In the tent of dreams, shadows harmonize and overlap one another.

tokyo disneyland!

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 06:27:38 GMT

got up at 5:30AM and got ready for the day. jumped onto the yamonote (sp?) line and transfered at tokyo station onto the keiyo line which goes to tokyo disneyland! yay! got there and bought herman and my ticket, and waited for everyone to arrive. everyone (yu, herman, and mike) got there just in time for the park to open. and off we went! yaaay!

the first ride was the little rocket ships. yu and herman were in one, while mike and i were in the other. mike is a tall kid so that ride hurt his legs cause he had to squish up. i took a pic of herman and yu and got yelled at in japanese. well, couldnt pretend that i didnt know japanese since i was laughing. haha!

we rode many rides throughout the day. food is actually cheap at the park so we snacked and ate all day, it was yummy. some of the rides that we went on included 'space tours' 'thunder mountain' (im probably butchering these names..) 'pirates of the caribbean' (no jack), etc.
we also went into the tea cups, with the 4 of us squishing ourselves into a single cup. herman and mike wanted to spin fast, while yu and i didnt. so we were fighting over the spinning wheel the whole time! haha!

since it was close to halloween, and the whole park decorated in halloween - many many people came in costumes. - some soo good that people thought that they were the real deal at the park. cool huh?

we had bad luck with the parades though - it seemed that everytime that we got off of a ride - they would start to close off the main path for a parade - so we would have to figure out in a hurry where we needed to go - or be stuck on a certain side for the whole parade..

the park has fast passes - which we used twice. we must have done it correctly cause we got onto about 6 or so rides throughout the day, even with it being so crowded. everyone got onto the rides that they wanted, with a few extra rides on the side. my ride of choice is the haunted mansion - but was decorated completely outside and inside of the house with nightmare before xmas. the whole ride takes you through the city and scenes of the movie, it was pretty darn cool!

finally at night there was a different parade (we had seen the same parade 3 times) at night. it was a twinkle light parade, it was so pretty! we left the park at 8:30PM to beat the crowds at 10:00PM which is when the park closes. so we were there from 8AM-8:30PM, it was soo much fun! the weather was gorgeous too! yaaaaaay!

mah patay!

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 05:58:50 GMT

mishkuu's Halloween party:

amberxenon dressed as a junior corporate spy department janitor.
angryface03 dressed as Ashlee Simpson riding a camel.
djnaughty dressed as Barney Gumble.
horse2424 dressed as something drunk, but what, specifically, you can't tell.
kodokumousou gets drunk, strips naked, and somehow emerges dressed as a new superhero: Elasti- Android.
kotsuki dressed as an external hard drive.
koyasuslave dressed as Madonna.
kumathebear dressed as the spirit of their dead grandmother Kelley.
kuroiyokan dressed as a zombie.
maddogg2216 dressed as the Duke of West NotusCity.
redrabbitaf dressed as Karl Rove.
ricecakeburner dressed as a character from Harry Potter and the Dwarf of Darkness, and it suited them all too well.
screwbuddah dressed as Al Pacino, though it looked more like a new superhero: Snow -wave.
spookeydonkey dressed as a 1990's grunge child.
sugoi_sakura dressed as a character from "Duck Soup".
tatinthehat dressed as the love child of Tom Cruise and Janet Reno.
vamp_dust dressed as Optimus Prime.
xenosg dressed as Moltar.
yuuwaku dressed as Captain Kirk from "Star Trek".

Throw your own party at the Hallomeme!
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yay today

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 08:18:01 GMT

last night was cool. studied in my room while takumi was there with me drawing pictures and such. nice.

just finished with my human rights/trafficking midterm, think it went rather well. i studied a lot last night and today for it. mainly refreshers cause i take so many notes all the time in that class and its a very interesting class. yay! earlier, got lunch with mario and alicia, hung out with them for a bit. then went to the library to study for about 2hrs or so, then to the lounge to hang out with peoples and played some super smash bros on the good 'ol N64.. hehe! then from there went to class and got ready again for the exam. now i be sitting here next to my friend herman in the computer lab. hi herman! (he says 'whats up?' to me) also earlier looked up classes for next spring for akron u. if things go well, that will be 17 credits. eeep!

humanities in the western tradition (one of my final gen-ed requirements)
evolution and human behavior
qualitive methods of anthro
individual reading in japanese (? still curious about this one.. not sure if i will take it or not)
exploring music: bach to rock. (this also fills the last few of my gen-ed. but the pre. req. for this class is humanities.. maybe my advisor can get me into this one. i want to get rid of these gen. eds asap. hell i have 71 credits in my name..)

thats my list so far.. we shall see.

will go home around 5:30/5:45PM like i usually do for dinner and the such. currently is 5:05PM Tokyo TIME. tonight i need to finish up my powerpoint for my anthro-manga class tonight (over american anime/manga fandom) and study my kanji for a quiz tomorrow. and if there is time i rented from the library 2 movies - and i shall watch one of those. (really doubt that i have much time for that.. oh well) one i have seen a lot and is a classic, blazing saddles. and the other i have yet to see, the 40-yearold virgin. when i can watch them, i will watch them all cozy in mah bed on mah beast. (laptop)

tomorrow heading to shinjuku after class at 12:30PM - never been there before, and will be going with alicia. and we might stop by harajuku cause she wants to buy something there.

random: im so glad that im doing a homestay cause buying 3 meals a day would be expensive - buying lunch no matter where you go is about $5/$10 or so, then the cost to go anywhere ranges about (of course depending on where you want to go) about $5 too. so even that sort of stuff is expensive. i need to get money out again.. bleh.

!!!

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 06:40:57 GMT

as of Sept 23rd, i am offically aunt miechelle to 2 baby girls!! madeline and emily, very very cute! (pics coming soon!)

that is SO COOL! so excited

i got pics today, so happy!

-me

hmm

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 06:50:14 GMT

there are not enough days in september, i know that much. the month is filling up really quickly. its really rough because i want to do so many things, and want to be with so many people. its really hard to though. school trips, friend trips, meeting with my japanese (akron u) teacher's friend, spending time with my family, and school work.

i hate you september, you do not have enough days in you!!

website!

