I wish I could move out of SH2....

I really do love all the friends I've made in the seminar house, I'm glad I chose this house, but I hate the disrespectful people who have no business being here. We JUST HAD A MEETING WHERE AT LEAST 5 PEOPLE SPOKE UP ABOUT CLEANING AFTER YOURSELF IN THE KITCHEN... and I heard that people went out drinking and left the kitchen a mess tonight. I hope Karma really does come and bite these people in a$$ one day. It's people like them I do not want to see make it in the JET Program. It's people like them who should not be here in the first place. If it was not already paid for, I'd be out of here.

OK, enough venting.

One more week down. I should write how difficult it is to apply for the JET Program while abroad. Not so easy. But I am almost done. I think the hardest part is the Statement of Purpose. I want this so bad, I want everything to be perfect. Thanks to all the awesome people who have read it, sometimes more than once haha.

Amazingly, I went into town the other day with Kanako and we went to reserve my dad's hotel and go to karaoke, then I asked her if she knew how to make gyudon. I bought the meat, but I did not know what else to do. She showed me in the supermarket a box, that contained a bag, that you boil in water, and WALAA you made gyudon. I was skeptic... but I made it last night. And it was GREAT! I'm bringing some home <3 I took leftovers in my plastic container today for lunch, but forgot something to eat it with, so I asked the people in the konbini for some chopsticks and they said I had to buy a bento or something to get them......... so I just bought McDs and ate my leftovers for dinner.

Cozy, Productive Day <3

So today was a holiday (don't ask me to name which one, I can't keep up with them anymore)... NO SCHOOL <3 Perfect day for no school... it was COLD OUTSIDE! So with the heater on and my cozy blanket I decided to have a pajama day :D

I went to sleep around 2 am, woke up at 9:30ish, and I made some eggs and toast for breakfast. I decided afterward I was going to have a productive day (compared to the weekend where I got half my book read, awesome accomplishment, but not so productive). So, I finally got my pen and paper and started writing Orei no Tegami (Thank you letters) to Jun, Jun's mom, and Manami and Kimiko. I printed a few extra pictures during the Umeda trip to send to them. I miss them <3

So I started writing, realizing, I need to figure out what to say and how to say it properly. We have a chapter in letter writing in the textbook and it helps but I decided to go to Yuji. I wrote, he read and corrected, and I wrote a very formal letter to Jun's mom, he read and checked, then I wrote a letter to Manami and Kimiko. I had Aki read the final drafts. Everything is perfect. So I can to my room to put them in envelopes and address them... and realized I forgot how to do that. So back to Yuji. He showed me how to address the envelopes properly. Got it done, and returned to my room to stick the pictures and letters in. Once I finished, I realized I was starting to get hungry... Lunch time?

No, not lunch time... it was 4:30 (seriously... it took me all afternoon to write 3 letters! maybe I did something else and can't remember *BLOND* possibly pokemon watching). I had gotten everything done today... except homework and lunch. Silly me. I decided to finish off my chocolate chip cookies (3 packs in 16 days... someone give me an OINK OINK :D ). That held me over. I wanted to get my JET Application out of the way by tomorrow, but it looks like now it won't happen due to so many things needed. BLAH! I can't wait for it to be done.

I walked to Sanko for the Tuesday sale with Joel. Too late, mostly everything was gone, but I should shop on Tuesdays... 100yen bread, 88 yen eggs, half price meat, 40% off frozen goods... !!!!!! I grabbed some pork chops, meat to make gyudon (yes I am going to attempt this), some veggies, and I FOUND MY ICE CREAM :D WOOO~! I made some nice curry for dinner.

In the midst of curry making, I was looking for a specific knife. It is now November and everyone in the Seminar House is getting lazy and the buckets with all the cooking ware is such a mess. People are dropping utensils in the bucks with pans and stuff and they are going to the bottom forever lost. So I finally have had it and I emptied all the cooking pan tubs and organized them (lids, bowls, pots, pans, big pots, strainers... which we have a lot of for some reason...) then later organized the utensils with Carly. I give it a week... it will be a mess again ;_; But it so much easier to find what you need (given people clean their dishes... which is what my speech is about at our house meeting Thursday *sigh* why me?)

