Weakness

I just gave in a bought a bathtub. I'll upload the pictures later to show y'all how much is DOES NOT fit in my bathroom. It's funny.

At least I got it on sale. Off to have a good soak . . . ooooo! I can buy bath products now! Sqweee!

OSAKA!!!

Just a warning, this might be another long one.


I didn’t pack for this trip until the day of. Mostly because my laundry wasn’t dry yet. And then, for reasons forgotten, I stayed up later than I should have, and so I slept in a bit. Now this wouldn’t be a problem if I could just get it through my head that the time I have to be at the airport is not the same as the time I need to leave for the airport. *sigh* So yeah, I almost missed my plane. Like, I run up to the counter to check in 9:44 and the lady calls upstairs to hold the plane so it doesn’t depart at 9:45 like it’s suppose to. *sigh* But I did make it. And it was okay. Then I had a bit of a layover, not too bad, in Naha. I didn’t fly directly to Osaka because of that free ticket that I won a while back, so I had to transfer through Naha both ways. Both flights are without major incident and I get to the airport only to realize exactly how far Kansai is from Osaka. It took me about an hour on the train. Grrrr. But I FINALY get to the hotel and see Tiffany, who arrived with me on Wednesday, and we go out to eat dinner. Lemon Beef with potatoes and miso soup. Happiness.

After “lunch” we head over to Universal City, I can’t even remember why we headed that way in the first place, but it was fun. We found out that there is now a City Walk at Universal City (and yes, this is the station for Universal Studios Osaka, so Natalie, did you want to ride roller coasters for your birthday? We could) and did a bit of shopping. We found a used shop where we bought thermal shirts (it was freakin’ cold!) and I got a cheap Indian style over dress. Silk. We also found the Takoyaki museum and several American restaurants. We went in for a drink/desert and were waited on a beautiful Japanese man who couldn’t understand us even when we were talking Japanese.

This day was my first taste of the Osaka subway system. Which I have decided is on crack. Just getting to Universal City and back, we missed our stop (twice), got on the wrong train (because we were in the right place, just 3 different trains stop on that track), and got really frustrated. It was not happy. Honestly my gross impressions of the city is “I like Osaka, but I hate the subway.” But that’s not quite accurate. I like the subway okay, it’s the JR rails that they have here that I hate. It’s just not pleasant.

Okay, Thursday is the day that Marnie and Chris were suppose to meet us in Osaka, but Marnie was feeling sick, so she stayed home an extra day, and it took Chris forever to get to Osaka from Murakami, so Tiffany and I had some time to kill. So we went to Kyoto. It was about senen (1000yen) and took all of 30-40 minutes on the rapid train. We didn’t have a whole lot of time once we got there, so we hopped a bus to the Golden Temple and just did that one temple before hopping the bus/train back to ShinOsaka to meet Chris and to eat Indian food (oh, the curry!). The owner was really nice, we each wanted only one samosa, but they were sold in sets of two, so we asked if we could just get three, and he said “anything is possible,” which was really nice, and not something you are taught to expect in Japan.

After lunch we went back to the hotel (which is really nice, by the way. Private access, our own bathroom, kitchenette, and no curfew) to drop off Chris’s stuff before heading back out to Amerika-mura (American village) to go window shopping (I got a name brand jacket, for half the original asking price, and it’s cute!). We found bubble tea, and then karaoke (so much fun!) We also got picked up by some cute boys. They got us into a club for cheaper, and then we found out that they were actually performing at the club, which was why they were trying to sell tickets. We had just enough time to go get dinner (pasta and pizza) before seeing their set, and they were surprisingly good for Japanese Hip-hop. Afterwards we asked them for a cd, and got one for free, then when we told them that we’re gonna pass it along to our friends in music production and radio shows (which I’m not lying, between the three of us, we’re pretty connected) suddenly 2 more cds appeared and we were able to get a picture with the boys. It was a great night.

The next morning started really slowly, so we decided to go to Nara for the afternoon. Again, tickets were about senen and it took about 45 minutes to get there on the rapid. We had time to go see the Big Buddha just before it closed, and then head back to meet up with Marnie for dinner. We called it an early night, and went to bed around 10.

