I don't think I have laughed this much in one day in.... who knows how long. Today, as I mentioned, I went around town and to the next town over (they are all connected and run into each other but are labeled by the train stops) to do some shopping for the Halloween party the stinters are throwing as an outreach for the students here. I decided I am going to be a cat because I have everything I need except a tail and cat ears... so its much cheaper and easier than trying to buy a whole new outfit.
Ok so you are probably wondering about the title of this blog...
This is yet another hilarious incident involving bikes and unsuspecting Americans... although this time... it wasn't me!! I was riding behind Laura, going towards the student center, and we had to ride through this park. Well there were about 6 or 7 1ft tall posts in random order in the entrance to prevent cars from going in....well for us inexperienced Americans swerving in and around them quickly is very... hard... and exciting. Well, Laura was in front of me and as we turned into the "obstacle course" she yelled out "Be Careful!" just as she said it... she ran her bike straight into a bunch of bushes!! Not only was she in the bushes she went up a curb right into them. It wasn't like she turned into them or tried to turn and fell into them... she just went straight into them instead of turning around them. It was so funny I was laughing for about 30Min's after it happened. Yeah.
Another thing that was really funny today was a guy named Jared who came with Laura and I shopping (dad don't worry... he is engaged...and no... not to me)but anyways... he has no emotion in his voice at all, pretty much ever. He is also very tall and watching him ride his bike through all the little areas that are hard enough when you are little like me set me to laughing more times than I can count. His face was so serious when he was trying to go through and around everything... so funny!!!
Ok so about my jacket... it took three guys, a bicycle-repair-man, and 700yen (roughly $6.50) to get my jacket out. Everyone that looked at it laughed (and the Japanese men went...ooooooiii)ha ha. It was jammed in the worst place and the whole chain had to be taken off the sprockets and the gear changer thing on the bottom of the back tire had to be taken apart!!! Mom... it was my black jacket.... but its not in that bad of shape... its greasy a bit and has a few very small holes, but I am looking forward to finding some really cool patches... and excited about how it could turn out. Plus I have a good story to tell.
I wish I could say that was the first thing I got stuck in my bike chain since I have been here... but my pants won first prize on that one...hehe.
I am getting the hang of this whole bike thing though and now I feel much more comfortable riding around...so even though it sounds like every time I get on a bike, disaster follows, I really am (not going to finish that... because I don't want to jinks it...) haha.
Alright I am going to go. I'm borrowing someones laptop in the student center and I am going to watch a movie! Score! English movies!
peace!!
Monday, October 22, 2007
another adventure
yesterday morning was church here and i decided to go with some of the American stinters to new hope, a church near-by that has an English/Japanese service. it didn't start until 1:30pm so i knew that i could sleep in a bit.... yay. well, i was thinking, "i will maybe sleep in till 9, or 10am at the latest...." imagine my surprise when i woke up at 12:40pm!!!! ahhhhhh!!! it was a mad rush to not only get ready for church, wash my hair (in the sink...no time for a shower) and figure out how to get to the meeting place we decided on but also try to squeeze some kind of breakfast in (i settled on a very small bananna). yikes! i did made it thankfully, but it was quite a rush... haha. for now on i am setting an alarm even if i don't have to be somewhere till later in the day. i have no clue why i slept for 12 hours... i didn't really feel that tired... who knows. anyway...
the church service was awesome. the pastor is from Hawaii and so the service and the congregation somewhat reflected that. the worship was amazing and the message was totally right on. it was about loneliness and making god your source of comfort... how perfect.
i am totally loving japan and feel strangely comfortable eating heaps of rice and sweet potatoes with chopsticks, and today riding my bike was an absolute joy... its such a perfect fall day. i really love it here... allot.
today i am going to hang out with Laura, an American stinter, who (get this, small world) went to UCLA, is from orange county, goes to Francis Chan's church... knows people who go to ebc and is also craving Mexican food (she also doesn't know what she wants to do with her life, and is here in japan just kind of opening her heart to god and serving him until he directs her further...) there is another American stinter here who... this is crazy.. was in my room for a few days at cm2007 in Korea!! i saw her and i was like... wow... what the heck... where do i know her from!!!! lol fun stuff.