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 05:29:09 GMT

my website is finally up!!

http://www.miechelle.com

(some vids are available too, but i will have to load the rest later. im hungry..)

randomness

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 05:45:38 GMT

this will be a random post time.

1.) the bakery down the street is amazingly tasty. i want another piece of cookie-tasting bread in shape of a turtle, with a smiley face. delicious.

2.) ive started to write down what i eat for dinner every night. which i will post on and off eventually.

3.) im winning in my rom game of 'evo search for eden'. yay.

4.) i tried studying in the school library yesturday, but it was too noisy. then left there and went to the study lounge area, too noisy there too.. pissed me off. maybe i have to find empty classrooms to study in before i go home..

5.) offically going to the concert that has kaya in oct. i bought the tickets with my friend alecia on weds. i want to email him my pics of me cosplaying as him since i do not have the costume here, and i dont have the pics here in japan. - except on the internet.

6.) its currently 2:43PM sept 8th

7.) tomorrow im going to yokohama with school, a seaport city complete with a huge china town and a ramen museum/food court. hehe

8.) i would like some momma mashed potatoes right now. ive had a craving for them for a while now. cant get 'em here.. boo.

9.) i have 3 quizzes next week, mwf. every japanese class. yuck.

10.) for my project in my anthro manga class: presentation on american fandom. and a paper on the manga, 'confidential confessions'. (so far planned, i might change these later on)

11.) its way too cold in here.

12.) might go to tokyo disneyland when it gets closer to halloween - cause i heard from a teacher that its all decorated with halloween stuff + tons of nightmare before xmas stuff.

13.) i was given a nice little pastry from my hostmom when she and takumi went on a trip (somewhere) on monday. it was very tasty! i was told to not tell takumi. lol. it was a nice treat, i ate it in my room last night.

14.) soon i will be an aunt!!! so happy

15.) i eat tomatoes, seafood, and cucumbers now. tomatoes are still a little challenging. i like the majority of the seafood that ive been served, no squid tho. ew.

16.) school will be having a halloween party for the students, yay!

17.) i missed tys birfday being in japan..

18.) its going to be cloudy for the rest of this week and next week.

19.) although i wont get it for a while (towards the mid/end of november), looking up tattoo places to finish up my tattoo.

20.) i miss peoples

whew what a day

Thu, 31 Aug 2006 08:28:01 GMT

today was a little insane..

got to school early and played on the comp then went to my oral intensive class. we started the class out nicely. going around and asking each other different questions from a paper - it was like bingo. 'who has this shoe size'? etc. after that it got insanely crazy. we were given these sheets of papers, which made me feel very dumb. the papers talk about how to invite someone casually and politely, that didnt sound too hard. but wow.. and of course the 2 guys that just randomly blurt japanese and showing off didnt help either. we did pair work but i did not understand the point of the whole exercise.. its like we jumped 5 chapters ahead of the bingo game. i became very frustrated and scared, i understood some but not enough to be comfortable. the description of the class, much much different than what the class really is. so i stayed after and spoke with the teacher, she told me of the lower oral intensive class and suggested that since i was so freaked out. she tried to make me feel better by saying that there would be a tutor in 3 weeks.. i needed a tutor for day 1. and apparently part of a project is due on tues, we have to watch and understand a news program, and memorize it and explain it in japanese. news programs here are insane.

so i left upset and went to the computer lab with my laptop to get it on the network. nope couldnt do that either - my norton virus program expired. im really pissed at this point. so i go to the advisors desk and speak with her. the beginning (theres no class in between beginner and intensive) class is filled. but i found another class that was open, anthro orientated, and fit nicely into my schedule. dropped oral intensive and picked up an anthro class on japans obession with manga and other literature of that nature for 3 credits. its a mwf class and i'll go to it for the first time tomorrow. so im back to 12 credits, 4 classes.

i emailed the oral intensive teacher, since she teaches the other one as well. i might be able to get into it if i have special permisson from her since its full.

just experienced my first earth quake while typing this up.. at 5:20PM. the computer tables starting trembling a little bit, then it got a bit rougher with the walls shaking more. nothing fell off of walls or anything, but my comp chair moved a little bit away. everyone here in the lab thought that some jerk was shaking their comp tables, but then the chairs and walls started to shake - you could see it too. its over now, it was really small but definetly a new experience..

anyway ate lunch upstairs with amy - just little snacks out of the machines for lunch and later bill dropped by. met a new guy, his name is tom but i'll call him bob. (he lied the first time and told me bob) then went to human trafficking class, which was canceled. so here i am. i'll leave to go home in a little bit.

byby all. interesting day with different classes and my first earthquake.. awww..

few days post

Sat, 12 Aug 2006 18:25:15 GMT

past few days have been fun.

weds 9th: later in the evening went to brittany and ashley's house. it was really nice. floated around in their pool with ashley for a while - brit was there too but not in de water. i had to wear a shirt so that i wouldnt get sunburnt on my tattoo and could not get it wet - so i floated around on a round raft it worked out nicely. then we ordered some pizzas, brigit stayed for a little bit, then melissa came over. got thru most of back to the future (since i will be almost a day ahead of the US - so i will be in the future), until it decided to freeze up. then the 4 of us got into melissa's car and headed back to the video store. they did not have another copy of the movie, so we got the 3rd movie for free, then back to the house. more movie watching and snacking, hehe. later on marc and emily stopped by and we hung out with them for a while, while watching bits and parts of 'waterboys' haha. everyone left around 10:30-11:00PM, it was a nice time!

thurs 10th: went to dads house and hung out with him for a while. we ran some errands around akron u and chapel hill mall. we met up with ty and got some lunch before dropping her back off at the university. then chapel hill area and then back to the house and watched 'war of the worlds', which i had never seen before. it was good. then around 6:00 headed over to highland square and met with aaron. he still had some time at work and so i headed over to the tattoo/piercing place nearby and bumped into george from highschool. it was cool to see him again, hes a nice guy. 7:00PM aaron got off of work and he followed me to faraway hartville and i introduced him to some japanese movies: 'battle royale' and 'waterboys', quite the contrast huh? hehe! then he left around 1:00AM and i went to bed. it was a nice day!

