Rice is great if you're really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something.

ah, the night shift

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 04:40:25 GMT

i've learned there is a strange affinity between those who work the night cops shift, and the cops who work the night shift.

we're both bored, and in a strange way, wish for some sort of crime so that we have something to do.

i don't need a murder, mind you, but SOMETHING.

week one of professional life is winding down...

xoxo

Mon, 04 Sep 2006 18:34:03 GMT

Crikey! R.I.P. Steve Irwin. I know you'd go in some infinatley bad-asser way than most of us. You were probably poking that thing with a stick. I will miss you, and all the fond memories that you have brought.

xoxo

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 07:01:17 GMT

That is all.

i live in aurora illinois, which is a suburb of chicago. excellent!

Tue, 23 May 2006 05:19:10 GMT

so, my life has been filled with travels and glorious nights out. hmmm... best foot forward... i finally made my pilgramige to aurora illinois. if you don't know why that's significant, you should probably stop reading my livejournal. cause you a fool.

we got baked, drove down, and went to a diner. imran was so good as to order meatloaf... who does that?!?!?

i posted this to collegehumor as well. it's been my favorite store on dempster for as long as i can remember:

ok, what else is new?? dillo day is coming up next weekend. it's where NU puts a stage out by the lake and has bands (BEN FOLDS!!!! and the robert randoph and the fam band and others this year) play and we all party like its our jobs.

i went to a sorority formal. who'da thunk? but, it turned out to be a shit show of epic proportions:

we started out the night presentable enough (john, amy, torrey, me, jenn, caleb)

getting foggy:

i like to do african seed planting dances???

no recollection:

i also went home a couple of weekends ago, and managed to get all of my favorite girls that are in oregon on a couch. they are so beautiful, no?

brandy turned 20!!!

and two classic assed-out on couch pics:

justina:

roomie:

oooh, and here's me (and me) on jerry springer!!!:

tina!!!:

jeffy and i are nerds:

i am in my last week of classes ever. thursday i will take a final. it's all becoming frighteningly (yeah, you spell that) real. i've decided to stave off the problem by moving back to the eug for the summer and getting whatever employment i can whilst applying for real jobs and/or studying for the LSAT.

who's drunk at 3 am on a wednesday?!?!?!

Thu, 18 May 2006 08:16:03 GMT

torrance!

guns and roses!!!!

foreigner!!! it's a good day!!

leg.

my sense of humor in a nutshell! how did my sense of humor get in this nutshell:

www.qwantz.com

xoxo

manders

pure imagination!

Fri, 28 Apr 2006 01:27:10 GMT

i REALLY need to clean my room, so now i'm updating. random thoughts:

1. WHY DOES NO ONE IN MY LECTURE CLASSES HAVE A WHISPER VOICE?!?!?! is it really that hard to not talk with vocal chords, or however whispering happens? i mean, i have no problem with talking, but just use your "two-inch" voice!
- sub category: why do i always get stuck next to or in front of the girl with that damn granola bar that she peels the wrapper down as she takes aneorexic mouse-bites... crinkling as she goes?

2. grandpa joe:

kurt vonnegut:

yeah???

ok, so i'm so checked out of school, but at least i have classes that have a *prayer* of holding my attention: Tolstoy (all we do is read War & Peace), Sociology of the Mafia and Intro to Buddhism. We had a monk come to class today and he blessed us. some kids just checked their email, ate the aforementioned granola and/or napped. i wanted to bitch slap them.

i'm flying home next wednesday! the price i'll pay these days to um... well.. ya know. but it's also brandy, justin and bethanie's b-days. and tina will finally be 21, which i hope to help make magical.

i adore this pic of torrey and i doing the nancy kerrigan pose with beer:

i went to new york over spring break!!

we got to stay with jori at her amazing photo/production studio in brooklyn. she is turning into an amazing photographer and designer for bands and everything. i'm so proud of all my friends.

i'm pretty sure this is one of the rare shots of jeffy and i where we look cute:

dino heaven:

i don't know why everything i do turns into beatle tourism, but i suppose its fate. i went to strawberry fields in central park, and saw the dakotas, which i recognized just by having seen pictures. i'm such a dork.

boston! staying with eyal in the dorm, while he led us around, got us lobster and drunk was so enjoyable!
roomie and I:

eyal eyes my first cannoli ever, at mike's deli in little italy:

one more picture from when my mom was here, cause its just so funny:

and finally, for jack's pleasure. a while ago, annie came down from minnesota for a visit and our other study abroad amigo, katie, had a layover in chicago which got delayed for a night because of thunderstorms. we all ended up reuniting for a night in a wonderful reunion:

and last but not least, i wanted to show one more of my paintings, which i really intend to keep up for the rest of my life. someday maybe i'll be as good as grandpa. we had to do a still life with three autobiographical items. most people did shoes etc, but i did my totoro stuffed animal, an avocado and a dead guy bottle, cause like it, i am oregon brewed:

hope to see all next wednesday or over the weekend! yay spring!