I'm really loving the food here and like i said, it all seems strangely normal... i don't know how to explain it. the "weirdest" thing i have eaten so far is raw squid legs but it was good... not that weird at all. its all how you think about it. this morning for breakfast i made rice and sweet potatoes (haha the easiest thing ever to make here) a fried egg, grapefruit and pearl-milk-tea (its actually Chinese.. black tea and soy milk with little square coconut jelly's in it...i will try to bring some back....) oh and of course coffee!! i found this awesome coffee that comes in a bunch of individual filters that sit on top of your coffee cup and you pour boiling water through it. perfect!!
alright well i am going to go... thank you all so much for the comments. dad... i was laughing so hard when i read your comments....haha!! and i love this whole blogging thing... so no i am not tired of it at all. mom... wish i was there (kinda...hehe)thanks for the updates on the doggies!!
i am not sure if pictures of japan will be available for awhile so don't hold your breath.. I'm using somewhat public computers at the student center and i don't know if they would be cool with me connecting my camera. i will check though.
love you all!!
haha i just remembered...today was my first attempt at getting to the student center by myself... i only made one wrong turn which wouldnt have been to big a deal but i went off a curb that made everything i was carrying shift and in the process my jacket got all tangled in the chain/gears.... =( so i had to walk for quite a bit and im still not sure how to get my jacket out... hahaha
never a dull moment!!
PS... the caps button doesn't work on this computer and the only way some of the words got capitalized was through the spell check... sorry!!
the church service was awesome. the pastor is from Hawaii and so the service and the congregation somewhat reflected that. the worship was amazing and the message was totally right on. it was about loneliness and making god your source of comfort... how perfect.
i am totally loving japan and feel strangely comfortable eating heaps of rice and sweet potatoes with chopsticks, and today riding my bike was an absolute joy... its such a perfect fall day. i really love it here... allot.
today i am going to hang out with Laura, an American stinter, who (get this, small world) went to UCLA, is from orange county, goes to Francis Chan's church... knows people who go to ebc and is also craving Mexican food (she also doesn't know what she wants to do with her life, and is here in japan just kind of opening her heart to god and serving him until he directs her further...) there is another American stinter here who... this is crazy.. was in my room for a few days at cm2007 in Korea!! i saw her and i was like... wow... what the heck... where do i know her from!!!! lol fun stuff.
I'm really loving the food here and like i said, it all seems strangely normal... i don't know how to explain it. the "weirdest" thing i have eaten so far is raw squid legs but it was good... not that weird at all. its all how you think about it. this morning for breakfast i made rice and sweet potatoes (haha the easiest thing ever to make here) a fried egg, grapefruit and pearl-milk-tea (its actually Chinese.. black tea and soy milk with little square coconut jelly's in it...i will try to bring some back....) oh and of course coffee!! i found this awesome coffee that comes in a bunch of individual filters that sit on top of your coffee cup and you pour boiling water through it. perfect!!
alright well i am going to go... thank you all so much for the comments. dad... i was laughing so hard when i read your comments....haha!! and i love this whole blogging thing... so no i am not tired of it at all. mom... wish i was there (kinda...hehe)thanks for the updates on the doggies!!
i am not sure if pictures of japan will be available for awhile so don't hold your breath.. I'm using somewhat public computers at the student center and i don't know if they would be cool with me connecting my camera. i will check though.
love you all!!
haha i just remembered...today was my first attempt at getting to the student center by myself... i only made one wrong turn which wouldnt have been to big a deal but i went off a curb that made everything i was carrying shift and in the process my jacket got all tangled in the chain/gears.... =( so i had to walk for quite a bit and im still not sure how to get my jacket out... hahaha
never a dull moment!!
PS... the caps button doesn't work on this computer and the only way some of the words got capitalized was through the spell check... sorry!!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Dinner and a Movie
Dinner was good! I am very happy!! If you read the blogs I posted below you will see that this was my first attempt at making a meal here in Japan and I really diddnt know how it was going to turn out.
