SEPTEMBER 29
Still haven’t brought in my laundry~ oops, haha. Oh
well, it’s not going to rain for a while.
Sunday is usually my chill out and clean day. Today,
on the other hand, I had made plans to hang out in Osu with a girl named
Yukimi, who I met at the first International Party. We went to Yep Seoul, which
had a ton of Korean Pop band merchandise. Of course, it would have been much
cheaper to buy in Korea, but we still had a fun time looking at all the
interesting items. Then, for lunch, we went to a place called Solo Pizza.
It’s actually quite famous in the area; meaning when
we got there a huge group of people were already lined up outside. It was worth
it though. The crust was perfect, and the pizza we ordered didn’t use tomato
sauce (my preference). That place had a strong Italian presence, even down to
the desserts. We were tempted, but we chose to get ice cream from another place
instead.
We hung out for most of the afternoon, but as evening
rolled around I had to get ready for dance@live, a national dance event in
which three teams from AIDAI were competing. I went to cheer them on. It was
supposed to open at 4pm and start at 5, but for some reason we couldn’t even
get in to the studio until 5:15. But, if I hadn’t gone to the convenient store
to kill some time, I might not have ran into the other members from my circle.
As for the dance battles, 3-on-3 teams, it was the
most inspiring thing I could have seen at the rebirth of my dance dream. Two
groups from my circle made it into the semi-finals, but sadly, they were
defeated. The last team was eliminated in a sudden death match— I can’t believe
I know dancers of this caliber!
That battle continued on until 10:30pm, when finally a
team was selected as the winner. Before I returned home, I spoke to our group
leader and said, “If I can’t dance with everyone at the festival, I want to do
whatever I can to help set up.” He replied with, “You are a part of the group,
you can dance with us. It has nothing to do with your level now.” I was
acknowledged as part of the group, though really it was only a week since I
joined. I was touched. I wanted to practice right away! This group, BPM, was
increasing in importance to me as the days went on.
I did end up coming home and practicing on the balcony
for a bit before one of the neighbors from the floor below showed up.
Side note: This is the second time I have to totally
clean out my shower drain, how is this possible?? There really is a lot of dust
I guess.
SEPTEMBER 30
This morning my sleep was interrupted by the angry
vibration of my phone. It was a message from the International Student
Coordinator, saying little else than ‘Please stop by the office today.’ I had nothing
to go on, so I couldn’t continue to rest in peace. I headed to the university
right away, showing up at 10:30am on the dot.
Apparently, it wasn’t a dire situation as I had
presumed. He wanted to ask me if I could write a little blurb for the international
section about why I was studying abroad, my dreams, etc. I said ‘yes’ before I
really thought about it. It was a doable task, but I had no idea what to write
about. He gave me two weeks to figure it out, and also turn in 5 photos.
Next was class. Didn’t do too hot on the quiz, but I
got at least 3 of the sentences correct. During 4th period we had our first
International Cafe, a time created for the exclusive purpose of language and
culture exchange held in the library discussion room. With free drinks. Free
coffee. I had maybe two or three cups, and now I can’t sleep.
OCTOBER 1
I couldn’t sleep last night at all, so I’ve been tired
all morning. I just went to class, bought groceries and came home to take a
nap. Tonight there is dance practice again~
I went back to campus around 6pm and was the first to
arrive for practice. Another member, a popper, arrived a little bit after me,
so we talked a bit before I decided to warm up. I ended up dancing from
6:30-9:30; it feels good overall but my back is a little sore. I haven’t
stretched it this much in a while.
Back home, and unfortunately, I still have kanji
homework to do.
OCTOBER 2
This morning, I woke up at 5:30am to finish my
homework. Still a little tired, but I’d say I’m a little more sore than
anything.
After our first class, Joy and I went down to the Mini
Stop, the convenience store right on campus. As we were standing in line,
suddenly one of the English teachers approached us. He asked us if we wouldn’t
mind visiting his English class that period. It would be a chance to help the
students. We didn’t know how much help we would be, but we complied.
The funny thing about classes with Japanese students
is that they usually don’t talk at all during the period. Of course, in this
English class they had to practice phrases, but otherwise it was so quiet.
Basically, we introduced ourselves, asked the students some questions, and had
a few of them ask us questions too. We tried our best to help out, but the
students are really shy, so I can’t tell if it helped at all.
OCTOBER 3
The school festival is coming up in a month! I’m going
to be dancing with the freshman-sophomore mix hip-hop team. We just started
learning the choreography today, but I’m catching on quickly. Our group
practiced together for a couple hours, and then it was free time. I myself continued
to dance for another 5 hours. Time really flies when you’re doing something you
love. I basically worked out all the tiredness and soreness, haha.
OCTOBER 4
Once again, my fridge is lacking provisions. Because of this, I left for
school earlier so that I could stop at MaxValu on the way and buy some fruit
and tea, and a bento, prepared box meal, for lunch. Then I only had
first period, so basically from 11am I was just hanging out in the library with
Jason and Mark.
(‘hanging out’ in the
discussion room)
We waited around until other students had finished
lunch or work, and then we went to have curry for dinner. Level 4 is pretty
good, next time going for Level 5. Jason and Mark also challenged Level 4, but
the struggle was real. By the time they finished their bowl they seemed to have
gotten used to it, but doesn’t seem like they’ll order it again.
We spent the rest of the evening just relaxing and
talking with the other students. Finally came back to my room at 2am, thanks to
Rachael. The others went home early, but we continued talking and watching
videos anyway.
OCTOBER 5
Remember that random conversation class we missed last
week? Well, we had to make it up this morning. Class on a Saturday: that was
fun to wake up for. The coffee milk helped, and I also had a macha (green
tea) ring cake, basically a donut, and it was delicious.
Now I’m home trying to clean my room. I Skyped with
Lynnette a few minutes ago and showed her the Gun Gun Gurt bottles I found. We
used to hunt it down in the vending machines back in Tokyo and Osaka. Now, I
found out its being sold at MaxValu. AND there is a 2 liter size! That’s more
Gun Gun Gurt than we could have hoped for back then, haha.
Okay, back
to cleaning. There is a birthday party tonight for Kaori, one of the Japanese
students who had helped guide us around the first week we arrived. I think it’s
at an izakaya, with a course meal. As long as there are non-pork dishes,
we’re good. It should be fun~
No comments:
Post a Comment