I said I'd do it and I'm doing it, darnit. I thought about just editing the old post, but I decided it'd be funnier to keep that one on there XDSo first I'll update y'all on what I've been up to as of late. I can't remember who all I mentioned the guarantor situation to, but I found one! So I don't have to pay Sophia a $5,000 just-in-case-something-bad-happens-to-me deposit! Cool! Over the past 3 weeks I've been working at the office for the mine where my dad works. They like to do big, over-the-top stuff for their employees, so I made all the Easter baskets, which go to all the employees' kids age 12 and under. But these aren't your normal Easter baskets, folks. This is.. Santa hijacked Easter and decided every kid needed $40-$50 dollars worth of toys for Easter...... wait, what? It was a little ridiculous and a lot excessive. Especially the part where I had to go buy the second round of toys (Did I mention there are 125 kids? 3 and a half shopping carts worth of stuff into my tiny '88 Mustang... by myself.. shopping blows).
Then I made some bags of Valentine's Day candy for the miners, and now I'm working on these really silly cards to go on the Easter baskets. You see, the ladies at the office are all really into stamping, like, using rubber stamp kits and paper and markers and pencils all from this one company to make cutesy cards and things. So I'm making 125 cutesy cards with little baby chickens on the front and blah blah blah it's dumb. But it beats flipping burgers! And it's sort of artsy craftsy and I like that sort of thing. I'm just not a fan of excess, extravagance, wastefulness, throwing money and time and craft paper around, etc.
Here, watch this video to break up this post a little bit, cause it's getting long. It's weird but talented pop/rock/former visual kei sensation, Miyavi, singing "Hit the Road Jack!" Check out some of his other videos for some guitar slapping coolness, and more Engrish covers!
Blogging will now recommence..
I've also been listening to some Japanesepod101.com podcasts on the way to and from work lately! They're really good and I highly recommend them! We super need to start studying and reviewing so we don't get put in the dumb class.. Which brings me to my next topic/first question: Did anyone else get an email from Sophia a few weeks ago with a survey about your Japanese experience, and asking if you wanted to take the regular classes or the intensive classes? I'm thinking of taking the intensive classes.. They're two 90-minute sessions a day, 5 days a week, but it's for 8 credits. And I need at least 12 credits for my financial aid to be valid, so I'd have to spend those credits somewhere! Anybody else get that email?
To Greg and Jen: We all need to make our flights for serious I think.. Let's have one of those webmeetings and definitely get this all sorted out, when we're leaving, if we're flying together or not, etc etc etc and buy these puppies! I was thinking, as far as getting there early, when you guys get your DK House housing materials or whatever Chris said you'd get, you might wanna see about contacting the DK and asking about arriving early. When I signed up I just put that I'd be there on the 25th and they were like, ok cool. I'm assuming if/when I stay later than July 25th but leave before August 25th (the next full month), they would have some sort of alternative payment process maybe so you don't have to pay a full month for a few days? That's what my mom thought maybe... I better email them.
Is that all I had to say in this blog? Really? Hmm.. I think we should all blog more often again, yes, that would be good. I still check the blog like 3 times a day, so the only thing that's really changed is frequency of posts, mine included mos def. Oh yeah, Jen I was gonna ask you to persuade Andreano-san to make a guest blog post here on our blog, maybe closer to time to start packing and leaving, with like.... a list of all the things he thinks we might like to know before we go to Sophia, or things to bring/not to bring, and then we can all annoyingly post comments asking things like "Does Sophia have a cafeteria? Is it any good? Like.. Newcomb good or O'Hill good? Ok but like.. on a Monday, or more like Thursday where they start putting a chicken patty on top of a bowl of pasta and giving it a foreign sounding name?" I think this is a great idea, and I'm suggesting it here.
I was going to sew a whole bunch of cute new summer clothes to take to Japan but...alas.. I've only gotten through about a fourth of a purse and gotten totally unmotivated! Work needs to.. not make a person feel totally drained for the rest of their free evening! On an ending note, let's all watch America's Best Dance Crew tomorrow night, because I like those kinds of shows and they're great, and who knows. Maybe we'll all fall on hard times someday, abandon our college educations, take to the streets and start our own Dance Crew. And then win that show. Somebody come up with a kickin' name for our crew.
This blog is too long now! I'd put some pics in but I'm feeling preettty lazy. Maybe another day. Goooooodnight!