I made chicken and onion seasoned by a soy-sauce paste, sticky rice and sweet potatoes (they are yellow here... weird, but taste the same) and a saled with 'not-so-italian' dressing. I put a bit too much of the paste in the pan I think so the chicken was a little salty for my taste but otherways I count it as a sucess!!I took pictures too, but I dont know when I will be able to upload them. Sorry!!
I am watching some kind of eating contest where these cute tiny asian young ladies eat like a whole table filled with food (no... not the actual table... haha... comon!)Its kinda gross but odly interesting.... evening tv in another country,...hmmmm.
aaaaandddd....
Thank you all for the commments... and to my besty.... Your the best, love ya!
Oh yeah...who is 'Yours truly' who missed the wedding...??? Tell me who you are!
Keep reading, I posted some funny stories down below!
I made chicken and onion seasoned by a soy-sauce paste, sticky rice and sweet potatoes (they are yellow here... weird, but taste the same) and a saled with 'not-so-italian' dressing. I put a bit too much of the paste in the pan I think so the chicken was a little salty for my taste but otherways I count it as a sucess!!I took pictures too, but I dont know when I will be able to upload them. Sorry!!
I am watching some kind of eating contest where these cute tiny asian young ladies eat like a whole table filled with food (no... not the actual table... haha... comon!)Its kinda gross but odly interesting.... evening tv in another country,...hmmmm.
aaaaandddd....
Thank you all for the commments... and to my besty.... Your the best, love ya!
Oh yeah...who is 'Yours truly' who missed the wedding...??? Tell me who you are!
Keep reading, I posted some funny stories down below!
Konichiwa
Sorry to any of you who speak Japanese and read this...I am proabably going to completely slaughter a bunch or words and/or spelling... so I would advise you to only read this if your in mood for a good laugh.
Ok so its now day...uh, wow how long have I been here? Day three...I think. Yeah. I am all mixed around, I have no concept for what day it is anymore, its a sad thing, but all in the name of adventure!
Today Anita and I rode our bikes (Ji-ten-sha)to go look at a flea market. I dont know if I mentioned this in my other post, but one of the most common ways of transportation here is by bike. Everyone rides their bike just about everywhere... its really a blast and a bit scary at times (they zip through and around very very small spaces... I just squeal and pray...rofl) but yeah.. I pretty much love it. I almost lost it today though trying to get on my bike with all my groceries hanging off the handle bars.... that was pretty much hillarous. I just about ran into this huge pillar and I swearved just in time, knocked my shoe on the rim of the front tire,scuffed a chunk of my shoe bottom onto the rim, and bent the rim a bit into the tire. It was really easily fixable but I was laughing so so hard... Im laughing now even as I write this. Not much has changed I am afraid. The girl I was with (Anita... she is actually from Tiwan) was laughing a bit.. but probably thought I was a bit stupid.
Another big adventure I had today was at the super market where the bike incident occured. Since this is my first time living away from home, and in a place where food is not provided for me... I am discovering the "joy" of going to the market, planning out meals, trying to save money, buy things for the best value, and then on top of that, make sure I can also cook it! So all of this for pretty much the first time but little detail...I am in JAPAN. So not only have I never seen most of the food in the market in my life, I cant read any of the lables, calculating the cost is also a bit of a challenge, and cooking... well... haha... we'll see how that goes tonight. A part of me is really excited for the adventure part of it... the other part of me just wants to make tacos and have pop-corn and a movie (I have not had mexican food in 5weeks... I am pretty sure I am officially dieing)I really do love the food here though, most of it is better than the typical american meal (whatever the heck that is) but I must say, I really miss Mexican food.
I think I am going to fry some chicken in a pan with some kind of paste-y seasoning Anita said I should use and make some rice in the rice cooker. If all else fails though I bought cheese and bread today and eggs. I have no idea what kind of cheese it is though... haha.
