my loves:

bressers, mei yun and i at SUSHIBOAT

me, waggie-san, bressers-san, hassell-san, tyler-san

the anniversary

how i miss you guys.

disappear here

i'm back from vacation in west palm beach visiting with jams' aunt. i'm a little sunburnt, but not too badly. i'm a little sick, but not too badly. i finished two books while traveling: less than zero and the rules of attraction both by bret easton ellis. i am absolutely in love with less than zero and am amazed ellis wrote it when he was only 19. i feel the same way as i did after i first read salinger. i find myself developing an inner monologue-narration of my own life and it's amusing me for now. i am currently reading american psycho, ellis's third novel. i haven't read fiction in a while and it's absolutely liberating.

wasabi peas, i love you.

summer in the city...

and it's h u m i d! today is my second day of freedom for the summer. i'm still really missing bott and now i'm missing my twins who have just left yesterday. despite the heat and the longing for certain friends, i've been pretty productive today which is always fun. i was able to check 3 items off of my newest to-do list, exercise, and later this evening i will be getting a hair cut/dye.

for the last few days i've been watching the planet earth series at steve's new place. two things 1.) it's ridiculously amazing 2.) even more so when watching with surround sound + massive sub-woofer. sunday night jordaño, joey rocket, and i went to see cool hand luke at the Oaks. beth and megart met up with us there. man - i love that movie. it's soo good, and i'm still surprised that it was actually made. it's pretty radical for it's time. "yeah, well... it give me something to do..."

私の友だちへ：

おはいようございます!　タイラーさんもマクスさんもハッセルさんも、今日にシカゴへ行ってます。とてもおもしろいでしょう。私は、小さい車だから、行きません。ざんねんだけど、あとでシカゴに行ます。来週フロリダへジャムスのかずこと行きます。休みの時間！

来月、二年生になります！よかったよ！じゃまた。。。

nothing gold can stay...

this summer has been absolutely fabulous. today was the last day of my summer intensive japanese program. i came away from it stronger, more independent, and obviously knowing a hell of a lot more japanese. i've been thinking about it and, for me, this is the best summer i've had in memories. there are so many reasons why, it's hard to list them all. but you know me and lists... so i'll try.

# nursing is finally starting to feel like it's taking a back seat in my life. i'm still working weekends, but somehow, that doesn't seem to matter. i actually felt free this summer, which was the exact opposite of the truth.
# i came into the course thinking that i wouldn't really make any friends - at least i wasn't holding out hope that i would. i half expected the class to be full of anime-kids and gamers... (that turned out to be painfully true of the second year students only.) much to my surprise, however, i bonded with five wonderful, beautiful, perfect, amazing people. i truely feel honored to have been able to meet such great people. without them, i don't think i could have made it through the long, long days and all of schwartz's attempts at the CCs. i can really go on and on at this point, but that will probably make me a little too nostalgic for comfort at the moment, so to sum up i would like to just say: Thank You.
# i feel like my life is actually gaining some direction for the first time in a long time. i don't know exactly what it is i'm going to be doing when i grow up, but i feel like i'm closer to answering that question than ever. teaching english abroad is becoming a very strong desire. traveling in general, i'm realizing, is a must in my life. there is so much out there that nursing cannot offer, and i want to be a part of it more than ever.
# i wasn't going to take this course because, honestly, i was afraid to let myself be too busy. i didn't want to feel rushed, or that i wasted my summer away. that attitude has actually been present as far as i can remember - i don't like to commit to things that might be difficult. i usually take the easy choice and coast through life. i didn't register until two days before the course and was still planning on dropping it. -- for those of you that don't know, the class was monday through friday, 9-4, and i work every saturday and sunday 7-7. so, this pretty much meant i had 10 weeks straight without a day off. i feel like this summer taught me that i can make it through tough times. i learned how to be organized. more importantly, if you are doing something you are passionate about, no matter how much is required of you, you will love it. honestly, the opposite is happening: i'm sad to see it all end.
# this summer i've felt more independent than i ever had in my young adult life. james had his internship this summer every monday through friday, and i had my class + weekend work. the time we spent together was very little. it might not sound too bad, but i wasn't convinced that i was going to be able to handle it. as i reflect back, i feel like i've developed a clingy personality over the years of being with the same person. we never have been away from each other for an extended amount of time, and we certainly always fit in together time. this anti-independence alone was starting to worry me, but it's a tough thing to identify a personal weakness and then actively change. the japanese program alone didn't make me more independent, but it kept me focused, and through all of my friends help i learned that me, by myself am a whole person with my own opinions and ideas and likes and dislikes and these people are my friends not just through association, which is something i wasn't totally convinced of before.

all in all i'm extremely happy right now, and i'm looking forward to my future.

this book has become a close friend...

it's been some time. june-july has really flown by! i've decided to continue my japanese education through the fall and potentially do something called the JET program next year. two of my classmates are leaving next week (for a year) to teach english as a second language to japanese children. one will be far north (perkins-san), the other (botto-san) will be west of tokyo.

i will definitely try to do some more research on it, but right now, it's a very large possibility for me. the second possibility is to start a graduate program abroad if i don't teach english (which could also potentially be my grad school focus in of itself). this is literally all the time i have to write, i'll fill you in more later, little blog: ima, totemo isogashii - watashi!

p.s. i'm working on finding a program that will enable kana/kanji. if you know of one, let me know!

