Taiko Cake

Despite everything that I said earlier, the taiko cake turned out to be a great success! ^o^




I can't believe half of it was eaten! It was more than I expected and it made me happy. Layers from top to bottom: butter, confetti, chocolate, and vanilla.

Through skill and perseverance (<- I have a hard time remembering how to spell/pronounce this word! Erghh!), my friend and I managed to pull it off!

...but after two days straight of parties and cakes, I WANT NO MORE.

The most honest truth is that I don't actually like cake.
I just made myself think that because everyone else loves cake.
The fact that cake is also often used for special occasions and regarded as a real treat also makes the idea of cake so much more attractive. But when I think about taste (regardless of the flavor), I'm not too fond of it.

I don't like a lot of food that seem to be popular with others, such as ice cream, beef...and burgers.

...yep! I quite fond of things that people tend to think are gross, such as seaweed and mushrooms! ^^;

We partied so much tonight. It was a party for the three boys who are May babies. <3

I was seriously the ONLY yellow person in the entire apartment (red "Asian" glow all around!)

Drunk people get reallyyyy intimate.
People were all over me.
And one of my good girl friends humped my leg...
I didn't even realize it until later! I'm still pretty shocked!

Morgan once told me that I had a "strong heart" and that made me feel good. :)
I don't need alcohol to get high because I have my natural high.
I'm the only sober one, but I can act crazy with the drunks because I'm silly like that!

A drunk friend actually walked me back to my dorm (on opposite sides of campus!) even though I insisted that I should be walking him instead. I couldn't shake him off. ^^;

Overall, it was a really good night~ my dream is to wake up early tomorrow morning to go to the gym...but it's 3AM so I doubt that will happen. LE SIGH.

Good night!

Trying not to neglect!

Dude.

I seriously fail at this blog.

Complete fail.

Sometimes, I feel like I don't really care about it that much. Because Tumblr is just that much cooler, funner, and addicting.

I still need this when I have long text posts I want to do, though. Still don't feel comfortable writing alot on Tumblr. ;)

Anyway, I had a lovely dinner with everyone from work at Marco Polo, the only Chinese restaurant I've been in Salem that hasn't failed completely. I ordered the walnut chicken, but only because I really wanted to eat roasted walnuts drizzled in honey. That's the best kind of stuff!



And then I ended up watching two episodes of Glee with Chelsie. I've never watched Glee before and just jumped right into the Christmas episode. Fun!

We went to a party afterward and exchanged Secret Santa gifts. I've exchanged Christmas gifts before, but at this one particular moment, I thought, "Oh. This is what Christmas is."
Somehow, I thought I felt Christmas for the first time, but it's really hard to explain. My Secret Santa turned out to be a freshman boy and my gift was three pairs of knee-high pink socks. Honestly, I don't think he knew what a good gift for me would be at all but he tried and I love him anyway because he's adorable. He accidentally left his overdue library card inside, lol! I was so confused after unwrapping it. :P



I stayed up till 4~5am that night (or morning) for no reason. I was talking to my roommate and just didn't feel like sleeping. I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to wake up the next morning, but I knew I had taiko practice and that would force me to get up. And I did at 8:30am.

It was our last performance with the TIUA students before they returned to Japan. It generally went well, despite the slippery floors (we played outdoors when it was raining!) I had also pulled a butt muscle from running around in the rain in high heeled boots.

We were also given a short break to check out the flea market and I spent less than $20! Awesome.

We had a party that night at Kaoru's place. She and her husband own a vineyard so everyone was hoping to taste some of her wine...hehe!



She lived in a perfect house and I loved her living room. so. very. much.
I could imagine myself setting an easel in the middle of the room, painting Jaejoong or some other cute boy, while blasting JYJ on those amazing speakers.



And the food!

Oh my gosh, the food!!!

Okay, so I've been to nice restaurants and various other 'fancy' events that served 'fancy' food numerous times since coming to college, but I never thought the food actually tasted better really. Most of the time, everything looked better than it tasted. I was always disappointed. There was food in two different rooms and they just kept coming!



But this food was ah-ma-zing!!! So much wonderful desserts. We made okonomiyaki. Later, there were chicken drumsticks and pizza. And then this mysterious stew! No one really knew what it was exactly, except that it was heaven on earth. And the bread was incredibly soft. I loved the cheese spread. And there was this other almond-bacon-cheese spread on crackers that was interesting!