Homework is done. Going into town with Kanako tomorrow to reserve my dad's hotel room and go to karaoke <3 YAAAAY :D

Kiyomizudera

Sunday was my trip to Kiyomizudera Temple/Shrine with the INFES (International Festival) Dance Booth members. Awesome place. Been wanting to go since my roomie told me about it. Mostly because it has a love shrine LOL and I wanted to cast my love worries and get some charms <3 Anyways, it's a big place on top of a stupid big hill but has a pretty view at the top.



Me and the guys that waited for me because either 1) I cannot tell time or 2) I did not understand the meeting time and they thought I was lost. There was a girl too, she's taking a pic.



Ryo and I (and the other girl is with the guy coming down)... in front of the love shrine.



Beautiful view from the top



I found a Maiko!

Anyways, this week is classes... getting into my routine. Got most of my homework for this week done and I have a quiz tomorrow and a test on Friday. Currently...



... I am drying my clothes inside because we just had a downpour.

I'm going to begin volunteering to teach English at an Elementary school. I'm very excited!
<3
Amber

Sports Festival!

Well, I really really wanted to join the festival but as I might have said I was somewhere else when the signing up and meetings were happening. I received email telling me to come and maybe there will be cancellations and I can join. Well, I woke up at 8:30ish (I think the festival started at 9?), got on facebook, and was reading from other KG student's FB statuses that it was raining... I was too lazy to check so I just took their word for it until Ash woke up and told her I think it's raining. She checked... looked like it HAD been raining but not anymore. Our plans for the day were to go to the school, let her get money, and go shopping around.

Of course, plans change.

We walk to the school around lunch time, she gets money, we eat McDs (I hate whoever put that on campus), and headed to CIE for a moment. Inside and out Gaidai students are recruiting for the Sport Festival. Outside, I told them no, I was going out with my roomie and I had no clothes for playing sports. Inside I realized that because of the weather, it was moved inside to play games. I was still going to go off with Ash until, I think his name is Hiro, comes and tries his hardest to get us to participate. Ash didn't want to... but I decided to go for it. I get put on the pink team.

We play inside games: the chopstick game (relay race, run to a table, pick up a candy with chop sticks, and put it in the box), the balloon popping game (relay race, run to the chair, blow up your balloon, sit on it and pop it, and run back), the gesture game (charades), the whisper game (like telephone), and the chopstick game again to break a tie between our team and the white team. There were 4 teams total. Pink team got 3rd place. I somehow ended up with our certificate. Oh well, memories.



GO PINK TEAM :D

I was making plans to go to Karaoke with some of my teammates but they invited so many people so "OH DARN I REMEMBER" we have a Takoyaki (fried octopus balls) party at the dorm tonight... no, we really do, I just don't like takoyaki lol. So I tell them we will have to go another day. So I head back. In the rain. A good rain too. I don't sit long before deciding to go to the store to buy oil, salt, pepper, etc for cooking tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet). Going downstairs, I stop in the lounge to talk to Aki and.... and.... THAT OTHER GIRL! ;_; no I forgot her name. Anyways I ask about sauce to cook yakitori with and get the name before heading out.

*sigh* Another 2000 yen shopping trip. I FOUND MY AWESOME PIZZA THOUGH that I ate at Manami's house. So I bought 2 of those, butter, salt (which is not by the pepper), pepper, potatoes, oil, and................... oh the sauce of course. And I headed back and began cooking my tonkatsu. And Yuji taught me how to make rice using the rice cooker. I made enough to last me a few days. Cleaning the rice cooker is not fun. And I celebrate my success by cooking another meal telling Yuji "I can get married one day" and he tells me, as always "no, more" (I need to cook more food) haha.



