Salsa's & Jobs

Last Monday (8th), my laptop broke, so I haven't been able to update for that reason.

Tuesday (the 9th), I went to a party With Matt (an American from my home university), Kazu (friend of Matt and I), and Tsun (a Chinese guy who wants to learn English). I saw Patricia, but we didn't talk much. I also met a Chinese girl named Yuan. She's friends with Matt and is really nice, though she didn't really talk to me until Matt and company left for English Table. She sort of just came up when I was talking to a chinese girl and started talking to me, which was a nice change of pace. We also shared a few “I don't speak enough Japanese to understand this speech” moments (it was some faculty dinner).

After it ended, we went to English Table. We talked to some people, and to each other until she had to leave.

I talked to Tsun some, mostly about stuff like Star Ocean, and then headed home.

Wednesday (10th), I found out that I have a Midterm in Japanese, and that the Salsa was moved to Saturday, because they were having a party instead.

Thursday (11th), I went to Karaoke with Matt, Kazu, and Tsun. I invited Yuan, but she declined.

Friday (12th), I met with my friend Angel, who I played Volleyball with, and a freshman (Kaga - first part of his last time. forgot his first, so I will update this later with it) who wants to learn English.

Saturday (13th), I met with Yuan and Matt at school and we talked until late. Yuan wanted to read some of my poems, but. Then I went to the Salsa Party, Danced with Patricia a little, but got bored and went home early.

Sunday (14th), I went to the English Cafe near my house, hung out with Matt some, and then went to an Italian Buffet, where I have around 3 or 4 plates - American sized - worth of food, some of which was piled on pretty high.

Monday (15th) was dull. I was suppose to meet with Yuan, but she was sick. I paid some bills and hung out with Tsun (I see him pretty much every day, and we practice English, Japanese, and Chinese together).

Tuesday (16th), I went to the second of my three classes, missing the first because I over slept (it's at 8:45am), and the third because I had some person business to take care of. I was also hired as an English teacher at a private school.

I went to English Table, where I met a girl who can make Okonomiyaki. She invited me to go to her restaurant and try it.

She ended up leaving a bit early, and then I went over and sat with my friend Kaga, who asked me questions. They were a bit dull, and when I saw a Japanese girl staring at me, I waved her in to try and excite things a little. She asked me some questions until then Yuan came.

I let her read my poetry book again, since she was interested in seeing my new poems, and explained some of the poems to her, while also answering questions that the Japanese girl and Kaga were asking me (via texting Yuan).

Eventually, table ended and I went with some of the people, including Kaga, to a Ramen shop.

Wednesday (17th), I went to Salsa Club with Dr. Moldova and Yuan. Towards the end, I got bored and started improving a little bit of what I had learned into the dancing, which almost everyone was ok with.

Even after class was over though, me and Yuan had practically sneak out, because one of the students said that we had to stay longer because we were new, thus showing me that Americans come from countries that aren't America.

After running away from the scary lady, we drank some ice strawberry milk (from a vending machine) and talk for a long while.

Thursday (18th), I missed my first class because of some personal business I had to take care of, applied for a job at a video game company, missed half of my second class because I was working on a paper for my third class, which was canceled.

I studied some, getting Yuan to teach me some Chinese, ate dinner with her at the Okonomiyaki place that I had been told about on Tuesday, spent a good while talking to her (including learning some more Chinese that makes her laugh when I say it), and then headed home, took a shower, and wrote this on my cellphone.

Weekend After Midterms

So my Midterms are over...I think. I am glad.

So Saturday, I went to the International Dorms and worked on a project for a bit. It started raining just as I was unlocking my bike, which caused me to be trapped outside for about an hour. When I finally did get inside, about 5 minutes later, the horribly heavy rain stopped.

Next, I went to YouMe Town and wandered around for a little bit until I ran into Aki (who is friends with Yoshi, who started talking to me randomly [which I am perfectly fine with - I actually enjoy that sort of thing] and agreed to introduce me to a lot of people - one of which was Aki). Aki showed up with two friends, one was Nao (I think that is how you spell it), and the other was Jun. We went to McDonalds (their choice), ate, and talked for about 3 hours until Shun showed up, who is also friends with Yoshi. We decided to meet for Volleyball the next day, just before parting ways.

Shun and I were invited to a party. We arrived with Dr. Moldova about 10 minutes early, and the party ended up starting about 30 minutes late. I saw Makiko, but didn't say much of anything to her. I spent most of my time talking to two new people: Patricia from Fiji, and a Japanese girl named Manako.

Patricia had my attention for a good part of the first half of the party. I was really interested in talking to her more, because she had amazing English, amazing Japanese, and was just really fun to talk to in general. She talked to Dr. Moldova some, who was explaining some engineering stuff. She looked at me, expecting me to translate what he said, which I responded with by turning around and trying to walk away - she grabbed my arm and wouldn't let me though. She also invited Dr. Moldova and I to a Salsa Club.

I am not sure when, but she sort of disappeared, and when I noticed, I was a little sad since I didn't get to say goodbye or exchange phone numbers so that I could ask about the Salsa location (I did find her on Facebook though, so I think it will be fine). But by the time I noticed, I was talking to Manako.

So Manako approached me at the start of the party, introduced herself, and then walked off. Later, we spent a good while talking, and I got her to try some Nihonshu (Rice Wine). I enjoyed talking to her, and we plan to practice together again sometime. At one point, I wanted to sit down because my knees were hurting (I had been standing without moving much for almost 3 hours), so I had to lead her to some seats, which Makiko commented on. We sat and talked for a bit until she decided that she had to go. We exchanged numbers, and then she left.

After that, I roamed around for a bit, finishing off my Nihonshu before finally crashing a conversation that started with the word Communism and ended with Child Rape. Don't ask.

I headed home, got some rest, woke up Sunday morning, got ready, and then headed over to a meeting spot that had been decided. I had to buy some shorts ($5), then I met up with Nao and a Japanese guy who everyone kept calling Ghost. We headed to the gym, set up for Volleyball, warmed up for a bit, split into teams (my team was myself, Nao, Bobby [his "middle" name], Ghost, and Angel [Ghost said "she looks like an angel,"]), and then played 3 games. It was fun, intense, and I got to spike a lot of balls. The way that the team was set up, Ghost and Angel protected the back, Nao and Bobby would help protect the front, and I would smack the ball to the other side because I had "a lot of power." At one point, I had "too much power," but I managed to tone it down.

After that, and once I realized Ghost was obsessed with Gaikokujin (especially me), I we changed back and went out to eat at a resturant called Joyfull (I did not make a typo). I kept my order pretty cheap, and a lot of the people in the group were picky, so I ended up getting some of free food, such as Tomatos, Pickles, etc...

I headed home after that and took a hot shower, followed by a hot bath.

That was my weekend in a nutshell. Hopefully Wednesday I will be going to Salsa with Dr. Moldova and Patricia.