It was a sophisticated adult party (it wasn't just us taiko kids there) with wine. I tried some blushing champagne, which was pink with a frothy surface. It was really pretty~ my kind of drink! And then I tried the red wine that Kaoru recommended. It had a really strong smell and taste. I'm trying to ease myself into getting used to alcohol because I'm not liking it too much right now...but I'm trying some and being careful. :)

Too much fun in two days. I have a final on Monday. So I will have to have have to be serious tomorrow. Fo' sho!

Senior Luau

The senior luau was yesterday! I spent most of mid-morning and noon getting ready. Chunnie called me and I invited myself over her place so that we can go together. But something really scary happened while I was on my way! A man driving in the opposite direction of where I was headed had his arm draped outside the car window. With his other arm, he beckoned me to come over. I continued to walk forward, but when I looked back, I saw that he was leaning his head back and still staring at me! The next thing I knew, he had his car turned around and was driving next to me.

"Need a ride?"

I replied, "No," and to my relief, he drove away. I was so scared because he was pretty persistent. 恐い!!!

Chunnie and I met with Tracy and eventually arrived at school (safely!) The luau event started with a tour of Waikiki on the trolley (a great privilege made possible by events like these because trolleys are normally reserved for tourists). Tracy boarded trolley 3 with Chunnie and me even though she was supposed to ride trolley 2. Our trolley had its share of quiet people, so she made it fun. During the trolley ride, we were not allowed to shout profanity or sexist/racist comments of any sort...but showing our school pride was encouraged. Much of the screaming was done by her...with the exception of the occasional cry of "WAYMOND!!! WAYMOND!!!" (by Waymond's...boyfriend?) since Waymond moved to trolley 2 (mix-up between him and Tracy?) I did some screaming, but only when I wasn't too preoccupied with laughing at Tracy, who was so hilarious and cute (she screamed extra loud when she spotted good-looking half-naked blond boys). Since the other four trolleys were close by (all going down the same way), I could hear everyone making a lot of racket. Some people in the streets looked at us with a bewildered look on their faces, but others smiled and joined in on the fun by waving in response or throwing a shaka.

On our way to Treetops, the restaurant the luau was held at, we saw chickens! And it flew! I didn't know chickens could fly! (Chunnie explained that they could to a certain extent.)

When we arrived, we played games - Hawaiian themed charades and trivia. I made a mistake during the buffet by putting on too much cold food on my plate because I didn't know that there would be a lot of hot food toward the end of the line. My favorite was the barbecue chicken and the thick slippery glass noodles (it tasted super Chinese and was extremely good!) I ended up eating two large plates because it is against my nature to waste. We took pictures after dinner, announced the senior luau court, and played limbo before the dancing started.



It was my first time so I felt really awkward, but I learned to just move around. Everyone's body heat warmed the place up, so I stayed in the crowd to prevent myself from getting cold. I only wished they played better music (I didn't know most of the songs and many of them were so obnoxious-sounding!) I would be happy to dance to A.R. Rahman, haha!



This was the backdrop I painted so that everyone could have a little bit of fun. ^.~ I've never really painted before and it was the first time I've painted something on such a large scale! :)

When the music stopped playing, my throat was really sore and everyone's ears were ringing (the aftermath of insanely loud music). Erica described the sensation as having your ears stuffed with marshmallows - quite true! Overall, I had lots of fun. ^^

The night ended with screams of "WAYMOND!!! WAYMOND!!!" (again) on the trolley ride back to school. Tracy was too tired by this point to yell (and wake up the entire neighborhood). We sat and watched the city lights flash before our eyes, huddling together for what warmth our bodies gave against the cold.

Fall Break!

This was the busiest "break" of my life (busier than when I was actually in school!) I barely slept. I didn't have time to blog! To make up for it, this is going to be a long post. :)

Saturday, Oct 4
I spent this night watching my first and last Homecoming game. I never cared for football, which is why I never attended any games before, but I'm required to take pictures for yearbook... and it is my senior year. I heard that our football team isn't that great, but I didn't think we were that bad. But we were. We lost horribly. The score was 0 - 30. It wasn't fun shooting pictures for hours straight. The camera I used was specially lent to us by the graphic arts teacher. It was supposed to be the best one, but it was defective. Every time I click to take a new picture, a message would appear saying, "Err 99." We didn't know what "Err 99" was so we couldn't fix it. When I did manage to snag some shots, they were all blurry. I remember my face getting sticky from the humid weather (it rained every so often). During half-time practice, I carried the senior class homecoming banner across the field. We ended up 2nd place, with the freshmen winning 1st. I wasn't upset, until I heard that the freshmen had "outside" help. Since they cheated, I don't consider them real winners.