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 20:38:23 GMT

my mom is here.

i really do think a picture in this case illustrates last night better than i ever could.

peanut butter jelly time!

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 23:31:39 GMT

WHEW. what a monday. it was a monday of intrigue, gin, jerry, and intellect.

it began at 9 am, far earlier than my normal hour of awakening. my law and ethics of journalism final was at 12:30, and i had not studied. it went just fine. i had asked to take early, so that i could finish early and make it to a taping of the JERRY SPRINGER show by 5. he said if i get on tv, extra points. if i start a brawl, automatic A. mission: set.

we make it down to springer, yes the springer of midget love squares and incestual monkey lovers. kenji, jess, darin and i all obtained tickets to the real circus. people watching in the line to get in was more than enough for me. little did i know what i was in for.

the first couple involved a love triangle between a woman and her boyfriend and her b/fs cousin. they fought, her wig got torn off, blah blah. then, a huge fat dude comes out and (follow along now) he lives in a house with his wife, his wife's b/f and her fiance. so of course dude is sleeping w/ wife's b/f. so, she comes out, is huge and fat. they like to do it with food, so they strip down and out comes a cart with whipped cream, choc syrup, pies and cupcakes. so much naked fat rubbing food. eeew. then the wife comes out and gets down into HER bra and underwear, and then the women fight, with fists and food. the wife's bra strap snaps and her nasty boobie is hanging out the whole time, and there's chocolate syrup on her underwear so it looks like she doodied.

top three craziest shit i've ever seen. and i've been to japan.

so comments time comes, and jerry calls on me first! I select the skinny, wig-wearing black chick from round 1.

i say: "I'm confused, you say you need money from these guys, but why do you need money to look like a total skank?"
she goes: blah, blah blah (i forgot)
me: "Doesn't change the fact that i could go around the corner and pick you up like some TRANSVESTITE HOOKER!"
the crowd goes wild, skank lady has crossed the stage, looking like she's gonna rip me one.
she: "blah, blah, blah, you need to shed some pounds, get your girlie figure back!"
me: "Psh. Whatever! At least I have hips and i'm not walking around like a MAN!"
she:"What?!?! blah, blah, blah... i take yo man!"
me: "Wanna take my hair too? at least its REAL!"

then i told her she had wasp-bite titties. i didn't fight, cause i was afraid. but i'm super proud of the fact that i held my own on the SPRINGER show!!!

i went out later and my wallet got stolen. it's been a fiasco, culminating in the fact that i'm hosting an open bar party for like 50 tonight in chicago, and due to the fact all of my IDs were stolen, i may not be able to get in!!! gah!

go here: http://www.nozomionline.com/pussy/info.html it is so freakin funny. SO FREAKING FUNNY.

annie from IES Tokyo is here visiting. i'll take pictures...

look its a banana, no its big bird, no its... andrea!

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 00:58:56 GMT

ah, basic painting. how i do enjoy waking up on wednesdays and have my only responsibility be put on a pair of sweatpants and work in oils for four hours. the fruits of my labor have been a painting of a banana, an apple and um... myself (subject matter decided for me). hope i don't let my grandpa down, he used to do amazing oil paintings...

which was inspired by my fav artist, in (one of) my fav painting in my kitchen:

and, me... i spent a ton of time on it, only to realize, what the hell am i gonna do with a huge yellow painting of myself? i think i'm gonna give it to jeff, but i haven't decided if that's creepy or not yet.

not too much new to say for myself, just holding it down till i get out of here. oh, but i AM going to NEW YORK CITY for spring break. hells yeah. i'm going to visit jori, where she is a successful and beautiful photographer and artist. and jess is going too. and its gonna be sweet. and by sweet i mean freakin AWESOME.

well, i decided to post the last of my decent shots from my use of a good and tough-to-use camera last quarter:

this is the ba'hai temple. it's the only one in the US, and one of eight or nine in the world. and i can walk there. how lucky am i? ba'hai is all about the unity of all religions and how each leader (buddha, mohammed, jeebus, zoroaster etc.) is each a profit for the same holiness. if i didn't find religion such a drag, i'd be a ba'hai.

this is my city! its a damn shame i don't get down there more. but i'll remedy that this weekend...

these are the corn cob buildings! marina city condos - featured on the cover of the wilco yankee hotel foxtrot album. (did i mention i dated a dude who lived in em? hells yeah)

quack.

from the animal shelter:

MOM is coming to visit on the 30th. i have a feeling it will be sheer anarchy. i registered for classes: tolstoy (when else will i read war and peace?), intro to buddhism and a sociology class simply titled "the mafia." and its with my favorite professor ever, and ex-KGB armenian who called himself a hobbit once in a 300-person lecture class. Georgi Derluguian is my hero.

