where to begin?
Man, the things that happen when I don't find the time to blog for a week and a half. It's kind of been a blur of going-home prep for me. Even though I don't leave for another two and a half weeks, I feel like if given the option I could leave within the next four days, provided the time to pack and clean. Here's a video I took on July 4th in the midst of it all, if you're curious to get a weird little tour of my room.
Since I took this video I've made pretty amazing progress, and tonight I was able to clean the floor for the first time in what seems like weeks, which means I was able to vaccuum for the first time in actual weeks. D:; Everything is really coming together, and I think next weekend I'll be able to get the majority of my things packed for good. I discovered that I can fit nearly all of my closet into my first suitcase (which is full of things already), so that leaves me with another completely empty suitcase (limit of 23kg for both check-ins) for everything else! (I'm not even counting my carry-on/personal item!) I was stoked about this. I should be able to fit things like underwear, skirts/shorts, my two remaining blankets, toiletries, purses...maybe even one of the pillows I've gotten here if I'm lucky. To top it off, I found three more vaccuum-seal bags lying under the bottom closet shelf, which means I don't have to buy more than one or two more, IF that! Aaaaand for the icing on my cupcake, I'm only going to need to ship back one more box, for cheaper than what I was expecting...yessiree, things are looking up.
In regards to my toe, I've healed much better and faster than I expected. Actually, after I posted my last entry I decided it was time to do something about my toe, so I took a pair of incredibly sharp nail tweezers and used them to break open the first part of skin around my nail.
OH MY GAW IT WENT EVERYWHERE. The blood literally came shooting out of my toe and splattered around me like in a horror movie. It didn't hurt, but I sat there screaming (and laughing crazily) from the shock of it all. To make matters worse, I hadn't had the great idea to do this in the bathtub, but on my pristine white rental sheets...all I had under my foot was a single paper towel. I did not think my toe was going to turn into a frickin' blood geyser, as Julia later called it. She was in the room with me when I was doing this and was able to help me push more of the blood out of the toe (ok, THAT hurt a bit but it needed to happen). When the blood came out of my toe, I froze. I didn't know what to do first. My immediate first thought was "OH GOD MY SHEETS WHERE IS MY BLEACH PEN" and then a split-second later it became "WAIT I NEED TO CLEAN UP THE BLOOD FROM MY FOOT OMG WHAT FIRST WHAT FIIIIRSSSTTTT!?!?!?"
After that fiasco was taken care of I moved to the bathtub to work on the other blue side, but it wasn't nearly as eventful or exciting and didn't squirt blood everywhere. I tried my best to stain-treat the sheets, and now the biggest bloodstain just looks like a spot of dirt. I might try to work on that one more time before I have to return these sheets though. =X But ever since I did this (and continued to buddy-wrap my toe) I have been in almost no pain and my sprain is healed as well. Earlier this week I reached the point where I no longer need the wrap, which means I just slap a band-aid on for good measure when I leave the dorm. Thank god, because only having thong sandals was starting to kill my index toe. Kinda felt like a cartoon character with only "four" toes and all.
This past weekend I went to Gifu to see Yayoi again with Jessica and Shaina, and we did pretty much the same things we did the first time Jess and I visited, but this time I got sick from heat exhaustion. I got sick twice - and anybody who knows me knows I never puke. In fact, I don't think I'd puked in over three years until this past Saturday. It really ruined the first half of my day. I wasn't able to eat the yummy Hawaiian lunch I'd been so looking forward to, but by the time we went to Yayoi's traditional Japanese restaurant for dinner I had my appetite back and felt 100% recovered.
Here's some random pictures =)
When we went to the arcade to take purikura and the girls were decorating the photos, I tried my hand at one of the UFO catchers with a bunch of fragrances inside and managed to nab this on the first try! It smells awesome, I'm so addicted to it. I saw it at the mall later for 472yen, which is way more than I paid :D
One of said purikura! As always, my eyes are almost popping out of their sockets. The ironic thing is that despite being so sick the first half of this day, I looked unusually good in all of the purikura we took. Yayoi even said that it was thanks to purikura that I was able to be healthy again. XDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Yayoi and Shaina trying on firemen outfits! We got to go watch the firemen train and the chief(?) showed us around the station.
Me and Jess with the chief dude. He was really nice, let us sit in the fire trucks and everything \:D/
(As you can see, I got the Golds Infinity purse I wanted! They had all three colors in the store but this was the one I liked best, and to make everything better it was 2000yen off the original price, win!)
The amazing dinner I had at the restaurant Yayoi works at - misokatsu! It came with cold udon, rice, some pickled veggies (I LOVE CUCUMBERS) and orange jelly. We got free plates of meat as well...and the best part? Yayoi's mom had called ahead (without us knowing) to tell Yayoi's boss-lady (aka Yayo's aunt) that she'd pay the bill for all of our meals! So even in spite of my shitty morning, the rest of the day was amazing =)
Tomorrow is the NUFS farewell party because all of the regular exchangers finish class tomorrow. Meanwhile, I'm still here another two weeks. I'm looking forward to this party though because there's going to be FREE FOOD!!!! Even if I have to sit through a silly closing ceremony to get to it, it's going to be SO worth it.