Sunday, Oct 5
I spent the morning making an eeyore plushie for Wai Chu and the rest of the day at Joyce's place, making Wai Chu's two birthday cakes. The cake batter is green tea flavored, but the two cakes have different frosting. One cake had azuki beans incorporated into the whipped cream, and the other was green tea cream cheese frosting. I love the azuki bean one the most! *o*



Monday, Oct 6
The cakes were finished just before Wai Chu's birthday party:



It was a shabu shabu party held at her boyfriend's place.



There were two pots.

Regular:


And spicy:


We threw in tofu, lettuce, cabbage, dried bamboo, meatballs, taro balls, cuttlefish balls, cuttlefish dumpling, noodles, and beef. :)

Tuesday, Oct 7
I finished eeyore this morning! :) It was very challenging to finish the plushie~ I almost thought I couldn't do it. I was very happy with Wai Chu's reaction when I gave it to her. ^o^ She's crazy about eeyore and has about twenty of them on her bed. This one will be special, though, since I embroidered her name on his body:



I was about to cry because I did the embroidering freehand and I thought it was ugly, but it was the best I could do without fancy tracing paper and other equipment needed for proper embroidery. We went shopping that afternoon (first time in ages!) I spent a lot of money. -_- I splurged and bought myself a Paul Frank t-shirt at Nordstrom. It didn't feature the monkey, but it was really cute!

We also stopped by Shirokiya afterward and both bought the new Calpico Aloe Vera drink. It's now my new favorite. *o* I love the way aloe vera tastes~! I remember having aloe vera yogurt during my trip to Japan earlier this year, and it was heaven! We ate at the noodle shop, "mikazuki" and both ordered miso udon:



I've eaten shoyu ramen and kitsune udon at "mikazuki" before, but I wanted to try something new. Of course, I ordered udon because I've been craving udon ever since I saw the movie, "Udon," which was all about udon. Udon is my favorite noodle. <333 The soup turned out to be a bit spicy and not what I expected. I finished the whole thing though (yay!) because I'm Chinese and can never ever waste food.

We spent the rest of the day raiding Barnes & Noble's craft and art section before going home. There are so many new books that I wanted to buy! *o* I checked the library catalog when I got home, but the library doesn't have them (at least not yet!)

Wednesday, Oct 8
I worked the entire day at the library since I took the previous two days off. But it was far from boring! There were more owl sightings and this time, inside the library itself!



Here it is, cleaning itself while I filmed him or her. :) Some people really couldn't believe that there was an owl in the library. They accused the librarian of lying when she showed them a photograph, claiming that it was a painting.

My favorite animals are lions, elephants, and owls. I've seen the first two at the zoo, and an owl at a field trip when I was seven years old. It was sleeping then, so I didn't get a good look. Other than that, I didn't know there were owls flying around in Hawaii. o_o;



This one is a Hawaiian short-eared owl called a pueo. At first, it hung around the area between the state capitol and Iolani Palace. The first time I saw it was when it was up in a tree by the library. There were green parakeets squawking furiously at it, but the owl ignored them. According to a co-worker, it had stayed in that position since 12pm (it was still there when I came out at 5pm!) And did I mention that it is the cutest thing ever? Even though I saw it poop (at least not on me)? It is very tiny and a little puffy. Several librarians expressed their concerns that it might be sick, but I hope that's not true. >< One claimed they saw a rodent in its mouth one day. We all wanted the owl to eat the rats for us (they come out at night and wrecked havoc in the workrooms) but my co-worker pointed out that it may not be good if the owl captured a rat that had been poisoned.

