Iiiiii'm the Greatest Staaaaaaaaar~

This morning my dad left to go back to Japan so I was up by 6:30 to see him off. :'( So sad that he's gone again. Though there was plenty of time before my first class for the day, I didn't go back to bed but instead watched a bit of tv. Except... I can't even remember what I watched so I think I may have dozed off. :P

First class I had was history class for which I was able to turn in my 6-page midterm paper's first draft. The funny thing is, I had worked so hard on it, but out of 25 or so students, only 4 or 5 people altogether actually handed in a first draft. :P Well, I feel good that I was able to get that done.

For theater class, we finally got to do our American Idol scenes. I played a very shy, 'LOUD' auditioner and sang I'm the Greatest Star. :P And I also got to play Randy which was really lots of fun.

After theater class, the 'group' as usual went down to the cafeteria for lunch. At 1:30 I went to the International Cafe for the tea ceremony club. Learned how to serve tea and carry trays. :P I know, it may seems easy and dull but it's not as easy as it may seem; lots of rules.

Geograpy class was basically reviewing for the midterm coming up this Thursday. :S Sooooo not looking forward to the midterm. *groan* It seems like it's going to be 'pseudo' difficult so I'm defintiely goint to be needing to study up tomorrow.

Got home and for dinner, Naomi made spaghetti which was really yummy. Watched tonight's episode of American Idol which wasn't quite as interesting as last week, considering so many of the contestants just didn't pick very interesting songs. :S

Video chatted with my parents a bit which was really nice then studied a bit of Geography. Lots to study before I'm going to be fully prepared...

So tired right now after getting up early and having a long day. At least tomorrow is only one class! ^_^ Hurray!

Brain and Feet Are Exhausted :P

I'm going to keep this short so I can go to bed as soon as possible. :P This morning I had history class and got back my map quiz (perfect score ^_^). Fun class though Mr. Cassity digressed 'just a bit'... lol!

Daddy and Naomi picked me up and we stopped by a music store where Daddy got some really nice, special drumsticks for church. Very cool, I'm sure those who play drums would really like the sticks.

Next went to eat lunch at... Happy Days! Yes, I know we've already eaten there just a few days ago but the food is good and there's always the guarantee you'll get seated quickly and the food will come right away. Simply perfect. ^_^

We went to stop by another music store though this was specifically a 'guitar' store. We met quite a bit of 'interesting' musician type of people and Naomi was able to pass out all her business cards which was cool. They also thought it was cool that we all play instruments, especially in that I can play the drums since there's generally not many drummers out there.

Stopped by a jewelry where as a family we've been going to for quite a while; we know the owner very well so got to say hi. Walmart was next where very sadly I didn't get any DVD for myself though both Daddy and Naomi each got a DVD! :S Weird...

Dropped Naomi off at home then Daddy and I went down to Kahala. See's Candies first where I got to sample the Vanilla Nut Chocolate which was REALLY good! I love going there because they give you free samples. Yum yum! At Long's Drugstore I was able to get some snacks for myself since I've been 'running low'. lol!

Got home and started preparing to write my six page midterm paper for history class. It's a paper about the role of government in the Gilded and Progressive Eras, and what the role of the governement is like today in comparison to before.

My turn to cook dinner though Naomi was nice enough to help me out. :P Daddy and Naomi went out to eat while it was Erin, Maki, and I at home. After dinner, I watched a bit of tv though I was mostly concentrated on my report. I also took some time to help out with KCIS' sign dance practice which seems to be going well (though they need to work on 'moving side to side'...) *wink!* I really didn't do much except watch though; hopefully that's help enough.

The rest of the night was COMPLETELY concentratin on my paper. Altogether, I was able to get it done in a total of about a little more than five hours, maybe almost six. :S Whoah... and this is only the first draft! Hopefully I did well on this first draft so I don't need to do too much for the final draft. :P

Daddy's leaving tomorrow morning at 7:00... *sob* I'm going to miss him so much; the time went by too quickly though if I had a choice, I'll have him stay until the end of the semester. :P Going to get up in time to see him off; then I'll have to get prepared for a long day. I'm not looking forward to this week... I have a Geography midterm for which I really don't have any confidence. *groan* Oh, well, must got to bed with happy thoughts. Let me see... the movie 16 Blocks is coming out this weekend! Must go see it... and oh, yes! Next week is my birthday!

Ok, with such happy thoughts, I'm off to bed. ^_^ Good night!

~Sunday's Child, Oh Yeah!~

This morning we all got up a bit earlier than usual for a Sunday and went to the 8:30 service at Kaimuki Christian Church. It was nice seeing a lot of people we hadn't seen in a while. Even after the service, we were there quite a bit just talking to people. We finally had to leave when the next 10:30 service was about to begin! :P

Went home and after Naomi finished doing hula for the 10:30 service (she also performed in the 8:30 service; VERY nice hula!), we had our own service at home. Daddy preached and talked about the vision of our church here and back home. Such an exciting sermon to hear for all of us! We were even able to have our first communion for our church today since Daddy had bought for us a nice communion set. ^_^ Bless the Lord!

After the service (pretty long service altogether), we went out for lunch. We planned to eat at Old Spaghetti Factory at first but unfortunately, it was closed for the daytime. :S So we went to eat at Dixie Grill instead. YUUUUUMMMYYY! I love Dixie Grill! ^_^ I got the Baby Black Ribs which are incredibly delicious though Daddy's fried shrimp was really good, too... of course we all shared. lol!

We had made plans to meet with Joe today so after lunch we drove over to his house. Mercy was out shopping so while Daddy and Joe talked, the rest of us 'girls' were playing in Nika and Kyla's room. :P They have their own tv! Coool...

Went home and after a short 'break', Daddy, Naomi, and I walked down to eat at a close-by restaurant. As luck would have it, the place was closed. lol! Twice in one day! :P So we got some 'light' food at the supermarket and ate at home while watching The Island. Good, good movie. ^_^

Tomorrow starts another week of school... and one midterm! Eep!

Busy, Busy Weekend!

Sorry that I missed one day so here's quick recap of what happened the day before (Friday). I had my Japanese class in the morning from 9:00. What's happening is that next week there's no school on Friday and the week after that, my whole class is going to the Hawaii Convenetion Center to help out with the Honolulu Festival. So instead of a 'class', we all went to the library and we had to research some people who were influential in a 'mixed culture' kind of situation. Example, I researched about... none other than Joseph Heco! All the kids is KCIS will know him because Mrs. Imamura talked about him in chapel one day; the Japanese man who was shipwrecked and was brought to America. Eventually, he became the first Japanese person to get an American citizenship and he became a Christian. Also later on became an Interpreter to Japan for the American consulate.

Anyway, it was so easy for me because we had to write the outline and everything in English. :P And research was easy for me. What we're going to do for the Honolulu Festival is give a short presentation about the person we studied to groups of kids. Hope that turns out all right. ^_^

So because I finished quickly, I was able to help some others out and got to talk and have some fun. Still, I got to finish and get out early which was nice. Walked home then after a bit went out to eat at Happy Day with my father and Naomi. VERY good lunch; gotta love dim sung! Stopped by Barnes and Nobles and I got The Importance of Being Earnest and Four Other Plays by Oscar Wilde. ^_^ I'll probably use one of his plays for my 'final scene' in Theater class.

Went to Geography Lab class and it was loads of fun though tiresome. :P I know, funny combination. lol! We had to make a lot of postive or negative feedback loops in the environment. Well, I won't get into it... :P

Got home and watched the first half of Transporter 2 with Daddy then he, Naomi, and I went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant with Brandon and Christi. We were kinda 'kicked out' of the restaurant because it was getting so late. :P THEN we went to a coffee shop to talk some more and we got kicked out of there, too! THEN finally we were asked to leave the parking area where we were sitting outside and talking. :P You can imagine how late it got and why by the time I got home, I just went to bed without writing my blog.

So, now on for today's blog!

Woke up really late and got to finish watching Transporter 2. Around 11:30, Daddy, Naomi, and I went to get some shopping my father needed to get down. Then at 2:00 we ate a late lunch at California Pizza Kitchen with some good friends of my father, the Brindell's. It was a very nice lunch and we were able to have a very nice time together.

