help me!!!

so my arms are completely covered in what i think are mosquito bites and i cant stand it!!! i bought some benedrly any-itch gel stuff but it only works for like 2 minutes. i mean if u saw my arms i bet your mouth would just open in shock! its like the 2nd round of chicken pox or something, i guess i have sweet blood! oye - plus, get this. i am now reading nora roberts romance novels ... what has bishop done to me??!!! i tried reading somewhat academic stuff but it kept making me fall asleep. so i decided to just grab one of my moms books off the shelf and once i started i couldnt stop! and now im on my 2nd! im so pathetic but they are sooo funny! anyways, thats about it. try to make a trip into town once a day, cleaned house, and i watched the village today. i didnt think it was one shyamala's best works. been thinking about the future recently and ive decided i want to travel all over before settling down with a permanent job in the states. i think first i want to go japan, then maybe australia or new zealand, then maybe scotland and ireland. and all these places i want to actually work there and live there for a little bit, maybe like 3-6 months ... just to live a little. i want end up as one of those really cool teachers who always has tons of stories to tell and in order to do that, i gotta live right? but its kind of scary too. but also i figure its the best time to do it ... young, naieve, and willing to sacrifice the luxuries of life in order to live poor! hehe :) okay time for me to go bed and hopefully be put out of my itchy torture for 8 hours only to wake and take a shower which will only make it worse! ok, bye :)

it's too hot here!

hello people! yes, i am still alive and kicking but sweating like a hog under the sun! i have now been home for a week ... well technically, i've been in america for a week but didnt get home until monday, so a day short. anywho, the flight home was long and uneventful and the layovers sucked but at least everything turned out okay. didnt lose any luggage, no flight problems, and always had an open seat next to me, woo hoo! surprisingly enough, i havent really had any jet lag. the first couple of nights, i had trouble sleeping through the night but i think that was just because i was adjusting back to being in my own bed. also experienced some reverse culture shock and wanted to go right back to japan ... but alas, i have adjusted and am now probably forgetting all the japanese i gained while in japan ... so sad! had a couple of days to recover from my travels until phat, andy, and lisa came up to bishop to take me away to san francisco = fun!!!!! they came up on wednesday, left for frisco on thursday, came back to bishop on saturday, and they left me today only so i can have 2 weeks of boredom! evil ... anywho, san francisco was fantabulous! it was nice and cool and the first day we got there we walked around the entire city! i am not joking ... we walked for 7 hours straight i think and saw almost everything ... got very familiar with the city ... did some looking around in china town, made our way down to jackson square where we had nan and curry (yummy!), then headed over to little italy, off to lombard street and coit tower, then to pacific heights (walked right past nicole chu's house, but she wasnt home), then ended the night with desert in a cafe in little italy. went back to hotel monarch and slept with squeeky fan that sounded like people were getting it on above us ... woke up early and head back out into the city, went fisherman's wharf, ghiradelli square, farmer's market, rode a cable car back to downtown, then drove to golden gate bridge, and stopped at random places to take pictures as if we really went there (but we didnt), passed through castro (many good looking and unavailable men!), had some korean food for lunch, then off to union square to do some shopping, back to the hotel, then had some vietnamese food for dinner, and off to the beach to meet up with chu and her program friends. saturday = pacific heights again, cafe for brunch and saw chu's awesome pad because her host family is super rich! and drove back to bishop through brown country with many cows, then through sonora pass = curvy, steep, and a little scary. welcomed home by drunk parents and friends, played some balderdash (my family are freaks! hehe) and now everyone has gone home and i am left to figure what im doing with the rest of my time here. freaking out about capstone. need to scrapbook japan. clean my car. change oil. read. pack i guess. send letters. start running. then back to school on august 11th! who's with me? okay, bye :)

1.5 down and more to go

so, it's finally hit me that i will not be spending the rest of my life in a place where i never understand 100% of the time. i am acutally going home to a country that is completely different and yet alike in more ways than i thought. it doesnt help that there are 2 others here that want to go home sooooo bad ... i mean ive never met anyone who wanted to go home as much as they do. kind of sad i think, only 3.5 months that it would be beneficial to be open to a different culture, a different way of life, and yet being completely unopen about and stuck in the "american way" of life. but everyone is different right? to each man his own as long as they don't harm others.