Me cooking



Yuji making takoyaki

"CHECK-IN!" *strikes Daisuke's pose*

I still don't get that joke... must be Nihon Joke...

So I am now officially checked in to my dorm. I took my sheets down and got in line to check out as a temporary orientation resident to a permanent resident. I got a paper to fill out about room damage and to make sure I have everything. So I get my set of keys to my room, the side gate and door, and the kitchen cabinet. Next to my room number it has the kanji for top/above （上）　and I was wondering why... I thought because I'm on the top floor or because I got the first set of keys...

So I go to the room and fill out my paper and check over the room noting first the stained curtains in front of the sliding door. Ash is standing in line at this time to get her paperwork so I go downstairs to the kitchen and check that stuff. I go to #41, the first one I see, which is on top... stick my key in, open, check, and return. When I talk to Ash I find out why I have the top kanji... I thought the whole time her and I share the one set of dishes in that cabinet but there are two cabinets and I coincidentally opened the correct cabinet, the one on top, hence the reason I have the top/above kanji on my keys. Her's is below mine. We scope out the room marking a few other little things and go down stairs to turn it in and get our hangers and new set of linens. I hate making my bed in America... and not only do I have to make up futon but supposedly I have to put it away every morning in my closet. Putting the sheet on the futon blanket is like putting a pillow case on a giant floppy pillow. I should get a video of me doing that. It's not fun you guys... not fun.

Here are some more pics and video of the dorm!



Entrance way, view from 4th floor hallway window



The park and library I pass every morning when I leave the dorm to go various places (school, bus stop, shopping)



Me and the beautiful view of Japan in the background :D



Seminar House 2 :D In the daytime.



I realized today 2 things about the dorm... 1) we have 4 bathroom stalls and 4 set of slippers for the bathroom and this morning when I went, 1 set of slippers were left... so that means 3 out of 4 stalls were in use. The doors don't stay open so I didn't know which one was not occupied so I returned to my room and fiddled before returning, hoping it was easier to find a stall. Well, I learned (after doing my business wondering why when you don't lock the door some "OCCUPIED" word doesn't show up on the other side) that when you lock the bathroom door, the lock color (it's a small dot i never noticed before btw) goes from blue to red. OK! So that won't happened again. Also 2) we have an all call in the dorm. Yuji just used it to announce our meeting is in 10 minutes. I heard this sound and was like "is that Ash's computer? a bell somewhere outside (we keep our balcony door open, it has a screen and such so no bugs get in... i like to think at least) and then I heard Yuji's voice... great he's like God, I hear him everywhere... but yeah, it's an all call system in the dorms.

We have monthly house meetings and monthly parties :D September is a yakitori party! YUM! Here is the video... not so much a tour... just me being silly I guess. I call the elevator on the 1st floor, change my mind and take the stairs, then call the elevator on the 2nd floor... I'm so weird :D



Oh, we have to fold and put up our futons regularly BECAUSE if you leave them down all semester, the tatami mat underneath will mold. So we should fold and put them away and lay them out to dry twice a month. Well... that is fun to do. I'm sure I'll become an expert and putting away my futon by the time this trip is over. I need a chair to sit at this little table. Right now I'm sitting on my pillow.

Seminar House 2!

Today, didn't do too much. Jess, one of my roomies left for homestay. Just Ash and I until the semester ends. We have room now to move our room around, futons and table. I set up earlier, looks super nice. Anyways, I laid around til about 10:30ish until Jess and I decided we'd go up to the school, eat lunch, hang around... So we left at 11:30.