The next morning Chris and Marnie went to the Maritime Museum and Tiffany and I went to Tennoji Station. We ate okonomiyaki at the station, my first actual okonomiyaki, and it was really nice. The guy made it bigger for us because we were sharing, and he chatted to us a small bit. We sat at the bar, right where they were making it, so we could see how they did it. On our way to the famous Shintennoji Temple we were distracted by a museum holding a special exhibit called Binimbo (or something like that, I’ll look it up later), Japanese gold painting. It was relatively cheap, so we went to the museum. It’s perminate collection was a bunch of old Buddhas, and then we saw all of the old paintings from the 16th-18th centuries. It was really neat to see the progression of subject matter and style as Japan went through some if it’s radical political changes. I bought the book that went with the exhibit.

Then we headed to the temple, looked around for a bit, and happened to sit in on a Japanese funeral (not an actual one, but when someone dies, they morn for a year, so we saw some of the prayers and chanting and stuff), which was really neat. And then we headed back towards Universal City for more Takoyaki and stupid shopping (I bought silly things) before heading back home.

In the morning, I got up with Chris and Marnie and accompanied Chris to Shinosaka where she got on her shinkansen to go home (she actually missed her train because of the stupid subway system, but the guy was so nice when she was freaking out and changed her ticket), then I went back and met Tiffany at a different station to go to church.

Tiffany knows Elysha through the JETs of African Decent group, and Elysha invited us to the church’s service and Thanksgiving dinner. It was really interesting to see the International Church of Christ’s service, and good to meet the nice people there. And dinner was “not too shabby” either. I need to get Elysha’s recipe for her cranberry sauce. And they went to Cosco’s for the Pumpkin Pie and turkey. It was excellent.

While we were there we met Dominique, from Montreal, Canada, on JET in Gifu, middle of nowhere in Gifu. Her train didn’t leave until 7, so we traveled together to Umeda Station (or Osaka station, depending on what line of the subway you’re on) and just hung out and talked. I braved the holiday crowds at the Yodobashi department store and got Leo his stupid ps3 dual shock controller, white, just like he asked for. And then when we dropped her off we headed back to the hotel.

Tiffany’s bus didn’t leave until 11pm that night, so we watched the new episode of Heroes (I got her hooked :P ) and went out for an awesome pasta dinner at a place around the corner from our hotel and right next to the station. The lady there was so nice too, they gave us “service” (free stuff), roasted garlic in a dressing. Then I said goodbye to Tiffany at the station and went back to my now lonely and empty hotel to have a bath and call Leo (who was asleep, I miscounted the time change, but he talked to me for 2 minutes anyway), and Mom for about half an hour, where I showed her what I got Natalie and Dad for Christmas (heheheh), and just generally conversed happily. Then bed.

Now I’m sitting at Kansai airport (after not quite getting lost getting here) waiting for my play that wont leave for another hour and 15. I even had time to sit down and eat tendon for lunch. And get my omiyage for my schools. Now I just don’t know what to do with myself. I might go ahead and watch smallville. I mean, I am just sitting here. No internet . . .

And I just got home to it raining cats and dogs and a message from my grandma on my phone :D

I'll post pictures later, I have over 500 to go through . . .

Today:s snapshot

As I was walking to school from the parking lot, a cop car drove past the 6th years doing crosswalk duty, with it:s lights on. It slowed down and said over the loud speaker *good morning* and *keep up the hard work.* It was pretty neat. And the kids burst out laughing too, so I don:t feel so bad.

As a reminder

I'll be in Osaka this weekend, so this weekend as well, I will be out of contact. I think I'm gonna bring my puter, but the internet at the place we're staying is coin operated, and that sounds like bad times. I might just bring it to clean off my memory sticks. I like taking pictures some bad.

Tokashiki

Was made of win. Soooo much fun.

We get up early and catch a cab to the port. We have some confusion about where we're suppose to meet and almost miss the ferry, but whatever. We all made it in the end.

The sea was nice and I got some nice pictures of the scenery. We got there in about an hour and headed out to the campsite. It was . . . primitive. Just metal skeletons for large "tents." But all good. At least I found the real bathrooms, not the hallowed out shack that I seriously thought were the bathrooms for a good minute.

