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Friday, 06 November 2009

I met my pen pal today!

During 1st we practiced Beautiful Day by Arashi while the JNHS Jrs. blew balloons and prepared for undoukai.

2nd period comes! The bus came like ten minutes late but everyone was really excited and cheering when the Japanese students arrived. Some of the name cards for the Japanese students took.. very little effort (well.. at least it was something..) but lot of the handmade name cards were very nice! ... mine was Totoro-themed. Ayano-san looked so much like my friend Linna hehe. Then the MCs (Carmen, Taylor and on Miyakonojo Nishi's side was Togo-kun) Washington principal and the Miyakonojo Nishi's kouchou (principal) talked.. and then we sang. And then the Japanese dtuents went to sing... oh my god. They owned us at this so bad. One girl was conducting, and another was playing piano.. and they were separated girl-boy.. so organized and when they sang it was like watching a real choir group sing. It was SO GOOD. They put us to shame. But they liked our singing anyways, so it's all good. They were so adorable! all of them! So polite and modest and everything!

HR- toured her around the school while struggling to say the right things in Japanese...

3rd/4th Undoukai! It was too wet outside so we had to play in the cafeteria. 1st group (us) did the ice breaker.. group human bingo which was um.. a little messy but interesting. 2nd group did Orange ribbon which is kind of like the three legged race but with a ribbon wrapped around four people.. and we switch our ribbon to the next group in our team after we run. 3rd group did this ball passing race. 4th group did balloon popping war. We couldn't do the 5th group because it was water balloon stuff and we were indoors.. mm hmm.

Lunch- everyone got two cookies, chicken tuna croûton celery lettuce ???? wrap, chips, water, carrots, apple. I liked the wrap, but a lot of the Japanese students didn't like it. My host ate some but I don't think she finished it. It was so freaking filling too.. I couldn't even finish it. People kept going to Ayano-san and talking to or hitting on her and she was so friendly to them. Well actually all the students were very friendly. They were surprised to see we had purikura here.

5th- I was in this group that did the Sorry Sorry dance. made so many mistakes lol. Then choir came in and sang two songs. Then Miyakonojo Nishi students practiced their presentation with us, I finally hear my hostee speak English yay! Her group's topics are Kimono/Yutaka.

6th- I went to Benson's class because there was a Miyakonojo Nishi group doing a presentation about decoden (phone decorations) and pimped out stuff haha. I actually.. enjoyed listening to their Japaningrish. It was cute, really. I think that's how we must sound when we speak Japanese with our American accents bleeding through. Their thoughts about our school is that we have so much more freedom than they do, and that they like our school and it's so big and pretty (SERIOUSLY??)

7th- Oh no they're leaving! Lots of pictures taken, gifts exchanged, addresses exchanged. Bye bye Ayano-san and other Miyakonojo Nishi people!

I might post up some pictures for once because this day was EPIC. I took Liza's camera to take it.. Liza domo arigatou for allowing me to use it. I really want to go to Japan now ...to view their school...

Yoshi! So I got her big rice krispie bar, reese's pieces, Ghiredelli chocolate (from sister), starbursts, cable car ornament (from mom.. I should've chose something cuter but NO I wanted accurate..), SF magnet (from Yuki), homemade Ne-Yo CD (from Yuki again), and I think that's it.
God.. they put me to shame again. Ayano-san gave me konpeito (sugar candy), Hello Kitty aburatorigami (facial oil blot paper thing), various candy in a small Hello Kitty zippered container, Anpanman brand agesen (some sort of rice cracker bits) in a Hello Kitty giftbox (I think she likes Hello Kitty..), Japanese spring postcard, eraser, lead pencil.. wait wah? It's got instructions for some reason. Oh! And the chopsticks that the school gave us are so pretty! Mine is black with white and pink sakura flowers on it.

I hope she had fun. Now that I look around the pictures and stuff from other people they seem so much happier. @_@ And Carmen and them did so much more than I did.

Sunday, 01 November 2009

Happy November!

