monkey park

i'm tired mentally and physically.
and..... (mia can finish this sentence LOL)

anyway, ecology & lit class joint field trip. monkeys.
matcha/sakura softserve. bought yukata.
starbucks. saizeriya.

i'm that exhausted.
sorry >_<

it was an awful and awesome day at the same time.
maybe mia will blog about today.....

so close, yet so far

1 month, 12 days until home

the end of akp cannot come soon enough.
i have no motivation left :(
that ship has sailed, and it's not turning back.

late assignments/hw due soon:
ecology abstract x2 (one late)
ecology field question
religion "festival" paper (late)
religion research paper
japanese essay x2 (both late)
test corrections

i was never like this... what happened??

7 months, 14 days since i last saw matt

(we're not dating. we're kind of "long-distance not dating but not seeing anyone else-ing" as one friend put it)
we've become really close, and i miss him a lot.
he was supposed to arrive in japan for business several months ago,
but the people at immigration (japan) are taking their sweet time with the paperwork. as far as we know, everything's already been processed and cleared. they just need to send some papers to his boss, and he's on his way to japan!
.........but we're still waiting for that to happen :(

5 days until room draw

after stressing over all the possible options for housing next fall (with the numbers my friends and i have to work with), i finally have solid plans. i'll be drawing into a suite with danielle and two of her friends... completely different from what i originally had in mind, but i think it'll turn out well :)
i'm just a little anxious && can't wait for room draw to be over.

25 days (or so) until fall 2009 course registration

tentative classes:
JAPN 475 ~ seminar in japanese studies
CHNS 302 ~ advanced chinese
HIST 236 ~ history of modern japan
PHIL 206 ~ contemporary moral issues

i cannot wait to get back to midd's vigorous pace :)
five-ish months.....

fukui <3

going to fukui with mia for the second half of spring break was one of the best experiences i've ever had in japan =)

i don't have the energy to write the long post those four days warrant, so i'll be even more lazy and just echo mia for now XD
http://miamonnier.blogspot.com/2009/03/fukui.html

i'll get my pictures up soon, but mia's pictures are better anyway =]
http://picasaweb.google.com/mgnm9195/HoyaHoya#

ahhhhh!! >_<

okay, so the title of this blog post isn't quite accurate for what's about to follow, but that's how i'm feeling (as of this moment). i've never felt more "manic-depressive" than in the time i've spent in japan so far. i'm either really happy or desperately wanting to get the hell out. it'd be nice to just be content/okay most of the time... too much to ask maybe? probably.

anyway, i've had A LOT of fun in the past several days with my friends, but i haven't been good about updating this week. i'll get around to blogging after i get back from fukui (NW of kyoto... i think) ~ for reaaals. no joke. i know i say "i'll update later" often, but spring break has been amazing so far && i want to make sure it gets "documented" somewhere outside my (imperfect) memory ^_^

in the meantime, here are some random pictures that will mean nothing....for now :)

adventures with ashley

because i've been up since 5am, and because i don't feel like writing much right now, i'm going to pull one of my in a nutshell's.

in a nutshell:
sunday. met up in saiin. starbucks. hankyu back to katsura. took a walk to katsura bridge. decided to keep walking. saw a lot of kyoto. found ourselves back in saiin over an hour (almost two?) later. took the hankyu back to katsura again. stole wireless internet from my own house from outside the gate at 10pm.

monday. imadegawa. ate lunch leisurely. watched how to lose a guy in 10 days. mos burger. ashley's forgotten purse. different saiin starbucks where i "managed" to get onto a wireless network. stayed there until its midnight closing.

so this post doesn't tell anyone much about anything. but at least it means something to me---so that maybe one day i'll come back to this and elaborate. [let's be honest, probably not. lololol]

parkay, butter!

Amanda sent you a message.

--------------------
Re: Cheer elections

Alright, we voted today at practice....

Congratulations on getting elected Captain for next year! I'm your co-captain, and I'm waiting to see if Ginny is interested in being "Spirit Coordinator" (she was elected, but she wasn't there today so I want to make sure she's okay with it).

YAY~!!!!
thanks amanda :)

i cannot wait for cheerleading again!
for a long time (and even now), it's been one of my 生きがい [something one lives for]
^_^ !!!!!!!

We can't wait to have you back here! Most of the girls had never cheered before, so we're still working on basics. But they're really eager to learn and they're working really hard, so we should be ready for some fun next fall!

Take care, and enjoy the rest of your time in Japan!
<3

eeEEEeEeeEeeEee!!!!!!!

...continued

i talked to the resident director (prof. lofgren - oberlin) about the frustrations and lack of motivation that seem to follow us (akp students) every once in a while. or perhaps it's a little more often than "every once in a while" XD

but anyway, i felt a lot better afterward.
he said a lot of things about why that could be ~ i'll share just one:

"[akp] isn't college."

and i think he's right. for the past two years, we've all adjusted to (and come to love?) college life && for this year, we're living under someone else's roof, someone else's rules. akp's academic atmosphere also does not feel like "college".

so.... how do i feel now?
- i'll finish akp as best i can ~ i've driven my grades down the drain compared to fall term [hopefully, i'm still within B+ range >_<]
- i'm still REALLY excited to go home and see my family <3
[and visit midd before finals are over?]
- counting down the days until america... but probably only until matt gets here XD [then i might not want to go home as quickly lol]