I went wandering and found a sign that said beware of habu, the highly venomous snake in Okinawa (that Miyako doesn't have ^_^ ) so I was very cautious as I walked around the sign to find the beach (where I thought everyone was, but wasn't) that was completely deserted, beautiful, and had a buddha. Yay. I then back tracked and found the beach that everyone was one.

We rented some snorkeling gear and went out. It was a bit cold, but only because the sun wasn't out from behind the haze. We saw nemo (again), and a starfish, and clams, and a fish that was brown and had leopard spots, and a sea slug that was purple with orange spots, and lots and lots and lots of schools of fish. The sea was very calm because there's another island in the mouth of the bay, and I think it blocks the nasty waves. It was awesome.

After, I was feeling famished, so I went in search of food. I found three noodle places and went in the third one, which turned out to be a good idea. I had yoshidofu soba, which is soba with tons of tofu on it. Kinda tasteless if you don't like tofu very much, but I love the stuff. It was great.

Then back to the beach for long beachy things. Some of the boys went out on a wake board, I took a nap and so did other people. Some more swimming, some Frisbee (I'm so bad at it), some more sitting and roasting (I didn't put on lotion except for my face and my arms and legs are a nice golden brown tinged with red now--doesn't hurt at all.

After we meandered towards dinner and got there a couple hours later. We tried to go to the "big" restaurant, but it was full, they had a large reservation, so we ended up going back to the same place I happened to have lunch at. Some people ordered individual meals, but my table decided to go izukaya style, and we ordered a bunch of different things and split the bill. We also ordered one of those HUGE bottles of awamori, and I was very surprised that we finished it before we left. (at some point I caught my sweet tooth and ordered a mango shake, which wasn't very shaky, so I poured some of my awamori in it, and it was better).

We headed back down to the campsite and beach and proceeded to have a very fun night. Turns out at midnight it was Yan's birthday, so he taught us a Gaelic birthday song, we met Kim, Jeff's predecessor, also randomly down in Tokashiki for the weekend, and she and her friends were really fun to talk to. Much stumbling around on the beach, and no body got hurt or burned or anything. Great fun. We only lost John once. But we found him again shortly after. Would have been even better if my crimson friend hadn't shown up in the middle of the party, but eh, she'd been threatening to come all week, and I wasn't really surprised she showed up.

In the morning I actually sat up (didn't get up for about an hour after waking) because the ants had found me. They weren't biting, but it was annoying to be crawled upon. I woke up to find I'd shared my "tent" with Kirsty, Ollie, Lynette, Lynn, and Ryan. Kirsty actually got up, and Sam moved from the beach where she'd passed out with a very drunk Guy on her lap and took Kirsty's place. She said the only reason she'd gotten up was because it had turned cold. And it had. The rain had moved in and while it didn't actually "rain" on us, it sprinkled a bunch.

While we were repacking a nice Tokashiki man came by and offered us FRESH clams that he'd gotten out of the ocean himself. I would have, but raw shellfish and I don't make the happiest of couples when I haven't been drinking the night before. I didn't think they'd go down very well. We slowly packed up and 17 of us (I did a head count on the bus) headed back to the early ferry, which us Miyakans had to take because we would have missed our 4~ flight if we'd taken the 5 o'clock ferry. The ferry was rough, but Cameron was nice and let Ollie and me watch his "media," Ollie watched South Park with me until the sea became too rough and he had to close his eyes. I kept the earplugs in and mostly watched the horizon after that, trying not to think of the waves.

We caught a cab back in Naha, and Sam, Kirsty and I went to the airport. They wanted to get lunch and I couldn't really stand the idea of food, so we all checked in and checked our luggage and I bumped my flight up to the 1:30 flight, giving me 2 hours. We tried to find the Starbucks in the airport, but were told that it was inside the gate, and the girls wanted to do a little shopping before leaving, so they left and I got my omiyage, a christmas present for curi, my mocha frappachino with whipped cream, a white chocolate and macadamia nut cookie and a mini quiche. Starbucks is the happy, I want one here. And I'm happy we don't have one, all at the same time.

