It's raining...

I didn't particularly want to go out today anyway. Outside is too gloomy... too cold... and I feel too lazy anyway hahaha.

So right now I'm listening to sad gloomy songs whilst cleaning my room... it's about time. My room is a huge mess again... even though I'm in it almost all the time... I don't know how it can get so messy. -_-;

Lately since it's been so quiet in the dorm I've taken to watching comedy shows on TV. It's amazing how much I think I can understand what they are talking about nowadays. Newscasters who speak a hundred miles per minute. Dudes performing comedy acts on screen with heavy Kansai dialects. Whew.

I really feel like I've learnt a lot this year.

January through March passed by rather quickly as I prepared myself to come to Japan. April was a flurry of activity. Placement tests, sightseeing, making new friends, classes. May was about the same. June came our first big exam. July I was back in Brunei... I think. Or was it August? Exams again in September. Moving to Intermediate Japanese and studying furiously through out October and November for the second last major exam that ends in December. Tying up loose ends and figuring out which Universities we want to go to... and then a three-week holiday... whew. Which is where I am now... in the middle of a holiday. It has been... such an amazing year hasn't it.

Not to forget I /am/ still 18 hahaha. Best year so far. Yup yup. Ah, loving live right now.

22nd: Snowed in...

Fun fun funnnn....

I love Aimi!

Her latest testimonial on my Friendster:

Najaaaaaa.... Hi sayang.. Jangan marah me for not contacting you batah ani. I'm trying now, no? Anyhoots, I miss you very much. I miss my baby Naja whose birthday comes a week after mine! She's wonderful because I have to say nice things so that we'd still be friends! *winks* hahaha! Tom called me a few hours ago (yes, we are still having our affair) and he sends his love... Naja... The person who told me that there wouldn't be any love without hate during our daily walk on the MD greens to go to our classes. I remotely remember the subject of love being brought up when we were talking about Alex and him wanting to be reincarnated as a pig so that he could have orgasms that lasts up to 8 hours. I love our random chats.

I'll message you my address once you reply me!
XxX Syg always, Aimi
Ps: I'm randomer than you and you look so cute with the Kimono! Like the cat who ate all the cream! ;P

Of other things

Oh, I've found something to do it seems! Tomorrow I'll be going to Kobe, for the first time and I'll be hanging around with the guys at the Luminarie (sp?). Apparently Kobe's going to go up in lights as it's the anniversary of the Great Earthquake that pretty much totalled Kobe almost a decade ago.

The amazing thing about knitting

The amazing thing about knitting is... it's a straight-forward problem. No matter what happens, no matter what you do, the solution to the problem will always be right there in your hands. Even thought it'd be in impossible pretzels that want to make you pull your hair till you go even worse than just bald (scalp-less even). It also takes so much of your time that any thoughts of boredom simply have no place to settle. You can watch TV and knit. Talk to your friends and knit. Watch TV, talk to your friends and knit ^^

Ah, endless. Even though when exams ended, holidays started, I ultimately found myself basically with nothing to do, well, at least, nothing in particular... until I sat down and started knitting. (Isn't it amazing how one simply does not know what to do with one's self after a bout of exams - when one knew what to do each day (what other than to study? ^^)、even 'fun' is somehow ruled out... as if 'fun' never existed, or that 'fun' was erased from one's dictionary... exams aren't very healthy things... I think hahah ^^;)

Even though the last thing I knitted up ended up like a disaster piece I still feel a sense of contentment that I have spent my time, not sleeping, not lazing around, not mindlessly doing... nothing. ...I seriously need to get out more thought... hahha

Snow again~~ *happy*

Oh, I felt so disappointed this morning when talking to Sylvie- the girl from Romania who'd just moved in around October. She said that it snowed early the morning before and I was still in bed then so I didn't get so see it!!

But! Just a few minutes after she went back to her room it snowed again! Woo, and it was more than how much it had snowed last time too! It's snowing still even now, I mean, half snowing, half raining actually (amazing).

Oh it was so pretty! I went down for some groceries (well actually I went down to buy milk and I ended up buying sweets too -_-;;) and the snow! Yeesh, all over my face, it was just plain ice really, some rather big chunks kept splattering on my coat *brrr*

Anyway, later!

Winter Hols!!

