Finally an upside

to being larger and fatter than 95% of the people here - I went to the gap and they actually had my size in a denim skirt on the clearance rack!!! And it was actually marked down 75%, not like in America where the small sizes are only $5 less.

I kind of failed in the buying stuff for other people though.

I just went running. Surprisingly, the humidity was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be while running. It was just when I stopped that it was too hot. Good incentive to keep moving, I guess.

And I only have 200 pages left to go in the book I've been reading for months and months. Sadly, Jacksonian democracy hasn't gotten much more interesting.

I should really write something

But I can never think of anything to write about anymore. Today I didn't do anything very interesting. I went to the grocery store and tried to decide if I wanted to eat meat for dinner. I keep looking at it, but I finally gave in and got a piece of beef today. And I successfully undercooked it. Becka and Aaron both would have been alarmed the meat was bleeding on my plate.

Oh, and I actaully replied to all the emails I got. Usually I don't do that.

tomato and cheese :)

I made this really tasty pancake-omlette-pizza thing for dinner. Two eggs and a scoop of pancake mix with a clove of garlic and a sprinkle of oregano mixed in, with a sliced tomato and grated cheese on top. It was so good. I forgot to take a picture until after it was all gone, though. I think it was better than when I make a pancake with cinnamon mixed in. I kind of want to make a second one, but my friend Diana asked me to come over and watch a movie with her and Arlen and there will be cookies, so I am restraining myself.

It's raining now.

I have taken pretty much everything off my walls except for a few essential things, like the calendar.

Anyways, now I must go watch a movie.

I got a piece of mail that was not a bill!

But I'm not really sure what it is. Something about hot water heaters and there's a form to mail back and a list of what I assume are affected models. But it's strange that it's actually addressed to me. Also, the return address is in Kyoto. On Monday I'm going to take it to the office.

I'm sad because today I was going to cut up a carrot and so I set my little bowl on the sink edge and it fell on the floor and broke. So now I only have big bowls. But it did break into four big pieces so maybe I can buy some ceramic glue and stick it back together. Right now all I have is a glue stick.

I washed my sheets today too - I was trying to avoid having to do much more laundry, but they really needed it. It was really sunny today, though, so they got dry fast. And I started doing a little more packing - I filled my carryon suitcase with most of the books I'm bringing back (which is a small portion of what I have, I'm pretty much giving away anything that's not a Japanese book or a cookbook (plus three novels)) and I can barely lift it. Hopefully when I put the rest of my clothes in the big suitcases they won't be to the weight limit so I can stick some of the books in there.

And I can't decide if I need to get more presents for people when I come back. I figure since I already got a bunch of people Japanese presents at Christmas, I don't need to get them a second souvenier - I just need things for a few people I didn't see at Christmas. Plus a few backup presents, just in case. Or maybe I'll bring a bunch of snack food back for people. I guess it depends on space.

I was just trying to find where the Harry Potter movie will be playing, since it's supposed to open in Japan June 28, but none of the theaters in Chiba are even going to have it until mid-July. I guess I need to look for one in Tokyo proper if I want to have the fun of gloating that I saw it first.

Anyways, I'm going to go sleep on my nice, freshly laundered sheets.

today I did all my laundry

And that's pretty much all I accomplished.

Oh, I also took out the trash and read ten pages of the book I borrowed from the library, "The Rise of American Democracy". It's not very exciting. I don't think I will finish it before I go home.

look, I am not mentioning food except briefly in passing.

The weather has been really nice, but supposedly the rainy season will start soon. I'm not sure what kind of rain it will be, but it's supposed to fall all day every day.

I got a new toe ring at the 100 yen shop. They only had ones with little dangly charms, which is really annoying and now I definately can't wear shoes or socks. But it doesnt matter since I already put all my close-toed shoes away so I wasn't going to be wearing them anyway. Hopefully this one will last a month until I can find a new one. And I also hope it does not end up being some strange metal that will turn my toe green after I take a shower with it on.

I agreed to read this kid from Iran's paper to check the grammar and make it more scientific. I just got back from reading it. It wasn't that bad, except I don't really know anything about growing new plants in petri dishes so he had to explain a lot of it to me, and it was sort of interesting. Also, only a few technical terms I didn't know. And he gave me cookies and juice and showed me pictures of this rose garden he went to today. I feel less bad about my heavy shutter finger - he had 150 pictures of pretty much only plants.