friday 11th: hung around the house till the afternoon, and then nicole called asking if her and peoples could come over. mike, horse, and nicole came by and gave me a nice picture frame with the group in it, and monies for my trip. thanks guys!! then we left and went to go pick up a frankie and headed to canton to rocknyes for lunch. i wasnt all that hungry so i just got a bowl of soup, tasty. then back to my house and we hung out till 8:45PM or so. i changed into warmer clothes (cause it got so freakin cold all of a sudden), and headed out to montrose to meet up with peoples. got to best buy and cryssi, holly, and john were there walking around. then later homie and steve arrived. at 10PM ty and ab got off of work and we all headed to applebee's for a late dinner. doug, and his wife and baby, and a ben were already there saving the seats for 11 people. it was a fun times! i got my yummy wraps that i always get, and a mudslide drink = yum. we hung out there for a while, and everyone headed off to home. came home and found peoples at my house (frankie, nicole, mike, horse) and we played poker in the basement. mom and nicki joined in on and off as well. went to bed around 3:15AM or so. today was busy but very cool!

tattoo is doing well, still peeling here and there. its almost done though, im not as itchy as i have been. right now not feeling all that great, hope it goes away soon. today my grandparents are coming over at 3:00PM and staying till 6:00PM or so.

looking up japan

Tue, 08 Aug 2006 03:06:12 GMT

spoke with naoko the other night online, was really cool. we joked around for a while, pretty funny. shes helping me get my hands on some plastic tree tickets. yay! she was going to help me get a ticket for the tokyo show on the 29th, but its sold out already. the osaka show still has some and shes going to reserve 2 for us on the 22nd. (hopefully the tickets dont go all out there either) i was going to leave on the 22nd, but will be leaving on the 23rd instead by her invitation because of the show. soo nice! so august 16-22 = 1 week to play with naoko in osaka, kyoto, nara, kobe. !!!!!!!! random note, when i land in japan at 5:05PM it will be 4:05AM here in ohio the 16th.

so here be the plan: (so far)

aug 16th - fly to japan to narita airport, customs, and all that stuff. leave the 1 big luggage at the airport. take the little train to tokyo (about 1hr), and then the tokaido shinkansen line bound for osaka. (2.5hrs) dont know what time cause it depends on the time it takes for customs, baggage, and so on. stay there till the morning of the 23rd.

aug 23rd - fly from osaka (still looking thru times, theres a ton) to haneda airport cause its more of a domestic flight airport and its cheaper. take a bus to narita airport (cheap and takes about 1hr) get to narita airport to pick up the one suitcase. then head to tokyo by bus again, and stay at a hostel. for the night - the next morning (the 24th). in the afternoon head to the radisson miyako hotel in tokyo to meet up with the rest of the students and meet my host mother and her son. (or stay with my japanese teacher's friend in tokyo, depends on her friend's schedule)

i dont think i typed up about my host family yet. i will be staying 3-5min walking distance away from school with a mother and son. (compared to the dorms of 45-50min away by bus) i do not know much about the housing, just a few small pictures of a few rooms. looks pretty nice. the lady works with systems (like those for banks) and has a 4yrd son named takumi. she lived in the US for 1 year when she was younger and is teaching her son english - he goes to an international school till 4:00 - which then the babysitter comes over till 5:00. ya you know me and kids, dont like them much. but this kid sounds cool, and actually looking forward to giving him high-fives and such. hehe. we will go on outings, festivals, and events on the weekends - since she gets home at 5:00 after work during the weekdays. so we will go to the park, and out and about. i will also spend time with her mom and sister - going to their house on and off. she will cook traditional japanese foods for the day. (comes home during her lunch hour and starts it) etc. etc. she sounds like a nice lady. she even wrote me a letter.

theres a lot of rules that both the student and host family have to follow and sign. one of them is having my own room with a desk so that i can study in peace, and even though the mother likes to read books in english to her son - around me they speak japanese. well at least my host mother. the rules i follow are common sense things, so whatever.

yaaaaaaaay!

update on japan-ness stuff

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 16:41:21 GMT

ive posted earlier about the kaya and plastic tree concerts that are coming up within the next month or so, but recently saw in kaya's journal that he will be doing a talk and hand shake meeting at one of the lawson stores - Leica Edison Tokyo, including autographs. !!! 9/17/06 - at 15:00. i'll have to make reservation though cause theres only so many people that can go. there's a phone number to call, but, ya im in the US and speak the english.. and cannot find info on the store on the 'net. i know some people in the lj plastic tree community - kurage, have been to that store for a handshake and talk with the members of plastic tree. i'll post something there.

also got my final departure info from school. included in the email were maps and pics of some of the different dorms, wheres my info on my homestay family? .... we got a schedule of school sponsered events and a layout of orientation on the 25th - which looks a lot like a con schedule.. haha! one of the events that school offers, is on october 25th, students from the warabi high school are going to drop by the school and hang out. they will show films, some anime, and some traditional japanese arts to us. then we switch it around and go to their school and show them american stuffs, and speak in their english classes. i would really like to do this! its free but its for the first 20 that sign up. i'll have to wait till i get there to sign up/reserve a spot in different activies. theres also a school sponsered outing to a sumo match for a nice price, ($34ish) - but that also depends if other people buy the cheaper tickets, cause its a busy time. np. there's also an outing/weekend trip to kyoto, sounds really nice - spend the night in a traditional japanese ryokan complete with outdoor and indoor spas, etc. but its pricey. since the students have to pay for the inn. museums, etc. and besides, naoko is going to show me around kyoto - sounds a lot more fun to me. theres some pricey outings that seem a little odd, and theres some other outings that are kinda pricey that sound really nice. i'll have to print out these outings so that i can write down some notes here and there. either way, its cool that my school is offering such things. theres another that goes over different japanese arts, and you end the day at an onsen/outdoor natural spring. nice.

also with school, apparently everyone is meeting up at this hotel when you there on the 24th.

