Thursday, November 24, 2005

Hello world!!

Yesterday was a great day! Not only do I officially have a place to live, but I got a really great email in my university mailbox. That mail told me that I got a $1000 stipend for next semester!! YAY!!! Now, it's not a TON of money, but every little bit helps. So I'm grateful. Now all I have to do is get the right paperwork to one of the financial aid people and I'm all set. :-)

Had to share! Have a good one!

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

I have a HOME!!!

Just to let everyone know... I just got an email from one of the girls that I'll be sharing an apartment with... YAY!!! I'm SO stoked! I have a place to live... down in Waikiki... and cheaper than I'm paying now. BUT I'll also have to figure out the bus schedule for all my classes once I move... it could be worse... I could be homeless! ;-)

Had to share the good news!

Baby Carrots and Soy Milk

On Saturday night, I went to see Harry Potter with some friends. It was SO good!! I really enjoyed the movie... it moved so quickly and got the important parts all in. Yay for the new director!! Well done! Will probably see it again... :-)

Afterwards the four of us (me, Kenzo, Shannah and Yuudai) went for some food at this cute little '50s style diner near the theater. Fun times... we managed to devour 2 desserts and the others ate main dishes too! (The we on the desserts means we ALL dove into those...)

Following that Kenzo and I said goodnight to the other two because we were heading to a bar in Chinatown. We got there and met up with Ji yon. Now I was dressed uncharactaristically girlie that night... skirt and everything!! And Ji yon made sure that I knew (and Kenzo knew) that she thought I looked nice. Haha... after we closed down the bar (they close at 2 here) we headed out to catch a cab...

We pondered going home or going to another bar... well, when we got in the cab Kenzzo took charge telling the cab to go to a grocery store near his house. Where we would then pick up supplies and head to his house to continue the night. Ji yon stayed with the cab... but made sure that we knew to get baby carrots and soy milk for her (she's special! haha!) along with the other things that we were going to get. We got cheese and crackers, baby carrots and soy milk. Though we tried to buy wine... apparently they stop selling it at 12 in Hawaii. Who knew!?!

At Kenzo's we just sat around and talked... admired his cat (Nana-chan is SO cute!! And I don't like cats usually...) and ate some cheese and crackers... and had a nice time. Eventually around 4 I said that I really had to go... and at about 4.25 or so (it was definitely before 4.30) I actually left.

And now... I'm still trying to recover from the lack of sleep!! I had to wake up at 7.30 yesterday in order to get to work! Eeeek!!

Hope you have a good day!!

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Looking up...

Now, I've said this before... but I think things might be looking up a little bit for me... maybe...

The end of my week went really well! Thursday I had an awesome day. I spent the day with a good friend and talking to him made me think that things might actually work out alright. With the apartment search and the job search... Maybe he's just level-headed enough to make my freaking out seem silly. Who knows??

Friday was also good. I ended up meeting up with Kenzo and he made me speak Japanese a whole bunch! Which is great because my speaking is the area that seems to be getting weaker instead of stronger. SO... Kenzo, the only mean Japanese friend I have (jk), makes me speak in Japanese a lot to practice. Did that, then went down to Wal-mart and ended up in Barnes and Noble afterwards.

Bookstores are so comforting. They're just nice. Only problem... at Christmas time it's really nice to step into a warm bookstore because it's cold outside. Hmmmm... yeah, that doesn't really work here. If anything it's a relief to step out into the warmth outside!

Hope this is a nicer message to read. I haven't meant to be such a downer lately... it's just kind of happened that way.

Take it easy.

A xx

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

The Week so far...

Well, I've been trying to refrain from writing much on my blog. It's been a pretty bad week so far and it's only Tuesday night. The week in review...

Monday, I sent a deposit in for an apartment that I really liked. Tuesday morning (before my 7:30 class), I got an email saying that the place had already been rented. Last Friday, my friend Chris said he'd ask his boss on Monday if I could come in for an interview to replace him (he's too busy) at his position. This morning, I found out that the boss wants someone with TOEFL teaching experience (that I don't have).