The owl flew on the ground once and I was very close to petting it. I couldn't do it because I was too shy and afraid to scare it away. We participated in a little staring game before it flew away. I added a shot of the owl in the 'fauna' gallery. ;D

Thursday, Oct 9
I had a doctor's appointment at 10:30 am. I finally get to wear contact lenses again! The rest of the day was spent in yearbook class, sorting and deleting the pictures we took during the homecoming game. I had around 200 shots, and none of them were good. BUT ONE GREAT THING DID HAPPEN! I SPOTTED YOO CHUN PARK (Micky of popular Korean boyband, Dong Bang Shin Ki) in his high school yearbook! I knew he went to Chantilly High School in Virginia (I remembered because my other website goes by the same name). When I saw a yearbook from Chantilly High School lying on the bottom shelf, I silently prayed that he would be in it. I looked him up in the index and sure enough, he was on page 309! XD He was a ninth grader then and his hair was still ugly. XP

Friday, Oct 10
I worked half day. The owl was still at the library! :) I met up with Jenni after work and she took me to Nijiya Market and Yogurtland!



I had no idea what to get, so I ended up getting green tea and taro yogurt, with a little pineapple yogurt on top. The toppings were awesome! *o* What other place would let you combine azuki beans with granola? It tastes weird together, but whatever. I love them both! I also had some cookie dough balls and cocoa puffs (I chose these randomly because I didn't know what they were until I tasted them) and mochi balls. My favorite toppings are the azuki beans (heavenly!) The pineapple-flavored yogurt tastes stronger than the green tea and taro. I tried a bit of Jenni's mango yogurt and concluded that the fruit-flavored yogurt tasted better. Next time, I'd like to get cheesecake yogurt mixed with another flavor (I haven't decided what yet). There's even peanut butter yogurt! I'd like to try that as well, simply out of curiosity. ;D Of course, no matter what I get, I'll put azuki beans on top because they're the best.

After Yogurtland, I stopped by Roosevelt for this year's last football game. I was forced to use the same camera so the pictures didn't come out any better. The varsity game was better (20 - 36) but we still lost!



Our football team may suck, but our band sure doesn't! :) I didn't know they did what S Orchestra does in Nodame Cantabile! I got very excited seeing it~ hehe.


Saturday, Oct 11
I came home after 11 that night so I had to drag myself out of bed early at 7 to get ready for a movie at 9. My sister gave me tickets to see a Chinese film called, "The Prince of Himalayas." It was a part of the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival held here every fall. I love watching foreign films! They're very different from the American movies I'm used to seeing and they widen my perspective of the world. "The Prince if Himalayas" is supposed to be a Tibetan adaption of Shakespeare's Hamlet. I'm not familiar with Hamlet, but I'm assuming it's a tragedy because everyone dies in the end. The Tibetan language is very interesting~ it sounds like a combination of Mandarin and Korean. The hero of the movie is played by Purba Rgyal, a new Tibetan actor. This is his very first movie. HE LOOKS VERY MUCH LIKE KIMURA TAKUYA!


Sunday & Monday, Oct 12 & 13
Calculus homework.

My ears go POP!

Weee~ I had a pretty busy three-day weekend! My ears kept popping today! Is it because I'm still sick? I wish I didn't have school tomorrow! XP

On Saturday, I spent the day volunteering at the annual Okinawan Festival at Kapiolani Park. I got dizzy from the work, but I met a lot of really adorable kids. <333 I always look forward to shopping around the booths after the shift is over~ this year, I bought so many things!


Ramune drinks! Left to right: Peach (new!) and orange


You CANNOT imagine how long I've been eyeing this. I ate two on Sunday and they did not disappoint. Yummy things, these are. ^^


Yes, I did buy a venus flytrap! Although people's eyes pop open when I tell them I bought a carnivorous plant (some people didn't even know it existed), it's really tiny. I wonder if they will really eat the mosquitoes and bugs that come flying into our apartment. D<


Kabocha! Since kabochas are smaller than American pumpkins, I thought they'd be easier to grow on our balcony but I'm still not sure how big kabochas are exactly...hehe. ^^; This was only $1.00 so why not?

Sunday went by slowly...I tried to spend the day finishing my homework, but I only got a few math problems done. What got in the way was the novel, "The Crimson Thread" by Suzanne Weyn. It's a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin and I couldn't stop reading it. Later in the afternoon, I got a call from a friend to attend a birthday party so I ended up not doing any homework that night. XP

It was really fun though~ her apartment is really tiny and cute. Although there was no television, we all managed to keep ourselves occupied by talking and laughing. We ate Chinese food and ended with strawberry ice cream cake from Cold Stone.



After eating, we took pictures, played card games, and made a lot of noise. xD I was worried that the neighbors would complain, but the birthday girl assured me that we could laugh until it was 10:00pm. After 10, it was difficult for us to shut up so we eventually went home around 10:30pm.