We stopped at Hotto Motto for lunch... I remember eating Hotto Motto last year, I don't remember when, where, why, and what I ate, but it was the chicken. The chicken was so greasy but fries were yummy. We ate at the CIE lounge. Afterwards we checked on her cell phone (no luck) and I got some money out. It all came in big bills so I decided I'd go to Hirakata and break one for easier bus fare when needed. So I went to Tsutaya and bought Crystal Kay's Best of CD :D Pretty cheap for a Best CD maybe because there was no DVD. As much as I would like one, the price would have made me changed my mind. I've seen Best CDs go for as much as 8000 yen. I browsed and saw that some American TV drama sets such as Full House, Desperate Housewives, and House (called Dr. House here) range from 8000-10000 per season (House being the most expensive).

After browsing around Hirakata and buying some snacks and another big water bottle for the fridge to refill my bottle (I think I'm saving money... but maybe I only save money when I buy the big bottles from the 99 store... yeah, I should start going there more often) I took the bus (that was sitting at waiting for once) back to the dorms where I napped. For 3 hours. After moving furniture (we're not suppose to rearrange furniture but I don't think that applies to futons and the table in the tatami room. Oddly, we have our futons in front of the other person's closet. This is because when I moved in (I was first), there was a line of futons against the wall and I took the one near the AC (because I need to be cold to sleep and I dunno I just chose that one) and I sat my stuff on the desk right near it... but because the close on that side of the room was a bit blocked by futons, I took the closet on the other side. So, it's a bit weird. Oh well. No splitting this room in half HAHA. Here is my dorm :D



The Lobby. With the "Wel-Come" sign LOL. See the little doorway to the right? That is where I enter, you can't see but closer to me to the right is where I go and take my shoes off and put on my slippers.



Yeah I got 4 pairs of shoes in there...



Seminar House 2 RA's: Yuji (male) and Aki (female)... I'm pretty sure Yuji doesn't look like that underneath it all..




Lounge Area



Computer Room. Useful during orientation week when nobody can access internet through their own PC's/Macs. But if you have your own computer, once it is registered for internet, unless something happens, you will never set foot in this room again.



The "Dinning" room as Yuji refers to it HAHA.



The cabinet where hopefully I can start getting dishes tomorrow and start cooking. I'm so cooking Mac and cheeze :D



The fridge... I guess 6 people can share a fridge... just respect other's food. I try to, I put my water bottle in my family mart bag that way I know it's mine.



SNACKS :D Look my cookies are almost gone :(



Uh oh this pic is upside down LOL but do you see the bag? That's my big bottle of water to refill my little one



Microwaves. You can heat anything in these things. I make toast. Doesn't matter if it's wrapped in something or naked food... just pop it in here. No fires!



Cooking :D Gas stoves... i've never used one. Man, am I gonna have fun cooking ^.^



Washers and Dryers in the shower room... but I don't use the dryers. They suck



Shower



MEN NOT PERMITTED BEYOND THIS POINT~ I don't understand why we have this rule just on the 4th floor (and it's for girls on the 3rd floor that is all boys) because on the 1st floor (all boys) is the lounge and lobby and what not so girl can be there (have no choice) and all the 2nd floor (all girls) is the kitchen so boys have to be there so you can't have this rule but on the 3rd floor (all boys) and 4th (all girls) we have this no opposite gender allowed rule......... just strange.



Room 041 is mine :D



The room... the table is close to my futon because i was sitting my computer there and using it. Notice how my futon is on that side of the room... my closet is in front of Ash's futon haha



The closet



The Desk



Anyways I hung around downstairs, trying to be sociable, and met the two girls from Thailand and our two RA's. Yuji was trying to make a sign announcing tomorrow's house meeting, we will become official residents tomorrow. Yeah we are "checking out" and "checking in" tomorrow. I had a feeling Yuji would hurt himself trying to make that sign...



He misspelled "dining room" (dinning room... so now we have a pineapple? in the middle of the word) and he put the 7th when I kept telling him the 6th so we have this odd 6... I added the "@ 12:00" myself because Yuji was so confused.

Tomorrow after the meeting, I'm meeting with my speaking partner, Kanako, and she's coming here to hang out then I think we are going to try to see what this Shopping Street is on the map... has shopping in the word :D Sounds like fun.