Whew, it's been a while...
So about that whole updating more often thing. Yeah, didn't happen. Who's surprised? :DDD So, we'll be going through the semester in bullet-point-summary-mode. I would like to point out that these are not necessarily chronological order, I apologize for the confusion.
~Classes were easy as hell. omg, Bryn Mawr, why are you so ridiculous that I can take five classes at another school and still have more free time than with four classes at home?
~I had three teachers, all of them were epic in some way or another. Japanese teacher was craaaaaaazy in an awesome way (3 pretend "boyfriends" one of whom was about 8? wtf sensei XD), History/Culture teacher was just plain awesome and lived in Japan for like 30 yrs and forever went off on tangents about his time researching, Lit/Samurai Themes teacher translated a book called "The Great Mirror of Male Love" which means no matter how boring and poetry-filled my lit class got he's still epic in my books XD I'm easily amused.
~I learned how to make sukiyaki :D
~also learned how difficult it is to cook anything without a bloody frying pan, good god @.@
~hyakuen stores are the best. places. ever.
~Cute shoes everywhere, none of which fit me T.T
~Tokyo is like, ridiculously warm. I didn't even really need my coat until the last few weeks. Coming from Western New York and Philadelphia areas...this is just plain weird. Awesome, but weird.
~Yamanote-sen is the best sen.
~Except when it decides to stop on mornings when I have a test. Which happened twice. In a row. alsdkfjsd
~on that note, omg, how amazing was it to have a train system that actually worked? Like, you could get anywhere. Really easily. And on time. By train. My american mind boggles.
~Made amazing, awesome friends in imma_holiday and hughes_maes who introduced me to Gunma (and insured I henceforth never got it wrong on a map quiz), Kamen Rider W, Magdala na Maria, and the wonders and slight insanity of Japanese cosplay, whom I miss terribly T.T visit meeeeeeeeeeee
~Visited Tsujiki fish market twice and enjoyed some of the freshest sushi known to humankind *_* yum.
~Saw *pnish* pretend to be cowboys and was greatly amused :D it was really kind of epic finally seeing something live.
~Saw Kime be extremely gay as a guest at santies. good god hime, could you be more obvious XD
~Also opted out of going to his concert, which is probably the one thing I could have made it to that I really regret missing :/ I would have liked to see Hard to Hold, but considering family was visiting at the time and we weren't in Tokyo, that wasn't really possible.
~Went to the Ghibli museum! Which was super epic *_* just...the detail. In every exhibit, and all the information on how animation works and sldkjfs. I'm sure I would have gotten more out of it if I was able to read the signs but it was amazing anyway.
~Visited the butler cafe, Swallowtail, twice landing myself an official members card :3 and was suitably impressed. Food was excellent, and the whole place reminded me strongly of eating at the dining room on a cruise ship on formal night. Very classy, very professional - the only real difference was that you had a bell to call your waiter XD and hey, it's nice to be pampered once in a while ♥
~Went to Fuji-Q with a school trip and went ice skating for the first time in years :D successfully.
~Did a variety of program things through the school including taiko drumming (lots of fun), a traditional arts workshop (I got to try on a yukata! :D), cooking workshop (self explanatory) and a tea ceremony.
~Also went on the Hiroshima/Kyoto trip. Highlights included visiting a shrine island the day before Masa and co were there cue rampant fangirl rage and the Atomic Bomb museum, which was super depressing but a really valuable experience. Kyoto was fairly rushed, though we did get a day off to head to Osaka and visit onewhomust which was awesome :D
~Owls are freaking everywhere in Japan. On everything. it was sooooooo tempting T.T I did end up with a mug and a wall-hanging-thing that I just couldn't resist.
I think that's most of the highlights. After finals, my family came and we did touristy stuff for a while in Tokyo and then Kyoto. I did finally make it to Nara and got attacked by deer, which was rather fun XD We hit up a traditional Ryokan for the last day which was super relaxing and really kind of epic, and after running around all semester it was really nice to have a day to do nothing. The mistress of the Ryokan also came and did a few traditional dances for us our last night during dinner which was really amazing. And I had a couple successful japanese conversations :D Also the staff was perpetually amused at the difficulties caused by my brother and dad being 6'2 and 6'3 respectively XD
My flight home was less than smooth, and I do mean that literally, we had a ton of turbulance for the first half. Also there was not one, not two, but at least four infants in my area of the plane and naturally, as soon as they dimmed the lights for people to sleep, they rotated howling at least once an hour like clockwork so I didn't get much sleep. My flight from DC to rochester was also delayed by about an hour, and DC customs/security was ridiculously understaffed and subsequently slow and frustrating, so it wasn't a very good day.
But I'm home, and despite being rather cold (heating vents to my room are closed when I leave for the semester, and they've not been opened up yet) and pestered by cats am enjoying myself. I have four days to unpack, finish an internship application, do laundry, see HP7 and repack for two weeks in Europe which I leave for on the 18th. Which means I need to find out where Dad moved the sweaters in the top of my closet to when he was doing stuff in the attic, because I kind of want to bring those...