On the flight, I just happened to be sat next to one of the office ladies from the iinkai, which was nice, and stunk all at the same time. Because I stunk and was kinda embarrassed by it. There weren't any hot water showers at the beach, so I hadn't washed the snorkeling off, let alone a day of walking around and then laying down drunk on the beach. But she didn't say anything about it and slept the whole flight.

Oh! I forgot to mention! While I was in Naha we found a bookstore. An ENGLISH book store. It was small and very overpriced, but I was finishing up my book and wanted one to read on the plane coming back. So I picked up Peter Pan. I think I might want to write a thesis on this book. It's awesome. Just. Plain. Awesome. If I actually get my degree in literature, yep, that'll be it. How Peter Pan is his own god. And the influence of fairy lore. Or something like that. So much fun.

Yeah, so I get home and I'm still not feeling very perfectly well, so I go out in search of food. I was planing to go down to Lillians and get some yaki niku, because they actually have veggies with their meat, and veggies sounded like a really good idea. But it was raining and I was feeling bad, so I didn't even make it to the end of the block before going in a random izukaya. Turns out to be one of my best decisions ever. I sat there for 10 minutes studying the menu, trying to read what they had to figure out what I though my stomach could handle, when the chef/owner came over and asked me what I wanted. I told him the truth, that I'd drunk a lot the night before and wanted easy to digest food. He then tells me that he will make me a set, charge me 1000 yen, and put on it only things I like. It was probably the best food I could have had right then. Sooooooooo very good.

And then I get back home and experience my first earthquake. Fun times. It lasted less than 4 seconds. I mostly heard a weird rumbling, then the house shook for a moment. Then by the time I was thinking, should I get off my bum and get under a doorway? It was over. Not that I have any real doorways anyway.

Today I was so tired, and I had to teach 5 classes, which was awful. And my nose is acting like it's trying to be sick. So I slept through the break after lunch, and left early to go get my re-entry permit and drop my omiyage off at the iinkai. Since then I've been typing up this and uploading my metric ton of pictures. You should look at them. The photo sets used in this weekend were MYC, Tokashiki, and Airplane pics, or you could just look at them in order starting here (continues to the right). Fun times. Fun times. Bed now.

MYC

The Mid Year Conference for this year was in Okinawa City, for financial reasons as well as easier access to the conference for people who live in the north as OkiCity is in the middle of Okinawa, while Naha is towards the south-ish. The problem for us islanders is that we had to fly in early, get a bus up to OkiCity, and then get a hotel because there was no possible way for us to get there earlier.

So yeah, I was suppose to leave around 6 on Wednesday and get to Oki City really freaking late. But I get to work and they've changed my schedule around so that I can leave before lunch. So I do and catch a 2~ flight. Weee!

But because of the time that my plane landed, I got there just in time to Miss the bus, and there was a 2 hour wait for the next one. So I caught the monorail over to the bus terminal and caught a different bus up and still got there 40 minutes earlier than I would have. Yay.

Then sleep and conferences. Which weren't too bad. I had fun, at least.

The conferences lasted 2 days, which was nice, because we got out early enough to go eat (Jamaican followed by Mexican. Heaven!!!) and early enough that when we got to Naha Friday night after the conference was over, that we could go to Indian. I had lamb curry with samosa. I died with happiness.

Then Saturday morning we got up early and caught a ferry . . .

Geez, I'm late. Pantu.

These are gonna have to be several posts. Because I can't do this in one giant one. Not an pack and stuff.

Okay, LAST Monday was really fun. I'd just gotten back from not sleeping in Ishigaki the night before and was looking forward to a nice quiet evening and going to bed early. Then Amy sends out a mail saying that today was Pantu. I had my camera, so there are a few pictures, but the rest will have to wait until I can get them off my phone as my camera died. And I didn't want it covered in mud, cuz I certainly was. My clothes still don't smell right. After two washings. But I had soooo much fun.

Well, yep, that was an earthquake.

