How did I spend the holiday that is the celebration of America's independence? With non-Americans, of course. Some Japanese friends of mine came out to Seattle for the day and to watch the fireworks. They were some of the international students (not AU) so they all knew English pretty much fluently but spoke Japanese about 80% of the time.
I got to Seattle around 1:30 PM and was going to Westlake to maybe eat something and was spotted by Demetri and two of his coworkers so I hung out with them for maybe half an hour and was shown around Studio 7 where they work and Demetri got me a free coffee. After that I met up with Ryo and Max and then met up with the rest of the group and the two girls split off so they could go shopping while we wandered around aimlessly.
Ryo and I were checking to see if Gameworks is still sucking (it is) and on our way back to find the guys at Seattle's Best I noticed three AU students in the distance: Gaku, Shinchan, and Yuuta. I had a feeling I'd see SOMEONE but not them, haha. So we walked with them for a little bit. It was a shame that they weren't going to stay for fireworks... the more the merrier. Then we got back with the guys and went shopping and walked around too much and then regrouped and starting heading towards Myrtle Edwards park.
We went to some really nice Japanese place for dinner (go figure) called Umi (sea) and I ordered ahi tuna sashimi (BIG CHUNKS) over rice with this mustard wasabi sauce... it was sooooo gooooood I ate it all right away. During dinner Max referred to me as "Amy-chan" and it made me happy. Andrew's done the same thing, too.
I hadn't realized it after a while but the group had been relying on me as navigation in Seattle, haha.
So after dinner we made our way to the park and played on some rocks and logs down by the water then found a spot on a hill and played card games until it was dark enough for fireworks. The fireworks of course were GORGEOUS and went for about half an over. After that we headed back to the downtown area and Ryo and I split from the group and went to his car so he could take me to the ferry (12:50 AM >_> and it was 20 minutes late >_>;;;;) and so we ate and then just hung out for over an hour. I was falling asleep sitting in the car. I wish I could have just slept there, haha.
tl;dr my day was awesome and I was really happy to meet new people and spend time with them and hear Japanese being spoken and practice it more. So uh, have some pictures.
My legs hurt real bad but it's all good.
Anyone want to hang out this week?