On Sunday, I studied calculus with a bunch of classmates the whole day. It was actually my first time studying with other people. I thought I wouldn't be able to concentrate, but I did get fifty problems done (even though there was a lot of chatting going on). I think I rather like studying with everyone~ it made doing the work more fun. ^o^

Last Day of School!

Whoo hoo! I have said this many times, but I want to say it again: I still, still, still can't believe it is summer already! For the first time in a long time, I won't be taking summer school. I regret this a little (but only a little) since the majority of my friends are taking summer classes, but I really don't want to bother with it this time. xD Jenny makes a good point - there is no rush to go to college. Why don't you just enjoy your high school days while it lasts? I just experienced how fast the years go by. Two more years is nothing. Gosh, the very thought of graduating so soon is a bit scary. I plan to quit the Engineering Academy in my senior year because I find that being an engineer is not me after all. The electives I signed up for the next school year are "Graphic Technology" and "Travel Industry & Management." I feel like I'm going in all directions, but I like that I have a chance to explore my options. ^_^

This whole week went by slowly. There were more parties than classes actually being held in school. On Tuesday, my special history class planned a surprise party for Ms. Naks. We had two other teachers help us with the plan, but I think Ms. Naks knew that something was up. How can it not be obvious with twenty-something people in on it? During lunch recess, we had Ms. Asato pretend to ask Ms. Naks to watch her class while she goes on an errand. That gave us some time to prepare.


People went absolutely crazy.

Again, my pictures do no justice. The class was a mess as we flew streamers around and over the lights. The resulting clash of green, blue, yellow, pink, red, and lavendar looked like a gigantic spiderweb...a colorful one. Then we blew up balloons and hung some of them on the streamers. Hoang made four big banners...crazy girl.


THE head.

People who watched our play might recognize this. This was the mannequin-styrofoam head that Rachel, Juri, and I bought at Party City from all the way over in Waikele. We used it in our last scene in the Witch Hunts. Rachel's "head" was chopped off by the guillotine but curtains close before the audience sees. Then the "head" was thrown out onto the stage from behind the curtains. In the first two performances, the head got stuck in between the thick, heavy curtains. I wanted to get it right for the third performance so a precaution was taken. I took the initiative to throw the head out myself. However, I went a little overboard because the head flew right off the stage. -____-; Ah, well. The head is special to us all because of all the memories it holds. We decided to sign the head with a little message from each of us to Ms. Naks.


Uh-oh, somebody better help her.

Haha, I told Angie to smile for the camera but she looks like she is getting strangled by the big spider web. XD

When the bell rang for class to start, we told Ms. Nags (Nagareda) to blindfold Ms. Naks. We closed the lights and the whole class crouched down, ready. When she entered the class, the lights flipped on and everyone jumped up to yell, "Surprise!" while balloons were thrown at her. We gave her leis and then I gave her the doll I made. Then we had what seemed like a photoshoot session because thousands of cameras were flipped out and started flashing away for about ten minutes.

I said, "Don't you feel like a celebrity? XD"

Earlier, we had arranged our desks in a circle around our classroom. After the picture-taking session was over, we each stood up to say a little speech. Mine was crap because I can't say anything right at the right moment. Half of the girls in class started crying because that day was our last class together. Although I'm an emotional person, I wasn't one of them because I was not in the mood to shed tears.

We then grabbed some food while we watched a slideshow that Sam and Julia had prepared.


Going clockwise: Ally's chicken katsu, Hoang's mom's fried rice, my pasta salad, and Jenny's mom's mochiko chicken.

Note that the above picture only shows my first plate. ^^; Don't worry, I won't bombard you with any more pictures because the dessert pictures came out ugly (there were TWO cakes, toaster strudels, and cinnamon rolls). All of the food was deeeelicious and my favorite was Hoang's mom's fried rice. I think it may be the best fried rice I've eaten...no kidding (I've eaten fried rice at many places). At first, I was skeptical because I could see that there was pepper sprinkled all over it, but I found it the spiciness of the dish to be perfect. It complemented the rest of the flavors. The ingredients looked ordinary (like all other fried rice) - spam, egg, and cabbage...so it must be how the dish was prepared that made it taste so good. I want to ask Hoang more about it next time so I can learn to make it for myself. ^.~