So... I'm completely back at square one. Needing to find a place to live before I go home for Christmas (Dec. 18th) and needing to find a new job in order to pay any rent now or in the future. And to pour salt in the wound... the guy that I kind of like has a girlfriend (last time people heard, which was back at the beginning of September).

All in... I'm having a really crappy week. And tomorrow I have a Japanese test that I'm not sure I'm really ready for, but I'm just going to have to do my best.

Sorry for the downer...

Saturday, November 12, 2005

What a difference 24 hours makes...

I had a much better day today... I found a place to live. Yay!! I'll be putting my deposit in and try to get in there by December 1st.

To top it all off... I had a weird, but in a good way, thing happen to me today.

I was sitting in Waikiki at the bus stop. Just sitting eating my lunch (power bar)... and there was this guy just walking down the street who suddenly said "Hey gorgeous, how are you today?" Now normally, I'd just be weirded out... but I was in such a good mood that it just made me smile. How often do you get told that you're gorgeous by a random person on the street??

Anyway... glad to have had a great day!! :-)

Friday, November 11, 2005

Kicked when down...

So... this week has been... less than stellar.

First, I found out that I will have to move before January because the rent's going up. And I can't afford it.

So, I've been looking for an apartment all week. Not much luck yet... but am looking at a place tomorrow.

And then there's today after work... I was basically told that my schedule isn't what it needs to be and I have been relegated to working one day a week...

So... now, on top of having to find a new place to live... I have to find a job too. It's been a tough week... and I'm wondering now if I'm supposed to be here... the signs right now are pretty sketchy.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Cross your fingers!!

I just found out on Monday that I'll be moving pretty soon. Why?? Well, because my landlord is hiking the rent to $700 a month. Which is really only $75 more than it is right now. The only problems: a) It doesn't seem like much, but it's enough that I can't pay my other bills, b) the place isn't THAT nice, and c) all my roommates, though I like them a lot, aren't my age and I'd like to live with younger people.

Now, I talked to a really nice lady this evening and I'm going to go look at a room on Friday near-ish to where I live already. SO... cross your fingers!!

Tuesday, November 08, 2005


So, we all know Halloween was a week ago... but I just haven't gotten around to posting anything about it... well... here's some interesting pictures! The beautiful "lady" in the middle is my friend Kenzo... On Halloween he made us all amazing Hiroshima-yaki and then disappeared to get into costume. None of us had a clue what he was going to "be."

Much to our delight he came out looking like... that!! ;-)


Kenzo and Kana (left) and Ji yon.






















The group shot was taken just as we got out of a taxi down in Waikiki... look at that beautiful collection of people... Haha... We did have a great night... but all paid because 3 of us had 7.30am class the next day!

Other news...

This weekend was a really good one. Went out with Ji yon on Friday... went to a really cool club down in Chinatown... one of the better places I've been since I got here. We also ended up walking for a bit to "sober up" haha...

Saturday, I had kendo in the morning, which was really good fun. I went up against Mark-sensei... who is slightly scary, but difficult so I worked really hard! Then I came home and cleaned. We officially have a clean fridge... oh man it was DISGUSTING!!! And hadn't been cleaned for a LONG time! So, now it's sparkling! Yay!!

Then I met up with Kenzo (not in drag!) and Ji yon down in Ala Moana Park for a bit of soccer before going to a barbecue. Really good fun!! But I must say, playing soccer without shoes can be dangerous... My toe can prove that!!

After the barbecue festivities came to an end... we all headed back to Ted's apartment (a friend of Kenzo's that I've met a few different times!) and other people drank, but as I had work in the morning I only had a beer and some random drink that was pink and tasted like Skittles.

Anyway... good weekend... even if I'm really tired (calculated the number of hours I slept over the weekend... it's somewhere around 8)... I had fun and that counts for a lot.

Hope to hear from you soon! Sorry I've been slacking!

Sunday, November 06, 2005

GREAT NEWS!!!

My good friend Ian Reynolds and his lovely Japanese girlfriend (now wife) JUST got married!!! Yay!! Such good news! YAY!!! Sorry... lots of "yays" in this post!! But it's so exciting!! ;-)

More to come...