you took the time to figure me out
Soooo it's not actually that I've been too lazy to write entires (a half lie), or that I've been super super busy (not really), I've just been mostly getting things done. Updates (out of chronological order):
- finally got my health insurance refund for my contacts :D japanese health insurance covers 70% of health fees, so you just have to pay 30%. my eye examination came to 980 yen instead of the steep 3200 yen :D
- in the midst of helping my friend finish planning a trip for Korea (again :D) . it'll be my 2nd time going, but I'm super super superrr excited! planet tickets are already booked, I just finished booking the taxi to take us to the airport today, 10 days left! i'll be going from feb 8 - feb 16, can't wait :)
- on jan 10, went with Ivy and we got all dressed up for seijin no hi. I guess I'll do a seperate post sometime, but it was definitely an interesting experience wearing kimono (furisode to be exact) for a couple hours...
- about to go to nara and kobe in the next 2 days, transportation is as expensive as ever but it beats sitting at home and not doing anything... I should be studying, but at most right now I can only handle half an hour before my brain goes BOOM will be playing hockey again in kobe, can't wait!!!
- went to hiroshima from jan 2 - jan 4 with cho, jun, philipp, lillian and ang <3 though we didn't go out to drink, we did get the chance to go to this fantastic outdoor bath which was only 700 yen.outdoor baths!! <3 there's nothing like bonding with everyone... naked. also saw the peace memorial museum (very touching, i preferred it a lot to china's nanjing massacre museum...), miyajima island took up an entire day (deer <3333 food<3333), and survied the long highway bus (around 6-7 hours...) philipp, jun and I also bought an arrow from the famous Itsukushima Shrine for I-House I, so it'll keep us all safe :) we also left a ema (wooden plaques where you can write wishes or prayers) at the shrine, hopefully all our wishes will come true x]
- managed to pass japanese comprehensive hohoho for sure, got a B on the final whew XD i definitely thought I failed since the readings were long and hard and even when the bell rang, we were all still seated and still scribbling frantically >__< managed to pull off a miracle in japanese listening/speaking with another B, though apparently I failed my placement test in the beginning of the year with a spectacular 12/27 haha. guess it doesn't pay to fall asleep during the test...
- went to the SKP completion ceremony, it was extremely brief and I had a final right before. my professor actually managed to mix up the final exam time, and told us the wrong time. when the time came for the exam to start, he didn't show up and left all us students wondering what the hell he was trying to pull this time. I run to his office to see if he's there and he is there, waiting for the exam time (!?!?). he comes to the classroom with me, and explains that the exam time was actually at 4:30, not 3:00. he goes down to talk to the office bureaucrats and when he comes back, he explains that he can't move the exam time, so it turns out that our final exam will coincide with the start of the completion ceremony -___- ARGHH and it couldn't be changed because the official time was 4:30, and all the japanese students were going to come at 4:30. result? people who actually attended and listened in class were punished by 1 1/2 hours because the japanese students who never came to class didn't come on time... either way, i wrote super fast and got to the completion ceremony on time WHEW :) a lot of my friends were in the shamisen class and did a touching performance ending with jingle bells, and there were quite a few speeches made (yay for ohno-sensei, the writer of the GENKI series who teaches at ritsumeikan... I wish he was my japanese teacher!!). after, there was a reception where kim young and kousuke sang a song, fern played her ukelele and sang, we saw a slideshow of term pictures and videos, free food <3, people getting their certificates... it was a really sad night in a way, because a lot of the people leaving I wouldn't see after that night :( after, there was a nomihoudai and i got pretty drunk and had to go home early. whoops XD
- went to another nomihoudai (all you can drink) and after we hit up a club in kyoto called butterfly. honestly... i hate to say this but going into the club I immediately wished I was back in vancouver clubbing haha when we went in, the dj was playing some kind of wailing sad song and everyone was just standing on the dance floor just watching. my friend disappeared (turned out she went to the dj and told him to change the song haha) and we went on the dance floor and I wobbled around until 5am with everyone :) in a way, it was super fun (and I uh... danced with a guy from sri lanka who came out of nowhere lol!) but honestly... not too eager to go to a japanese club anytime soon... it's hella hard getting the smoke smell out of my clothes and hair after too >__<
- ang's farewell party was on sunday-monday, and we stayed up until 5:30am with her to wait for her shuttle to come pick her up to the airport. it was a fun party and we tried hard to keep our spirits up, but when it came to her leaving and waiting at the entrance for the taxi, it really felt like my heart was going to stop because i was so so sad she was leaving :( exchange is tremendous fun and all, but it's definitely short-lived and after august, i'll be leaving i-house I myself and going back to life in vancouver. I don't know how I'm going to live when more of my friends go back home at the end of this week...