Oh, one more funny story:
Yesterday I went with Anita and Kaori (the other girl im staying with... she is so so nice!) to a Uni (Aussi for University... haha... I am an American in Japan speaking Australian... yeah.)to hang out with some CCC students and witness to some other students. I am just coming out of 4 Weeks of Spring in a very casual Australia and even though I know its fall here... I wore black cotton flowy capris, a bright yellow shirt I got in Aus, also very casual, and a cream sweater and flip flops. I arrived on Campus to see everyone dressed up like they were in New York complete with designer jeans, high-heel boots, scarves, the works. Oops. So not only am I the only one with blonde hair on the whole campus, I am also wearing a BRIGHT yellow shirt amid a sea of autmn brown and black and green colors. I am also a foot taller than just about everyone... and I am wearing flip flops. Hehe... yeah. So I am wishing now I brought a few different things from home... but I will make do with what I have haha. It was definatly a culture-shock moment I think. I guess I expected all uni's to be like America... really casual and not dressy.... but in Tokyo, everyone looked ready to strut down a runway. OOPS!!!
Alright well... I think I am going to go attempt to make some dinner. There is no one else home for awhile, so I may be back on to post some meaningless blog after I get tired of watching Japanese TV haha. (I thought baseball in english was boring... try watching it in a different language you dont understand a word of. Yeah.. Fun stuff.)
I am learning a bit of Japanese.
I can say Thank you, rain, yes, welcome back, look, it has stopped, how are you, I am good, what is your name, whats this, your welcome, sorry, my name is, bike and how old are you. Not bad eh?
Now remembering them on the spot when the right time to use them arrises... thats a different story.
Love you all!!
Sianara!
Ok so its now day...uh, wow how long have I been here? Day three...I think. Yeah. I am all mixed around, I have no concept for what day it is anymore, its a sad thing, but all in the name of adventure!
Today Anita and I rode our bikes (Ji-ten-sha)to go look at a flea market. I dont know if I mentioned this in my other post, but one of the most common ways of transportation here is by bike. Everyone rides their bike just about everywhere... its really a blast and a bit scary at times (they zip through and around very very small spaces... I just squeal and pray...rofl) but yeah.. I pretty much love it. I almost lost it today though trying to get on my bike with all my groceries hanging off the handle bars.... that was pretty much hillarous. I just about ran into this huge pillar and I swearved just in time, knocked my shoe on the rim of the front tire,scuffed a chunk of my shoe bottom onto the rim, and bent the rim a bit into the tire. It was really easily fixable but I was laughing so so hard... Im laughing now even as I write this. Not much has changed I am afraid. The girl I was with (Anita... she is actually from Tiwan) was laughing a bit.. but probably thought I was a bit stupid.
Another big adventure I had today was at the super market where the bike incident occured. Since this is my first time living away from home, and in a place where food is not provided for me... I am discovering the "joy" of going to the market, planning out meals, trying to save money, buy things for the best value, and then on top of that, make sure I can also cook it! So all of this for pretty much the first time but little detail...I am in JAPAN. So not only have I never seen most of the food in the market in my life, I cant read any of the lables, calculating the cost is also a bit of a challenge, and cooking... well... haha... we'll see how that goes tonight. A part of me is really excited for the adventure part of it... the other part of me just wants to make tacos and have pop-corn and a movie (I have not had mexican food in 5weeks... I am pretty sure I am officially dieing)I really do love the food here though, most of it is better than the typical american meal (whatever the heck that is) but I must say, I really miss Mexican food.
I think I am going to fry some chicken in a pan with some kind of paste-y seasoning Anita said I should use and make some rice in the rice cooker. If all else fails though I bought cheese and bread today and eggs. I have no idea what kind of cheese it is though... haha.