today, my chinese politics professor narrated a convo between Mao, Kissinger, Nixon and Zhou Enlai using voices. i felt like i was in that episode of fam guy where brian is the sub teacher and dresses up like twain. that class does rock though. i want to be a chinese communist when i grow up.

i keep getting japanese bombed. [insert pearl harbor joke here] whenever i'm in kresge, i bump into my old professors, who rattle off japanese at me while we're climbing four flights of stairs. and i just have to huff and puff and try my best. i am in touch with my homestay fam again though, which is good.

lastly, my ipod died. x's over eyes, sad ipod style. now all my music is gone, and i'm using my circa-1992 yellow walkman tape player. but, i still have the ipod headphones, which has two benefits: 1. i still look like a rich snob and 2. if i get mugged, i'm gonna be like "TAPE PLAYER BITCHES!" and dance off gleefully.

no mas.

livejournal: now packed with 58% more andrea!

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 08:21:58 GMT

well, hallo! happy february, the month of looooove. i'm not actually a huge fan of v-day, but i guess i have to support any holiday that encourages more love. and chocolate. ok, i like valentines. nm...

anywho, i'm in total denial about my impending midterm, so here i am. you know i'm procrastinating if this sucka gets updated. but really, i always wait, and then i feel like i need to have a massive update. ok, so i'll start out with this:

smoking manners you may remember one of these from an update i did while in japan, but this is the whole shebang of hilarity.

now, on a sad note:

drug smuggling puppiesthe world is now going to hell. forget the hamas government in palestine. forget a conservative supreme court (tho... credit is due to alito for siding against capital punishment today!). puppies are now being used as mules to smuggle herion, and die from the infection.

hmmm, what else? kafein has been ok, i'm not getting as many waitress hours as i'd like, which is ridonculous, cause i pull down like 25-29% tips everynight. gosh darnit, people like me to bring them their coffee! painting class is phenomenal - it's a ton of work though. i'll never mock those slacker modern artists who just splash paint around, much easier! ok, so i just mocked.

i heart tuesdays. caleb and i have chinese politics together till 5:30, then we get out, smoke, eat and go to our wine appreciation course!!! ha! first day was yesterday, and i had a ball. painting and wine - i'm a klassy laday. then kenji and i went out, and i ran into my chinese politics prof and his friend, a journalist at the financial times in beijing. so we chatted a while and then we left.

flying home in one week for a visit! 8 feb - 14 feb! jeff is gettin a goood b-day present: ME!!!! i'm excited, tho flyin's a biatch. at least i got to use my free ticket.

oooh, no pics of my pretty self to speak of, but here's some selects from my photojournalism class last quarter!!

so, none of these are my finals, which were color corrected etc, which is a bummer... but lemme know what you think. photojournalism in particular was hard, because it's all about capturing a moment, but at the same time we were learning how to just use the camera!

this one is from my final project, where i went to the anti-cruelty society downtown, where they had just recieved the first animals from hurricane katrina. i followed them through their temprament screening, vet and up to adoption! this guy, stormy, was so cute. this doll moved around and talked on its own - he was appropriately just as creeped out as i was by the devil doll:

the kitties from katrina:

this was my prof's fav i did. i like old men. i wish i could be one when i grow up. or a chinese communist in the late 70s. or just live anytime in the 60s.

bed man!

roommate!

my midterm project was to document a chicago neighborhood, and i chose devon, the indian/pakistani area. best buffet in the country. this is shaheer. he is five.

this is his little bro and his gramma:

that is all.

oh, and i hate to rep new music, cause i feel all poser-eltist, but as far as classic rock goes, its all been heard. so, you too should hear the album: the kinks are the villiage green preservation society. by the kinks. i've been playing it at work everytime and all are happy.

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 06:32:00 GMT

maybe this is a sign i shouldn't go to law school?

You scored as Journalism. You are an aspiring journalist, and you should major in journalism! Like me, you are passionate about writing and expressing yourself, and you want the world to understand your beliefs through writing.

</td>

Journalism

100%

English

92%

Linguistics

83%

Art

83%

Theater

83%

Sociology

75%

Biology

75%

Anthropology

75%

Dance

67%

Psychology

67%

Mathematics

67%

Engineering

58%

Philosophy

50%

Chemistry

42%

What is your Perfect Major?
created with QuizFarm.com

Sun, 01 Jan 2006 11:28:50 GMT

i leave oregon:
-1 pair hot pink gloves
-1 awesome hat
=pissed

+lots of love
+10 CDs
+School books
+clothes (esp. cowboy boots and socks)
+not wanting to leave.
+seeing Churchill boyz (z is intentional)

+must go. to graduate. and to see friends who are amazing.
xoxo.

2006

sooo... how're things?