I LOVE FREE FOOD
Click to viewSince I took this video I've made pretty amazing progress, and tonight I was able to clean the floor for the first time in what seems like weeks, which means I was able to vaccuum for the first time in actual weeks. D:; Everything is really coming together, and I think next weekend I'll be able to get the majority of my things packed for good. I discovered that I can fit nearly all of my closet into my first suitcase (which is full of things already), so that leaves me with another completely empty suitcase (limit of 23kg for both check-ins) for everything else! (I'm not even counting my carry-on/personal item!) I was stoked about this. I should be able to fit things like underwear, skirts/shorts, my two remaining blankets, toiletries, purses...maybe even one of the pillows I've gotten here if I'm lucky. To top it off, I found three more vaccuum-seal bags lying under the bottom closet shelf, which means I don't have to buy more than one or two more, IF that! Aaaaand for the icing on my cupcake, I'm only going to need to ship back one more box, for cheaper than what I was expecting...yessiree, things are looking up.
In regards to my toe, I've healed much better and faster than I expected. Actually, after I posted my last entry I decided it was time to do something about my toe, so I took a pair of incredibly sharp nail tweezers and used them to break open the first part of skin around my nail.
OH MY GAW IT WENT EVERYWHERE. The blood literally came shooting out of my toe and splattered around me like in a horror movie. It didn't hurt, but I sat there screaming (and laughing crazily) from the shock of it all. To make matters worse, I hadn't had the great idea to do this in the bathtub, but on my pristine white rental sheets...all I had under my foot was a single paper towel. I did not think my toe was going to turn into a frickin' blood geyser, as Julia later called it. She was in the room with me when I was doing this and was able to help me push more of the blood out of the toe (ok, THAT hurt a bit but it needed to happen). When the blood came out of my toe, I froze. I didn't know what to do first. My immediate first thought was "OH GOD MY SHEETS WHERE IS MY BLEACH PEN" and then a split-second later it became "WAIT I NEED TO CLEAN UP THE BLOOD FROM MY FOOT OMG WHAT FIRST WHAT FIIIIRSSSTTTT!?!?!?"
After that fiasco was taken care of I moved to the bathtub to work on the other blue side, but it wasn't nearly as eventful or exciting and didn't squirt blood everywhere. I tried my best to stain-treat the sheets, and now the biggest bloodstain just looks like a spot of dirt. I might try to work on that one more time before I have to return these sheets though. =X But ever since I did this (and continued to buddy-wrap my toe) I have been in almost no pain and my sprain is healed as well. Earlier this week I reached the point where I no longer need the wrap, which means I just slap a band-aid on for good measure when I leave the dorm. Thank god, because only having thong sandals was starting to kill my index toe. Kinda felt like a cartoon character with only "four" toes and all.
This past weekend I went to Gifu to see Yayoi again with Jessica and Shaina, and we did pretty much the same things we did the first time Jess and I visited, but this time I got sick from heat exhaustion. I got sick twice - and anybody who knows me knows I never puke. In fact, I don't think I'd puked in over three years until this past Saturday. It really ruined the first half of my day. I wasn't able to eat the yummy Hawaiian lunch I'd been so looking forward to, but by the time we went to Yayoi's traditional Japanese restaurant for dinner I had my appetite back and felt 100% recovered.
Here's some random pictures =)
When we went to the arcade to take purikura and the girls were decorating the photos, I tried my hand at one of the UFO catchers with a bunch of fragrances inside and managed to nab this on the first try! It smells awesome, I'm so addicted to it. I saw it at the mall later for 472yen, which is way more than I paid :D
One of said purikura! As always, my eyes are almost popping out of their sockets. The ironic thing is that despite being so sick the first half of this day, I looked unusually good in all of the purikura we took. Yayoi even said that it was thanks to purikura that I was able to be healthy again. XDDDDDDDDDDDDD
Yayoi and Shaina trying on firemen outfits! We got to go watch the firemen train and the chief(?) showed us around the station.
Me and Jess with the chief dude. He was really nice, let us sit in the fire trucks and everything \:D/
(As you can see, I got the Golds Infinity purse I wanted! They had all three colors in the store but this was the one I liked best, and to make everything better it was 2000yen off the original price, win!)
The amazing dinner I had at the restaurant Yayoi works at - misokatsu! It came with cold udon, rice, some pickled veggies (I LOVE CUCUMBERS) and orange jelly. We got free plates of meat as well...and the best part? Yayoi's mom had called ahead (without us knowing) to tell Yayoi's boss-lady (aka Yayo's aunt) that she'd pay the bill for all of our meals! So even in spite of my shitty morning, the rest of the day was amazing =)
Tomorrow is the NUFS farewell party because all of the regular exchangers finish class tomorrow. Meanwhile, I'm still here another two weeks. I'm looking forward to this party though because there's going to be FREE FOOD!!!! Even if I have to sit through a silly closing ceremony to get to it, it's going to be SO worth it.
I LOVE FREE FOOD