Earthquake Information (Information about Seismic Intensity at each site)
Issued at 21:07 JST 18 Nov 2007

Occurred at (JST)	Latitude (degree)	Longitude (degree)	Depth	Magnitude	Region Name
21:02 JST 18 Nov 2007	24.7N	125.4E	40km	3.5	NEAR MIYAKOJIMA ISLAND

Seismic Intensity at each station
(* mark: Local Governments' or NIED's station)

Prefecture	JMA Seismic Intensity	Station Name
OKINAWA	1	MIYAKOJIMASHIHIRARASHIMOZATO
		MIYAKOJIMASHIHIRARANISHINAKASONE
		MIYAKOJIMASHIGUSUKUBEFUKUKITA
		MIYAKOJIMASHIGUSUKUBEFUKUSEI*

No Tsunami threat by this earthquake.

Ishigaki and back, or how I didn't sleep this weekend.

Ishigaki and back, or how I didn’t sleep this weekend.

Okay, so, this is gonna be a long one, please bare with me. But you’ll want to read it. Especially you, Raoin. Especially you.

So, I go to work at Miyahara (my smallest school) for Friday before coming home, throwing my not packed pile into my school bag (after taking my school things out of it, of course), and get my happy self to the airport.

The smallest flight ever. Which is not quite true. But we take off, have the “it’s okay to stand up” announcement within 5 minutes, the stewardesses come down the aisle offering blankets, no drinks, then we’re told to put on our seatbelts again cuz we’ll be landing in 10 minutes. Woo. 30 minutes, take off to landing. And when we get there? Yeah, I had to walk off the plane onto the pavement. Fun!

Veronica picked me up in a taxi, because the Ishigaki gang had already started drinking, and we went to her apartment to drop off bags and talk for a bit before going out to a nice izukaya, where we had dinner and met a bunch of the Ishigaki peeps (continues to the left). It was really fun (continues to the left). My favorite bits being the rice with squid ink, no really, very good, and the fried cheese. Heavenly. And the people were fun too :P

Then we went home while everybody else went out because we were really tired and wanted to actually get up and see the island the next day.

We did get up, but not until 10, when we sat around and talked, and called Veronica’s mom, and talked some more and finally left the house for lunch around 2 or 3. When I got a chance to meet the most adorable kittens EVER (just that one)! They were born in Veronica’s garden, which has a gate so no dogs. They were very cautious, but I used my kitten loving whiles, and I was able to coax them out to play with me. Veronica was really surprised because usually they wouldn’t come close to new people and it took me about 5 minutes? Not even? It. Was. Awesome.

We ate the Yaeyama soba (their own style of soba, apparently Ishigaki and the surrounding islands are called the Yaeyama islands, while the islands surrounding Miyako are called the Miyako Islands), which was very very yummy and then we drove around up to the eastern lighthouse (continues to left). It was VERY windy. But fun. Then we continued up the coast and drove to Kariba Bay (continues to left), which was gorgeous and would have been more so if it hadn’t been almost dark and rainy on top of it.

Then back to town to buy Mom the Perfect Christmas Gift. We finished up just in time to go to Yakiniku (continues to RIGHT!). It was my first yakiniku experience, and it was Ishigaki beef, that they raise right out back. It was SOOOOOOOO delicious. After the carnage, we went for a little karaoke, which was alright, but you had to buy a drink XP and Matt’s girlfriend called with bad times, so he was pretty depressed. After karaoke, we found ice cream at the Hot Spar, found a very drunk French guy who lives on the island and wanted to talk to us in the little bit of English that he knew. Fun times. After, we said good night to Matt and went back to Veronica’s to talk, me, Veronica, and Kat.

We get to talking, and talking, and around 1am we hear a cat fight. We worry, but think nothing of it, as it is settled quickly and continue to talk.

Then, a little while later, we hear a knock on the door, and it’s Lina, the upstairs neighbor, with Puma, one of the kittens, bleeding from a wound on her neck and she just says “doushioo?” What do we do? I ask if there’s an emergency vet, and there isn’t. We take the kitten into the kitchen, and try to clean her up a bit. She goes from being very energetic and wanting to run away, to very very lethargic. We clean her up as best we can, but figure we’ll just hurt her worst if we try to get all of the blood off, and as it’s not gushing new blood, we should let nature do it’s course and take her to the vet the next morning. We also let her mother inside for a bit, but she didn’t seem to really know what to do with her either, and we let her back outside to protect her other kittens. It was not a very happy night.

