almost there

officially done with my fall/winter semester at waseda! today i finished my final exam for my environmental policies class, and let me just say THANK JEEBUS i was able to do a debate and get half of my grade out of the way. the exam was only easy because i got to skip half of it! hahaha but YESSSSS HALFWAY DONE. all in all, i have become a very lazy worker, what with never having homework and only the occasional report. not looking forward to the shock of earlham studying load.

i leave for iiyama with brogi in two days, where i will be frolicking in giant snow igloos slash cleaning every inch of the customer's rooms and learning how to make beds like a BAMF. i'm a little nervous because this is a real job (minus the salary) and i'm gonna have to use formal japanese and all, which i have not used in ages. guess my next two days will be spent studying. guh. but hey heyyyy we get to take the bullet train out there for free! i'm glad the program is letting us go via shinkansen, because there was no way in hell i was ever gonna get to ride one with my own money. freaking expensive yo.

speaking of expensive, i am a huge failure like woah. i went to get my film from my new canon ae-1 camera (sawyer) developed, and waited for an hour while they worked on it, and spent $25 buying new film/getting the film developed etc etc...only to have them tell me that the film strip was blank. not a single picture. no lie, that was super depressing/embarrassing. but i'll figure it out; not sure what i did wrong the first time, but i'll make sure i don't do it again! and if i do...then i'll ask aaron to impart his awesome photography wisdom onto me.

anywho. halfway there also means that our one semester friends are leaving. jackson and TY are already back in america, and hannah and natalie leave this weekend. i am going to miss them all so much :( we've experienced the crazy times of japan together, and there are so many good memories: orientation, karuizawa, sexy talks, konbini lunches on SILS steps, etc etc. even though it's just postponing the inevitable, i wish we could keep our group whole for the rest of the year. all those inside jokes and support through hard times...i hope we all stay in touch for a long long time. <3


friends dressed up for japan's seijin no hi, the national holiday for when you turn 20 years old (adult, despite the fact that those sneaky japanese people continue looking young and fabulous until they're 50)

hannah and minoru, giving me awesome picture opportunities as usual!

liz may have had something in her eye, but it was really funny for some reason~

to this day i am not sure why i left the house wearing all...that

purikura with brogi, emperor jackson, and tomoki-tennou

utilizing jackson's itouch for adorable pictures of myself. cam whore.

sushi and pizza party with the group!

my japanese 3L class! i miss them already! never again shall we hear the "AHHHH WAKATTA" as ubukata-sensei writes the kanji on the board and all the chinese kids understand, or curse at each other in our different languages and have all the girls swoon when pietro speaks italian, or have everyone try the pancake juice and realize it's actually really freaking tasty. ww

y-chan enjoying barging in on me and wearing one of my mustaches~

my new baby, sawyer <3 now if i could just figure out how to work it...