Ohaiyo Bloggu-san!

The first week of my japanese class is over... so far it's pretty fun! the people in the class are an interesting mix - yokatta des yo. things are moving pretty fast though, we're already through negation, past tense, and a few particles. most of the kids in there have done extensive travelling abroad, and i love it! i definitely feel like i mesh better here than were i work. i'm also catching the travelling bug, and i hope to do some soon!

a little late

but these are two movies everyone should see. be prepared to cry.

Niagara

americani

horseshoe falls, canadian side

frankenstien loves BK, you should too.

hand blown glass ornaments

lemon drops

Butterfly Conservatory

Ashlee was the best at it

mr. frog outside of the conservatory

Louis Toussad's

we were graced by his holiness

we're bffs now

my, harry, what tight gleuts you have...

no go on W

i don't even like star trek

Maids of the Mist

she was just the little maid

yeah we wore them

up close

favorites

beginner's hiragana

goodbye columbia hello shady

we signed a lease yesterday for a new place on shady ave ^_^, pics when we get them. we move in july 1st, come for fun and moving furniture (all the cool kids will be there)!

in about two weeks me, maria, janet, and ashlee will be heading up to niagara for a couple days of relaxation and canadianization. i'm looking forward to it and hopefully we won't spend too much money.

i'm off to learn more hiragana then out for beth's birthday festivities.

i'm going to become a SEAL.

ringing in spring with updates.

yesterday was the last day of classes for me this term. i had only two:historical linguistics and syntax. i enjoyed both of them thoroughly (much to my surprise with syntax... it's not as scary/boring as i had previously imagined). monday will be my final in syntax, then i'll be officially done. i am also finished with my historical term paper on Hawai'i Creole English which has opened my eyes to the world of sociolinguistics. i picked the topic rather arbitrarily, but ended up learning a lot and becoming really interested in it. <3

james is officially the president of pitt's Student Auto Racing Team. i'm really proud of him - he really has .no. time to be doing all of these extra-curricular things, but he's taking everything in stride. everything with the racing team is still primitive. that is to say, the boys are working on campaigning, sponsorships, awareness raising and the like. there is currently no garage, but a couple offers of cars already. i'll help them in any way that i can. so far this year, the biggest car-type involvement i've had was purchasing two Kumho's for the car to replace worn out summer tires. ah, well... i'll learn more as time goes on...

on april 11th, i was able to participate in a Amnesty International Write-a-thon in pittsburgh. christen invited me to come, which i'm thankful for. i wrote 5 letters to leaders all over the world about: women trafficking inMontenegro, border crossing shootings on the China/Tibet/Nepalese boarder , night commuters in Uganda, genocide in Darfur (in eastern Sudan), and to US General Attorney for atrocities in Guantanamo Bay - disobeying international law and Geneva Conventions. christen also gave a lovely speech -impromptu style- about trafficking. this is sparking the bug in me to become more involved on activist issues, and we'll see how everything turns out. i'm excited to go to a meeting by christen's organization about trafficking next week -- and convinced Em to join me - yay! i have a secret - i think those two would get along great so i'm trying to bring them together. if they read this i'll be found out! <.< >.>

on the same vein of thought, em showed me an article about photography in politics. it was also wonderful. (i'm thankful for friends who are actually well informed. i feel like we all have so much to contribute to each other <3). She showed me Salgado a Brazilian photographer and American photographer Nachtwey - i highly recommend clicking around their galleries, they're wonderful.

tessa revealed how much she enjoyed speaking spanish. she suggested spanish get togethers! ^_^ i'm definitely all for this, but i'm really shy about my ability to speak (or lack thereof) spanish...

on a final note, this summer, i'm dedicating to learning. i'm still debating what exactly i'm going to delve into. current prospects are: japanese or german, java (or some other programming language), re-learning spanish, or possibly other ling courses such as semantics... we shall see!

(i stole this idea from Christen <3, the map is interactive)

i really need to update... finals are next week, once everything is finished i'll come back to you little blog!

me and my (other) love.

birthdays and bowlings

thats the way i roll.

we did it.

mat in action.

we were share buddies that night.

Beth.

it was just a little guy.

i love these guys.