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 04:23:26 GMT

What Disney Princess Are You? by xsoimpossiblex
Name
Age
Favorite Color
Princess

Quiz created with MemeGen!

i always knew it...

back in eugene and for the first time, i'm sorta feeling like i wasn't ready to come home yet. this last quarter wasn't too stressful and i really enjoyed my time with my friends. it's funny running around buying beer for my youngin friends here. i guess i haven't seen too many people and i should do that.

my goals for the break are good: read, watch movies, knit and see friends. i'm pretty caught up on the theater movies i wanna see: rent (which was great cause it was RENT, but i hate the director and he sanitized a lot of it), harry potter, walk the line (disappointing, but didn't suck), good night and good luck (awesome!!! *adjusts journalism nerd glasses*), some other ones. KONG IS COMING though! he fights a T-REX. a t-rex. big monkey+big dino+combat= all i need to see. won't see geisha. book was oversimplified, and i just don't support the inaccuracies and the use of chinese actresses. reading kite runner. it's so very good.

going up to portland in the morning to talk to the oregonian about working. cause i'd like to. just updated my resume, and i need to run to kinkos w/ caits before we go to the bars so i can photocopy my clips. i'm going to ask him if taking a year to do "nothing" will hurt my job chances. also pondering just chucking it in and becoming a laywer. wanna apply to harvard for kicks. not only would i make bank, but i could choose a subject i'm passionate about, and due to my insane ability to retain random facts and my reading comprehension, i think i'd be pretty damn good too! we'll see.

i made up a joke, all by myself!!! ok. here goes: what do pests do with all their old stuff?
.......
Sell it on FLEA BAY!!!

ahahaha!!! you liked. you know you did.

i guess i really don't know much else. eating around here has been insanely good - yay mom and fam.

Sun, 04 Dec 2005 10:13:41 GMT

ladies and gentlemen: the president of the united states of america

disgusting

Mon, 28 Nov 2005 08:31:18 GMT

i just bawled my head off watching this video about china and its fur trade. of DOGS and CATS. eeew.

go here http://www.jcruel.com/index.asp to see.

if you don't go, here's a rundown. dogs and cats are hauled by the dozens in one tiny (think crab-trap sized) cage, and are thrown from the tops of semi trucks, smashing their legs on the fall. then they are pulled out with tongs, and thrown over a 7-foot fence. they are boiled, beaten and skinned - sometimes still alive - then mislabeled as rabbit and other fur and shipped to the US, where companies like j.crew, who get all their fur from china, sell it.

don't shop j.crew. not that you should anyways, unless you wanna look like a 35-year-old yuppie.

your mom goes to college

Sat, 26 Nov 2005 22:54:38 GMT

well, i'm back biatches! and i do have to say, it takes a big stroke of boredom to get this girl a writin these days. well, i'm sure you're all fascinated to hear what my life has been these past months. frankly, i'd like to know what i've been up to also!

some of the highlights: got to see kanye west play NU for $15. turned 21. attended many birthday parties, some for me, some not for me. made a thanksgiving dinner with five good friends. ate copious amounts.

yeah, thanksgiving was great, although i have no photo documentation, darin, jess, me, noora and three others made a full-on 20-lb turkey thanx dinner. i made the stuffing and mashed potatoes. pants are currently busy not fitting, as we each ate two plates each and then more later (the herbal appetite enhancer may have aided our eating). Noora and her friend are both from Bahrain - and they brought amazing beans with almonds, and um, were in charge of bringing cranberry sauce. now, we all know the sauce is one can that sits there cerimoniously with lines from the can still imprinted and everyone makes a tiny dent with a spoon too tiny to function. they brought three cans! adorable!

oooh, what else. jeff came to visit in october for a belated birthday. we did all of the touristy things that i've done with everyone, but it was specialer (yeah, that's a word now) cause he was there. we saw the sunset at the top of the hancock tower:

and we went out drinking near wrigley field:

rawwwraaarw! that's katie and imran in the background... i post this cause i look REALLY hot. like really. i'm being scouted based on this head shot. daaaaamn.

jess and i captured scheming about something. maybe about how she was gonna get sick on the floor and get us kicked out? ;)

um, i've been working at kafein - nice spelling, NOT! - a coffee shop near campus. it's late nights, but the tips are good, and it's all the coffee/food i can do. the owner is a saigon whore for scheduling me weds, fri, sat, sun, mon, closing shifts all holiday weekend.

i'm taking photojournalism! but i'll do an entry of those pics some other time. taking basic painting next quarter. i love senior year, i get to play around so much!

i was a t-bell, making a run for the border order of a 7 layer and cheese quesadilla ($3.57) and someone had a flyer posted advertising that they needed a kidney! now, i'm no expert, but aren't the kidneys of people who eat crap such as t bell NOT the people you want a kidney from? yeah...