Got home and we were all still so tired from the late night we had had so we all took a nap. :P It wasn't planned at all! For me, one minute I'm on the bed listening to music, the next minute my father was comign into my room, telling me to wake up. :P

My father, Naomi and I went out for a late dinner to a restaurant called Pyramid; an Egyptian restaurant. Very good food and the interesting thing that happened during the dinner was that at one point a belly dancer came out and danced! lol! It was... 'interesting'. ^_^ I had the lamb shish kabbobs which were very yummy; my first time to try them out.

Now I'm at home, just relaxing in front of the computer. Tomorrow we'll be going to the 8:30 service at Kaimuki Christian Church before having our own service at home. So gotta be up a little early. :P G'night; till next time!

Thursdays are Such Fun, Long Days

Thursdays are perhaps my favorite school days of the week. ^_^ In history class this morning, my classmates and I appealed to Mr. Cassity about having three papers being due next Tuesday so he was kind enough to extend one of the papers a bit so we can have some more time to work on them. ^_^ Ah, such a nice teacher! lol! Watched an interesting but slightly 'frightening' video about a terrible fire which took place 1911; one of the worst factory disasters in New York where 147 women died. :S It was shocking to hear about it.

Next was Theater class which was tons of fun as usual. We learned a new dance called "The Electric Slide." A really, really, REALLY fun dance; kind of 'oldies' but very hip. ^_^ I had so much fun dancing that dance. Also learned a bit more on how to prepare for our monologues coming up in March.

For lunch it was only Maki, three other Theater classmates, and I so it was a bit 'calmer' than usual. :P Was especially fun when we started talking about our dogs. Dogs are such a fun topic!

From 1:30 to 3:00 I was with the 'tea club' and I was again the 'guest.' I had to drink the green tea and ugh, was it bitter (I don't like green tea much, whether it be the 'good stuff' or not). :P But I had to drink the whole thing so I had to force myself to get it all down. Bleh. :P

Then for Geography class, we did role playing! We were all divided into groups and we all took a certain 'role' for a certain situation. There's one country which is occupying another and keeping all the water flowing down a river all to themselves. The occupied people are dying of thirst and their wells are causing environmental contamination on their lands. The US are visiting the nation as mediators/negotiators along with a group of scientists from the "Water for the World" environmental organization. So altogether, for that there are four groups: the occupied people, the people 'occupying' the nation, the US mediators, and the environmentalists. I was with the environmentalist group which was SOOO much fun to do! So at the 'negotiations', we all had our goals and agendas, some hidden and some very open.

But the funniest thing was, there was another group: the militant, terrorist group! So basically we could all do whatever we want within the 'givens' of who we are and what we want. It was so much fun and it was simply hilarious whenever the terrorists came in! They took a couple people hostage from the people occupying the nation. At one point, I was arguing so much with the 'lead' terrorist he suddenly stopped, looked at the teacher and asked, "Are we allowed to just take anybody hostage?" LOL! So eventually I was taken hostage and while being taken away, I was shouting, "Water for the world! Peace in all the lands! Save our environment!" LOL! Soo funny... :P

Went home and Daddy let me drive the renta-car and the two of us went down to Tower Records. Hurrah! And don't worry, I didn't hit anyone/anything and didn't cause any accidents. :P

Tonight, Daddy and Naomi went out to eat with Aunt Jean so it was Erin, Maki, and I at home once again. Maki made dinner and we ate while watching American Idol. Four people were 'boosted' off tonight; three of them were no surprise since they weren't particularly any good but this ONE guy I was a bit disappointed to see leave. He's pretty good so I hope he can get some sort of contract.

Finished off one of my homework and got to have lots of fun talking with Daddy and Naomi after they got back. Got to have a fun video chat with Mommy, too. ^_^ I'm off to bed; tomorrow's the last school day of the week!

He's Here, He's Here!

Naomi dropped me off to school so it was not until after my morning class did I get to see my father since his plane arrived just before my class started. :P Oh, well... I had a map quiz today which was easy, got back my quiz (5 out of 5), and also got my report on The 47 Ronin Storyi (46 out of 50). So I was feeling pretty happy overall about today's class. Oh, one surprising thing. I was the ONLY one in the whole class who had even heard of Adam Smith, the author of The Wealth of Nations, in which he writes about the Laws of Economy. I'm surprised that no one else knew about it... ^o)

After class, Daddy and Naomi came to pick me up which was soo nice! We went to eat an early lunch (late breakfast for my dad) at Big City Diner. I had a classic burger which was very yum though Daddy's swordship was pretty delicious, too...

Walked around the Kaimuki area a bit and got to check out one of the rooms we might be renting for our church. It was a nice place, not too big and not too small. Also checked out a music store where I bought piano sheet music for You Must Remember This (that oh-so-famous song from Casablanca). ~Play it to me Sam!~ :p

Got home and chatted a bit with Mommy then Daddy, Naomi and I went to the Aloha Laser Surgery place for Daddy to get his checkup. No problems there and then we went to Alamoana Shopping Center to check out some things. Got home around 5:00 and I did some homework. Tried to do homework; I did get some work done but not a whole lot.

Daddy and Naomi went out to eat with Aunt Jean so it was just Erin, Maki, and I at home. Ate leftovers and watched the 2-hour special of American Idol. Tonight the 12 guy finalists 'did there stuff.' I don't know, I wasn't quite as impressed with the guys as I was with the girls. But there were some pretty outstanding guys, particularly Elliot (who I voted for), Chris, and Taylor. The judges were quite tough tonight (especially Simon who didn't seem impressed a whole lot). Oh, well, we'll see the two guys and two girls who'll be booted off tomorrow night! I'm fairly confident that my 'favorites' will all be sticking around for a while. ^_^

Had a bit of trouble printing out my Geography papers but that's all done and ready to go for tomorrow! Tomorrow's one of those 'long-but-fun' school days. G'night, sleep tight! Again a huzzah for my father being here in Hawaii for a few days!!

My Fathere Will Be Here Tomorrow! Woohoo!

First off, to explain the title of my blog: my father is coming to Hawaii tomorrow! Yup, he'll be here for about a week and I'm sooo excited for him to be here! I've been telling ALL my friends and they were all pretty jealous that a family member would actually come to visit me. :P I guess they're all impressed that I have such a close family. So anyway, sooo excited about that. ^_^

Naomi dropped Maki and I off at school a little earlier than usually. Went our separate ways for our classes; got to have a nice conversation with one of my classmates who also came early. Today's class was very fun, learning about the history of American shifting from Open Imperialism to Economic Imperialism. I also got my chapter quiz back; again, a 39 out of 40. I keep missing just ONE question!

In theater class, Maki and Marisha did an interesting high school library scene. I joined in as a snotty, kinda dumb, cheerleader friend to Maki. :P Was fun; ended very hilariously as the fire alarm went off and we had to leave the library. lol!

After class, all went to the cafeteria as usual. I left at 12:30 to go for the International Cafe ASL class but today's was canceled so I went right back to be with my friends. Nichelle came so I helped just a bit with her Japanese. From 2:00 to 3:00, I went to the International Cafe and joined in the last half of the presentation that was going on. About twenty people from Bukkyo University of Japan were visiting and giving an 'omatsuri' presentation. They made takoyaki which were so good! They also set up all kinds of omatsuri games like ring toss, yo-yo fishing, etc. Lots of fun I must say. ^_^

From 3:15 I had my Geography class which was lots of fun because we watched like a 50 minute video about dams on the Colorado River. Interesting to see the arguments for and against building the dams.

Walked home and helped the kids of KCIS with choreographing their new sign dance. It's looking really good though it's 'slightly' frustrating having to choreograph over video. It's really hard... :S But seriously, in spite of the difficulties, the kids are doing so well and I'm so happy that it's working out all right.