Oh I'm so ecstatic! I have 3 weeks off from school (even if I have to compile research on my dissertation) and not only that, I also just came back from 天神橋筋六丁目 where I just got this awesome awesome aWeSoMe thing called 'hot water bottle' *kekekeke* and it's now under my futon, toasting up my bed... ooh ooh I can't wait to go back and slip under the covers ^^

Actually, winter holidays haven't yet actually officially started. It's officially starts next Monday but already I hear there were some students that have flown off to their countries, most will be gone by the end of this week. The entire campus will be as dead as a tomb by Monday hahaha, well, maybe not Monday but Friday next week since the rest of the campus will start their own hols from then ^^

And I myself am wonder what to do... I don't have plans. Well, actually the plan was to hibernate, literally, but then again, I did almost 6 months of hibernation i.e. holidays before I came to Japan... it almost actually made me sick of holidays, but then again since I had TV, playstation, DVDs and 24-hr access internet back home... how could anyone get bored with all that technology around yeah? But now I don't have any of those... oh well I can, I suppose, rent out DVDs from the store, Book Plaza that's just about an hour's walk there and back. But when I really think about it... no easy access TV, no playsation, no internet... it's almost like I've gone back to the stone ages!

Technology is addictive.

And addictions are almost never good things. Oh why oh why.

Maybe this 3 week holidays isn't so good after all. Or maybe I should seriously think about hibernating... at least time will pass easily until my friends come back from their own trips; I'd have more entertainment by then, bothering them... ^^ Too bad humans don't really hibernate. Ah what a pity.

Slow uploading! Oncoming pictures ^^

December 10th, Saturday, and I was bored, a little headache-y after the all-nighter out at karaoke and I also only just finished my breakfast/lunch/dinner, yes I had all three meals in one go since I woke up so late anyway; I decided... hey! Why not take a picture of the mess I made in the kitchen!

The entire kitchen table was filled... with my mess... good thing there was no one else around at that time else I'd have had to clean it all up real quick.


Places behind the stove and the entire bench by the sink -_-;


And the commons... half the table... hahaha


To top off my very boring afternoon I started taking pictures of me! hahaha

If anyone's wondering why I keep saying afternoon and yet the lighting in the pictures look as if they were taken at night... the answer to your question would be that it was already dark by 5/5.30. Seriously ^^

Now for the last half of the pictures: It's kind of obvious I can't put on all of them here but here are some of the ones I chose that didn't turn out blurry or too dark to see. My coat, *kekeke*, USJ presented to you by elmo... if you look close enough you'll see him there. Popeye, Hello Kitty, a lampost *haha* and then the globe that says 'Universal' on it ^^;













That's it for now, toodles.

Awesome weekend!

Ah... my weekend. From the day of my last post, Friday last week, it's been such a whirlwind of events.

Went to my first karaoke night out on Friday night. Was out with the girls on the same floor at the dorm, Hee Jeung, Elien, Aurelie and Anni and believe it or not we started around 9pm and only finished at 5am the next morning when it was so cold and obviously no buses were running so we walked back to the dorm. Whew... that night was so nice... And I really would like to tip my hat off to Anni- thanks to her choosing a song to sing for the next mass-field trip (where they said a representative from each country should sing at least one song... and drat drat drat for me and Anni since we're both rather rare species, I suppose one could say- Aurelie has others from France around now so I suppose that she's pretty safe... I think ^_^) I can now actually participate in it (hahahha- but seriously, I was toying with the idea of not going just because of the singing XP) If anyone's curious the song is Asian Kung-fu Generation's Haruka Kanata which is also known as the anime Naruto's second opening theme - Far Off Distance. Heeheheh... *so relieved that it's something Japanese which I actually know hahaha*

Saturday. Well, needless to say I was rather tired and has a really sore throat, it didn't last long but I simply could not get out of bed until noon. I went down to do grocery shopping and all of a sudden it was already quarter past 3 when I had my breakfast... -_-; I was supposed to be writing up a personal statement but I barely got two lines in when it was already time to watch a movie (It was decided, we have movie night every Saturday night and we always split the cost of renting out the movie). Slept around 11pm.

Sunday. Now, what a fantasticly awesome/weird day. I went to Universal Studios Japan (USJ) with my Host Family... left around 2pm and we were there until around 8.30pm or so. It was so cold... and we all only got to go in one ride due to the fact that there were SO many people and it was an hour's wait before anyone could get in to any ride... -_-; but I went to ET's stand and it was awesome!

