one day at a time

i left the house without a clear idea of where i wanted to go.
i ended up at the kamogawa (river).
sitting by the banks, i journaled for a long time.
unfortunately, i only had enough in me to write about heart matters.
i was too exhausted to begin thinking about everything else at that point.

i called alex after and invited her to hike through the senbon torii with me.
we met up at kyoto eki and arrived at fushimi inari after just two JR stops.
it was a great day for walking and hiking ^_^
the temperature had cooled down by later afternoon.

i didn't know alex too well at all,
and i figured a long walk/hike would be a good way to become better friends. we have a lot more in common than i realized,
and i guess there will be lots of opportunities next year to chill =]

i just realized that i hadn't taken any pictures at all.
oh well, the memory lives on in my mind XD
google image search "fushimi inari".
no combination of pictures will do its beauty justice,
but it's the next best thing =P

i called my host mom from the train platform,
asking if i could have dinner at home & then go to the river afterwards.
she said it was fine, just don't stay out too late.
then i got home.
and it was the most awkward dinner ever.
i don't want to go into the details.

long story short, i'm still sitting at home.
and won't be leaving the house tonight.
i wasn't forbidden from going,
but i might as well been =(

alice just left for school.
friends in america are still sleeping.
friends in japan are at the river.
wonderful.

going to bed at 10pm.

someone set me free from this country.......

fukui <3

going to fukui with mia for the second half of spring break was one of the best experiences i've ever had in japan =)

i don't have the energy to write the long post those four days warrant, so i'll be even more lazy and just echo mia for now XD
http://miamonnier.blogspot.com/2009/03/fukui.html

i'll get my pictures up soon, but mia's pictures are better anyway =]
http://picasaweb.google.com/mgnm9195/HoyaHoya#

what can i say?

^_^

i'm really happy. japanese class is going as well as it's going to be.
electives are still pretty awesome. i LOVE ecology class :)

my friends are the best i could ever ask for.
they make life fun and interesting every day.

skyping with alice & matt is a great way to start my day.
....even if it means i'm only half awake at first :D

i'm not in a "relationship". and nor do i want to be in one right now,
but i've found something i won't let go of too easily <3

two months, one week. so close, and not so far.
i'll be going home soon ~ and that makes me appreciate japan much more.

=)

les étoiles!

they were out tonight!
accompanied by a beautiful full moon ^_^

i arrived in kyoto around 6:30am from a three-day trip to tokyo.
stories later. mia + danielle ♥ !!!

i tried sleeping in for a few hours after a restless night on the bus,
but that failed miserably, so i...

• watched two episodes of the L word in bed <3
• talked to a certain someone ♥ && it turns out i really was just paranoid (mia & danielle ~ i know, i know. i should've listened to you from the start LOL)
• downloaded some movies ~ which i will watch on my ipod at the gym
• spent three hours working out ~ 1 hr 45 min of intense cardio, weight training, flexibility/cheer stuff... it was soooo nice ^_^
• took a hot shower followed by the even hotter ofuro

.....going to bed now. write more later.

p.s. just putting this out there ~ i will never stop thinking that japan is crazy. and i will never stop thinking about how i could be at midd or at home with family. BUT ~ there is no self-pitying or anything of that sort to be had. i'm not wishing my time in japan away (with which i've been blessed). sometimes i just wish that i could experience the next three months on fast forward and finally get to go home ^_^

a temporary band-aid

i've never been one for starbucks. 

coffee in general, definitely <3

but not starbucks.

yet, today marks three full months since i've been in japan, and i've been to starbucks over a dozen times already. it's not that i think starbucks coffee is the best thing that has ever graced the planet. it's just that home-y feeling of america that i get when i'm there. or maybe more specifically, the grille at middlebury. i'm sure being homesick has something to do with my recently frequent trips to this overpriced (especially in japan!) café, but more than that, i can unwind and productively do my homework and studying there.

