ten days

...since my last entry.

i figured i'd have to make some time to update. it's nearly midnight, and it's been an exhausting week, so i'll do my best to be somewhat coherent.

first big news: my sister alice has been accepted to middlebury (early decision) for the class of 2013! the couple days leading up to december 13 were too full of anxiety and excitement--sooo glad it's done and over with. congratulations, alice! you've worked so hard ~ you deserve it!

second big news: leslie came to kyoto and stayed with me this week. it was great to finally see her again after four months :)  leslie, have fun in hokkaido and tokyo with your family! i'll miss you, but september will be here before we know it... can't wait!

not big news: three more "meetings" with starbucks guy since the last entry. the next time i have an opportunity to talk to him, i will. for real, this time.

now on to smaller updates...

#1 end of fall term class party with imao-sensei

￥10000 (about the equivalent of $100 USD)

this was really yummy, but it was also really difficult to eat.  

we called for reinforcements after a little while... 

not even half-way in, and most of us were about to give up.

#2 starbucks.

i'm still going. everyday. overkill? perhaps. 

why am i going so often? many reasons. 

for one, obviously, the coffee. 

two, i love the atmosphere (awesome for reading). 

three, it's a great place to meet up with friends. 

four, it's one of few places in kyoto where 

one can actually sit down and 

have conversation for hours on end. 

five, i come across (interesting) people 

that i normally wouldn't otherwise.

#3 finals week.

i have never been so relaxed around exam time.

there was no need to cram or study excessively.

i reviewed the material with some friends at starbucks

in between good conversation and just plain silliness :)

[elective grades aren't in yet, but i received an A for japanese]

#4 leslie!

mia and i were able to spend a lot of time with leslie

over the past few days. we did a ton of shopping and

ate delicious ramen. we also had yummy chinese food with

nestor and greg before they went to nagano for part of break.

grant also met us at starbucks for more catching up/reminiscing

over some good coffee before he had to head home to pack.

#5 awesome finds.

(the perfect) off-white wool coat on sale.

cute deep purple dress from zara.

new bag! similar style. different color.

beautiful handmade pouch with eiffel tower.

lots of inexpensive, but pretty jewelry.

<3

teramachi, mr. young men && the typical friday night

mr. young men is a little restaurant in teramachi-dori, a pedestrian street lined with a ton of different shops. teramachi is kind of hard to describe, but it's an amazing place to do shopping on a rainy day. [i will take some pictures the next time i go] anyway, mr. young men was where my friends and i decided to have dinner after a couple hours of shopping. 

danielle and i split the okonomiyaki meal, each of us paying only ￥390 for dinner. okonomiyaki is delicious ^_^ it's a popular dish, but i've never really had it before. i tried a little bit over the summer, but not enough to have developed an impression either way. the okonomiyaki also came with soup and onigiri. i was full before i had even finished half of it! 

something interesting about mr. young men: it has porn magazines for the customers to "peruse". we saw a man sitting by himself at a nearby table indiscreetly flipping through one. i wonder if that's normal in japan...

anyway, the guys went to an arcade-- and the girls did some more shopping ^_^  we met up again after a few hours and did the usual ~ go to a lawson's, buy cheap beer and snacks, and then off to the riverside to chill and talk. i tried a 4% mango drink this time. it was a little sweet, but still my "cup of alcohol" lol :)

again, sitting by the riverside and seeing all the couples there... it really made me feel lonely/sad about the current situation =\  