Tonight was the special 2-hour episode of American Idol which we watched while eating dinner (oyako-don, cheese potatoes, broccoli; compliments of Naomi). It was a GOOD show with 12 of the girl finalists singing. I was in complete agreement with Simon and Randy throughout the show as to who did great and those who did not-so-great. :P And then, just as I was thinking of perhaps three who were my favorites, the very last singer turned out to be simply INCREDIBLE! Simon was sooo right on when he said, "So far your are one of the four great singers tonight. And you were the best." She was just great and Naomi and I immediately voted for her (via telephone). I'm hoping to see her go all the way. ^_^

I had quite a bit of homework suddenly dropped on my lap for this week (History class) so I started to work on those. Got one almost finished which is good since actually starting and planning out an essay is harder than writing it.

Off to bed now; Daddy'll be here tomorrow!

*~*Holiday*~*

Got to sleep in late again though not quite 'smoothly' as I would hope because 1) the next door neighbors dog was barking like crazy again and 2) the garbage trucks in Hawaii sound like TANKS! AH! You won't believe how noisy the garbage trucks are! Gah...

Aaaanyway... ^_^ had a nice relaxing morning then made myself a delicious fried rice lunch and watched Serenity with Naomi. It's terrible, I haven't watched it at all since I bought the dvd! It was to watch again; though it's somewhat scary and 'depressing', knowing what's going to happen makes the second viewing more fun to watch. The extra feature bloopers were pretty funny, too. Looks like the whole cast and crew had loads of fun while filming the movie.

For the rest of the afternoon, did some writing and I also got to work on my History quiz. I finished answering most all of the multiple choice questions and all I need to work on is the essay which seems fairly simple: Why did America enter the war in Europe when it did? Why did it not enter before? I should get that written down fairly quickly tomorrow.

My turn to make dinner today so with my mother's advice made vegetable tempura! Turned out very yummy though probably thanks mostly to Naomi helping me out. :P Also cooked chicken legs which were really good though next time we should get two packages of chicken legs. lol! One pack is not enough for the four of us... *wink*

After dinner, watched some tv including a new episode of House. It was kind of a 'scary' episode. :P The final diagnosis was 'far-out' but makes you wonder if that really is possible or not.

Got started a bit on my History midterm paper... it's certainly going to prove a 'challenge' for me since it's my first ever 6-page paper. :S Off to bed now, going to be dropped off at school a bit early in the morning so I won't have to walk to school. :P Well, we'll see if I feel like I want to walk to school or not. Good night, sleep tight!

Tomorrow's a Holiday!

Naomi brought home Jack 'n' the Box breakfast for all of us so had a very ymmy breakfast this morning. ^_^ Erin led our church service today, talking about "Holy Offering", reading from both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

After the service, we all got ready for a special 'outing'; we walked through the Kaimuki area, looking for a place to have our church! Looked at all the buildings, trying to find 'To Rent' signs. Found about five or six places which are all 'possibilites'. Since it was Sunday we couldn't look inside any of them but hopefully we can start looking further into finding a place this week.

Ate at a Japanese restaurant called 'Bozu' (iiinteresting) for lunch and I must say, the food was delicious! I got the tempura/sashimi set which was delicious. Having green tea ice-cream for dessert made it the perfect Sunday lunch. ^_^

Walked home then for the rest of the afternoon, I was on the computer working on my Geography paper. I worked pretty much on it any time I was on the computer besides chatting with some people and taking short breaks to play some games. I also got to video chat, normal chat, and talk on the phone with my parents. lol! So many ways to communicate...

Had leftover for dinner as well as hamburgers which Naomi made. She made 'special' ones for me and green-pepper wrapped hamburger ones for the other three. *shudder* The green peppers smelled really bad all over the house... *wink!* Yes, I still can't really stand green peppers, especially the smell of green peppers.

Watched a Moonlighting episode which was SUCH a good episode! It was like a twist on the movie It's A Wonderful Life. ^_^Very cute ending.

Finished up my Geography paper though I'm probably going to ask my teacher about it sometimes this week. I don't know if I wrote it up properly... we'll see I guess!

Off to bed now; tomorrow's President's Day so no school! Wonder what we'll do tomorrow... ^_^ G'night!

New Zealand is Calling To Me...

I was able to sleep in until just past 10:30... SUCH a nice feeling being able to sleep in like that! ^_^ Was lazy in the morning just checking mail and doing random 'surfing' on the net. Watched Bye Bye Birdie while eating lunch. I'm sorry to say, but that was a pretty awful 60's movie. :P Just really, really.... tacky is the word I'm looking for. I mean, I like 'corny' and 'old-fashioned' movies I guess since I love most all kinds of movies. I especially love musicals and such! But I don't know, Bye Bye Birdie was kind of annoying to watch... The best thing about the movie I can say is definitely the fact that it had two incredible actors starring in it: the great Dick Van Dyke and the equally great Paul Lynde (for those who don't know who he is, he's the guy who did the voice of Templeton the Rat in the animated Charlotte's Web). They're simply fantastic and Paul Lynde has the most 'interesting' voice you'll ever hear. I love the song he sings called Kids. Simply hilarious! He really has such an expressive voice.

Started gathering information I'll need to have to write up my Geographic report which is due next week. I've decided to write about Queenstown, New Zealand; the thing is, the more I research, the more I really, REALLY want to go there! lol! This assignment is fun in a different way from my other assignements, especially the fact that I get to put pictures in and stuff. ^_^ Plus I get to pick a topic and place to research that I like instead of being 'assigned'.

Naomi made a delicious shrimp curry for dinner which we all ate with gusto. Then afterwards, Naomi and I watched The Island together. Second time to watch it and the second viewing made it even better for me! I think one of my favorite lines from the movie is: "Just because they want to eat the hamburger doesn't mean they want to meet the cow." The droll way which the character McCord says it is sooo funny! The effects are really incredible; even when I've seen it all before, I can't help but says 'whoah' or 'wow' at certain points. Simply incredible; I'm really surprised that it didn't become a box office hit. Critics... *rolls eyes*

I'm so happy right now because I was able to video chat with my parents and dogs. ^_^ Certainly made my day! Am missing them so much and miss the laughter we share whenever we 'get together'. We're such a fun family... lol!

Tomorrow's Sunday, the beginning of a new week! Always excited about the start of a new week. ^_^ I'll 'see you' tomorrow!

The Weekend is Upon Us!

Woke up a little earlier than usual today so that I could walk to my 9:00 Japanese class. Was a very interesting class; we divided into groups and had to decide what kind of 'booth' we want to have during the International Week which will be at the end of March. My group, consisting of Maki (another Maki), Yubiko, Misato, and myself, is going to have a booth about samurai, or more specifically The 47 Ronin Story. Yes, I know, my idea. ^_^ We haven't worked out all the details yet but it sounds like it's something fun to do. Plus, I don't have to do any research because I already know all about the story from History class!

Class finished thirty minutes with no homework due next week, earning our teaching a resounding applause from the students. lol! I had lunch at the cafeteria with a classmate named Junko. ^_^ Had a really nice time, talking about school and such.

Today another group from Seitoku University came to a hosted event by Kapiolani Community College. The exact same thing like Tuesday though I could stay for only the first hour. But I still get points so I'm really happy about that.

For Geography Lab class we learned about using GPS. Got to even use little GPS 'gadgets' to find waypoints which our teacher had programmed into them. So got to walk around part of the campus, finding 'coordinates' (our teacher had 'hidden' large pieces of paper with clues to complete questions on our lab papers). It was funny because during this time, the Seitoku University treasure hunt was going on! And some of my friends of International Cafe hadn't realized that I had left for class. So to them it seemed that I, too, was doing the Seitoku treasure hunt since I was walking around with a paper and pencil and a small group. lol! It was funny because at one point, I was asking my teacher for some help. A friend of mine came up to us and asked if we had found some item for the treasure hunt! It didn't help, too, that my teacher is fairly young and looks like a student. :P So my teacher was like, "Excuse, do I know you?" because he wasn't from our class! LOL! Very funny...

Finished the lab early and got to go home early. Got started a bit on my Geography assignment due for next week (decided to write a geographic profile on Queenstown, New Zealand). ^_^ Didn't do much though; my mind was feeling pretty 'blank' today since I was so tired. So I basically was a couch potatoe in front of the tv for quite a while.

Naomi had gone to the Friday night service to babysit in the nursery while Maki and I stayed home. After the service she picked us up though and we went to eat at Chili's with some of the church people. Very fun fellowship; Yoko brought her two Japanese friends, one whose name was Naomi! lol!