"TO HOMESTAY: Students staying in a TUJarranged
homestay should take the Narita Airport
Limousine bus to the Radisson Miyako Hotel in Shirokanedai (ph. 0334473111)
as well. The families
will meet you at the Miyako. Please make sure to give International Programs your flight information so
we can give the family an estimated arrival time at the hotel. If you are arriving in Tokyo before August
24, you should plan to go to the Miyako in the afternoon of the 24 th to meet your family. It is
recommended that you communicate with your family via email prior to your arrival to arrange a time."

then give me the email address of my family!! - i just emailed temple. weitr;aitugagu...

ended my job at the bookstore yesturday, well until i get back in december. no more jobs for a nice long time, yay! its so hot outside i cannot imagine being stuck in the hottest area of arbys making sandwiches, whew. no more arbys!! yay! got my hair cut yesturday, its neato. made copies of my passport and visa, went to teresa's to pick out the 2 pairs of glasses that she had at her house. i like one pair a lot, i should get them back by the end of this week. yay! i havent had new glasses since '99..

thats about it for now, i slept in and it was all nice. i still have to beat resident evil 4 before i leave.. im at the end of the game.

more busy days

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 15:17:22 GMT

got my letters/papers shipped out to japan, im all done with sending papers around the world for now. i just have one more to send to PA - and thats a copy of my visa, guess i'll do that today before i forget.

28th friday:
worked 5:30-close at arbys. it was alright and was dead most of the time. the two boys (eric and shawn) played with their torch lighters (cheapy lighters that made giant flames) up front, then some ice was thrown at everyone. later that night krista and i got into my car and pulled up thru drivethru. we asked for baked potatoes - which we do not have at our arbys. then after a while i pretended to get pissed. "WHY NOT!?" then we got a response from shawn "cause god hates us" - at that point we thought we were busted, that he figured out who it was. but then we orderd 6 large roastbeefs and he rung it up, so we were safe again. the total came to $24 and we pulled up towards the window. then of course a real customer came thru the drivethru, we did a U and started laughing - which shawn saw us and laughed as well. debbie - the manager of the night was on it too, so she didnt mind voiding out the large order of sandwiches. hahaha!

29th saturday:
drove down to columbus for my sister-in-laws baby shower with my aunt and grandma. it was really nice. tricia is getting so big - i only saw her a few weeks ago. she looked soo pretty! she got a lot of nice gifts and there were a lot of friends and family. 'twas nice.

30th sunday:
ran some errands with mom and got a new watch from target, yes! hehe. i will need it when i have to run and catch a train.. i also finally found the sketchers that i have been looking for. nice. then went to acme and whatnot then home. jim came up to me later and asked about my design and location of the tattoo, its on! hehe. looks like i will get it in cleveland next sunday. sweet! i might have to make it a bit smaller, but no big deal. so excited!

past few days post

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 18:58:18 GMT

work has been crazy on and off, eh oh well. i offically end my jobs next tuesday. --> arbys has only scheduled me on sunday and monday of next week. bookstore = tuesday. so that gives me some more days free to do whatever. yay!

tuesday was a long day at the bookstore, 10:30-6:30, afterwards was cool though. went to christinas house, and we headed to summit mall. we looked around random stores, and shoe stores - didnt find too much. then she bought me a round of ddr, and i didnt do too badly. since not playing for maybe a year or so, plus i had a sucky pad. it was exhausting though, my endurance of ddr does not exist anymore. haha! after that we headed up to best buy and spied on ty for about 30min, it was funny! we ran around her while she was helping customers with camera questions and such, we didnt want to bother her and her sale - so we just snuck around her. we would go all the way around, running while ducking behind shelves and displays. the people who had seen us must have thought we were crazy. lol! finally we thought we had found the perfect spot and while we felt all cool and laughing, ty caught us. we are no ninjas! we got a hug and she helped some customers some more. not too much later saw doog and talked with him while the store was closing. afterwards we headed outside and waited for everyone to come out. finally got to see doog's baby boy = very cute. hung out with doog, his wife, his baby, and ab outside while waiting for ty to finish up. then cryssi and i headed to rocknies for food, soo good cause we were soo hungry. then off to her house for some music videoness and whatnot. i got home at 1:00 and went straight to bed for work at the bookstore early the next day. (they asked if i could work 9-3, and i said yes) very fun day and got to hang out with peoples who i hadnt seen in a while.

:)

weds: was a very longer day. worked 9-3 downstairs in the book area at the bookstore. it was a nice time though. a lot of my friends were working, and everyone was in goofy moods. hehe! my friend ashely came up with a day to hang out before i leave, weds the 9th will be some swimming at her house and movie night! yaaaay! i will get to see bookstore buddies and movies, hehe! thank you m'am! cant wait :) after work headed home for about an hour and then got ready for arbys at 5:30 - 10:30ish. wasnt too bad, eh whatever.

today i get to run some errands before work. need to make some copies of papers, mail them out to japan, etc. i go to work again at 5:30, going to go get some food in my belly now and see what i can get done before work. if not, i will have to finish things up on my break. in other words, i want these papers out of my hands today, asap. only 19 days..

got my finished-up visa papers in the mail today, very pretty. so im done with all that - i can go to japan early 100%. and wasnt sure if i posted this earlier or not: got my homestay. yay! will find out the families info and whatnot fairly soon by email.

well so ends da week

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 02:53:04 GMT

week is finally over.. loooooong week of workness, but different good things definetly helped.

had my byby party today (a farwell party or whatnot) by my dads side at my aunt laura and uncle john's house. it was cool! my grandparents were there, cousins, aunt susan, uncle john and aunt laura (obviously), dad, and teresa. had the hamburgers that mom gave to me before she went to work - very tasty. and other foods of tastyness. then a cake that my dad made and decorated, it was funny. it had a little japanese flag on it on an island, water, and said 'have rots of fun in japan', clever dad. haha. got 2 checks towards my trip which is definetly awesome and appreciated. thank you! after hanging out, had to leave to go to work. man i didnt want to go, it was fun! i probably wont see my aunt susan till i get back - since shes in cinncinnatti. boo! i got her email though and will keep her updated. went to work late cause i lost track of time but other than that, work went pretty well. which is definetly better than the past few days of hell. it was dead for a while so we started throwing ice at each other. then shawn took a tray and started to use it like a bat - sending shards of ice everywhere. then rolling over counters, etc. it was good times. it got a little busy but for the most part steady or dead. also made paper things with leeann, like frogs, those fortune things, and played M*A*S*H. haha. got out of there pretty quick and now here i be.