[but i guess i'll just have to wait and see... it won't be too long ^_^]

bic camera

...is an amazing electronics store. it's huge! i think there were six floors altogether, but it seems like one could find virtually everything there. my friends and i walked there together, but we wound up splitting up into small groups. mia and i wandered around and found probably over a hundred different types of photo albums and photo frames! they were all so かわいい [ cute ] and hard to resist buying. we each got a "therapy color" photo album and a case for our 電子辞書 [ electronic dictionary ]. i had searched high-and-low for a case on the internet before but couldn't find anything. minutes after walking into bic camera, we came across a small wall completely full of them. furthermore, i found a pale pink/chocolate one, and mia chose a pretty orange one ^_^

on another floor, countless models of clocks were showcased. since my LG chocolate is of no use to me in japan, i was left without a method of keeping time and no way to ensure i won't oversleep. scanning the walls and displays for something in my favorite color, i mentally eliminated all of them but one. and this one was perfect. this clock is pink in color, egg-shaped, and includes features such as temperature, calendar, timer, and alarm. however, the awesome thing about this egg clock is that each feature [ when backlit ] is in a different color, and the backlight is activated when it is thrown off balance--meaning, this clock literally rocks [ all in directions about its base ] without falling over. && it's portable!

but shopping aside, mia and i struggled to understand what a bic camera "point card" was. the cashier was patiently trying to explain to us the benefits of having one, but we just got really confused. then i found an explanation sheet in english at the counter, and we finally figured it out. however, it took a few tries to express that i wanted to apply for one. the difficulties in communication didn't end there though. i needed a phone number, and i hadn't memorized mine yet--so mia gave me hers to use. but then, i needed an address. luckily, after writing it five times for my luggage tags and customs declaration forms, it had made its way into my long-term memory. the problem then came down to putting that address onto to paper--but in kanji... long story short, after all the communication issues, mia and i both have bic camera point cards now :)

everyone else was waiting for us outside the building at this point. somehow, we got "lost" on the second floor. when we realized we weren't on the ground floor, we headed towards the escalator to take us down. however, we first came to the one coming down from the third story, so we turned around and kept looking. the next one we came to would take us up to the fourth floor. after some more wandering, we finally found our way out.

the end.

^_^

p.s. rain + flip flops = bad idea.

やった！ 勝ち！

今日、サッカーの試合があって、ヘブライ語学校とあらそって、５対３で勝ちました！　楽しかったけど、スパイクで水ぶくれができた。
>_< 小さいすぎるかもしれないから、明日新しいスパイクを買おうと思う。

hooray! victory!
we had a soccer game against the hebrew school today and won 5 to 3! i had fun, but i got a blister from my cleats.
:(
i think i'm going to buy new cleats tomorrow because they're probably too small.

a weekend of yummy japanese food, shopping, and dance parties

in the interest of [time and] keeping up with the blog, today's (july 1) entries will be written in english only...

on saturday, my teachers cooked dinner for 中級一 (equiv. of third-year). it was extremely yummy! everyone ate until s/he couldn't eat anymore, and then ate some more! cold noodles were served with our choice of vegetables, shrimp, and various other flavorings. i forget what dessert was called, but it was similar to something i have had during a chinese holiday celebration.

anyway, the weekend began with a trip to burlington. skipping out on lunch at middlebury, my friends and i went to the sakura bana restaurant on church street. i had the vegetable tempura and vegetable gyoza ~ it was absolutely delicious! of course, we were speaking in japanese the entire time (except when we had to communicate our orders to the waiter). because we adhered to the language pledge, we got strange looks and stares from passing people upon hearing us speak japanese.

after lunch, we split up into two groups---shopping in the mall vs. watching wall-e. i choose shopping, naturally ^_^ i had misplaced my water bottle, so i bought a new one from victoria's secret ~ it is perfect! i also had to replace my earbuds... long story involving theft a month ago... overall, it was an awesome time with my friends.

that friday night, my teachers threw us another party in coffrin lounge. マルちゃん, my friend melida, dj'ed the dance. the middkids and a few others danced the night away, but to my [slight] disappointment, everyone else stood around the perimeter of the dance floor. afterwards, we gathered a large group of people to go to the grille with us, including several friends who are working on campus over summer. my teachers later joined us too. it made for quite the interesting conclusion of the night, for copious amounts of alcohol were involved...