Now I'm home, ready to sleep and SLEEP IN tomorrow morning. ^_^ Till tomorrow!

The School Week is Almost Over!

History 282 is not so much of a favorite class now I'm sorry to admit. :P An admittedly interesting and highly informative class; however, it seems like we keep going over the same topics. I think I like the 152 class better because we cover so much more and there's a much broader perspective over history. Oh, well. ^_^

Of course, I must say that Theater class is my definite favorite class for this semester! Today's was another spectacular class. Aimee and I did our scene except unlike the improv scene which Maki and I did, people can actually come into our scene at any given moment. So Aimee and I did a scene where I was the babysitter and she was a 10-year-old brat who would try anything to make me miserable. :P Very fun; the 'unexpected' that happened was sooo hilarious. One of my classmates came coming into the scene, crawling on all fours. I was about to say 'Who is that' (I thought it was 'Aimee's friend' or something) but he went over to Aimee and said, 'Meow'! So he was playing a cat and I (brilliantly) decided that I be allergic to cats and HATE cats. Similarly, Sean (the guy playing the cat) decided to be a cat who hates me, too. lol! So he was hissing at me, chasing me around the room, clawing me while I tried my best to kick him out of the living room, hitting him with a book whenever I got the chance. Aimee meanwhile was trying to steal my stuff...

More of the 'unexpected' happened in the scene where a strange burglar tried to steal the tv and Aimee called the police. :P I had to explain to the 'policewoman' that everything was absolutely fine... *snicker* All the while I'm sneezing and sniffling a lot because of my 'allergy'. I must say, one of my favorite scenes to have done so far. ^_^

After class, most of us went down to the cafeteria for lunch (it seems it's a decided thing for all of us to eat lunch together for those who can). Had a fun lunch since one of my classmates had his ukelele so another classmate was 'composing' songs. She even sang a song about Maki and me! It's so silly though that I won't write any of it down in my blog. lol!

From 1:45 to 3:00 I was at the International Cafe with my tea ceremony club. We were discussing the tea ceremony we'll be performing at the end of March: what needs to be prepared, how to set up the tables, etc. Since I'm fairly new to all this, I won't be able to serve the tea or anything but I'll be helping to 'teach' our 'customers' how to drink the tea in the 'proper' way. And I'll be getting 100 pts if it all work out well! Huzzah!

Geography class was actually interesting today because I could understand what Ms. McLees was saying (she's talking more slowly and calmer than before which is good). Naomi picked Maki and me up from class and I started looking up what monologue to perform for my Theater midterm. I'm thinking between eiter doing something from The Importance of Being Earnest or The Ideal Husband, both Oscar Wilde plays. I feel like doing something more comedic than dramatic. Plus I might try out my British accent. ^_^

Maki made dinner tonight then soon afterwards she also led us in our weekly prayer meeting. Discussed about how as Christians we have real hope, not a temporary hope people who don't know Jesus have. Very uplifting talk. *smiles*

My friend had taped last night's American Idol for me so Naomi and I watched that; the top 24 have been chosen, and all the people we thought would make it did! Very happy about that.

Tomorrow's the last day of school for the week! Thanks to Mommy and Erin who helped me with this week's Japanese homework for tomorrow; some of it made no sense even to ME who had written it! *sheepish smile* But I hope I'm getting better at writing Japanese little by little. Have to wake a little early tomorrow since I'm walking to school. Good night, sleep tight! Oyasumi!

'Macaroni and Rabid Dogs' :P

This morning was quite an 'exciting' morning. :S I woke up a little late though I was able to leave the house with plenty of time to walk to class. But on the way, there was this stray dog which almost actually ran into me! I was just like what kind of stupid owner would let the dog without a leash so far ahead. It was when the dog started running into the middle of the road, disrupting the traffic that I realized that there WAS no owner around!

Traffic was getting all plugged up as this dog was just loping around with a dumb look on its face. Since nobody was DOING anything, I tried to call the dog over. Then it got all interested with a dog barking it's head off behind a fence. So the stray dog went over to the fenced dog and started barking back. I deliberated for at least a few minutes before finally getting up the nerve to 'get' the dog. It was 'friendly' I guess in a stupid way though there was like a confused look to it. So I grabbed it gently by the collar, pulling it away from the fence. A lady came up to me; she had seen what was happening and stopped her car to help out. And when we looked at the collar tag... don't freak out, she said that there was a rabies tag on it. :S Ok, THAT was pretty scary for me. But the dog didn't seem too much out of control or anything so the lady offered to take the dog to the humane society. I helped put the dog in her car then I finally got to resume my journey to class. Had to jog a bit (uphill) to make it in time for class to start. Mr. Cassity was teasing me for being all tired out coming in to class. Seriously, I felt ready to go home already. lol!

Had a short quiz in the beginning of class (real easy) and talked more of the Scientific Revolution as well as him giving help to study for the map quiz next. I only found out today that there's no class on Monday because it's President's Day! ^_^

Went home and started on my Japanese homework. Picked Maki up from her class then watched The Best of American Idol which I borrowed from Netflix. Showed some of the worst in the beginning but the best is REALLY the best. I loved all the performances...

Ate lunch while watching then afterwards, finished writing up my Japanese paper. I think I did okay... lol! Wrote a few e-mail, too, then began starting on my Geography online quiz. It was kind of difficult; had to look in the book and my notes a lot. Final score... 22.5 out of 25. HOWEVER, the three 'mistakes' I made are not really mistakes I think. I'm going to talk to my teacher about them because I'm sure that I'm right since I found the answer from the book. Unless the book is wrong. lol!

Tonight for dinner we went out to eat with Aunt Jean at Macaroni Grill which is at Alamoana Shopping Center. It was about a forty minute wait so while Erin and Maki went to Gap, Aunt Jean, Naomi, and I were able to have a nice time just talking while waiting. The food was REALLY good! I got the same Shrimp Diavolo dish that I ordered when I ate at the Macaroni Grill in Seattle. I really like it a lot; spicy tomato sauce, yum! For dessert we all shared a chocolate, chocolate cake which actually wasn't too 'rich' but just right. Overall it was a very nice evening getting to be with Aunt Jean. I'm really stuffed now though from the food. :P

Got home and wrote a few e-mails which needed to be written. Naomi and I watched a Moonlighting episode (VERY cute; Bruce Willis dances!) then right at this moment I'm on the computer, chatting with various people. Going to bed in a little bit, tomorrow's one of those 'long days'. ^_^ Hurray though, Theater class!

Long, Fun But Exhausting Day

It's not even 10:00 yet and I'm already exhausted. :P It's been a rather long day; fun, yes, but also tiring.

History 282 class was interesting as usual, talking about capitalism, 'big business', and finally began on the Progressive Area. It was funny because only about half the class was present when Mr. Cassity 'officially started' the class, and sooo many people showed up ten~fifteen minutes into class. lol! Iiiinteresting...

Theater class was next, did a bit of 'waltzing' today. :P Was pretty fun, especially waltzing while saying "Moses supposes his toeses are roses... etc., etc., etc." lol! Such a funny tongue twister. After class we went down to the cafeteria though I could only stay with the group for about fifteen minutes I had to go an International Cafe event.

Today's event, from 12:30 to 3:00, was a special event where about 90 Japanese students from Seitoku University in Japan visited Kapiolani Community College. It seems every year the college 'hosts' a special 'party' for students from the Japanese university. The first 'game' we played was 'Black and White' where everyone is asked questions where there are only two answers. Then according to what the answer is, you stand on one or the other side of the room. Example: People who like staying at the beach stand on the right, people who like the mountains, stand on the left. It was actually quite fun, with about 110 people moving back and forth across the room. lol!

Next we played something like a 'scavenger/treasure hunt' where we divided into groups (two KCC students with four Seitoku University students for each team) and we had to find answers/complete activities all over the campus. Like who is the Interim President of the University of Hawaii. Who is the Chairman of the Student Commity. What is on display at the Koa Gallery. Get a brochure of the Honda International Center. And etc. I guess it was interesting, but all I can think about right now is how tiring it was. :P Seriously, my feet are sooooo tired... :P

Right after that I had to quickly get to my next class which was Geography. Today's class was really fun; watched a National Geographic video about tornadoes (voice of Kevin Bacon!) and played a quizz game on what we've been studying.