Life, I guess... definitely still fun :)
- finally got my health insurance refund for my contacts :D japanese health insurance covers 70% of health fees, so you just have to pay 30%. my eye examination came to 980 yen instead of the steep 3200 yen :D
- in the midst of helping my friend finish planning a trip for Korea (again :D) . it'll be my 2nd time going, but I'm super super superrr excited! planet tickets are already booked, I just finished booking the taxi to take us to the airport today, 10 days left! i'll be going from feb 8 - feb 16, can't wait :)
- on jan 10, went with Ivy and we got all dressed up for seijin no hi. I guess I'll do a seperate post sometime, but it was definitely an interesting experience wearing kimono (furisode to be exact) for a couple hours...
- about to go to nara and kobe in the next 2 days, transportation is as expensive as ever but it beats sitting at home and not doing anything... I should be studying, but at most right now I can only handle half an hour before my brain goes BOOM will be playing hockey again in kobe, can't wait!!!
- went to hiroshima from jan 2 - jan 4 with cho, jun, philipp, lillian and ang <3 though we didn't go out to drink, we did get the chance to go to this fantastic outdoor bath which was only 700 yen.outdoor baths!! <3 there's nothing like bonding with everyone... naked. also saw the peace memorial museum (very touching, i preferred it a lot to china's nanjing massacre museum...), miyajima island took up an entire day (deer <3333 food<3333), and survied the long highway bus (around 6-7 hours...) philipp, jun and I also bought an arrow from the famous Itsukushima Shrine for I-House I, so it'll keep us all safe :) we also left a ema (wooden plaques where you can write wishes or prayers) at the shrine, hopefully all our wishes will come true x]
- managed to pass japanese comprehensive hohoho for sure, got a B on the final whew XD i definitely thought I failed since the readings were long and hard and even when the bell rang, we were all still seated and still scribbling frantically >__< managed to pull off a miracle in japanese listening/speaking with another B, though apparently I failed my placement test in the beginning of the year with a spectacular 12/27 haha. guess it doesn't pay to fall asleep during the test...
- went to the SKP completion ceremony, it was extremely brief and I had a final right before. my professor actually managed to mix up the final exam time, and told us the wrong time. when the time came for the exam to start, he didn't show up and left all us students wondering what the hell he was trying to pull this time. I run to his office to see if he's there and he is there, waiting for the exam time (!?!?). he comes to the classroom with me, and explains that the exam time was actually at 4:30, not 3:00. he goes down to talk to the office bureaucrats and when he comes back, he explains that he can't move the exam time, so it turns out that our final exam will coincide with the start of the completion ceremony -___- ARGHH and it couldn't be changed because the official time was 4:30, and all the japanese students were going to come at 4:30. result? people who actually attended and listened in class were punished by 1 1/2 hours because the japanese students who never came to class didn't come on time... either way, i wrote super fast and got to the completion ceremony on time WHEW :) a lot of my friends were in the shamisen class and did a touching performance ending with jingle bells, and there were quite a few speeches made (yay for ohno-sensei, the writer of the GENKI series who teaches at ritsumeikan... I wish he was my japanese teacher!!). after, there was a reception where kim young and kousuke sang a song, fern played her ukelele and sang, we saw a slideshow of term pictures and videos, free food <3, people getting their certificates... it was a really sad night in a way, because a lot of the people leaving I wouldn't see after that night :( after, there was a nomihoudai and i got pretty drunk and had to go home early. whoops XD
- went to another nomihoudai (all you can drink) and after we hit up a club in kyoto called butterfly. honestly... i hate to say this but going into the club I immediately wished I was back in vancouver clubbing haha when we went in, the dj was playing some kind of wailing sad song and everyone was just standing on the dance floor just watching. my friend disappeared (turned out she went to the dj and told him to change the song haha) and we went on the dance floor and I wobbled around until 5am with everyone :) in a way, it was super fun (and I uh... danced with a guy from sri lanka who came out of nowhere lol!) but honestly... not too eager to go to a japanese club anytime soon... it's hella hard getting the smoke smell out of my clothes and hair after too >__<
- ang's farewell party was on sunday-monday, and we stayed up until 5:30am with her to wait for her shuttle to come pick her up to the airport. it was a fun party and we tried hard to keep our spirits up, but when it came to her leaving and waiting at the entrance for the taxi, it really felt like my heart was going to stop because i was so so sad she was leaving :( exchange is tremendous fun and all, but it's definitely short-lived and after august, i'll be leaving i-house I myself and going back to life in vancouver. I don't know how I'm going to live when more of my friends go back home at the end of this week...
Life, I guess... definitely still fun :)