Maybe instead of alphabetically I should have done this geographically?

Apple pancake from Walker Bros
Apricot danish from Dinkels
Bagels
-cinnamon sugar
-cranberry
-everything
-sundried tomato
Bread
-challah
-french
-pugliese from Trader Joes
-rye
Broccoli cheddar soup from Popeyes in Lake Geneva
Bubble tea
Cafe 28
-fried plantains
-honey butter
-steak sandwich
Catfish
-Calumet Fisheries
-Hagens
Chester's
-bi bim bop (the stuff in the cafeteria here wasn't as good)
-steak sandwich on raisin toast with lettuce and tomato
Christmas cookies
Cranberry muffins
Croissant from Treasure Island
Dim sum:
-green tea pudding stuff
-rice crepes
-shrimp dumplings
-shu mai
-steamed bbq pork buns
Flan
Flat Top grill
French fries
Frozen custard
Guacamole
Ida cookies
Italian ice
-Taylor St.
-Tom and Wendys (Armitage one block east of Racine)
Italian sausage
Le Creperie
-flan crepe
Mint chocolate chip ice cream
ODonovans Monday night dollar burgers (but I think it is $2 now)
Pizza
-anchovies
-deep dish green peppers
-green peppers
-Gulliver's on Howard St.
-my pi
-sliced beef
Pizza Puff from greek fast food place on Halsted
Scafuri bakery
-biscotti
-cheese coffee cake
-pizza bread
Smokin Woodys
Steak n Shake
Superdawg
-pineapple shake
Sushi place near Ann's house
Tacos - La Pasadita (Ashland and Division)
Thai food
-pad thai
-pad see eiw
-spring roll
The Port (in Chesterton, Indiana)
-coleslaw
-fried chicken
-root beer
Tofu Musubi - Aloha Grill
Tortellini
Watermelon

apparently I have a "midland" accent.

According to this quiz. Somewhere there's this thing that shows regional lexiconical differences. I remember somebody found it in high school and we spent a lot of time laughing at funny words like bubbler for drinking fountain.

Also, I bought bread and had a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch and a cucumber and cream cheese sandwich for dinner.

I'm really bored.

And I only have one serving of cheese left.

zzz

Scott and I went for yakiniku.. it was really tasty.

Now I am sleepy.

zzz.

hmm

No one showed up to teach us information science class today. Sari, Scott and I sat in the room for 15 minutes and then decided to make a break for it, since usually there's someone in there when we get there. So that was a nice break. But it was really humid out, so walking back and forth for nothing was kind of aggravating. The funniest part is instead of getting in trouble for leaving (we did leave an attendance sheet with our names on it and the professor's name in the classroom) they'll probably apologize to us for no one having been there. At least, I sincerely hope Scott is right and that happens.

Actually, just going to class here is getting aggravating. I don't really have any interest in anything I'm learning which makes the whole actually learning anything hard.

The rainy season is supposed to start soon. But not tomorrow, since the forecast is sunny and 86. This morning, though, the humidity was at 93%. yuck. The one good thing about this is that Chicago in July is going to seem downright arid after this.

On the way home, Scott and I were talking about all the food we are going to eat... tomorrow I'll make a comprehensive list.