apparently a bunch of people got their housing info already, not me though. (theres a club on myspace that we made for temple japan 2006-2007 students, cause the website that school provided us filled mailboxes with tons of emails. theres also a club thingy for those on facebook, eh whatever. - weve had it going for a while, just wasnt sure if i mentioned here at lj.) so maybe i got it in the mail today? - (all letters are sent to dads house, cause at the time when i was filling out the forms we were in the middle of the move.) i left straight from aunt laura and uncle john's house, before the mail even got to dads. when i get letters, dad calls me right away. one girl got her last pick.. out of 6. another girl and guy got their first pick. hmm.. wonder how that goes? first come first serve i guess. i went to the temple student website and looked at different things. there was my bill there (cannot make payments till the 25th or whatnot) but it said the price of the homestay. which is very different than all the dorms, so maybe i did get my homestay? im trying not to get too excited just incase i misread it. about 98% sure though that i got it.

so exhausted not tired though. next saturday my aunt laura, grandma, and i are headed to columbus for tricia's baby shower! yay! im excited! and afterwards maybe some shopping - i need some clothes before i go to japan. like a new pair of black (non-dryclean only) pants. ive been using my somewhat faded dickies pants for arbys. i need a new pair. so stuffs like that. hehe
i havent been shopping in forever.. im excited about that too!

oh ya: kaya has another performance on 9/24 in tokyo. 8/22 - plastic tree in osaka. 8/29 - plastic tree in tokyo.
glad theres different dates for both kaya and plastic tree, just in case i have scheduling conflicts. [eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee]

class schedule

Sat, 22 Jul 2006 14:06:21 GMT

Your current roster is listed below.
CRN	Campus	Hours	Core	Level	GO	Instructor
064031	Japan	3.0		U		SUMI, ATSUSHI
ASIA ST: 0100-PRACTICAL ASIAN SOC&CULT Section: 801 Registered
	M W F	11:30A	12:30	Not Found		00316

064086	Japan	3.0		U		BUCKLEY, ROGER
ASIA ST: 0303-SPEC TOPICS ASIAN ST I Section: 802 Registered
	T R	03:45P	05:15	Not Found		00212

064244	Japan	3.0	LC	U		KAWATE-MIERZEJEWSKA, MEGUMI
CR LANG: C170-JAPANESE INTERMEDIATE I Section: 801 Registered
	M W F	09:00A	10:00	Not Found		00212

064257	Japan	3.0		U		OKADA, CHIHO
CR LANG: 0200-INTENSIVE ORAL JAPANESE Section: 801 Registered
	T R	10:45A	12:15	Not Found		00309

064564	Japan	3.0	WI	U		KINGSTON, JEFFREY
HISTORY: W340-MOD JAPAN:EMPIRE,WAR,SOC Section: 801 Registered
	M W F	01:40P	02:40	Not Found		00307

Total Hours Registered: 15.0

good day, then evil

Fri, 21 Jul 2006 04:19:18 GMT

well, started out ok. mom woke me up this morning early to tell me that the visa papers would actually be delivered today. - dhl called my cell, good thing it was on. i was told that by 12 the envelope would be here at the house. so i waited till 3:00.. had to cancel my plans with dad, we were going to go swimming for a few hours before i had to go to work at 5. so i called dhl and they put me on hold forever. then finally the lady told me that it had already been delivered.. huh?? 'ya its by your garage door'. um.. ok. so i went out and looked, there it was sitting on the ground, with the top part in between the siding of the garage... there was no note left, door bell rang, phone call, etc. i was home the whole time, and even went outside to check the mailbox and front door.. so i had no idea it was there! and according to school, i had to sign for it = why i stayed home. so not really sure on how long it was chill'n outside.. opened it up and saw my pretty little half-sheet of my form of eligability. all pretty colors and covered in japanese with english subbs. started to fill out the forms sent to me - when i came to a part that i didnt understand. so i called my embassy in detroit and a nice guy answered my questions. he then asked which form i was filling out, cause apparently when i told him - it was an outdated form. detroit uses a different one.. then he told me that i needed another form especially for detroit - a form of liability. good thing i didnt understand that one part, i found out very important things. so i downloaded these forms and found a place nearby work to print them out. after leaving the mom-and-pop printing place, headed to the post office and continued filling things out. all the stuff: passport, photo, form of elig, etc. will arrive at the consolate/embassy in detroit tomorrow afternoon. i also threw in an express mail envelope for my return of things. sweet. i was told by mr.detroit embassy that it the longest it could take is 7 days, majority of the time is 4 days.

then went to work at 4:30, and hung out with krista before we had to go to work at 5. at first it was pretty dead. then it got freaking insane.. x340788. first we started a large order for people that were going to come in 15min. wow thanks for the heads up.. 8 sandwiches of this and that, etc. then of course tons and tons of people in the lobby, and the drivethru. all of these people asking for 8 or so things! what the hell? i think some large family event had ended somewhere or something, cause this was truly rediculous. thanks to leeann for the help!! then towards the end we ran out of roastbeef. yes arbys can run out of roastbeef. thankfully there were 3 more in the ovens, but still needed 15min left to cook. luckily the last of the crazy crowd contained understanding people. after that things went down to dead. we made about $300 in about 45min... tell me that aint crazy.. finished my chores kinda early tho at close, which is good.

then came home, cleaned up and here i be now. tomorrow im going to go to dads since this afternoon was weird. working tomorrow 5-10ish.

interesting...

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 16:23:55 GMT

well my worrying paid off apparently. i got an email from the school saying that they had my visa in PA with them. it was a group email, but it got it too - so mines there!! :) she also told us that she could get it to us in.. 2 days!!! OMG!

Dear students,

**If you have already received your Certificate of Eligibility you can
disregard this email!**

Good news--your Certificates of Eligibility have arrived from
Japan! I would like to get them to you, along with
instructions on getting your visa, as soon as possible. If
you are local, I would strongly suggest coming to pick up
your Certificate from International Programs.

