Finally, Internet!!!

Hey all!
So it's been a crazy past couple of days (that's the way things seem to be going lately).
Moved into the new house last Wednesday. Thankfully everything went well! Still haven't gotten much of a chance to explore my new neighborhood (I miss my old neighborhood a bit ;_;), but it seems pretty nice! Where I am living now is literally less than a minute from the train station, but that means that I will actually have to start exercising more now since I won't be walking as much...
The house is overall bigger than the apartment we were previously living in, except for the toilet and the bathing area...

Right now is Golden Week, a week where there are a couple of holidays, which usually isn't actually a week long, but for Waseda students is a week long! I've literally had plans every day though, which has been tiring but a lot of fun! (still have a bit of a cold, but what's new there?)

Friday was a lot of fun. Went to this really nice cafe in Omotesando for brunch with a friend, walked to Shibuya, had some great coffee, and went to a free art exhibit! I also had to update my address on some stuff that day was well (which took forever, still not done). That night I went to this umeshu bar (umeshu, so good) with this guy that I've been hanging out with a bit. I literally went to so many places in Tokyo that day...(Waseda, Harajuku/Omotesando, Shibuya, back to Waseda, Ebisu, Shibuya again, Waseda again, Iidabashi, and then finally home).



Saturday I went to this really cute park/play area for kids with my host family and some of their friends. My host mom's sister was there too, which meant her adorable 2 year old girl was there too! (I got to play with her the most, seriously the cutest little girl on earth). I was pretty exhausted though (peak of my cold) but thankfully didn't have to use too much energy. I haven't gotten to spend too much time with host family lately (busy, different schedules) which they have noticed (and pointed out to me on multiple occasions when they are drunk), so I spent the whole day with them. It's starting to get a bit rough to be around them and their friends when they are all drinking though (which isn't a new thing, but it's become more tiring than before).



On Sunday I went to this tsutsuji (it's a flower) festival at the Nezu Shrine in Nezu. The weather was beautiful and so were the flowers. It was really relaxing and nice! After that I went to this free jazz festival with some of my friends. Great to hear live jazz again! After that one of my friends showed us the share house he is living in since it was close by. Sometimes I think it would be nice to live in a sharehouse or by myself here, but I really do love living with my host family and have been able to experience so many wonderful things living with them.

Monday I went to a BBQ for Niji which was pretty fun! About 300 people came (crazy) and I ended up talking to a lot of freshman again (which is kinda tiring since they all ask me the same questions). Afterwards I spend the night at my friend Shiori's house with some friends which was also a lot of fun (the longer I write the more tired I am becoming hence the great descriptions). Her family was really nice, and the food was really good. The next day we woke up late and were lazy for four hours before we did some shopping.

Wednesday afternoon I went to Yokohama to hang out with a friend for a bit and then went to an Ocktoberfest in Odaiba with her and some other friends. It was cold and rainy and the beer was overpriced, but overall I had a great time. We all shared different types of beer and ate sausage  and there was this Germanish band playing live music and everyone went up to the front and started dancing! So much fun!

Today I did some practicing for the mime class that I'm in and ate dinner with my host family. Tomorrow I leave from a three day trip with the club I'm in. Super excited, but I have to wake up reallt early so I should probably go to bed soon! So tired!

Moving Soon and Classes

Only one more week left of living in Jingumae...sad to leave. Going to check out my new neighborhood tomorrow though since the two times I've been there before I haven't actually gotten to explore the area or anything. 

Having been seeing much of my host family lately...I've been busy, they've been busy, but mainly I've been busy. Oh well.

Classes are finally figured out (for Waseda at least, Earlham is another story...)

Monday: 

The Art of Mime and Pantomime: Okay so I wasn't planning on taking this class originally, but the other class I signed up for at first was really boring and some of my friends were taking this class so I was like sure why not. The professor is pretty funny and interesting, and I don't really have any interest in mime (and I have to perform with a group), but hey, I guess I get to learn something new?