i got an A- on my most recent lit paper, breaking a five year, no As on lit papers trend.

so, the lj isn't around as much because, a) there's tv in america that i can understand b) i'm busier and c) it's hard to point out the absurditites of american culture without sounding like a whiny emo bastard. but i'll give it a whirl.

ok, random pics and then i'm done.

me, katie and libby (like my two fav new people, ooh and ray ray too) at karaoke night. i'm really impassioned.

i like ray ray because she will take a water balloon slingshot, run out into the street, hit cars with them and run away.

katie passed out on her b-day:

jeff and i took a roadtrip to the redwoods at the end of the summer. we went to the prehistoric gardens, which is celbrating its 50th year of roadside kitsch! it really was the best. dinos do rule!

i think jeff found his spirit animal

then, in jebediah smith nat park, we pretty much fell down a hill to this spot:

and i found a friend

and i miss brandy and michele.

i'll be home 5 december. leave me messages or i won't post ever again. so there.
oh, and it snowed yesterday. and it melted today.

summa!

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 19:54:23 GMT

well, i have decided that for the sake of my friends, nay, the sake of mankind itself, that japanderpants shall be maintained. don't expect another update while i'm in oregon, but you'll get them in chicago, most likely.

this summer, while abbrevated, has been just as amazing as any other. been packing in some hard core irresponsibility in my month and a half. i seriously am considering coming back next summer before i find a job or otherwise start my life, because i don't want to miss summer in eugene. well, this was sunriver. i went right after i got home. also got to see bob dylan at the bend ampetheatre. he may be past his expiration date, but it was still good to see a legend in person.

i think this is quite possibly the most gorgeous pic of laruen ever.

some other highlights of the summer follow:

went to portland shortly after i got back - this was my natural setting when i lived there. caitlin's apt front steps.

we decided fan pics were in order in some guy's basement. i look like i'm in a sears catalouge. or maybe emporium, back when that was in business. power sale!

caitlin, the girl raised by lemmings.

then, some other day, brandy, steinar, me, jeff and anne went to bedrock at fall creek.

look out below!

ok. the second one is at amazon, and is of my favorite swimmer, jack, who just turned 9 and for the last two years has been jumping off of the 5 meter platform everyday millions of times, and always shouts "andrea is the coolest!" "go beavers!" (to piss me off) or "i hope it rains on andrea's head today!" i push him in the pool a lot.

i also got to go to one of my swim lesson kids' 6th bday party. opal. i've been teaching her for two years and she's the cutest ever. her art teacher at the UO mom gave me some amazing prints this summer. teaching makes me want to reconsider my career path. it's so hands-on and i know i'm making a difference in these kids' lives. journalism these days, i'm not so sure.

ok, just random assortment to follow.

big lebowski challenge. every time he drinks a white russian, you drink one. every time he does a j, well... we lost.

floras.

going to a toga party with my parents. riiiight...

drinking ginormous mirror ponds with my mom at outback steakhouse.

best friend sandwich.

the weasel toes do mr. burns. those toes can move so fast that the action in the pic is blurred! for christ's sake!

cresent lake. excellent time with jeff at his family's cabin near odell. we stopped at A&W of course and got root beer floats and ate FRIED CHEESE CURDS. quintessential andrea food, no?

the end!

Fri, 29 Jul 2005 07:39:13 GMT

back! been home for a while now, but just didn't get a chance to say.

back in america.

drove to springtucky on sunday (first full day back) to get my car and saw a huge sign that announced WE HAVE GUNS! and thought "yeah, i'm home..."

grrrrrr

Thu, 21 Jul 2005 16:15:28 GMT

never have i hated japan more than i have at this moment.

i went out tonight for a couple of drinks with jack, seiya and caleb. i missed my train home, and being low on fundage for a cab, i decided to forage my own way home one stop to my house. (it supposedly takes about 20 min).

well, i went alright, and after about 30 minutes of adjusting the directions i was given against my own spidey-senses, i was filled with jubilation as i realized i was about 5 min away from my house. being in japan, where there's no street names and the streets are about as crooked as G.W. Bush, i was really proud.

but, in an alley off the street, i saw an old man trying to force himself on an old woman. by old i mean, they both looked mid-to-late 50s. i stopped, pondering what to do, as a gaijin (foreigner) i thought maybe this was something i just shouldn't get involved in.

something made me call out: YAMERO (stop!) and they both turned toward me, as the man released her and she came towards me. they were both questioning each other if they knew me. i told the man to go away, and that he was dangerous-seeming, and he slapped me on the back, waaaay too hard. the woman and i retreated across the street, where she thanked me for worrying. i asked if he was her husband and she said, "no." she also wouldn't let me walk her home though, and said it was fine if i went home.