Oh, one more funny story:
Yesterday I went with Anita and Kaori (the other girl im staying with... she is so so nice!) to a Uni (Aussi for University... haha... I am an American in Japan speaking Australian... yeah.)to hang out with some CCC students and witness to some other students. I am just coming out of 4 Weeks of Spring in a very casual Australia and even though I know its fall here... I wore black cotton flowy capris, a bright yellow shirt I got in Aus, also very casual, and a cream sweater and flip flops. I arrived on Campus to see everyone dressed up like they were in New York complete with designer jeans, high-heel boots, scarves, the works. Oops. So not only am I the only one with blonde hair on the whole campus, I am also wearing a BRIGHT yellow shirt amid a sea of autmn brown and black and green colors. I am also a foot taller than just about everyone... and I am wearing flip flops. Hehe... yeah. So I am wishing now I brought a few different things from home... but I will make do with what I have haha. It was definatly a culture-shock moment I think. I guess I expected all uni's to be like America... really casual and not dressy.... but in Tokyo, everyone looked ready to strut down a runway. OOPS!!!
Alright well... I think I am going to go attempt to make some dinner. There is no one else home for awhile, so I may be back on to post some meaningless blog after I get tired of watching Japanese TV haha. (I thought baseball in english was boring... try watching it in a different language you dont understand a word of. Yeah.. Fun stuff.)
I am learning a bit of Japanese.
I can say Thank you, rain, yes, welcome back, look, it has stopped, how are you, I am good, what is your name, whats this, your welcome, sorry, my name is, bike and how old are you. Not bad eh?
Now remembering them on the spot when the right time to use them arrises... thats a different story.
Love you all!!
Sianara!
Tokyo
Wow... I seriously cant believe I am in Tokyo Japan!! What a trip (in more ways than one...)
Ok so, after I got off the plane I went through customs and all that stuff.. after a long time in the plane... it felt like it took forever!! After raising suspicion on the acount of my not knowing the address and phone number as well as who I was going to be staying with... they eventually decided I was not a significant threat to the security of their country and the customs people let me through.
I left the baggage claim area into the main part of the airport expecting to see the person picking me up. Fast forward an hour. Still nothing. Great... my first adventure. I was exausted in the kind of "can even blink your eyes beacuse it takes too much eneergy" kind of way... so walking around an airport with a massivly heavy (ok it wasnt...but remember... im exausted) suitcase wasnt really... appealing. Thankfully though just as I was about to page him Cam showed up appologising for being so late and told me the trains took longer then he expected.
We took the trains back (like above ground/underground subways)back to Mitaka (the suburb I am staying in). It was about a 2hr ride... but I got to sleep for a bit once I got used to all the noises and such.
After arriving we walked to the student center... and dropped off my bas and headed for lunch. It was delicious. I had chicken and egg and rice with some kind of soup and pickled veggies and tea. Yummm. So good. I think I was born in the wrong part of the world.... lol. jk.
After lunch Anita (one of my roomies) took the bus with me to her appartment. Their flat is on the....FOURTH FLOOR. Yeah and... no elivator. My arms and legs still hurt. I swear things weigh more in Japan. After 8 flights of stairs I was finally "home". Ok well I am on Anita's laptop and I think she wants to go to bed. I will try to post more later. I have so many stories to tell... this has been my most adventure filled place as of yet lol. Alright well... goodnight everyone. Thanks mom and dad for the fun comments you gave me!! I really like hearing from you guys on here.
Love to you all!
Em
Ok so, after I got off the plane I went through customs and all that stuff.. after a long time in the plane... it felt like it took forever!! After raising suspicion on the acount of my not knowing the address and phone number as well as who I was going to be staying with... they eventually decided I was not a significant threat to the security of their country and the customs people let me through.
I left the baggage claim area into the main part of the airport expecting to see the person picking me up. Fast forward an hour. Still nothing. Great... my first adventure. I was exausted in the kind of "can even blink your eyes beacuse it takes too much eneergy" kind of way... so walking around an airport with a massivly heavy (ok it wasnt...but remember... im exausted) suitcase wasnt really... appealing. Thankfully though just as I was about to page him Cam showed up appologising for being so late and told me the trains took longer then he expected.
We took the trains back (like above ground/underground subways)back to Mitaka (the suburb I am staying in). It was about a 2hr ride... but I got to sleep for a bit once I got used to all the noises and such.
