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gracefullyfrohliching
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Name: Grace
Country: United States
State: California
Birthday: 8/23/1984
Gender: Female
Interests: eating, exercising, playing rec sports, violin, listening to music, singing(in the shower);
I enjoy the simple things in life
Expertise: umm....yeah, I'm not really good at one particular thing. However, I can do cool stuff with my arm!
Occupation: Student
Industry: Media
Message: message me
Member Since:
4/25/2003
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| It's official: I'm going to Taiwan for New Year's!!! Yay, I'm
excited!!! I haven't been back for four years! Now I can't wait. I just
bought the tickets yesterday, and it's all good to go! My friend Amy
from Nova is coming with me! Too cool, huh? i want to see all the
familiar sites and buildings, but most of all, I want to eat all of the
good food! mmmm.......I've been missing it for a long time.
On a different note, work has been ok. Two of my coworkers are leaving
Nova by next week...I've been sad about that. I've become friends with
them, and I enjoy them at work so much....I wish they didn't have to
go, but that would be selfish of me. They've worked here for years, and
it's time that they move on, find jobs that they enjoy more. I don't
blame them...I don't know if I could do this for even two years. But I
wish them all the best in their future endeavors, and I will miss them.
We have a company Christmas party this sunday, and I'm excited about
that. it's going to be held at an izikaya (I don't think i spelled that
correctly...). It's a traditional Japanese restaurant where people,
usually businessmen, drink with coworkers or women. Anyway, it
should be fun. What's NOT fun is I have to work on Christmas.  well, at least I get off work early, And I'm working with my favorite person, AMY!!! hehehe!!!
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| So much has happened recently that I don't really know where to
begin...let's start with Fukuoka. That's a big city on the island of
Kyushu (the one I live on, in case you didn't realize). I went with my
friend Amy by bus, about 2 hours. There we met up with two other Nova
teacher friends, Anna and Jen. Fukuoka is much larger than Oita, lots
of shopping too, which was the sole reason I wanted to go. i booked two
hotel rooms for pretty cheap, about $40 per person for one night. We
even had free Japanese style breakfast, which consisted of onigiri
(rice balls and seasoning) miso soup and pickles. We definitely shopped
until we dropped! and for dinner, we found this chicken restaurant that
served chicken all sorts of ways. Apparently, half cooked chicken is a
specialty in Japan( and it's actually SAFE to eat it
undercooked!) The meat is a little darker red than the chicken
that you're thinking, and they saute it with salt. it wasn't bad, but i
think i still prefer fully cooked chicken.
There was a courtyard behind the train station that was decorated with
Christmas lights. It was so beautiful, and people went there in the
evening and played drums under that stars... sounds kinda cheesy, and
it is! We went karaoke that night, all you can drink for two hours. It
was a blast! the next morning, I got an early start on shopping, though
I didn't buy very much... I guess a lot of the clothes there were not
my style (gangster rapper's girlfriend clothes!!) But that's ok, I got
plenty of exercise. Then the BIG event: Sumo wrestling match!!! Anna
got tickets for Sumo, so we took the bus to Kokusai Center. it was
humungous, and I'm not even talking about the Sumo's either! So
exciting too! There were vendors selling souvenoirs and goodies. yay
for red bean cakes!!! We only stayed for two hours, cause we had to
catch our bus back to oita in the evening (and Sumo is not too exciting
after 2 hours... ). I'd say it was a fun filled trip for all, a great
success!
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| Last week two Japanese friends of mine took me to Kuju, which is this
huge mountain in Oita prefecture. The scenery was gorgeous. We had
lunch at a tofu house and then had black sesame seed ice cream!!!
MMMMM!!!! Then we went to an onsen (Japanese hot spring) to take a
soak. of course, these old Japanese ladies kept staring at me and
talking about me, "what do you think she is? I think she's from new
york..." blahblah..... it was a little annoying. anyway, that didn't
spoil my relaxation much. I get that a lot here, and they always think
I'm from new york, for some reason. This man in a restaurant asked me
the same thing. "No, I'm from California, on the OTHER side of the
states!!" My friend said that new york was the only place in America
that they know, which is the reason why so many people assume I'm from
there. you learn strange things here everyday, I tell ya.
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| hello, folks! I finally had time and internet access, Hooray!!! So, I went to this small mountain town last week called Yufuin. It was very quaint, right at the foot of Mt. Yufu. It was funny, because we took the wrong train at first. then we had to double back and take the correct one. So we didn't get there until 2pm, though Yufuin is only one hour outside of the city. My friends and I walked through the streets, and there were little shops and eateries, though they were not cheap. We had lunch at a udon and soba noodle shop, and of course, I was the one who could read the menu. so I ordered for my friends. I'm sort of getting used to that, I guess. Then we walked to a lake that was warmed by natural hot springs. yufuin is a huge hot spring resort area, many Japanese people take weekend sojourns there. Unfortunaly, we arrived too late to visit a hot spring. We walked around thelake to a shinto shrine. it was right on the water, and the scene was beautiful. the mountains were green and lush, and there was small cluster of hot springs and Japanese style hotels near the top. We could see the steam from the springs coming up and out of the mountain... I must upload pictures because if I try to describe it, I will fall short. We shopped for most of the day, but I couldn't buy anything (I haven't been paid yet). But still I had a good time. Tomorrow, one of my friends will take us to a hot spring! I'm so excited, I can't wait!!! | | |
| Finally, I got a chance to go online. Not having internet at home is
really annoying! So it feels like I've been working forever, but it's
only been a couple of weeks. I'm at work a lot, I realize. In fact, I'm
at work now, bumming off the free wireless internet! i was hoping to
take a trip soon to the hot springs near my town, but will not
have time this week because I have training to teach children.
aahhhh!!! we'll see how that goes.
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