lunch with Ken and Kato-sensei

I got to Odaiba before them. Then we walked around a couple malls and looked at a bridge and a fake statue of libery. In the second mall, called Venus Fort, the whole thing was done up like an italian streetscape and the ceiling was domed and had clouds and was illuminated to make it seem like dusk. It was very pretty. We ate at a hawaiian place that was tasty - we split a hamburger, a chicken burrito and a bowl of taco rice (rice with chicken taco meat, lettuce, tomato and a soft boiled egg stirred together). It was very tasty. Then we went to Asakusa and walked around there and looked at the temple (the picture of me is in front of the second gate, which has had white plastic and scaffolding around it every time I have been there before today, it has an obviously fresh paint job now) and the shops and I had ice cream (thank you, Ken!!!) and then to Kappabashi and looked at the fake food stores. I went home and Kato-sensei went with Ken to Akihabara to help him find his new hotel. It was really crowded on the first train back, but the second one was not so bad. I have to say, though, it was awfully nice to sit on my bike to ride back home. We went in a shoe store and they did have one shelf of some rather ugly sandals, but they were "LL" size, so I decided to try them... I guess my foot is not a 25-25.5 since they were all comically too small. Not only was my foot about an inch longer than them, it was noticably wider too. I give up. Kato looked kind of shocked that my feet were bigger than the biggest shoes. I'll just wear the ones I already have and patiently (hah) wait to be home where I could put on a different pair of shoes every time I leave the house for a week. Even just to check the mail or bring in the laundry. I miss my zillions of shoes... although I am sure my parents don't miss tripping over a mound of shoes by the door constantly very much.

Anyways, I have very good timing - today for dinner I had a hamburger (that was finally still a bit pink in the middle!!!) and a salad (big lunch and ice cream) and I finished both the head of lettuce and the bottle of salad dressing! Now I just need to work on eating all that ramen... I made it the other day and rinsed it and sprinkled half the seasoning on the cooled (and less oily after the thorough rinsing) noodles and that was really good. It's almost too hot to eat a steaming bowl of soup. I am saving my last box of cereal to eat in July. So pretty much the food situation is under control.

toenail polish

So I am taking the train to meet my friend and our old teacher for lunch. Im already pretty hungry because usually I eat by 11 and its 10:45 now... and we arent meeting until noon. it takes an hour to get there, but Ill still get there before them. and I have no idea where we will eat.

I really need to take the polish off my toes and start fresh. In grade school and into high school I never took off the old color-I would just paint over it. And when I finally got that all off I kept them painted always, until last summer when they were plain on vacation. Theyve been painted on and off here... and maybe I should just fix the edges and take it all off on Sunday after we go dancing. Decisions, decisions. I could be wild and crazy and not repaint them for a while. Also, my toering died the other day. When I pulled off my sock it came off in two pieces:(

oh well. 6 weeks and counting!

anyways

So today I made this pancake thing consisting of two eggs and a third of a cup of bisquick. I added cinnamon too. It was nice and bready. Which was good because I went to the bakery in saty and ate one of every sample they had out and was tempted to actually buy something, but I restrained myself. I really want to make one with apple slices in it now...

Tomorrow I am meeting my friend Ken (who I met in Sapporo too) in Odaiba, he is visiting Tokyo for some English teacher convention. We are meeeting our old Japanese teacher from UIC. I hope she does not ask any complicated questions. I still havent been to Odaiba so it should be interesting. Also, it can't possibly be any less exciting than econ, which I may or may not get back in time for, but I won't be sad if I miss it, since I don't think I can take another day of him teaching us about Japanese history that we have learned in pretty much every class.

Brief wrap-up of Javier's party

The picture is Arlen, Diana, Louise, me and Javier just makes it in the background. Then half the table, my hamburger, and finally me, Olivia and this french kid named Gion (I have no idea how to spell it).

The party was good. We should have made the reservation for more people - Francisco made it for 20 but I counted 31 people at the restaurant (outback steakhouse). I had a grilled onion and cheese burger and a mudslide (which was so yummy). Afterwards we went to the beach and had sparklers and then built a fire. I took a few pictures but my camera battery kept saying it was empty from using the flash a lot(even though I had just charged it). I've gotten a bunch from other people, though.

School is so tedious. It's all so pointless. I think I have senioritis. And I'm not even graduating yet... not until next May. I want to start packing but I don't have space to put my suitcase anywhere but on top of the closet so I can't and I also can't really put much away. I guess I actually could put away a lot of stuff but then my room would be so empty. 45 days until I come back!

Hello June!

I think the most exciting thing to happen today was the changing of the calendar. Or else that I bought bread and had toast with cream cheese and a hamburger (which I even actually touched to squish together but still managed to cook to medium well rather than medium/medium rare) for dinner.

So, as you can see, nothing interesting went on. One day I will perfect not overcooking meat. And that will probably be the day I run out of meat and thus end my meat eating regime. Just like when I run out of this block of cheese (I give it till the beginning of July) and the granola. Also, only 48 days left!