Went home to quickly check e-mails and such then went to pick Erin up from her internship. The roads were all crowded today and people were driving crazy. :P Fortunately, we got back home safe and sound.

Naomi made dinner of spring rolls, soup, and cooked vegetables then we watched tonight's episode of American Idol. VERY good episode today, and all of the singers that I've liked so far (except one) all made it to the next round! 44 right now, tomorrow's episode it's going to be further cut down to 24. Ooooooh... ^_^ My favorite part was when one contestant told very clearly that so many people hate Simon Cowell, but that she admires his personality and doesn't mind being just like him. The judges were laughing so hard at that comment. :P

Yay, tomorrow's a one class day though I have a 'list' of things I have to get done in the afternoon; start on my Geography assignment and also write up my one-page Japanese homework. And I might take my online Geography quiz though I'm not looking forward to it... :S Geography is a 'strange' class... I can't make up my mind whether it's easy or hard! Some parts are really easy... and some are really difficult to understand. Well, I guess taking this quiz will help since I'll be having to start preparing for the midterm... *eep!* ^_^ G'night!

My New Haircut Feels Sooo Nice... ^_^

Naomi had a meeting on campus today so it was nice that I didn't have to walk to school today. ^_^Today's History class was on the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century. Very fun and interesting stuff; I liked learning about the Greek myths about the 'heavenly skies'. :P A lot of it is really funny...

Helped Nichelle with her Japanese homework a bit before her class started. Her Japanese homework is 'strange'... some stuff just doesn't make sense. :P

The weather was really strange; just walking from Nichelle's class to the parking lot I got DRENCHED when it suddenly started raining. Weird weather...

Got home and did some homework then picked Naomi and Maki up from there class at noon. After eating lunch, I went to the Diamond Head Salon and got a haircut. ^_^ Naomi's hair stylist, Monique, is really talkative and is very good at her job. She was actually the first professional hair stylist to ever cut my hair a few years back. She was able to trim off all my hair ends, layered the top of my hair a bit, and made everything overall very much 'lighter'. Feels soooo nice!

Naomi was at a meeting so I was sitting at a little, nearby cafe and finished up my History chapter quiz while waiting for her. Naomi picked me up just as I finished and after I got home, I finished up the short essay for the quiz. Then today is Monday so my turn to cook dinner. Before I started, I watched an episode of Moonlighting.

Made maboudoufu, buttered snow peas, cut avocados, and some leftovers. Very good, very yummy if I do say so myself. lol!

Afterwards, started on my paper on John D. Rockefeller, a.k.a one of the 'Captains of Industry' and 'Robber Baron'. I decided to focuse my paper as him being a 'Robber Baron'. ^_^ Much more material on him being quite... 'competitive'.

Also got to help out with the KCIS's sign dance practice. They're starting to choreograph a new sign dance, Lord I Lift Your Name On High. Got the English 'signs' all done and I also choreographed a little 'step' for them to do during the intro. I was surprised and very proud how quickly they picked up the dance step. ^_^

Watched a little more of Moonlighting after I finished and polished up the two papers I need to hand in tomorrow. Tomorrow is another 'stay at campus for most of the day' day. ^_^ I have two classes in the morning, then an International Cafe 'thingie' going on, then my Geography class. *yawn* Geography is quite boring... I have to get started on the online quiz and the assignment which is due next week. I hope I do well... Good night and sleep tight to all!

"Can I Have a Minute of Your Time?" "Take two, they're small"

This morning Naomi led our service and then we listened to Mr. Imamura's sermon of "What Was From the Beginning". Very good sermon and 'fun' to listen to. ^_^ Also, I loved today's worship because we got to sing a lot of 'oldies'. :P Well, you know what I mean by 'oldies'... songs that I haven't sung in a long time.

After the service, Naomi and I went to Times Supermarket to do some shopping. Was able to get some nice bread and 'raw' ham (nama hamu) so for lunch we made sandwiches. Was soooooo good! Haven't eaten nama hamu for a long time.

Did some computer then Erin, Maki, and I went to Kahala Mall to meet Aunt Jean at Starbucks. It was nice seeing her since we hadn't seen her since we came back from Japan/Seattle. I also got the Starbucks' Mocha Coconut Frappuccino, my favorite Starbucks drink right now. ^_^ I love the coconuts inside, yuum yuum!

Aunt Jean left after talking for a while then the three of us did a little shopping. Stopped by Borders a bit though I didn't buy anything then went next to Tower Records. It felt so good to be there again! ^_^ My favorite store in the world (maybe an exaggeration, thought it's possible a truth). I was able to buy a CD which was on sale and I also bought... Moonlighting Season Three! Hurray, it just came out and I'm glad I was able to get it! I've heard that the third season is the best season for the show.

Went to Barnes and Nobles, too, and though there were two Timothy Zahn books I wanted to get, both just came out in the past two weeks so they're still in Hardcover. Hmph. I have to wait a while for the two books to come out in paperback... I guess I can wait... *sob*

Got home a little past 4:00 and did some computer. Oh, there was a *funny* incident when Naomi was working on Maki's computer. One minute I was just minding my own business when I hear Naomi just scream! I turn around and she looks soooo panicky! What had happened was that she picked up Maki's internet 'thingie' (can't think of the name, too tired) and a SWARM of ants started coming out! LOL! I know, not funny for Naomi but afterwards it WAS pretty funny thinking about it. But seriously, there were thousands of ants just coming out of Maki's computer thing; it was pretty frightening. :P

Aaaanyway, had dinner of chicken, egg-drop soup, and salad, then I watched the first two episodes of Moonlighting. Definitely I could see some 'improvement' from the first and second season. There's more 'sense' in the plots and Bruce Willis gets some really 'fine acting' moments. Though of course, there's still some great one-liners throughout the episodes. lol!

Watched bits of The Worse of American Idol again before I send it off back to Netflix then worked a bit on my History take-home quiz which is due on Tuesday. No prob. ^_^

Tomorrow I have one class in the morning then I think I'm going to be getting a haircut in the afternoon. How exciiiiiting (Steve Martin in Sgt Bilko). :P The movie's definite best line. ^_^ Toodles! (Toodles...? MUST be tired... ) lol!

Gotta Love Saturdays!

Since I was up so late last night, slept in until past 10:30. ^_^ *sigh* That was so nice to be able to do that without worry about being late for something or having to do something. Today was a very, very lazy day.

Checked some e-mails, did some net surfing, then ate lunch while watching The Worst of American Idol which I had borrowed from Netflix. I must say, that was very fun to watch; so much of it was laugh-out-loud hilarious! And it's not just the contestants who are so bad that it's funny (some are so bad it's NOT funny, making it even MORE funny) but the judges' expression and reactions was what was the funniest thing for me. Simon especially cracks me up...

The whole DVD (including all the special features and extended auditions) was a little over 2 hours long but stopped halfway so that all of us could do our weekly cleanup. The house always smells so... clean aftewards. Though I can't decide if I like the clean smell or not. lol! Sometimes it just makes my nose feel 'twitchy' for a few hours. ha ha!

So after finishing up the DVD, worked the rest of the afternoon on my story. It's progressing slowly. I also went over my old stories which I started but never finished. ^_^ None of them published and I haven't let anyone read any of them. I had forgotten so many of them so it was actually fun to read and remember my ideas for so many different stories. The Lord of the Rings version of Much Ado About Nothing was a pleasant surprise to find; I think I may have to start writing it again. ^_^ AFTER I finish the story I'm working on now... *wink!*

For dinner had leftover pizza from last night and watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. It's been SUCH a while since I've seen it! Brought back memories of when I tried to choreography the dances from the movie. :P I still remembered all the brothers' names and could place all the faces with each of their names! Pretty good I must say. ^_^

Finished up my Louis L'Amour book and got started on Timothy Zahn's Angelmass. Tomorrow's begins another new week! Off to bed now; to bed, to bed!

This has taught me a lesson not to stake my word of honor on cows.

It's WAYYY past my bedtime right now (almost 2:00 in the morning) so I'm going to keep this short.