i would've gladly extended the time i was there this afternoon (from four hours upward) if i didn't have to catch the hankyu home for dinner. after a series of events yesterday, i broke down crying in front of a couple of my akp friends. luckily, they lent me a shoulder and an ear until my stop at katsura. i took it easy for the rest of the night yesterday and looked forward to some coffee after class (today). i got a friend to go with me, but he headed home a little thereafter. (not a big fan of coffee. or starbucks, for that matter.) 

so i curled up on a big, comfy chair and read john knowles' a separate peace for the first time since freshman year of high school. (thanks for the lend, mia [...or rather, mia's younger brother] ^_^)  great book, but unfortunately, its content didn't really take my mind off of what i was trying to forget. in any case, being in a café atmosphere and enjoying a cup of caramel-flavored coffee over a good read did wonders for my spirit... at least for a little over four hours.

i hope i'm not conditioning myself to turn to starbucks every time i need a pick-me-up, but i've learned that i want little coffee shops and/or diners around whatever town i'll end up settling down in.

ups & downs

sorry it's a little blurry v_v

*i apologize in advance for the fairly negative entry, but i didn't want to sugarcoat things, or leave out the bad for the sake of keeping up appearances.*

so i don't know what it was about this morning that just made me not in the best of moods... i have reading/writing class on wednesdays (as opposed to language/grammar the rest of the week), and i usually look forward to the change of pace. but as class went on, i found myself less and less willing to participate. my mind had begun to preoccupy itself with something i've worked hard to shelter myself from thinking about. [yes, it's about a guy. and no, chances are, it's not who you're thinking of. or maybe it is, lol ^_^] 

so then class ended, and we received our graded second-draft essays back. i got an A+!  [i really owe a lot to summer school for my writing. out of reading, speaking, listening, etc, i think it's my most improved area by far.] so yay, good grade. but good grade = good mood? ...no, not necessarily. i killed an hour and a half in the akp lounge waiting for lunch with prof. lofgren ~ talking to people, checking email, using nestor as a pillow as i mindlessly watched this japanese film about food, sex, and etiquette... 

anyway, i went out to lunch to café bazaar with resident director/professor lofgren and four other akp students (nestor, elliot, althea, and david) to talk about life in japan so far. [and problems with classes, homestays, etc] it was a good time, for the most part. prof. lofgren told us to just "suck it up"-- in regards to some minor complaints about classes. i was slightly annoyed by that, but i just brushed it off. and then not surprisingly, the whole midd "clique" thing came up.

don't even get me started. i was nice about it earlier, but now i'm just... *grumble* we hang out because we enjoy each other's company. and other people hang out with the people they like too. so what's the problem? well we all happen to be middlebury students, and somehow, that makes it "wrong". we're by no means an exclusive group, and i'm really sick and tired of constantly explaining that to people. furthermore, i always make an effort to acknowledge everyone in the room, not just my close friends. [at least althea notices that >_<] but then someone mentions that the "midd kids" are not exactly on her friends' good sides. normally, i would care. that would bother me. but guess what? it doesn't. why? because if they're that quick to judge us without even trying to get to know us, then i'm not so sure i'd want to be friends with them anyway.

...so on to the ups of today. besides the job well done on the essay, lunch was on akp today :)  i had the "taco rice", which consisted of a fried egg on top of some ground beef with rice on a bed of shredded cheese, lettuce, and diced tomatoes. [tako in japanese means octopus, so that brought some initial confusion lol] i thought it was pretty delicious ^_^ throughout the meal, there were humorous anecdotes from everyone-- and they made me smile, so that's good :)  after lunch, we went back to the lounge, where i saw mia and danielle :)  and they made me smile too ^_^  i adore them sooo much! around 3pm, my friends all left for their landscape gardens class--which i'm not in--so i headed home.  

a crazy, hyper dachshund greeted me at the door. his name is leo. he's about seven years old and belongs to my host sister mari. leo stays with us when her family gets really busy and isn't home much. [leo has separation anxiety?] this little dog reminds me a lot of lei ~ my crazy, hyper black lab back in new hampshire ^_^

playing with lulu and leo definitely lifted my spirits, and i'm expecting to be in a much better mood once i get that sports club membership tonight :)