Imagine that space simulator from Jerudong Park? It was a little like that only one sits in this tram that's hanging from the ceiling (a little like how the seats are on Boomerang, the roller coaster) and we basically were whirled around on this mini-'adventure' to space inside the building. I have to admit, it was pretty fun. Imagine a ride through some haunted house, instead that there are no ghosts and/or monsters but aliens... Ha.

I was so tired out in the end I slept in the car and didn't even realise it when they'd finally brought me back to my dorm... *embarassing* But the twin girls were also sleeping with me... well, literally all over me, I had one leaning to my side and the other one sprawled all over my lap... I didn't mind so much, they were cute haha.

I did take pictures I swear! It's just I didn't have time to resize them... or rather it slipped out of my mind today so I'll just leave it at that and I'll post them up when I can... hopefully tomorrow ^_^

Of Dissertations and Decisions

I'm too young to start writing one!! is what I really want to say right now, but I don't think I can accomplish that without sounding too much like a brat *heee*. In anycase... Fact is: I need to write one in order to graduate. Another fact: the deadline is on February the 24th so I actually do have about 2 months... and a half(?) to write it.

But there is also the the fact that: I haven't written a report in so long... in fact, when was the last time... oh. GP classes in MD... there were reports then, and presentations that were done too. Hey, I do have some experience with this! *happy now* But then again... T_T why... I guess in this way it is a good thing that I have 3 weeks before classes begin again.

Oh, I made my final decision today on my want-to-go-to-University list. I put Kobe first, Tsukuba, Hiroshima, Kochi, Utsunomiya and Chiba at my 6th. I'd had my heart set on Hiroshima for several weeks actually but then I realised that I probably read or interpreted something wrong since the International Relations course in Hiroshima is more into Law and Sociology, and I want to go more into Culture and Communications so... I just busted it down to third instead. Third and still on the list because I still want to go there. ^^ Anyway, I won't know which University I'll be headed to until late January so since now I've given in my list (i.e. I can't change it anymore), there's nothing I can do but sit tight and wait ^^.

End of Exams!

Oh I'm so happy that they're over! I'm so happy that after the last paper I had this morning, I went right back to my room and went straight to sleep ^^ ...for two hours before lunch then I had classes in the afternoon =_= but it's over! It's over *dances*

...But then again I find myself looking at web pages that offer help to people who are clueless about writing dissertations... and also about presenting them. What have I gotten myself into? hahaha~

雪！Snow!

No, unfortunately I did not think to be taking any pictures but it snowed! Yesterday! Not half an hour after my last post. At around 3 pm I remember. A friend called me up and tried to tell me that it was snowing (which I could not hear properly since there were apparently several people around her shouting and screaming - I was wondering what kind of party she was in at that point haha) and I ran out after grabbing my coat and forgetting my gloves and my hat.

Oh it was pretty ^^ It wasn't much and it only snowed like... less than 15 minutes I'm quite sure. There were people walking around giggling and such. One guy was walking around in his slippers jumping up and down while 'walking' with one of my classmates. I don't know how he stood it. It felt like the time I just plunged my hand down a bucket of ice to pick up a well-chilled tin of 7up only to be holding something metallic and therefore still just as icy. I.e. It was probably just as cold as the freezer haha

It was fun yesterday... and after my speech exam today, which by the way was alright, I went down to Onohara which is about a 40min to an hour's leisurely walk from school for lunch and to let all that post-speech stress out and I had steam coming out from my mouth every time I talked or breathed- hahahaha, I have to admit, cold as it was today, it was fun ^^ To top it all off, halfway to the restaurant we saw this car whose top was probably about an inch or so covered in snow! Wherever that car came from... ^^; I hope it snows enough around Osaka to pile up instead of to melt immediately even before touching the ground ;;

One last exam and then I'll be -almost- home free ^^

Layout changes

I'm going to have to change the layout of the blog a few times this week as it would seem that I can't get it the page to come up on the browsers here and neither can a friend of mine in Kyoto... or at least someone else has told me that she'd had had to change the codes for something in order for it to come up. But anyway, hope you bear with me for a bit *sorry*

In anycase there was the Kanji exam this morning, and I have to say, it wasn't bad at all- I know I tried my best and I know I'll pass but I don't know how much I'll get though ^_^ I'm actually doubting that I'd reach even 90 but that's still cool *shmile*. So tomorrow there's only Listening, Speech and Grammar left (though saying it like that makes it look like easy peasy but it's not... so much really ^^; The area covered by Grammar is so huge... It's almost like a year's worth of work... technically the entire Intermediate-Level Japanese Textbook haha