Lina eventually goes home, and so does Kat, but we keep Puma wrapped up in a towel for warmth with water nearby (which she did drink some of during the night). We went out and tried to find the other kittens, but couldn’t until just before Kat left, and they were up high on a wall, with no way of getting them and brining them inside. And we only saw Tora and Ashes, not Yuki.

At about 7am there’s another cat fight and we go out to not see anything. But all three kittens are up on the wall. We coax them down (we went kitten fishing with a stick and caught 3!) and take them inside and Mama follows us. We let them look around, check on Puma (who has moved a bit during the night), and then go back to sleep for a bit.

We wake up to them all sleeping comfortably around the room, get up, and go with Lina to the vet. Let me impress that this was not easy. Veronica picked up Puma, who did not want to be touched, and she cried. And Mama, was immediately right in front of her. And when Veronica stood up and Puma cried again, Mama climbed Veronica in order to get her. I took Puma while Lina extracted Mama. I sat down on the bed and let Mama see that I wasn’t hurting Puma, while I used my considerable kitty holding skills to not let Puma jump from my arms, and after a bit we left for the vet. Holding a kitty that doesn't want to be held for it's first car ride is not a very easy thing to do, let me tell you. At one point Puma tried to jump out the window, and hit her head on the glass. Fun times.

The vet let us stay in the room while he cleaned the wound, which is apparently standard procedure in Japan, and he finally found that the source of All That Blood was this teeny tiny puncture wound on the back of her neck. They cleaned it, took her temperature, told us she was a girl, and decided to keep her there overnight because she wasn’t very energetic and gave her an iv drip. We left her there and went back home to check on the other babies.

Lina came in and we chatted for about an hour about all kinds of things, and her English is very good, but she has no confidence. And Veronica’s speaking isn’t so good, so it was great practice for her because when she didn’t know how to say something, I usually did, and we had a very good conversation while the kittens (to the left)ate breakfast and napped around us (on my lap :D ).

Then we had lunch with Kat at a deli (bagel with cream cheese and cream potato soup = happiness), went shopping at what I swear would have been Little Five Points (to the left)if it wasn’t for the Japanese customers, walked around in the beautiful summer-like weather (nice summer, not Okinawa summer), before going back to the house and playing with the kittens some more before getting back on the plane.

Afterwards, I was ded, so I stopped by KFC to pick up dinner. And I see the Cornel dressed up as Santa. I forgot to upload the picture, I'll do it in a bit. But I had Origninal Recipe chicken (HEAVEN!), the smallest side of coal slaw you've ever seen, a bisket with a hole in the middle with honey and maple, and an egg custard pie. It was awesome.

I’m so tired. I’m going to take my shower and crash. Pictures are up. Enjoy

100th post

So, I'm gonna start this 100th post off to a kinda weird start.

So today while I was sitting there in the teacher's room, cutting out cards that I realized half way through I wouldn't need until next week, not tomorrow (although I don't have ANYthing for the 2nd grade lesson, that IS actually tomorrow), suddenly all of the teachers at Shimoji sit down and start having a meeting around me.

Now, meetings such as these usually happen before or after school. The fact that it was the middle of the day seemed a little odd, but I figured I'd just been left out of the loop again and whatever. Then the fourth grade teacher says that she found a note and proceeds to read the note, in which one of my girls is telling another girl to *please die.* Ah, so emergency meeting. Gotcha. I couldn't understand much more than that, and that both of the girls were friends and on the basketball team together. So why? and what's gonna be done about it? I have no idea. But yeah. Afternoon.

In other unhappy news. I'm now 14 hours ahead of you. Stupid daylight savings. If I ever thought it was just mildly annoying before, now it's downright a hated thing. This means that the occasional nights when Leo calls me on his way to work, are now well after my bedtime. That if I get up and call him in the morning, he's without question, still at work. And when I get off work and get home, it's now 3am. This sucks so bad.