3-Day Weekend

Many thanks to everyone who had previously commented on my camp post. The next part should be coming soon. ^^ The 3-day weekend has passed and it's back to school. *falls over* The last half of 2006 was really stressful, but I am very happy to say that I've been slowly learning to relax more now. =) Hopefully that won't grow into something more such as laziness. =) On Friday, I rushed with some assignments because I wanted the weekend to be free. When my sister came home that night, she had a lovely surprise for me. The long-awaited package from my Secret Santa finally arrived after about two months! The secret was revealed right away on the outside envelope: My Secret Santa was Jini. ^o^~


She managed to make me smile and laugh before even opening the envelope to see what was inside. Written on the front was the small message, "Mailman, please handle with care please! (2 pleases!)" There was another message scribbled on the back as well, "Dear Mr./Mrs. Mailman, handle with care!"


I will never again burn myself in the kitchen! And I'll always have a tiny little Totoro watching over me while I work on complicated math problems... My sister made one good point about the gift, though. She asked me why the package needed to be "handled with care" when the contents were soft items - my present was a pair of oven mitts and a really adorable handmade Totoro plushie. I don't know why either, but who cares? XP Jini is so cute. I was really touched by her gift, but I'm not surprised because she is always so thoughtful. I think Jini may be one of the nicest people I'll ever know. Thank you so much, Jini!!! Much love goes to you!

On Saturday, I visited the eye doctor first thing in the morning to fix my glasses. I spent the rest of the day with my friends in Chinatown which was celebrating Chinese New Year. =3 After watching the parade, I went home for dinner and was out again at 8:22PM, this time with my sister. We had fun watching the lion/dragon dance performances. Many of the performers were boys I knew from school. They really surprised me that night. I've never seen those looks on their faces before in school and I've especially never seen them work so hard before. The atmosphere was completely different from when we were in school. After that night, I gained new respect for them. I think watching their performance may be more special than any other I've seen before since I actually knew the performers. =) It is too bad that I have no pictures of the performance since they were all taken on my sister's cell phone camera. We headed home at 10:42PM when the celebration was officially over.

Sunday was New Year's Day. I greeted mom and greeted grandma over the phone. We ate from new fancy bowls decorated with drawings of dragons. I ate two bowls of rice and jai to please my mom. For lai see, I received $10 and a gorgeous lucky charm from her. It was made from jade and was in the shape of my zodiac sign, the sheep. My dad was not home all day and I did not receive anything from him. This was the first time he missed eating New Year’s breakfast with us and he offered no explanation why he wasn’t there. This year I didn't receive much money at all, but I'm happy. I guess it is true that money isn't everything. A while after breakfast, I received a call from Sara. It was her lunar year birthday today so we were going to have a party at 2:00PM. From then on, I spent the day baking her present, Russian Tea Cakes. Unfortunately, I didn't think they came out too good. T__T;

On Monday, I spent the morning watching a Jackie Chan movie dealing with babies. It was quite entertaining. Overall, my break was good and I used this opportunity to finish up on all the manga that I’ve been planning to read for days now. I finished Whistle! volume 14, W Juliet volumes 12 and 13 (OMG, 14 will be the last volume!), and Eternal Sabbath volume 2. I just finished Moon Child volume 2 today in school. I am really starting to love Eternal Sabbath. The series is so intriguing. I also very much love W Juliet and I have a good feeling that the series would end well since it seems like the author worked hard on planning it. I can’t wait for the finale! This series always makes me squeal. X)

I didn't really want to go back to school, but who can help it? We are making some small progress in World History with our upcoming play. Ms. Nakamura has divided the class into five groups with four persons in each group. My group includes Juri, Rachel, Kenneth, and myself. Each group were to come up with a tragedy and triumph in history with Women in History being the play's main topic. The class really couldn't come up with an idea on what to do for the play so the teacher decided for us. Her decision was very reasonable. She said she chose this after she realized there were 16 girls in the class and only 4 boys. Because we have a shortage on boys, we might as well do a play that focuses on mostly women. =) Unlike many others who may follow and act out the script from a book, we are to write the play ourselves. Right now, I am doing some research for our part. It will be a lot of hard work, but fun to write a play! =)

I have my schedule packed again this week because the Japan Wizard is fast approaching...in fact, it is this week Saturday. *screams* What shall I do?! Only my best. Yosh, がnばります!


What a funny job. I wonder how much they get paid...?