After arriving we walked to the student center... and dropped off my bas and headed for lunch. It was delicious. I had chicken and egg and rice with some kind of soup and pickled veggies and tea. Yummm. So good. I think I was born in the wrong part of the world.... lol. jk.
After lunch Anita (one of my roomies) took the bus with me to her appartment. Their flat is on the....FOURTH FLOOR. Yeah and... no elivator. My arms and legs still hurt. I swear things weigh more in Japan. After 8 flights of stairs I was finally "home". Ok well I am on Anita's laptop and I think she wants to go to bed. I will try to post more later. I have so many stories to tell... this has been my most adventure filled place as of yet lol. Alright well... goodnight everyone. Thanks mom and dad for the fun comments you gave me!! I really like hearing from you guys on here.
Love to you all!
Em
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Singapore
Hey everyone... this blog entry comes to you from the Singapore Airport. Its about 9:30 PM Local Time... and my flight doesnt leave for another couple of hours...so I decided to do some exploring (not to worry dad... I am keeping a very sharp eye on my watch and where I am...)The flight from Perth to here was really interesting. There was a couple in front of me with two extremely tired and angry twin 2year old boys. I think they screamed for at least three hours strait. I offered to help a couple of times and got to play with them for a bit. They were really cute boys and once I played with them they seemed to calm down. They liked to run up and down the isles... and play in the little compartment bins that held empty bags used for the headphones and what not. One of them just sat and cuddled with me for a while. Really cute. I played with them for a couple of hours.. it was nice becuase I really had nothing else to do and they acted much better when i took them to go play instead of being bound to their seats. All the flight attendants kept asking if they were my kids. Hehe... nope! Everyone asked me if I worked with kids... I told them kinda, but then shared about Ish and Caleb and Seth. Aw man.... i miss those guys. These boys were definatly a handful... and they were back to screaming again once we had to return to our seats to land.. haha. Poor things. They were just so exausted.
Well I have another 7hr flight ahead of me. Love you all so so much.
Em
Well I have another 7hr flight ahead of me. Love you all so so much.
Em
Sitting
Well... its my last night here in Perth... wow. I can hardly belive I have been here two weeks. In some aspects it feels as though I have been here forever... and yet I feel like I stepped off the plane only yesterday. Strange.
Not much going on here at the moment. Rebecca is playing piano, and it sounds like something you would hear off a classical music cd... seriously amazing. Its hard to belive that sound comes from the same piano I bang out chords on all day .... teeheee..
Im kind of bored at the moment. Yeah.
Sorry... boring post. Hehe....
By the way though.....
I was made aware of something seriously funny today that needs to be cleared up:
I went out to dinner with Christan (Kristen) in Sydney... not Christian. Christan is a GIRL, thank you.
Not to worry though... I mixed up the names too... it was pretty embaressing. Knowing two people with similar names who you just met in a foreign country is not something I would readily reccomend. Just... so you know.
Anyway... no I am not getting married to some guy name Christian who swept me off my feet in Sydney and wrote a charming letter back home to my grandmother. Sorry to dissapoint. He is a she. And we are most definatly not getting married.
the end.
Not much going on here at the moment. Rebecca is playing piano, and it sounds like something you would hear off a classical music cd... seriously amazing. Its hard to belive that sound comes from the same piano I bang out chords on all day .... teeheee..
Im kind of bored at the moment. Yeah.
Sorry... boring post. Hehe....
By the way though.....
I was made aware of something seriously funny today that needs to be cleared up:
I went out to dinner with Christan (Kristen) in Sydney... not Christian. Christan is a GIRL, thank you.
Not to worry though... I mixed up the names too... it was pretty embaressing. Knowing two people with similar names who you just met in a foreign country is not something I would readily reccomend. Just... so you know.
Anyway... no I am not getting married to some guy name Christian who swept me off my feet in Sydney and wrote a charming letter back home to my grandmother. Sorry to dissapoint. He is a she. And we are most definatly not getting married.
the end.
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