If you are not able to come in person, I would like to send
the documents to you via DHL mail courier. If you choose
this option I need to know the following:

1. The address AND phone number of where I should send it.
Someone should be at that address to sign for it.

2. The DATE of when you would like it delivered. I can have
it delivered by the next day or in two days. I would prefer
if you could give me 2 days to get it to you. The deliveries
are made by 3:00 and the soonest I can have it delivered to
you would be this Friday.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Erin

so i sign for it and whatever before work on friday. mail it out speedy to detroit, which takes about 3-7 to process.. then back to me! so far it looks like i will get it in plenty of time to go to japan EARLY!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
*worriedness ends*

today

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 03:10:33 GMT

work went by pretty well today - was at the bookstore from 10-6:30. i was downstairs in the book area sorting, scanning, and shelving lots of books until 12. then went upstairs to the register area for the rest of the night. worked with cool peoples and we all had fun, nice work day. afterwards i went to my grandparents house for a little bit. grandma made me some dinner and we all just hung out. ive always been really close with my grandparents (on my dads side). they are in their late 60s and a ton of fun. my grandparents started talking about swimming back in the day. wool bathing suits. ew. then we switched over to grandpa and apparently when he was younger there was a pool where the young boys swam nekkid - apparently no one cared and it was a nice pool. k.? of course when i asked him how old he was at the time, i was told 32. haha! then this is where my grandma chirped in that the pool was probably opened by perverts. haha i love 'em! (no, not the perverts). my grannie is a typical grandma, but sometimes things come out of her mouth here and there. haha! shes a sweet lady, who will beat your ass at 'bullshit'. same with my grandpa, minus the 'sweet lady' part. im a grampa's girl.

later my great aunt joyce (around the same age as my grandpa - his sister) came over and we chatted and whatnot till i had to leave at 9:15 to pick up nicki and take her home. it was a nice visit with them.

found out today that my byby party has been moved to saturday, its cool though. cause my aunt susan will be in town from cinncinnatti that day. she cannot stay till sunday. it will have to be a shorter party cause i work on saturday 5-close. i dont wanna go to work after fun-ness, ya know? i doubt that i can get that day off.. i would like to though.

thats it for now,
-out

2nd update

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 19:12:08 GMT

just a random update cause a lot has been going on with school and the such.

i got an email from temple about billing and all that junk. in order to be able to receive that email, i had to set up a whatever@temple.edu account. (i dont remember mine right now cause it has lots of numbers) i was able to check out my class schedule as well - i got all the classes that i requested! yay! also got some info on visas, apparently the school had like 1/3 of them in PA right now. i have not received a phone call yet, so mine is not in the US. im worried that mine may come later cause mine was sent out a week later of the deadline cause a paper was wrong. we'll see. i hope i can get to japan early - makes me so worried. naoko emailed me while i was on vacation which was cool. i emailed her back last night - a part of the email stating the whole visa situation and if i cannot get to her early, other plans would have to be made. that would crush me if i cannot get there early.. she told me that her and her family are excited to have me. everyone cross your fingers for meeeee please! after you get the phone call from temple (which they call you asap when they get it) they mail it out to you, and then you have to send it to your consolate -> ohio's is in detroit. i looked up time on the website - they said something like 3-7 days to get it finished. thats not bad. it just depends on japan's end.. im so worried. 29 days till i leave for japan..

kaya has another live in september in tokyo. its a popular venue (its the same place as the aug one) - a sold out concert (which hasnt happend yet) for dacco is going to be there too. thats pretty cool.

still wondering about the tattooness. thinking maybe my right side? so if i need to hide it i can. dunno.

there may be openings at campus in tokyo for jobs. ive emailed a lady about info for it - ive worked on my campus for a little over a year now, maybe that can help. cannot hurt to have a bit more money while in japan. there is also some opps. for internships, though they really dont apply to me.

i work everyday this week..:
everyday except tues, 5-close at arbys. tues is 10-6:30 at the bookstore.

for those who drive around ohio, apparently gas prices are gonna skyrocket at the end of the week. $3.25 or something? - get gas early. (warning by mom)

this sunday my dads side is throwing a byby party for me. yay!

next saturday im going to columbus for my sister-in-law's baby shower. driving down with my aunt laura and my grandma. afterwards if there is still time in the day - head out to polaris for shopping or whatnot. if not - spend the night and do it in the morning. might get some clothes and/or whatever for japan.

update later

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 05:20:09 GMT

well, im back from vacation. twas fun! i actually got home this morning at 4:45AM or so then went to work at 5PM. bleh. update to come later.

-ME-

update-ness!

left sunday morning (7/9) early at 4:45AM - nicole and mike came and picked me up, then off to horses to pick him up. the drive down was 12hrs or so.. it was alright for the most part, ive never been in a car for that long. (we took nicoles car) she drove all the way down there. we got food everyonce in a while and whatnot. we drove through ohio - west virginia - virginia - north carolina - south carolina - myrtle beach. our resort was questionable at some parts - we thought we would die in the shaky elevators and such. we had two large beds, stove, microwave, a regular fridge, and a balcony overlooking de ocean. we also had a pool we could play in. so it was pretty cool. we played in the ocean many a time it felt soo good cause it was really hot down there. i never knew that the state had palm trees - at first i thought they were fake.. haha! hey, we werent in flordia..