Daylight Savings ended! Yet I still didn't catch up on much sleep. Maybe it's because my dog woke me up at 7am so she could sleep on my bed.

My parents made me take the H1N1 shot yesterday. We waited from 7am to before 10am. I really didn't want to take the shot for several reasons. Surprisingly the needle didn't hurt. The doctor was pretty good. A lot of the shots I get from the Chinatown office hurt a bit... but maybe that was because I kept staring at the needle as it went into my arm... yeah I looked the other way from where the shot was being given.
It was funny. The moment I walked in there-- kids screaming and sobbing and begging their parents to get out of taking the needle. The adults were just grinning because they were so amused as the parents tried to persuade the kids that it didn't hurt, it's supposed to keep them safe, they'll get candy afterwards, etc.

Okay so I don't have to worry about H1N1 anymore, not that I have been worrying... but moving on. I watched Donnie Darko for Halloween! It was EXCELLENT! I loved it! It's my newest obsession! I had to think and read stuff about it... for several hours just to grasp the ideas better. I'm thinking of watching the movie again in my newfound understanding. *_* I really liked the trippy scenes. It was just so weird. I liked Frank though. My friend Kiyomi told me that he was the creepiest thing, but now that I've seen it I think he's pretty cool.. I really want to discuss the movie more!

All jpn penpal recipients are coming this Friday! I haven't decided on my person's gift yet. For sure it can't come from an expensive Japantown shop because usually Japanese people don't vacation in America for MORE Japan! I remember my friends crowding around Toyomi one day asking her about what they preferred. So.. the girls want to go with the green trend too. That means I'll buy her SOMETHING (maybe a and present it in one of those.. eco-friendly bags from Trader Joe's.. or something. It depends; I want it to look good for her. I should ask my niece for help.

Oh forget it. I'm not even going to look back at what I wrote anymore. I need to study.
GOGOGOGOGO

Saturday, 10 October 2009

I took some Nyquil this afternoon. It's been half an hour already.
I'm trying not to fall asleep so I went on Xanga. I'm not sure if the medicine has already taken effect. My head is hurting a little bit and I'm feeling a little drowsy, but that might be because I needed some weekend sleep. I'm hoping it's not the Nyquil. haha
wish me luck, please.

Tuesday, 22 September 2009

family's names

So somehow my sisters got my mom on the subject of how we got our name. My mom said that Amy's name came from Amy Kennedy, who was the then-current president's... daughter. Then Betty said, "how did I get my name?" And then I broke in, "Betty Crocker!" and we all started laughing. Then my mom said that it came from the then-current president Ford's wife, Betty Ford. And my name came from all those nurses from the hospital she was at, since there were.. many Karens there. My mom considered naming me "Mabel" after her doctor, but then chose Karen instead. Then my sisters asked, "how did you get Linda?" and my mom told us that some friend chose it for her. Friend: "Here. Use this name from now on." Mom: "Okay. o.o" And the same went for the name Willie for my dad. "You, take Willie." "Sure. o.o" Then my sisters started joking about the name Willie and how no one but past SF mayor Willie Brown has it. And then I left when they were talking about our nieces names and when my sisters were choosing what name they would change it to if they wanted to. Then I heard, "what about James?" for my brother, to which my mom said, "James Bond" LOL

Other family's names
Simon- when he came here from HK as King Fai he wanted his American name as Elvis but then at a dinner Betty and my mom were like "noooo pick.. pick Simon! Simon's a nice smart sounding name!" and Simon it became.
Gigi- her original name is Gi, I think, according to her attendance sheets.
Elena- her parents were going to name her Dudu (doodoo? dodou? sp?) but a nurse stopped the mom and said that it was a stupid sounding name so they changed it to Elena instead.
Kristy/Christy- we called her Polly since she was born and around last year or so, her name suddenly turned to Kristy/Christy because her parents heard on the news that a girl named Polly was kidnapped or killed and they didn't want that type of name because of the history. She responds to both Kristy/Christy and Polly though.