it's been a while... i know...

it's been three weeks since my last post, and i have much to update on.

....however, i won't be doing that tonight XD

things should calm down soon, and i hope to write A LOT on friday.

how am i doing? i've been a lot better.

v_v

i <3 precor ellipticals

renaissance sports club.

day one: 

• left house around 8:30pm. during the 3-minute walk, i was hoping that i wouldn't do something embarrassing, but i really wasn't nervous since the gym is like my second home
• gave my membership card to the trainer at the front desk and started to head upstairs to the locker room. unfortunately, i didn't know that in exchange for the membership card, one gets another card that serves as a key to a locker... so she chased me halfway up the stairs
• got to the locker room. took shoes off before stepping onto the tatami-like part of the floor. then i couldn't figure out how to work the locker with the card, so i asked the two naked older women next to me
• after they helped me, i got changed freely. japan does that to you. nudity in public areas... not an issue for me anymore-- it's become relatively normal.
• went to the machines/equipment part of the sports club. found my file, took a clipboard/pen, and headed straight for the elliptical. didn't know where to put my record, so i just placed it on the floor beside the machine. apparently, the file goes into a little box in front of the elliptical, which i had failed to see. luckily, i was told by a familiar face. it was a trainer who had i done orientation with a week earlier
• became THRILLED when i realized the elliptical was precor. [ same company that midd uses ] most everything was in japanese, but i understood what i needed to understand :)
• not having brought water with me, i stopped several times to drink from the fountain. the elliptical had reset all my workout stats the first time i took a break, so each time thereafter, it was on an interval so i could easily recalculate (and add on to) what i had already done.
• after burning about 850 calories, i figured it was a good place to stop. went to the stretching area, took a mat, set it down, and began cooling down.
• returned locker key card at front card and received membership card back. walked home while texting mia about the embarrassing moments ^_^

i forgot socks. yeah, pretty gross >_<  but i wasn't about to let that be an excuse to leave and return to my comfort zone that is my homestay house :)  my feet are okay for the most part. no blisters, thank goodness! but stretching barefoot was a little awkward XD

i also knocked off my mp3 player that was resting on the "magazine holder thing" TWICE [ or was it three times...? ] it made a lot of noise, and i had to step off the elliptical to retrieve it each time. now that was pretty embarrassing >_<

but aside from all the little mishaps, i'm happy i can finally get back to a regular exercise routine =]

ligers & tigons

i missed out on THREE weeks of total insanity. okay, not really. but i moved up and absolutely loved japanese class today. it was SO much fun, and i finally felt "challenged". class wasn't difficult by any means, but i definitely welcomed the faster pace. we already covered blood type personalities in summer school, but i don't mind doing it again because it's an interesting topic :)

someone led us off-topic before we actually got to the reading... we wound up talking about the difference between ligers and tigons...

^_^

[almost] flutternutter!

mama set out a new kind of bread/roll for breakfast this morning. i took a bite into it, and it seemed like there was a marshmallow-type filling ~ and since i usually spread peanut butter on whatever bread there is, i [almost] had a fluffernutter today :)

that really made my morning. i was wondering just yesterday if fluff was sold in japan...

^_^

déjà vu

once again, i find myself stuck between levels. at the advice of prof. lofgren and my friends, i finally approached my homeroom teacher about how easy class was for me. and after [a ton] of talking with various sensei, they decided that i should move up for a week and see how it is. i don't think it'll be very difficult at all, but the problem is, we're already three weeks in. at least when i moved up in summer school, it was only the second day of classes. 

why do i keep finding myself in these kinds of situations? >_<

bring it on.

[coming soon ~ blog entry on the BEST friday night ever ]

ups & downs

sorry it's a little blurry v_v

*i apologize in advance for the fairly negative entry, but i didn't want to sugarcoat things, or leave out the bad for the sake of keeping up appearances.*

so i don't know what it was about this morning that just made me not in the best of moods... i have reading/writing class on wednesdays (as opposed to language/grammar the rest of the week), and i usually look forward to the change of pace. but as class went on, i found myself less and less willing to participate. my mind had begun to preoccupy itself with something i've worked hard to shelter myself from thinking about. [yes, it's about a guy. and no, chances are, it's not who you're thinking of. or maybe it is, lol ^_^] 

so then class ended, and we received our graded second-draft essays back. i got an A+!  [i really owe a lot to summer school for my writing. out of reading, speaking, listening, etc, i think it's my most improved area by far.] so yay, good grade. but good grade = good mood? ...no, not necessarily. i killed an hour and a half in the akp lounge waiting for lunch with prof. lofgren ~ talking to people, checking email, using nestor as a pillow as i mindlessly watched this japanese film about food, sex, and etiquette... 

anyway, i went out to lunch to café bazaar with resident director/professor lofgren and four other akp students (nestor, elliot, althea, and david) to talk about life in japan so far. [and problems with classes, homestays, etc] it was a good time, for the most part. prof. lofgren told us to just "suck it up"-- in regards to some minor complaints about classes. i was slightly annoyed by that, but i just brushed it off. and then not surprisingly, the whole midd "clique" thing came up.

don't even get me started. i was nice about it earlier, but now i'm just... *grumble* we hang out because we enjoy each other's company. and other people hang out with the people they like too. so what's the problem? well we all happen to be middlebury students, and somehow, that makes it "wrong". we're by no means an exclusive group, and i'm really sick and tired of constantly explaining that to people. furthermore, i always make an effort to acknowledge everyone in the room, not just my close friends. [at least althea notices that >_<] but then someone mentions that the "midd kids" are not exactly on her friends' good sides. normally, i would care. that would bother me. but guess what? it doesn't. why? because if they're that quick to judge us without even trying to get to know us, then i'm not so sure i'd want to be friends with them anyway.

...so on to the ups of today. besides the job well done on the essay, lunch was on akp today :)  i had the "taco rice", which consisted of a fried egg on top of some ground beef with rice on a bed of shredded cheese, lettuce, and diced tomatoes. [tako in japanese means octopus, so that brought some initial confusion lol] i thought it was pretty delicious ^_^ throughout the meal, there were humorous anecdotes from everyone-- and they made me smile, so that's good :)  after lunch, we went back to the lounge, where i saw mia and danielle :)  and they made me smile too ^_^  i adore them sooo much! around 3pm, my friends all left for their landscape gardens class--which i'm not in--so i headed home.  

a crazy, hyper dachshund greeted me at the door. his name is leo. he's about seven years old and belongs to my host sister mari. leo stays with us when her family gets really busy and isn't home much. [leo has separation anxiety?] this little dog reminds me a lot of lei ~ my crazy, hyper black lab back in new hampshire ^_^

playing with lulu and leo definitely lifted my spirits, and i'm expecting to be in a much better mood once i get that sports club membership tonight :)