Tuesday: 

Postmodernism: So this class is pretty cool. We started off by talking about the Beatles. Would be a better class if it wasn't for two periods in a row. Dying by the end. Mime is also two periods in a row. Dying. 

Wednesday:
Photo Essays about Study Abroad Experience Level 5: So I'm only taking themed Japanese classes this semester. I'm not sure how much I'll actually learn, but this essay writing class has been a lot of fun so far. Basically we are just going to write about our study abroad experience (in Japanese) and make a book (or something) out of it.
Appropriate Phrases 2-3: A 1 credit Japanese class. I picked it because I wanted an easy class, but it's too easy so it's super boring. Whoops.
International Role of Japanese Business: Knowing nothing about business, economics, politics, etc., I wasn't sure how this class would be, but I'm actually liking it a lot. The professor is this old, stylish, funny Japanese guy.  But actually most of the class is not him, presidents and other super important people from Japanese businesses come in and give lectures. Today we had the Chief Equity Strategist from Mizuho Securities come in. His English wasn't great, but I learned something!
Thursday:
Pronounciation 3-4: Just registered for this class, so who knows how it is.
Friday:
Essay class again!
Reading Picture Books 3-4: Okay so I signed up for this class because I thought we would just be reading picture books in Japanese and that would be fun, but actually we have to present on a Japanese picture book which is also fine, but then all of a sudden we have to use Excel to make graphs and shit about various things like the facial emotions in the pictures and get real intense with picture book analysis.

So an interesting schedule? And basically no homework and absolutely no text books. Yay!~

Also tonight my study abroad program had presentations on everyone's cultural practicum. It was fun getting to hear about what everyone did, but it was so long and now I'm so tired...always tired.

Forever Tired: The Story of Emma's Life

So incredibly tired for no reason, but it's probably because I have been dealing with Waseda classes, and Earlham classes, and finding work for Earlham next year, and helping out with the freshman events for the club I'm in, and having a real social life, and spending time with my host family, and trying to figure out when we are moving, and yeah. So I'm a little tired, but overall I'm still having a great time haha.

Sunday I went to Niji's hanami event for a little bit, but I was tired/antsy for some reason/had to meet Becky and her brother also so I left early. Walked around the Harajuku area with Becky and her brother and her brother's friends and showed them to this cool cafe and talked. I'm really glad I got to meet Becky's brother, but I had to leave early to help one of my Niji friends with a power point. So from Harajuku I went back to the Waseda area were I met my friend and we went to another friend's apartment to work on the power point. I was translating Japanese for them (at least the best I could). It's weird because sometimes there are phrases that I understand the meaning in Japanese but have difficultly translating into English (also kanji is still difficult..). But I'm glad I was able to help them with it. It's fun working with everyone :)

There was a lion at this fashionable cafe!~

After that I went to another friend's apartment in the area where people who went to the Philippines and Korea and other random friends gathered for a takoyaki party! It was a lot of fun, we were there form like 7 till 11pm. Ate a lot of food, helped with more English translations, and just talked and hung out with everyone. So much fun!~

This is what a takoyaki party looks like!

Today was the first day of classes for the new semester. I didn't have class until 1 so I ate lunch in the Niji lounge and hung out with everyone for a bit.
Class was incredibly boring. I knew a fair amount of people in the class which was nice, but the teacher was pretty boring and the material was like a class I took last semester so during the break (the class lasted for two periods with a break in between) and I went to go check out another class about Patomime which I also have friends in and seems really fun, so I'm going to drop the boring class and take the fun one. So yeah, skipped the second half of the class I'm dropping and got ice cream with friends from my study abroad program and went to the garden on campus and ate ice cream and practiced juggling! After that hung out with Niji people again but started to feel really spaced out so went home where I ate with my host family (which was like the first time in forever since we are always eating out).

And if you can't tell from how poorly written this is I'm pretty tired but yeah!