so, i continued down the street about 100 meters, and then stopped again. the old man had crossed the street to her. he tried hailed a cab and they both got in. i flipped, cell phone in hand, waiting to dial 119 (the opposite of 911 of course, cause everything in japan in is backward) i decided though, that it was up to the cab driver at this point. but then, i saw the cab door open and close several times, after which the old man was repelled from the cab. i saw it drive off, only the lady in tow.

i just had to get that off my chest. i'm so glad i was walking when i was.

i'll post a more "i love japan and am sorry to leave" post before i go.

one paper and four days left

Tue, 19 Jul 2005 06:52:54 GMT

well, i just finished my last in-class final, which means i have just about as much humor in me right now as a recent adam sandler movie. which is to say, NONE.

this last weekend and week is a bittersweet one. i am excited to go home, for my friends, family and party. and burritos. but, there are many people and places i know i'll miss here and i know i'm going to be frustrated by a lot of things American.

last friday, we had one last hurrah at Y's bar, and our Japanese sensei and most of our class came. it was really the best time i've had there. let's see your profs in the states get trashed with you!

level 3 baby!

the best part was watching several of my fellow classmates get trashed and hit on our poor sensei. one guy comes up, red in the face and slurred in the speech and says to her in japanese: "if you were just a little younger, i'd totally be into you." and another classmate of mine, who is notorious for his playing of asian women, spent a good hour flirting with her and putting his hand on her back. he has a line he's famous for that he's usually "hazukashii" (shy) but that he can talk easily with ________insert girl here, and he used it on the TEACHER! hahahaha!

me and reika brought the hotness. i'm gonna miss her so much!

seiya, this girl who i really like but can never remember her name and me:

lars, in beater and aviators, looking far more texan than he ever should:

bridgid and i put the Y in fryndship and in Y's.

sayori (in blue kimono), her friends and me. one of these pictures is not like the other...

mina, me, town, and reika. the two hot and way smarter korean girls in my classes. damn asian students!

then, we went to karaoke all night, which turns out, there is a too-long length of time to sit in a box and sing off-key. it's called from 12pm-5am!

the next day, i went to akihabara to pick up some souvenirs, and kenji wrangled me up to his place to hang out and go to kamakura the next day. i went with him, his swedish friend karen, who was the epitome of hot blonde swedish girl and vivian, a fellow intern of his from china.

kamakura is home to one of the country's many giant buddhas and lots of great temples. but then again, where in japan isn't?

tourist tomita:

little buddhas everywhere!

this one was rad, because we went into a cave, and there were buddhas carved into the cave walls, and i had to crouch to walk around. but maybe that's because i'm a giant white person.

me, kenji, karen and vivian outside of the great kannon temple:

these fish, in the middle of the sacred tranquil temple garden, were being very sexually suggestive, as kenji just had to point out in a loud voice:

then we walked on to the daibutsu, or big buddha. this has to be the coolest cultural thing i've seen in japan, and i'm really glad i made it down there to see!

he's got big shoes to fill:

then, i stopped off in yokohama on the way back to tokyo for a huge fireworks festival. i was supposed to meet aaron, but yokohama was so balls-crowded that our cell phone service, au, shut down completely, and i couldn't reach him. hot and crowded were the words for that. but the fireworks were amazing. think american grand finale times 5 for an hour.

well, i'm home at 12:48pm on 23 july! four days stand between me and a big party which everyone should come to!

gnarly self-orthodontics

Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:35:39 GMT

so, to start out with a little self-update: one week and a day until my feet rest on the sweet shores of eugene, oregon. which means i'm out of money, which means, of course, that something that requires money should happen to me. anyway, apparently, my penchant for ice cream bars today was so voracious that i bit into the fudgy goodness and popped the lower wire retainer from my teeth on one side. it immediately began to stab my tongue.

with minutes to go until my final oral presentation (no jokes please) i rushed to the IES center, in search of a cure. the center director and all were trying to get me to go to a dentist, and said IES could loan me money. instead i asked them to loan me a pair of pliers. the only pair on hand was frickin huge. but, i sashayed into the director's office, and using his mirror, managed to fit the pliers in my mouth and pop off the entire wire. he watched, appalled.

i felt like steve martin in little shop of horrors.

first time since 1994 that there has been no metal in my mouth. anywho, things here are winding down, finished with my japanese classes and just have a paper and one final to worry about.

last weekend was pretty fun-filled. went to vanilla on friday night with the girls, and had a blast. it was an NU reunion of sorts.

eriko, me, joyce:

i have more photos from 6am, but we all look like such ass it would be a crime to post them.

saturday was an eve of fireworks and farewells. first we went to an ies-funded firework picnic. chewy chips ahoy, american doritos - yes, there is a difference - pizza and donuts. of course, we had to tie them to strings and watch the hapless humiliate themselves. i was tisa's wing-woman. priceless.

then, we lit off all sorts of fireworks that shoot up into the air, which apparantly can be purchased easily here. sparklers too. let's watch people from other countries celebrate, shall we?

stephane, pondering why france ever helped our imperialist nation get free in the first place:

jun, at least japan likes us!:

joyce is little. and alex and ari are big.

then, after that, we set off to katie's to say goodbye before she went back to america. as i said in her card, the law of probability declared that one of us, in a moment of drunken ecstasy, would stumble. thanks for takin the fall girl.