It's cold today... Even more so yesterday, in actuality, since it was raining... I thought I was freezing, but it would appear it could get much worse. Last night I'd discovered the auto-timer for my AC/heater so now I set it to turn off at around midnight and turn back on about half an hour before I wake up *to prevent from over heating as the blanket/futon is so think one can get over heated at night. But besides this new discovery, is also another new one. I can't wear my windbreaker anymore. Nope. Too cold for that already... actually I have been weaker that coat on for a week or two now but I took off the second lining for that. I think... I might just have to put that lining back on ^^ It really is cold.

I remember back home... when one lives on the 2nd floor (1st floor for Brunei) and wants to go down to grab something from the fridge in the middle of the night one always has to put something warm over and socks... well, socks would always be a necessity when one tries to walk in the cold over marble floors but moi? does not do that therefore I would always end up freezing anyway. Even if the kitchen's barely 30 seconds dash away and that I'd be only getting the water. At least the kitchen can get warm enough some nights so one does not end up freezing in the kitchen at all. But here? Here I can't, can't, get out of my room to walk outside without socks without immediately freezing. Yep, it's too cold for bare feet now. I'd been able to escape my room with just a light jacket but not anymore I think... The hallway is cold, the kitchen even colder and the coldest place of all? The laundry room. *shivers* Just thinking of it is enough to send shivers down my spine. Anyway, even as I say it as if it's the worst thing that's ever happened, ever, truthfully, I'm still quite comfortable with it all.

Oh, and to top off today's post, I'd like to mention that I will be writing my thesis/dissertation starting January and the theme (unfortunately I can't say that I freely chose it since I freely chose it amongst four already chosen themes and the other themes were either stuff I did not understand or they were already taken *there was a person-to-theme limit per class*) is... レジ袋有料化 which kind of means... something along the lines of 'the movement towards paying fo shopping bags at the store...' or something like that haha- I know, that did sound funny ^^ Basically they're all thinking about having to start to pay for those plastic bags you get at (just about any) store which one usually gets for free and that's the theme.

How am I going to do this? (T_T)

Luckily I remember Ms Jules from Social Science Dept. at MD mentioning this once... oh I really wish I could talk to her right now to see what she thinks of this. I mean... what? Do we have this kind of movement going on in Brunei? I remember vaguely when I was 13 hearing my science teacher saying that they were going to introduce paper bag systems instead of the plastic since it's more environmentally friendly, but what about this problem about paying for them in itself? Is it good or bad? Is it necessary or completely ridiculous? Is there a country or any place in this world which asks its customers to pay to bag up their bought goods? I mean, it's the same when you're ordering stuff online right? Only that one buys, and then pays for the packaging and delivery together. When one does it by going to the shop by one's self, does one have to pay for the 'packaging' too? How about the taxes, where does it all come in here? How about raising the price of the products in over to cover the cost of the plastic bags instead of paying for them one by one... okay, I'm on a questioning roll here but I think I've forgotten to mention the one thing that I actually really want to know the most:

How does one write a dissertation?

I mean, is it like a report? ... It has to be and if it really is then maybe I can weasel my way out of this all by simply writing it down like an argumentative-type essay... =_= I'm probably going to have to do some real research for this aren't I?

Hello December

I just got back from watching Harry Potter! Not going to spoil anything so I'll leave it at that ^^ I decided to go walk to Carrefour this morning and watch the movie at the cinema there and I almost... very almost bought a ticket to watch HP dubbed in Japanese ^^; so lucky I caught the English version instead. What happened was that I didn't really understand these funny looking kanji below the title of the movie and very curiously asked the cashier(?) what it meant. Phew... that really saved me ^^

In any case, it was cold today, I mean... so suddenly cold. I remember around noon I was so close to the Carrefour building already and the sun was so warm then, I thought 'Oh, it feels a little like late Spring' and then when I was making my way back it was cold. It wasn't downright freezing or anything but the change in temperature shocked me... a lot ^^; It's... I think Winter now. At least, I know the cycle goes 'December-January-February' is Winter so... and I'm surprised. It's not particularly as cold as I thought it would have been ^^ But then again... it is supposed to be getting colder. *laughs*