~Classes were easy as hell. omg, Bryn Mawr, why are you so ridiculous that I can take five classes at another school and still have more free time than with four classes at home?
~I had three teachers, all of them were epic in some way or another. Japanese teacher was craaaaaaazy in an awesome way (3 pretend "boyfriends" one of whom was about 8? wtf sensei XD), History/Culture teacher was just plain awesome and lived in Japan for like 30 yrs and forever went off on tangents about his time researching, Lit/Samurai Themes teacher translated a book called "The Great Mirror of Male Love" which means no matter how boring and poetry-filled my lit class got he's still epic in my books XD I'm easily amused.
~I learned how to make sukiyaki :D
~also learned how difficult it is to cook anything without a bloody frying pan, good god @.@
~hyakuen stores are the best. places. ever.
~Cute shoes everywhere, none of which fit me T.T
~Tokyo is like, ridiculously warm. I didn't even really need my coat until the last few weeks. Coming from Western New York and Philadelphia areas...this is just plain weird. Awesome, but weird.
~Yamanote-sen is the best sen.
~Except when it decides to stop on mornings when I have a test. Which happened twice. In a row. alsdkfjsd
~on that note, omg, how amazing was it to have a train system that actually worked? Like, you could get anywhere. Really easily. And on time. By train. My american mind boggles.
~Made amazing, awesome friends in imma_holiday and hughes_maes who introduced me to Gunma (and insured I henceforth never got it wrong on a map quiz), Kamen Rider W, Magdala na Maria, and the wonders and slight insanity of Japanese cosplay, whom I miss terribly T.T visit meeeeeeeeeeee
~Visited Tsujiki fish market twice and enjoyed some of the freshest sushi known to humankind *_* yum.
~Saw *pnish* pretend to be cowboys and was greatly amused :D it was really kind of epic finally seeing something live.
~Saw Kime be extremely gay as a guest at santies. good god hime, could you be more obvious XD
~Also opted out of going to his concert, which is probably the one thing I could have made it to that I really regret missing :/ I would have liked to see Hard to Hold, but considering family was visiting at the time and we weren't in Tokyo, that wasn't really possible.
~Went to the Ghibli museum! Which was super epic *_* just...the detail. In every exhibit, and all the information on how animation works and sldkjfs. I'm sure I would have gotten more out of it if I was able to read the signs but it was amazing anyway.
~Visited the butler cafe, Swallowtail, twice landing myself an official members card :3 and was suitably impressed. Food was excellent, and the whole place reminded me strongly of eating at the dining room on a cruise ship on formal night. Very classy, very professional - the only real difference was that you had a bell to call your waiter XD and hey, it's nice to be pampered once in a while ♥
~Went to Fuji-Q with a school trip and went ice skating for the first time in years :D successfully.
~Did a variety of program things through the school including taiko drumming (lots of fun), a traditional arts workshop (I got to try on a yukata! :D), cooking workshop (self explanatory) and a tea ceremony.
~Also went on the Hiroshima/Kyoto trip. Highlights included visiting a shrine island the day before Masa and co were there cue rampant fangirl rage and the Atomic Bomb museum, which was super depressing but a really valuable experience. Kyoto was fairly rushed, though we did get a day off to head to Osaka and visit onewhomust which was awesome :D
~Owls are freaking everywhere in Japan. On everything. it was sooooooo tempting T.T I did end up with a mug and a wall-hanging-thing that I just couldn't resist.
I think that's most of the highlights. After finals, my family came and we did touristy stuff for a while in Tokyo and then Kyoto. I did finally make it to Nara and got attacked by deer, which was rather fun XD We hit up a traditional Ryokan for the last day which was super relaxing and really kind of epic, and after running around all semester it was really nice to have a day to do nothing. The mistress of the Ryokan also came and did a few traditional dances for us our last night during dinner which was really amazing. And I had a couple successful japanese conversations :D Also the staff was perpetually amused at the difficulties caused by my brother and dad being 6'2 and 6'3 respectively XD
My flight home was less than smooth, and I do mean that literally, we had a ton of turbulance for the first half. Also there was not one, not two, but at least four infants in my area of the plane and naturally, as soon as they dimmed the lights for people to sleep, they rotated howling at least once an hour like clockwork so I didn't get much sleep. My flight from DC to rochester was also delayed by about an hour, and DC customs/security was ridiculously understaffed and subsequently slow and frustrating, so it wasn't a very good day.
But I'm home, and despite being rather cold (heating vents to my room are closed when I leave for the semester, and they've not been opened up yet) and pestered by cats am enjoying myself. I have four days to unpack, finish an internship application, do laundry, see HP7 and repack for two weeks in Europe which I leave for on the 18th. Which means I need to find out where Dad moved the sweaters in the top of my closet to when he was doing stuff in the attic, because I kind of want to bring those...