we went out to eat almost every night for dinner. breakfast and most lunches were eaten in the hotel room. we went to a 'piggly wiggly' grocery store and got hotpockets, ramen, and sandwich stuffs. i got a bit more fond of seafood while there - i tried different things. flounder and salmon i liked the most, also tried different shellfishes and stuff which i felt were alright tasting. we also went to ripley's aquarium, it was really nice. we petted sting-rays and played with horseshoe crabs. the tanks were really nice - went above you and all that stuffs. lots of sharks, turtles, and fun stuff. we ate at planet hollywood one night and i got some neat pictures of a facehugger from aliens, the munster outfits, and other random things. made sandcastles on the beach, shopped around different stores in the boardwalk areas, and went to a huge outdoor mall before we left. i found a funny sign that stated 'chinese characters' on them. it was for henna tattooing. i looked thru them, most were legit while others (katakana) were not. so i told my friend about what was wrong and whatnot right in front of the guy working there. haha! every beachy place had the same signs, all wrong. it was funny. i took a picture of it. the ocean water was really nice, the waves got a little crazy on our last day on friday. we were supposed to have storms on and off all week, but they either blew over or came a little at night. but the winds stayed around to make crazy waves. i only got burnt about twice. once on my shoulder area, which went away pretty quickly. the other was on the back of my legs - which was very owie. i used 50sunblock all week and got a pretty alright tan/burning. another night we went to 'medival times' for dinner. it was cool - we got little paper blue crowns. hehe! we were seated in the blue knight section, front row. badass. we got lots of food: veggie soup, garlic bread, half a side of chicken, 1 rib, 1 little apple pie. we had to eat with our fingers for the whole thing. (the soup bowl had a handle to hold and sip from) apparently utensils werent around back in medival times, but apparently pepsi and daquiris were. haha! food was very tasty! and the show was cool with guys on horses jousting, fighting on the ground, etc. blue knight was a beast for the most part cause then he lost. boo! lol. it was fun. at night before bed we watched tv, walked around in the ocean, played cards, or whatnot. the last night mike bought everyone dinner at this really nice place called 'drunken jacks'. there was a 2hr wait to get in, but worth it. there was a little pier with baskets tied to it in the back of the restaurant. you could bring up the baskets to see if you had caught anything. horse found a little crab, fish, and a few little creek shrimp. food was very tasty once we got in. on the drive home nicole drove most of the way while horse drove the remaining 3 or so hours. played me some DS and whatnot to kill time. at one point i had to pee, so we stopped by the closest place. the waitresses were very nice in showing me the bathroom. i peed in a 'hooters'. haha!! got home around 4:45 or so - about the same time that i was picked up a week earlier.

had a great time - never been there before. well, once - but i was 1.. i think thats all the info, if i remember anything else i'll type it up. i took a lot of pics and some vids. i'll post the pics sometime soon.

byby

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 03:57:11 GMT

work at arbys went by alright. it was cool cause at the end of the night, with 30min to spare - we ran out of roast beef, and luckily no one else wanted it, they chose other things. sweeeet. no need to make messes at the last min! its cool cause the corner of the counter where i make the sandwiches, where we sit on and off if its dead and we dont have a bitchy manager - 'my office'. hehe. i got other people calling it my office as well. there was one thing that sucked about work, finally met the dick of a owner, Mike. ya hes what they all say, he is an asshole. i kissed ass right away, extending my hand saying my name and all that crap. almost didnt make it.. hehe! he did some random things while bitching at people on how long orders were taking.. when he wasnt doing anything/didnt know what was really going on. thankfully he was there for a short time, maybe 20-30min or so. we all laughed at my sucking up, telling people that it was gagging. haha

just got home obviously, took a shower, and got a few things packed here and there. i have to be ready (at the earliest) at 3:30AM, so why even bother going to sleep for like 3hrs for a 12ish hr drive? ya.. lol

i will be gone to myrtle beach with nicole, horse, and mike from july 9th-july 15th. my phone will not be with me, or my laptop. they be staying here.

till later everyone!

byby

!!!

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 19:53:35 GMT

LIVE情報更新！！

８月３１日のライブの情報を更新致しました！
コンテンツLIVEをご覧下さい！！

omg..

this came from kaya's offical site. it pretty much translates that a new live is coming up on august 31..

dont know where yet, but will update more when info is received.

im going. no matter where it is. i have to see kaya live.. o . . m . . g..

(look at icon you new peoples, he was the singer of schwarz stein - also did some cosplaying of him at a few cons. check out myspace new peoples)

in his contact info it says 東京 - tokyo. i'm gonna be living there for months. how beautiful..

looong day

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 03:28:52 GMT

got up at 6:45 (ugh) and got ready for work at the bookstore. (8:30-1:30) i get there and turns out that i really shouldnt be there.. apparently my manager looked at michele, not me miechelle on the schedule. eh oh well. at first she was like 'you can go home if you want' ya fat chance. woke up early, drove all the way from hartville, payed $5 to park, need the hours/money, pick up paycheck from last week.. choose your fav! hehe. so i did random ass work and even went upstairs (in front of the marketplace) and handed out packets and asked people if they were interested in working the bookstore, yadda, yadda. so ya i was the bookstore bitch for an hr. lol. after work at 1:30 headed over to the bank to cash the paycheck and the large student loan check (for japan) in at the same time. go me. jim's name and mine are on the check, but the lady said that i couldnt do it by myself.. because his name was listed first = bullshit. im 21, the addresses match.. what the hell? so i left the bank pissed off that he can cash it himself, but i cant even do that.. at least put in the bookstore paycheck into my savings account. then off to polsky's to pick up a paper to turn back to akron u before i leave for japan. this paper will allow the school to see what classes i plan on taking at temple, and their akron u equivalent so that the credits transfer. i get there and they dont have them.. i was told of another 'transient' form - which i had already turned in back in may. so i talked to a guy and he helped me out with what i really needed. talked to the college of arts and sciences on the phone, and wasted time with them. cause im still in the main university of akron, i have not formally joined the anthropology college yet (arts and sciences), still have maybe 2 gen ed. req. left. so then transferred back elsewhere. i sat in polsky talking to the helpful lady, then ended up driving elsewhere to get a form for those of main college-ness. got 2 forms. yay. went and got $8 worth of $2.99 gas.. ickkkk. then off to genfed credit union to pick up some money for vacation next week. its a random account for school books, or whatever. the rest of the monies (i didnt take out much) will go towards japan - plus any left over from vacation. off to home from there and ate a nice lunch/dinner. got ready for arbys 5-10:30ish.

on the way to arbys jim and i stopped by national city to give the student loan check another try. np this time. good! arbys was alright, it was pretty dead for a thursday - not complaining though! horse came by on his break and my break, so we hung out for a bit. twas neat. got out of work early cause derrick said that if i threw away his trash in the bin, he would mop for me. works for i. headed home, showered, became jammie-fied, and about to work on those forms and mail them asap.

tons of stuff done today. yaaaay! worked out perfectly cause i didnt have to do a random trip to akron for all different things, i was already working there..