*in memoriam*

the gang, without whom, my life in japan would have been... well, a lot more remembered. hehe.
jack, katie, annie, caleb, amanda:

"JAPANDERDONTS"

beer and stairs =

with all the blue you can see, right down to the umbrella, at first sight you may believe it to be the ocean, or a smurf. but no. he just likes blue.

Japan loves:
a. rice
b. vending machines
c. rice vending machines!

anytime you want, you can pop down to the corner and get yourself a nice frosty 10lb bag o rice!

ok, last but not least. PARTY. JULY 23. 2910 FERRY ST. BRING ANYONE AND EVERYONE, but especially yourselves, my friends. it hath been too long. caitlin, lauren, bethanie, sarah et all in portland. GET DOWN HERE FOR ONE FRIGGIN NIGHT. jess may, you round up tj, mike and the boys, and anyone else. brandy, justin, everyone at amazon. you too. or no presents ;)

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 15:11:27 GMT

damn. damndamndamn. why must we have religion? or at least, fundamentalism?

go to news.bbc.co.uk for more

i'm in tokyo, but my heart goes to london right now. i know you're in portsmouth and all that jazz, but leave a message martin.

fuji-la

Tue, 05 Jul 2005 10:49:10 GMT

well, 4th of july came and went here, with nothing to show for it but um... oh, i had a test. that's right. no biggie though.

AMERICA BABY! WOOOT!

that's me, jack, diana and paul at an outlet mall near mt. fuji on 3 july, at a restaurant called "papas country cafe" or somethin. burgers were in order.

so were hot dogs, that, instead of having a bun, had a bone mysteriously implanted in the middle. poor diana.

as you may have guessed, went to mt. fuji this weekend. in true IES fashion, we didn't actually get to CLIMB the highest peak in japan, but simply were bussed halfway up to a series of giftshops. did get to see mt. fuji turned into stuffed animal form, making japan the most absurd country in the world. someone's getting that for a souvenier, btw!

we started out by gettin on a bus early saturday morning. first, we went to a castle or shrine or someplace like that. i forget. but, it was so nice to be in nature and not in the city. i could never live here for a long time, i need trees.

gorgeous garden outside the castle:

nancy, lateefah, joyce, me looking like an ad for the united colors of benetton:

temple, trees, creek. would have loved more time to just be in this area:

pondering the meaning of life, or posing for a picture? you decide:

next we were bussed to a winery, the second of which we have been taken to on an ies sponsored field trip. i like their style. did i mention we got to do free tasting? all of us managed to down like 20 tasting cups in our allotted time.

wineries in japan involve individually wrapping the grapes in some sort of paper, just like everything else comes wrapped. WRAPPING IS VERY IMPORTANT.

this woman was a wrapper:

i ate horse. HORSE. all this, cause even though i know how to read the character for horsemeat, i was so enthused about the free samples of wine and other products i toothpicked too quickly.

then we went to an all-you-can-eat for 40 min peach picking orchard. there, 100-odd slightly-tipsy college students were given big ass machetes with which to hack down the peaches.

nancy, joyce and kelly partaking. i'm serious, kelly was stumbling in the parking lot, and they gave that girl a KNIFE?!?!

andrea does a poor imitation of the no doubt tragic kindom cover. with peaches instead of oranges. and just me and not the hotness that is gwen.

kabudoshi (japanese stag beetle!!!)!!!! this kid was rad:

then it was to the hotel, which had a gorgeous view of mt. fuji and a lake from the windows. oh god, so beautiful.

we walked, nay, ran across the street and rented these as soon as we saw them:

swan paddle boats. does life get any better?

view from the swan:

it was the opening of mt. fuji's climbing season, so there was a huge festival and a 40-min long firework show. so i did get my 4th on. fireworks: where arson and science meet.

but in all seriousness, it was a truly special experience. sitting on a rock, looking at the most beautiful fireworks i've ever seen reflect over a lake with mt. fuji in the back ground. there's so many times when i get too wrapped up here and don't stop to think: "you're in JAPAN." but this was definitley a time i took stock and thought about how lucky i am.

so, i'm missing the country fair. so, i've decided to host one in jeff's back yard. all those who did or did not go to the country fair are invited. we shall set up batik tapestries, eat food from sundance and do everything we would do at the actual fair. date tba. please do come. activity ideas are also welcome.

appeasement of the barbarian hordes....