Christmas Day

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Let me recall the days that had passed since winter break started. When school finally let out on the 20th, I bought some last minute Christmas presents and hurried home to bake a lemon cream dessert for the Christmas party tomorrow. I stayed up all night wrapping presents with the help of my sister. I had to carry three bags the next day and it was so heavy that I needed to stop every few minutes to rub my sore red fingers.

The party was a bit chaotic. We exchanged presents first. There was a lot of fuss with the ingredients to make gingerbread cookies, but we did it and it was a success. Everyone was crowded around the living room watching the Final Fantasy VIII movie while I traveled back and forth between the kitchen and the living room. We had pasta and fried rice for lunch, my cake for dessert, and many junk food. I was really happy and relieved to hear that my cake tasted good and that many people enjoyed it. I was worried that something would go wrong and that it would taste horrible like the time I tried to make cheesecake for my sister's birthday. I hear empty compliments about my baking from my mom all the time, but this is the first time people actually showed they meant it by eating the cake. And it was the first time the cake was finished so fast~ and not by me! I spent the next two days out with my brother and my sister shopping. I tried to force myself to work on some Chemistry homework, but it was really boring so I couldn't bring myself to write more than two pages. I finally got to watch dramas again though! Currently, I am watching Cheap Love and Nodame Cantabile.

For some reason, today wasn't very Christmas-y for me. My sister is sick with a bad cold and that cold was passed on to my little brother. All my mom could do was yell and yell and yell. This caused my dad to get angry and he would start to yell back. My sister and I would shut the door to block out the noise, but they always get even angrier when we do that. Although most people wake up really early to because they are eager to open their presents, I woke up late with a slight headache. I ate a bowl of Chinese porridge with chicken and "figaro" cookies for breakfast. After breakfast, I carefully opened all of my presents. I'm a good girl so I opened all of my presents on Christmas day. The homemade chocolate I received doesn't count (I ate that on Christmas Eve). Afterward, I made a simple lunch with my brother and my sister and watched the Death Note movie.

I was really excited because I waited very long to watch this. Overall, I think the movie was not bad. However, Fujiwara Tatsuya looked too baby-faced to play the role of Kira. He is defintely a pretty boy, though, and looks like a cross between Elijah Wood and Teppei Koike. The one thing I really didn't like was how the character Kira differed from the one in the book. The Kira in the manga was most definitely smarter and no matter how how many criminals he killed, he still had a strong sense of justice. Remember, Kira's goal was to create a "perfect world with no criminals". (The following sentence is a spoiler to the ending of the movie so please highlight the text if you are not afraid to view.) The Kira in the manga would never create a situation in which his "girlfriend", Shiori, would be killed. I think he would be smart enough to figure out a different plan to avoid unnecessary killings because Shiori was not a criminal. He only killed others [that were against him] because their deaths were absolutely necessary for him to continue to exist. L also looked very young and Sayu a little too old, but all of the other characters matched well with the manga (especially Matsuda-san!) I was a bit disappointed to discover the movie ending when the story was just getting started (like NANA), but I guess it couldn't be helped since movies are not made to be a million hours long. I heard the sequel wasn't as good as the first, but I would expect it to be better since there should be more action.

After watching the movie, I spent the rest of the day studying for the Japan Wizard. This is similar to the Japan Bowl, but is a statewide competition instead of nationwide.

"The Japan Bowl is modeled on a quiz show format and aims to make the study of Japanese challenging and enjoyable. Teams of students are asked questions regarding Japanese culture, grammar, kanji, katakana, kotowaza, and onomatopoeic expressions."

Tonight was very upsetting for me because that bogus Beijing doctor visited our place again. Refer to this previous post. This time, she had to torture my sister with her weird concoctions and other things. I think she has to drink that medicine that gave me stomach cramps as well. Another sad thing is that my mother is wasting so much money on that useless lady.

Winter break has just begun for me and now I realize how short it is. I still have a lot of work to do. I should have to use my time wisely...

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Updates on Inspiration
I spent about two hours revamping some of the pages in the artwork section. You might not notice a difference, but I changed many things that were bothering me. I found many embarassing errors in my coding and also deleted some of my stupid comments. As promised, I also added a new drawing. I'm sorry it took so long for me to put it up. I was planning to color it, but I changed my mind now.
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Because I will be participating in the Japan Wizard, I think I'd like to start ending each blog post with a random fact about Japan. This will start today and end sometime in the month of February. Who knows? This might help me remember better and visitors get to learn something new.

Yukari hates fish anyway.