i get 2 paychecks next week. i got holiday pay for tuesday the 4th - cause i usually work tuesdays at the bookstore. got 5 sneaky hrs today at the bookstore. next week i will be in myrtle beach - and getting 20hrs worth of vacation monies from the bookstore.

things are look'n good!

aoira;wieut;yaweiugt

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 03:53:13 GMT

sighhhh..

today/28th: man this whole japan thing better be worth it, im so exhausted and constantly stressed out..blehh. it seems that as soon as i finish something important for the abroad-ness, its relief. then the next deadline of something comes up = stress back x2. (plus working almost everyday for money) i sent in my $200 housing deposit in, along with the housing and emergency contact papers in today, scan of my international student ID, etc. they are all due before june 30, and it was mailed out today - eh whatever. its only going to PA, at least its postmarked for today. i requested a homestay first, then a nice dorm with a japanese student, and it goes from there. i had to list 6 choices, ranked in my requesting order. that was stressful. (not just choosing, but mom was in a weird mood for most of the time when i was filling it out, and writing a letter to a possible future homestay family - had to re-read it just incase it sounded pissed off, cause thats what the mood was at the time..) then i was made to call that crappy craft/gift store to get some more money and hours this week. tomorrow would have been my only day off this week.. i feel like dropping. tomorrow will be 10-2, could be worse but i need a 'me' day bigtime. and no, not working and playing at the end of the day (they help tho) - an all day play day. (i have mad rhyming skills..) but then it will be back to arbys for friday and sat. (4-10, then 11:30-7:00) work sucked ass today. i was at arbys from 4-10:30ish. we had a huge rush right before what would have been my break at 6:15. im talking about 6 orders back to back.. we were on order 2 or something cause we ran out of chicken - so those were cooking, or people would order 12 things.. some customers drove off, so i rushed around and made their food for no fuck'n reason.. the line for drivethru wrapped around, use common sense people. if you have 5 cars in front of you, ya its going to take a bit to get your food.. i had to ask for help, which pissed me off. my manager lois is usually better than that. i think there was a car show here in hartville, and the people all left at once. horse works at mcdonalds near us and they got hectic too. then it calmed down for the most part. it sucked ass tho.

(i thought that i had this past sunday off, i didnt. im getting sundays mixed up. can you tell that i dont have any idea of dates? haha. they all blend together now)

yesturday/27th: i did have fun yesturday tho. work at the bookstore was sooo cool! my friends brittany and melissa were working upstairs with me, and we were all in really goofy moods. some akron u socks were thrown at each other, backs smacked, hoodies flying, haha it was fun. even my manager beth was in a weird mood before she left to go to the other store at polsky. then we were left with managers/supervisors: jim, keith, and jen. who were also in odd moods. just a very funny day. i didnt stare at the clock once, the customers came in sperts and were all nice. 'oh.. look, its 6:00 already time to count my drawer'. hehe! plus i got to see mr.ab! yaaaaay!
afterwards went to kinkos to print out housing and the such papers. then zipped over to 2 turtles pet store in akron to see my friend aaron. its been a few months since ive seen him, so i was very excited to. we hopped into my car and headed over to hardesty park to see nicki and her friends underneath of the shelter cause of the huge ass storm disrupted their larping. then aaron and i got some chipotle, i hadnt had it in months. im sorry ty! - i really failed at chipotle. booo! tasty tho! then hung out at borders for a bit in montrose. we battled with a lightsaber, hehe! then back to hardesty park around 9 or so to pick up nicki. dropped off aaron and nicki and i headed to hartville. we stopped by arbys to visit a friend of mine, then home. great day and helped to ease the crap, stress, and whatever that had been going on for days.

dang, never thought i would work 7 days a week at 3 different jobs.. i need to think positive that these jobs are worth it - cause they = japan monies. ive been repeating it over and over so that i dont go crazy. i miss summer though! ive only been swimming twice!! sad me!! (only used my swimming pass twice..) although it doesnt help that its been storming on and off either. maybe if its not going crazy outside tomorrow, i'll head up to eastwood and play around in the water or lay in de sun.. hmm. i hope it works out. wish me luck! i miss peoples too ;_;

last night's dream

Sat, 24 Jun 2006 16:03:36 GMT

need to type in my dream cause it was random as hell.

well, i hung out with miyavi again. seems like we are becoming pretty good friends. this time he spoke more english for some reason. i spoke some japanese not a lot though. we went around what it looked like of w. akron. we took some pictures with one another and just had a grand time.

then all of a sudden im in akron u, but this time its in miami fl.. theres this giant ddr machine (where the info desk is) and a few people are there. ty, cryssi, saleh, ab, amber, etc. and theres these new people who wanted to learn more about it. so i set up the machine and went thru the songs for this one girl. all of these songs were strange. anyway turns out i put the wrong option on the machine. it was doubles but CRAZY. (there was a kid on the other pad for some reason, playing it like a 2player game. he was pretty good) instead of arrows there were dots, and dots within dots. kinda like those dots on that taiko drum game. but they would come at you 5 at a time, good luck with your human 2 legs. crazy. (like: ...........)then after she tried it, i jumped on and couldnt do it. just too insane. ty and saleh were shadowing behind me. but the stage was so crazy (even on a 2-footer) that it was interesting to watch the two shadow it. i'll have to show you guys in person what you were doing. haha! so i went over to hang out with peoples and proceeded to show cryssi my miyavi pictures. (it was in this little greenhouse place attached to the side of akron u) when i opened my wallet, there was just blank spaces of where the pics used to be. cryssi and everyone looked at me weird. 'are you sure it wasnt a dream?' then i got all bummed out. after that i had a flashback..

the flashback was a family vacation that my dad planned. it was this neat tropical beach resort place with lots of slides and such. i dont actually remember too much of this part, but we decided to fly to fl on a side trip. which is how i ended up in miami..? dont know what happened to my dad or anything.. the airport was all in the sky too, kinda like resting on big clouds.

then woke up confused.

oh ya some of the dots did this too: (in the dream they came down, i guess like pop'n music.. but also sideways too.)
.
...
..
...........
....
.....

uh, what?