Naomi and I left the house a bit early so that we could stop by the bank to do... bank things. :P Then I had my Japanese class from 9:00 until 11:30 (got to finish a bit early). It was actually a pretty interesting class, going over how as teachers we deal with different classroom situations. Also learned some interesting 'grammar tricks/rules' to remember for Japanese.

Since I wouldn't 'have' the car for the afternoon, I stayed on campus until my Geography Lab class from 1:45. To kill time I was at the library a bit then ate at the cafeteria. I got to read a bit more of my Louis L'Amour book when a classmate of mine (same history and lab class) came by and we spent the hour before our class just talking. She's Japanese, from Chiba, and is almost finished with her Accounting degree. Nice lady; we get along well so I think we'll be lab partners for the rest of the semester.

Lab class was hard, hard, hard! We had to make topography maps. Don't ask what they are, I don't like them a bit. :P I was actually doing the lab work soooo hard until 4:20! Can you imagine studying and working that hard from 2 hours and 40 minutes?! Grr... I just hope it doesn't get any harder...

Naomi was nice enough to pick Maki and I up from class. Got home and rested a bit because I was so tired out. Actually did a bit of drawing, too... ^_^

Went to the Friday night service. Part 3 of the Daniel series... it's good to have Tony back leading the worship! After the service I was again mostly playing with the four kids. *wink!* They're so adorable; and I'm teaching Bella to high five, low five, and a new one; side five. :P What can I say, she just turned one. She's still working on coordination... lol

After fellowship, the four of us along with Tiffany picked up pizza and went home to watch Anne of Avonlea altogether. SUCH a good miniseries; such a nice ending. Though I STILL say that Morgan Harris should have found some other girl after Anne doesn't marry him!! Grr... he's so sweet!

Ok, I need to take a quick shower and get to bad. I'm definitely sleeping in as much as possible tomorrow. ^_^ Good night and sweet dreams!

VERY Fun, Fun, Fun Day!

Today was such a fun, fun, fun day! Lots of ups and 'downs' ('calm' times) but overall very up. ^_^

Maki and I walked to school today and got to class a bit early; add to the fact that Mr. Cassity was a bit late so my classmated and I were able to just 'chill' a bit. A few of my friends are from California so they were all talking about it (especially about how they miss real Mexican food; NOT Taco Bell). lol!

History class wasn't terribly interesting though not boring in the least. Interesting discussions I guess but I'm starting to feel like we keep covering the same material over and over. How the 'big bad businessmen' are corrupting all that is good in America. *wink*

Next was Theater class and it was FUN FUN FUN! I mean, seriously, it was FUN! We did a few exercises then for the rest of the class we did 'the unexpected, unrehearsed scenes'. What happens is we all sit in a big circle. The teacher will bring something to the middle of the circle and two picked people will have to start a scene, using the object. Except, the object has to be anything BUT what it is!

Example: first 'scene' was when there was a bowling pin lying on the ground. First two people chosen were Marnie and Maki. Marnie started saying "My poor cat!" and asked Maki if she could help. From there it developed into a HILARIOUS skit as Maki went away and another guy came into the scene, saying that MAKI had killed the cat. Then a 'professional' vet came on the scene and started 'analyzing' the dead cat. HILARIOUS!

There were so many other scenes one right after another; I think five in all. All of them had different people, different situations, and all ended up with the 'audience' rolling on the floor laughing! I was in two different scenes; both of them I actually played 'daughters'. One was a lying, daughter who somehow in the scene turned out to be an actress in a movie! That was quite 'unexpected'. Another scene was where I was the older sister of a 'gifted, special' younger sister (special education). ^_^ And it turned out I had a boyfriend who had a Harley Davidson who brings me flowers... lol!

Anyway, BEST lines from the improvised, 'unexpected' scenes (ask me if you want details):

"All right sir, please, step AWAY from the cat!" (certified vet to innocent bystander)

"You like it when Travis brings you flowers!" ('handicapped sister)
"Speaking of which, we need to talk about Travis..." (strict mother)
"Who...?" (older sister)
"Your boyfriend." (strict mother)
"Oh..." (older sister)

"What is your name?" (nurse)
"Her name is Evelyn" (daughter of crazy mom)
"My name - is Fran-CHES-ca!" (crazy mom)

"It's a beautiful volcanoe!" (mother)
"It's pink..." (daughter)

"The tulips are speaking to me!" (crazy mom)
(Later on...) "Tulips are growing out of your ears!"

All right, I know they may not seem funny if you don't know the context, but trust me, on 'scene' they were hilarious!

Ahem, ok, I know I'm getting carried away after having so much fun in the class. :P Anyway, moving along... After class about ten to twelve of us from theater went to eat at the cafeteria. Had a really fun time with my classmates and got to meet a lot of other friends in the caf.

Stayed with my friends till 1:30 when I headed down to the International Cafe. I've joined the Japanese tea ceremony 'club' which meets every Thursday. ^_^ I must say, pretty cool! I was the 'customer' today so I learned some basics of 'accepting' tea and food. Got to eat 'youkann'.... YUM! An hour and a half actually went by pretty quickly. Looking forward to the day when I can 'make and serve the tea'!

Headed to Geography class next. Didn't 'almost' fall asleep in class today which was good. :P Talked about natural disasters today and got to leave early which is always nice. Walked home with Maki and as soon as we got home, I relaxed at my computer. Long, full day already by then. Naomi and Erin came home from a meeting about our church then the four of us went to GAP to do some shopping (15% off). I was happy since I was able to buy some comfortable black pants which I can where to school (something different since I always wear jeans).

Got to video chat with my mother then had dinner. At 8:00 we had our prayer meeting where we had some praise and worship and read a Psalm.

*yawn* Such a long, fun day. So happy that it's Friday tomorrow; last day of classes for the week. ^_^ Then two days of no school! Cooool... lol! Till tomorrow!

~A Moooooment Like Thiiiiiis~

Another walk to school day and I made it to the campus in a little under twenty minutes! That's very good time, considering I'm going at a kind of slanted upslope. My goal: to get to class in just under twenty minutes without being too much out of breath. lol

I turned in my first paper for the semester (graded paper) and hopefully I'll get it back with a pretty good score. Also had the book quiz today which was pretty easy and I think I got it all correct. Got back my quiz from the last quiz and had 1/2 a point off for something I didn't quite answer fully. Oh, well, still pretty good. I was flattered when my teacher pointed me out a few time to his 'newer' students about how well his 'older' students do when they start finding 'patterns' az to how to prepare for quizzes and write essays which he'll give good grades. ^_^ Yay!

Stopped by International Cafe to sign up for some activities including... a Japanese tea ceremony class! An interesting activity for me to join, huh? Well, it sounds REALLY interesting and I think I'll enjoy it quite a bit.

Walked home and worked on my practice map for the map quiz I'll have next week for history. Naomi, Maki, and I went to McDonald's to buy some lunch. Ooooh... Big Macs! Haven't had those in quite a while.

Ate lunch and watched a short movie before beginning my 'afternoon studies'. Worked all on my Japanese papers which I completed. Also read a bit of the paper I have to write an essay on for my History class (about Rockefeller now; hopefully finished Carnegie). :P

Erin made dinner of unagi and salmon. For Theater class we'll be acting out our own 'American Idol' and since neither Maki nor I have ever watched 'American Idol', we caught tonight's show. And I must say, I understand completely why it's such a big hit! I really enjoyed it and thought it quite fun. And I absolutely Simon Cowell though he's known as being brutally honest, earning nicknames like 'Mr. Nasty' and 'Judge Dread'. lol! But I love his wit and sarcasm though he can be quite... honest. :P Plus, he's British so his accent matches perfectly his dry humor. (In case you can't guess who Simon is, he's the haole guy. :P)

After the show, I decided to go online and find any American Idol videoclips. And I found some video clips of the "Worst of American Idol"... and all of them were hilarious! There's this 'famous' auditioneer named Mary Roach, nicknamed 'Scary Mary' for her audition. And she seriously thought she was good though Simon was perfectly right when he told her that she "has the weirdest voice I've ever heard in my life." lol!

