-yuck.
just the sight of this photo makes me slightly gag. haha. but, a popular snack/mini-meal here in Japan, nonetheless.
:)
K, it's 3am, and I've got to be up in....5 hours for a dentist appointment. So i must bid adieu, but ...hopefully I get a chance to come back here before i leave for the philippines.
=D, j9
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