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 09:02:02 GMT

this computer in the IES center has that memory function thing, like when you google something, it shows all the other google searces that start with that letter, so this entry title is one that someone else in ies used. i kinda like it.

so, yesterday was one of those days that makes me NOT want to go home.

caleb, jack and i went into the ginza district of tokyo for dinner. fairly authentic burgers, fries and buffalo wings. does a soul - if not a body - good. then we went to a bar in shimbashi that caleb is fond of. its an indoor bar with no front to it, so as it fills up, it spills out onto the sidewalk. when we got there, it was all hip hop and fairly empty. but, at about 8:30, dj flips it around. suddenly, its all journey, bon jovi, cindi lauper and disco.

the bar was suddenly like a giant light to the moths that were teens in the 80s.

the bar fills with salarymen and office ladies for whom, this was obviously their heyday. we're just rocking out too, cause how can you not raise a fist to "livin on a prayer"?!?! we're the only foreginers under 30 in the joint, and while im dancing there, this man comes up and just presses ￥1,000 into my palm and leaves the bar. so, i got about $10 randomly from some guy just for being me!!! nice to have validation. ;)

the spoils:

drunk japanese people are my favorite sort of people. it is a night and day change. during the day, they don't make eye contact and its all prim and proper. but when drunk, there's no stopping them! there was a row of office ladies disco line dancing on the sidewalk, and people walking by would just wave and sing along.

one salaryman, not really knowing exactlly what he was saying, except maybe having seen joey on "friends" one too many times, looks at me and says in a heavy accent: "how you doing, bay-bee?" i laughed and asked him the same thing.

the how you doin guy (can you tell that i got a little tipsy meself?):

then amanda and her parents came. and her dad is OUT OF LINE. he's great. he would just speak to all of his fellow bar goers in english, like they all did. and it seemed to work out fine. he was a funny man, roaming around in his yankees t-shirt and harassing caleb for being a sox fan. they bought us all drinks.

this guy, named tanaka, could barely stand (note the severe angle of his head). his female companion tried to get caleb home for a shag.

now, living in a non-english speaking country makes you get pretty lax with your enlgish, and what you wouldn't say in public in the states, you gleefully shout out in the train, knowing you are offending no one.

i was walking down the street, and telling my friend caleb about what happened to me in a club last friday. two sketchy jamaican guys, who abound in hip hop clubs in roppongi, and nowhere else in japan, had me by each arm and were pulling on them, trying to make me dance with one of them. i ran away and hid by kenji.

i announced loudly: "no matter what continent i'm on, black guys love my booty!!" and a white guy (in a hawaiian santa claus surfing shirt no less) turns and says "that's... interesting!" and so i was like, "i'm not gonna lie!" and we laughed. about 5 minutes later, he passes caleb and i sitting on a bench, and he says "by the way, i like your booty too." i told him i liked his shirt.

literacy

Thu, 30 Jun 2005 05:27:38 GMT

books i have read in japan so far

1. a confederacy of dunces - john kennedy toole
*truly hilarious. he wrote this book in the late 1960s, and then comitted suicide. his mother got it published.

2. norwegian wood - haruki murakami.
*READ HIS STUFF. NOW. NO, NOW. especially this book.

3. wind up bird chronicle - haruki murakami

4. franny and zooey - j.d. salinger
*there's a line in here about how everyone, especially in college, who goes "different" is different in the same way. never has a book summed up certain feelings i have toward the college experience so well.

5. tender is the night - f. scott fitzgerald

6. harry potter I

7. harry potter II

8. harry potter III

9. harry potter IV (gearing up for #6!)

10. best of roald dahl
*he's twisted man. it was really good. i find it a little depressing though, that as an adult author, the surrealism is still there, but instead of being whimsical, it's dark and cynical. is that what being an adult is all about?

11. where i'm calling from - raymond carver

12. the accidental tourist - anne tyler

13. howl's moving castle - diana wynne jones

14. secret life of bees - sue kidd
* not a big "oprah book clubish" fan, but this one was great.

15. ash wednesday - ethan hawke
*mom sent it to me. he should stick to his mediocre acting. bad, bad book.

16. year of wonders: a story of the plague - geraldine brooks

17. bridget jones: edge of reason - helen fielding
*popcorn reading

18. flowers for algernon - daniel keyes
*my host mom's fav english book. she loaned it to me. it's a trainer with japanese katakana and definitions under some words to assist in the reading. distracting.

on deck (and in possesion):
a clockwork orange - anthony burgess

even cowgirls get the blues - tom robbins
*torn on this fellow. don't know if i like him or not yet. i like still life with woodpecker when i read it a couple of years ago, but it drags. may fall into my chuck palahniuk category: both are good, but you've read one and you've read them all. tends to get trite. the only author that can get away with never switching up their style/plot lines is kurt vonnegut. and that's just cause he's god.

think i've forgotten some, but they must not have been that memorable...

any recommendations? comments?