Got to video chat with my mother a little bit and she helped me with my Japanese homework so I'm happy that it's definitely 'done' now. ^_^ Off to bed; tomorrow's a three class day. Till tomorrow!

Looong Day At School

First off, just a note to tell you that Maki's computer has gone completely wacky and has decided to not work anymore. Maki seems to be a tough and harsh master and the computer decided it won't take any of it anymore. :P Well, that's part of the truth; Maki's computer IS not working so she said for me to inform 'the people out there' that she won't be able to up her blog for a few days. ^_^

Had History class in the morning and got back my second chapter quiz. Got 39 out of 40 yet once again but this time, instead of getting all the multiple choice questions correct and one point off the essay, I got one multiple choice question wrong and I got a perfect 10 out of 10 for my essay! ^_^ Hurray!

Theater class was sooo much fun today! For warm-up exercises we did tongue twisters while doing the cha-cha. :P Maki and I also got to do our improvisation scene which was soo much fun. ^_^ I messed up a bit when I got our 'character's name' mixed up but I didn't notice it at all. :P Soooo into the moment that I really 'believed' myself in the role. One guy commented but my teacher said that she had been so engrossed in the story that she hadn't noticed how I called myself 'Stacy' when Maki had called me 'Jennifer' earlier. :P But everyone said that the best thing was that Maki and I work so well together and have great 'chemistry'. Must be because we've known each other so long and we've 'acted' together, too. ^_^ Go 'Maki-san Puri-san'! ^_^

Went home for a quick lunch then I went to the International Cafe to tutor Nichelle in Japanese. This will be added onto the 27 hours of service learning that I need to complete in International Cafe for my Japanese 298 class. It was a bit strange because there were maybe only 4 other people in the room. That's very strange compared to the room being soo full last semester (over fifteen~twenty people). Oh, well, hopefully more people will keep coming. I also saw that I classmate of mine from Geography class is also in the International Cafe. It's fun finding 'connections' within the college. ^_^

Had Geography class which was semi-interesting. I almost fell asleep when we were learning about the atmosphere but finally woke up when we started talking about Violent Storms. *wink!* Much more interesting.

Went home and got to work on my Japanese homework. Got one paper pretty much done and I think I'll work on the second and final homework tomorrow. Naomi made dinner tonight; Mexican style chicken in taco sauce and German potatoes.

Finished up my FINAL draft of The 47 Ronin Story then watched House, M.D. since today's Tuesday. Great episode though AGAIN I hated the ending because now I can't wait till next week! Grr...

Since I'm also having a book quiz on the Ronin Story I scanned through the book to study for the quiz. Also worked on studying for the map quiz sometime next week.

And off to bed now. Tomorrow's a one-class school day! ^_^ Good night, sleep tight!

~Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I Love Ya, Tomorrow!~

Did a lot of walking today as I walked to and from my history class in the morning. Talked a little more on our upcoming paper which is due this Wednesday, then tried to get started on the Islamic Empires. :P We kept getting sidetracked as we studdenly started talking about the Iraqi war going on right now. Well, at least we got to talk a little on the Ottoman Empire! We're already about a week behind from our history 'schedule'. lol!

So, I walked home and relaxed a bit at the computer before watching a movie while eating lunch. Decided to finally watch Annie which Aunt Penny had sent me for Christmas. And I must say... I LOVED it! Such an all-star cast! The GREAT Albert Finney, Anne Reinkin (one of THE Broadway stars from the 80's), Carol Burnett (simply hilarious!), Bernadette Peters (superb!), Tim Curry (he sings and dances... :P), and a small cameo of Ray Bolgers! Aileen Quinn plays Annie in this 1983 film version of the hit Broadway show. The first thing I thought was that this was a girls version of Newsies. lol! Seriously! Dancing, singing, young, orphan, kids though this is set during the depression era instead of the turn of the 20th century like in Newsies. The young cast was actually very talented (compared to 'kids' nowadays...). These girls were between the ages of maybe 8 to 12 and they were belting out Broadway tunes with finess and doing the most amazing acrobatic stunts! I must say, I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I thought I would. Definitely worth a second viewing. Favorite songs are already Hard Knock Life, We Got Annie, You're Not Fully Dressed Without a Smile, and Easy Street.

Oh, afterwards I was looking up Bernadette Peters and after seeing her in the movie and listening to her voice (talking and singing), I was struck with how much she reminds me of my Japanese dance teacher! They have kind of the same voice tone, texture, and the same eyes and mouth! lol! That struck me as very funny...

It was already around 2:30 when the movie finished (long movie) so I did some homework then around 5:00, Erin came home with the car so Maki and I went to work to wash it. Clean car!

My turn to cook dinner so I made gyoza. ^_^ Well, not really, just cooked already made frozen gyoza... but it still takes talent to make it good!

Watched some tv then got back to work to finish my paper on The 47 Ronin Story. And now I'm pretty much done! I'll definitely need to look over it again tomorrow but I'm fairly confident that it's done.

Ah, tomorrow I have many classes... including theater class where Maki and I will hopefully do our improvisations! Wish us luck! ^_^

Great Sunday!

This morning, Erin lead our worship then for the sermon, we listened to Pastor Stafford's tape from a few weeks ago. The title was "Let God Be True" and was quite a 'humbling' experience. :P God is the only truth there is and we must rememeber that we are the unrighteous ones. As I said, 'humbling' right? ^_^

After the service, we all headed out to Brandon and Christi's house for the Super Bowl XL party. Didn't 'quite' eat a full lunch; instead, there was food out the whole time and we just ate whatever and whenever. :P The food was all delicious though, including popcorn chicken, salad, roast beef sandwiches, rice, pasta salad, and much more!

Watched the pre-show downstairs (Stevie Wonder has certainly gained weight) then we quickly packed everything up and went upstairs to watch the game in Joe and Mercy's living room. They have a big tv and very nice speakers so watching the game was much more of an 'experience', if you know what I mean. :P There were quite a lot of people there altogether; including the four of us, Brandon & Christi, Joe & Mercy & Co., Nick & Heather & Co., Danny, Yoko, Kenny & Debbie, and Tina. The four younger kids kept us all very entertained throughout the whole game which was sometimes even more fun than the game itself. lol!

Overall, the game was fairly exciting. I pretty much knew that the Pittsburgh Steelers were going to definitely win (:P) but I was 'sort of' rooting for the Seattle Seahawks since they've never won the Super Bowl before. But I'm not too big a football fan so I was fine with either win. ^_^ The half-time show was done by the Rolling Stones and boy, though they're old, they've still 'got it'. lol! Great songs and they know how to get a crowd excited, that's for sure! It was funny thought because Joe, Mercy, and I were pretty much the only ones nodding our heads to the beat and singing along. haha!

Oh, and I must mention the commercials! The biggest thing about the Super Bowl is also all about the commercials. Some of them were simply hilarious! Especially one of the Sprint commercials and most all of the Budweiser commercials. lol!

The game ended with the Pittsburgh Steelers winning 21 to 10 around 4:30. Good game though I think it would have been much more exciting if the score was much closer together. We stayed at their house until around 6:00, just talking, laughing, and having a good time. ^_^

Now we're all home and just stayed in our room for the rest of the evening. Still quite stuffed from all the food. Ah, tomorrow begins another week of school. This week I have my essay for The 47 Ronin Story due; I'm so thankful that I got a little more than half already done. ^_^ Till tomorrow!

~A Day at the Carnival~

Got to sleep in today then we all did our Saturday cleanup-chores. The house is all 'squeaky-clean' now! ^_^

Then Ericson came by to pick Erin, Maki, and I up at around 11:30 and we were off to the Punahou Carnival! It's a yearly carnival hosted by Punahou high school; the place is huge and rivals Kapiolani Community College in size!

First thing we did was check out the rides. We first got on the small ferris wheel and don't let the size fool you; this thing went pretty fast! And there's no belts or anything like that, nothing to hang on to, and the so-called 'doors' swing open fairly easily! We were all a little nervous at first but once it started moving it wasn't too bad. :P

Next off, Erin and I were very brave and we got on the 'Spinning Top'. This thing spins around and around, and it actually goes upside down a couple of times for quite a while! My first time to really ride something like this but it was REALLY fun!