i'm very happy with my time in japan. i've made some close friends, learned a little more japanese, learned a hell of a lot about myself, learned about american culture (as ironic as that seems but jess elaborated quite well on that topic i think), developed the ability to eat practically anything, and have gained a family. i guess i miss home, but i know i will miss japan a lot and my days are so few and yet planned to the max, which means they will go by so fast.

experiences and things not to forget:
mizu onegaishimasu (that one is for u sammi)
the differnce between slim and smart
people falling asleep standing up
fashin disasters (wait, maybe i want to forget that one)
remembering what its like to be the gaijin
no means yes when it comes to food and drink here
japanese party like no other!
quiet is okay
pretend to understand doesn't equal pera pera
random emails on the keitai
restaurant after restaurant after restaurant
losing to okaasantachi in any physical endeavor
bicycle riding
japan is freaking expensive!
moss burger strawberry shakes

okay, thats enough for now ... for those of you who i havent talked to much, know that i do think about u and will be bringing a little something from japan for u! friendships can survive anything as long as you continue to believe in them. so even over oceans and time spent not talking or in close proximity, the connection is still there! it's okay if we change and if relationships change, life isnt stagnant :) japan has definately taught me that, even if u cant understand eachother because of language barrier, u still experience the same emotions and thus connections! maybe, hehe

okay, bye :)

it's been a while

sorry for my recent lack in blogging activity ... i have lost my student id somewhere in the mess that is my room, thus not able to use the computers at school and to tired to blog by the time i get home. so what's new?

my host sister, who lies in Nagoya, came up to Sapporo last weekend. Akward when we first met becuase she went to go play with the dog, mom went next door and dad was gulfing ... then things picked up when i helped her with the computer (which i found ironic considering she lived her for most of her life) and she smacked me on the butt, uh huh, u heard me, right on the butt ... then went out to eat (as usual) and we acted as if we'd known each other forever, not really talking a whole lot but just body language. even talked to her boyfriend, who dad hates, on the phone!

starting to get lazy in japanese, feeling that end of the semester syndrome. luckily we wont have any more tests in that class, just essay after essay, ugh! feel very busy all the time, like i dont have enough time left here to do everything i want (only 14 days left!). saturday, went to the movies with jessica. tuesday went to my first SGI meeting off campus, and of course the attention was focused on jess and i because of SUA. it was kind of fun. wednesday, went to the local elementary school to play a game with them in english and got recruited by one of the moms there to help her next wednesday when she teaches english to other kids, then went to my brother and sister-in-laws house to eat and watch a movie. actually talked with my sister in law for quite some time about the differences between american romantic relaitonships and japanese romantic relationships very interesting ... she said she had never seen her parents kiss, ever!! how crazy is that, i dont think i would want a japanese relationship ;) i want some loving man!

speaking of loving, the boys girlfriend came to japan last week, and now never see him. think im defiantely over him now, oh well, it was hopeless to begin with!!

thursday, went to see harry potter with everyone! i was supposed to go on some super crazy wilderness hiking camping trip, but i was blessed by the womenly gods this week and could not go :( imagine two days without any toilets and the waterfall a flowin! not very much fun to me ... so instead, i have the house to myself this weekend. jess and sam came over and we had to much mochi and watched the insider. then went to some far away garden today, very beautiful, but vey hot! dont know what im going to do after i get back to california where the average has been 100 lately! oye ... then went to a yukatta party (summer kimonos) at amy's house. it was a lot of fun because everyone was there, and many of them in their yukatta (i didnt have one), and we played with fireworks and ate way too much food!

on the way home, took a little detour, found out that i was very much appreciated and had taught someone a few things, dont know how though. maybe they will tell me at another time.

today, on the train, i stood in front of somene who was studying english, thought it was kind of ironic. man next to me was falling asleep while holding on to the rings with an open seat in front of him! sit down man ;) okay enough of thi epic story. miss you all and love you!