In happier news. I worked my tush off for my Halloween costume, and pictures are now up. That's totally a lie, of course. I sat on my tush, vaguely, occasionally, working on my Halloween costume for 2 weeks, and then when I thought I had enough time to get up early on Saturday and finish, it turned out that I didn't. Mostly because the collar turned out to be a pain in the. But it didn't fall off of me (one of my worries), and it held up well enough that I can probably use it again. Although if I undertake something like this again (I would like to point out that this was my first Halloween costume/outfit in general that I've made for myself and by myself. Another *I've grown up* moments) I'm not doing it without a sewing machine again. That would have made it so much easier. And quicker. As was, I watched Stardust, and 2 episodes of Bionic Woman, and the entire new season of Avatar. And was done JUST in time for the party. But Did Not have time to do my headdress. Turned out okay though.

*Speaking* of Avatar. Has anyone else noticed that it:s not Avatar: the Last Airbender anymore? It's now Avatar: the Legend of Aang? I wonder when it changed. I think I would have noticed it before now, but it took me until the 8th or so episode to notice. *Really* good show, if anyone is interested.

In the past few days I've also read a bunch of manga that Curi gave me, ate the end of the Word and the Void series, and cleaned up my apartment a bit to the tune of Transformers. The apartment has to be done this week, before Friday. Because for the next 3 weekends I'm going out of town. First to Ishigaki, to visit Veronica. Then to Naha, for the mid-year conference (I need a skirt for that). Then to Osaka with Marnie, Curi, and Tiffany. Because I'm not a cancer who likes to hole up in her house and never see people. Because I don't feel the need to sleep in and rejuvenate myself, by myself, at least once a week. Because I don't need any *down time* days. Or any *clean up the place* days. Really, swear. At least I should have tons of fun.

Oh, also a Grandmotts update. Didn't really give one before now because I hadn't heard one way or the other defiantly until recently. She's still in the hospital. Extremely tired. But slowly improving. I hope she gets better enough to go home soon. Maybe next week. I'll be very happy when she's well enough to come home.

And to leave on an extremely happy note. I have a picture for you. I was sitting in Heiichi's 6th year class (which one, I don't remember, maybe 1?) waiting for class to begin, because there's no point for me to walk down three flights of stairs to the first floor teacher's room when class starts again in 10 minutes. So I got my stuff arranged on the desk and then sat down. The kids (as almost always) asked to use my ball (or they just take it, whichever) and three boys were passing the ball back and forth between them, volleyball style, occasionally hitting it towards me where I'd join in from my seated position. Now, one of my favorite kids was sitting in the front row waiting for class, reading. Now, I don't like this kid because he's good at English (which he is, fairly), nor because he's one of those charismatic jerks (which he is not). I like him because he reminds me of myself. Quietly reading a fantasy book while he waits for class. He's one of those quiet types, but he'll actually talk to me, which is rare for the quiet types here. So yeah, they're playing ball in front of him, and it occasionally hits him. He IS sitting on the front row. Even one of mine hits him, and I say sorry, and he says okay. But this one time, the first kid who borrowed my ball, hits him on purpose. One too many times. And this quiet little 6th grade boy, stands up, walks over to him, and starts wailing on him. Like has the other kid on the ground, he's smacking him so hard. I would have stopped it, but the first kid was laughing his tushy off. So I didn't. Because that's the rule. If the kid getting smacked is laughing, it's not bullying, it's just playing. And I was kinda okay with that because the quiet kid who was kinda getting picked on stood up for himself. And then sat back down to read his book and the incident was completely over. Go kid.

Killing time

and







Visited Countries Map from TravelBlog

and



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

I'm really upset by how much of those maps are not red. I'll have to do something about that. *nods*

Fixed my camera, kinda

Apparently the reason that my camera was saying that I had no space in my memory card is that when I delete them from my camera through my computer it keeps a ghost image of the picture in the cache. So, to completely delete the pictures off of my memory card, I need to pull the pictures off the card, delete them, and while the camera is still hooked up to the computer, empty the trash. Yay! Suddenly I have about 700 pictures I can take now :D Note, this does not fix the loose wire problem that makes the screen go out sometimes. But so far a good smack has fixed that every time it:s happened.

So yeah, the rest of the pictures (not on the phone) are up, starting here. This includes some pictures from when Suzy came to the island and we drove around, and some beach pics. Yay fun.