Maki and I rode the 'Pirate Ship' next though it was shaped like a more 'Egyptian ship' with Pharoah's heads at the ends. :P That was lots of fun; reminded me of the time when Maki and I rode almost the Pirate Ship around eight times in a row when we went on that field trip to Dreamland. :P Thouh the ride here was smaller, it still went really high so that at it's highest point, you actually float up a bit when coming down!

All four of us road the Music Express which was really, REALLY FAST! It was so fast that I was practically smashing Maki because of the centripetal force. :P I was trying really hard to pull myself away but it was simply impossible!

It was coming to around 1:00 so we decided to get some lunch. I got some noodles which were certainly no Japanese yakisoba... :P It was pretty good though so I wasn't too disappointed. Erin and I also shared a hamburger which was very good.

We next went to the game booths where I might have had the most fun. Played several games; knock the pins down, basketball, darts, hoop toss, shooting arcades, and so many other games. For the darts game, I won a very cute, glow-in the dark gecko stuffed animal! So happy to have won something. ^_^ It's HARD to win any of those games!

Oh, something pretty interested happened while we were at the games booth. The four of us were just walking along when a guy with a camera stopped us. He had a 'Press Pass' pinned on him and he explained that he's a photographer for the Honolulu Adviser. Anyway, he asked if he could take a picture of the four of us! He took our names down and got Erin's e-mail address. So who knows, perhaps we're going to have our picture in the newspaper or something! ^_^

We headed next over to the 'White Elephant' which is like a huge garage sale. I wasn't that interested at first until I spotted the Books section. It was HUGE section with hundreds and hundreds of used books! The sale was that you could pay for books individually (like 25 cents a book) or fill a paper back as much you want and pay a total of $5! So Maki and I 'split a bag' and got lots of books. I got twelve books altogether including a Clive Cussler book, a Timothy Zahn book, three Louis L'Amour books I've never read before, and a few mysteries and science fiction books which seemed interesting. I'm sooo happy about the books! ^_^

Ericson took us home around 4:00 and by then we were tired from walking around so much. Relaxed in our rooms a bit then Erin made oyako-don for dinner. I was hungry from walking around so much and oyako-don is ALWAYS good. ^_^

Naomi and I watched a movie together and now here I am, writing up my blog. Today was such a fun day and I'm happy that I was able to go to my 'first' American carnival. :P Tomorrow's the Super Bowl! Should prove to be an exciting game with the Pittsburgh Steelers vs the Seattle Seahawks. My problem is... who should I root for? lol!

Yesterday's and Today's Posts

So sorry about being unable to put up my blog yesterday. It was entirely not my fault because blogger.com was down. :P So first here's a brief 'what-happened-yesterday'...

Had History class and Theater class in the morning which was lots of fun as usual. Got back my Andrew Carnegie paper... :P It's kind of good that it's ungraded; it was an 'accepted' paper (these informal papers are either accepted or not) which was good. The thing was, I was writing postitive things about Carnegie's paper on Wealth while Mr. Cassity went over how 'hypocritic' most of the things Carnegie wrote down were. Oh well...

Had lunch, relaxed then had Geography class which was pretty hilarious because of this one guy. He's Asian local, and some of things he says are so incredibly funny (yet he's being kind of serious which makes it even more funny). For example (funniest thing he said) was when we were talking about the jet streams in the atmosphere. This guy suddenly comments: "It must be really windy in the jet stream." There was a dead silence for a few seconds before we all started laughing! The look on my teacher's face was hilarious!

Maki made dinner then in the evening I watched... The Bounty! I have seen two version of the story, Mutiny on the Bounty with Clark Gable and also another one with Marlon Brando. This version starred Mel Gibson (a very young Mel Gibson) as Fletcher Christian and Anthony Hopkins as William Bligh. It was an interesting version, much closer to the book I think from what I remember from reading it. However, I must say that the best version is still Marlon Brando's version. I mean... Mel Gibson does a good British accent (he's Australian) but it's NOTHING compared to Marlon Brando virtually oozing British-ness (if that makes any sense)! Seriously, nothing beats Marlon Brando's Fletcher Christian... I need to see that version now, though it has a much sadder ending... *bawls*

Ok, now for the blog for the actual today.

Because I didn't really have Japanese class today, I got to sleep in a bit though I probably would have slept way past 9:00 if I could. :P I need to catch up on my sleep...

Anyway, instead of Japanese class, Erin dropped me off at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii where the rest of the students were gathered. Though the tour was supposed to start at 10:00, but our teacher didn't show up and though she called the Center, we still started a bit late. The tour was pretty interesting, mostly learning about how Japanese immigrants first came to Hawaii and about the role of second generation Japanese people in WWII.

Erin picked me up afterwards and we stopped by Boba Locas so we could get some drinks. I got my usual mango slushie with bobas which is soooo good! Got home after picking up some sushi for lunch. Ooooh... so nice to have sushi for lunch! Ikura-maki... *sighs*

Maki and I next had our Geography Lab class in the afternoon. And it was a really, REALLY fun class (at least for me)! ^_^ We got to do field mapping where we mapped out the 'Great Lawn' area on campus with just a compas. It was pretty cool; in fact, if I still remember how when I get back to Japan perhaps for the summer, I might want to do this as a projet with the students of KCIS. It's not too complicated as long as you measure properly. :P

After class, we stopped by the Diamond Head Theater so that I could peruse the script for the Broadway play Drood. Unfortunately, I didn't quite care of the characters I was thinking of auditioning for and decided that I'm not going to try out for the part. Besides, school's gonna be keeping me busy. ^_^

Relaxed at home a bit (doing the field mapping was pretty tiring since we were actually outside and had to walk around quite a bit). Then Naomi, Maki, and I left for Friday night service (Naomi was in the nursery, to watch the kids... :P). It was nice seeing some of the church people, especially Rose and Chris who I haven't seen since December! Had a lot of catching up to do. Of course, as always, after the service it's so much fun to play with Nika, Kyla, and Malia (Bella, too, but she's mostly in her baby carriage).

Picked up some Jack 'n' the Box then Erin, Maki, and I watched The Truman Show at home. SUCH a good movie and it's one of the movies that it gets better every time you watch it and there's something new to see. It was Erin's and Maki's first time so they were a bit like "What going on?" which was funny to see for me. :P The ending is FANTASTIC! A movie I can highly recomment though for older people since the whole thing would be completely lost to kids... It's a movie that really proves that Jim Carrey can handle a serious role... and how!

Tomorrow I might be going to the Punaho carnival with a few people which should be lots of fun. I've heard a lot about it but have never gone there for myself. ^_^ And... I get to sleep in!! Hurray! :P Ok, off to bed now. G'night, sleep tight!

My Mind is Filled With History

It's been a while but today I walked to class today. ^_^ I kept a very good pace, getting there in 20 minutes and arriving fifteen minutes before class. I good thing that I got there early though so I could catch my breath completely before class started. :P Today was another really fun class as we learned more of Japanese history which was all quite fascinating. He also gave a little lecture on how to prepare to write our report on The 47 Ronin Story which is due a week from today.

After class I went with Nichelle to the library and I helped her out with her Japanese studies for a bit. Went to the International Cafe and since hardly anyone was there at all (it seems this week is only for signing up), I just left with Maki whose class had been canceled.

Went home and had a nice lunch. Then the rest of the afternoon was spent intently working on history. ^_^ REALLY! from about 1:30 to about 6:30 I was working on my chapter quiz essay and got to work on my history essay. Got a little over halfway done which is good.

Erin made dinner today of Kailua pig wrapped in lau lau leaves; she had also got poki which was very delicious. Mmmm... very 'Hawaiian' dinner tonight. ^_^

After dinner, spent a little more time doing some writing then Naomi and I decided to get out of the house for a bit. We walked to a little cafe/restaurant about a ten minutes walk from our house and got some dessert. Blueberry cheesecake and some kind of pear dish with VERY good vanilla ice cream. ^_^ It was a nice time to spend with just the two of us.

Got home and spent the rest of the time on the computer, alternating between relaxing by playing some games and writing. Today... I shall go to bed early! :P Oh, well, at least earlier than usual. Good night!