Matteyo

Title: Wait

I'm working on a Thanksgiving post, but I want to wait to put it up until after our party tonight with just us ryuu gakusei in our lounge so in the mean time, enjoy some nice if not slightly random pictures!



Abby and Masa being tenshi, angels, while we all prepared decorations for the Wa Club halloween party. He may not look enthused, but it was his idea.



A bunch of us at NagoyaJo when the Birthday festival was going on and it was free to get in. Front front to back we are, Lacy, Jessica, Erin, Me, Trisha, and Brittany.



Abby's birthday present to me. Dragon Ball Z headphones, their sounds quality is actually quite nice. If you're unfamiliar Dragon Ball Z is an anime/manga targeted at teenage and young boys so its all about fighting and saving the earth...it was pretty much my first anime. The actualy plot is absurd if it can be squeezed inbetween all the fighting. But the kanji on the ear pieces means tortoise, which in the series is the symbol for the fighting school of the turtle hermit, Master Roshi, the main character's first martial arts master.

and yes this is the same series my teacher Saito-sensei uses examples for in class, see on of my first entries. He very nearly had a fangasm when he saw me with them before class on day. Lol



THIS is a female urinal. Yes, specifically a female urinal in the women's bathroom. I'm not sure how it works, but as you can see its not enclosed in anyway so one day I may find out on accident.



This was actually yesterday. In Karate after out Kata quiz, which I did well on (Sensei complemented me on my form after I was done), there was a impromtu Sumo match between Tim (whose form Coe), and Big Japanese guy. Tim actually won! I think Coe just started a Sumo Wrestling team. :)



Jessica practicing her ward-off-creepers-face. I think it'll work quite nicely.



GomiNeko and a friend caught in the act!!!



Guys are so manly here they can wear bunnies on their butt's and still be taken seriously.



Did I mention that the Power Rangers came to our Halloween party?



I about crapped my pants when I turned around and saw this sign looming over me! Abby and I went outside to cool off because it was really hot in the arcade, and then turn around and the first thing I see is this!!! Of course now you realize if anyone comes and visits me, you WILL be staying in The Hotel California.



You all remember that I'm a master chief right?

And to top if all off, a few of the things I've been working on since coming here.


Some Tablet Practice, Abby at her Desk



Movement study




Commonly among the anime community there are cat girls and boys...but really it's just a lot of Japanophiles sticking cat ears ant tails on people and then saying that they created and original character, and then fantasize about it without taking into account that there are other qualities in cats other than their large eye, ears and tails. For instance their insane skeleton, and how they sleep in the strangest positions. I know I'll think twice, Lol.




D&D Character.





I just love her grin and the sunglasses.

More to come with Thanksgiving!
All is well.

Love Gretchen

Happi Sankusugibin!

Tittle: Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving, at least here it is. Yesterday the International Lounge had it's International food party, like a pseudo Thanksgiving party. Make a dish from your country and share it with everyone. I made Cheesy Potatoes and mashed potatoes. And I am so proud of them!...Sadly that picture went to the internal memory of my camera and I don't have a way to get it off cause I didn't bring that cord! My computer just has an SD card slot so I just get the pictures off that way! Sad Day! but I will fix it! But yea, i set the potatoes down at the party and they were all gone in like 3 minutes. Its not that they don't have potatoes here, they just don't prepare them in that fashion.





There was stuffing, green bean cassarole, chili, some Korean dish was hella spicy but delicious. Abby made tons of mini pumpkin pies. There's a small international food shop in the shopping complex near us and they had cans of pumpkin.



They were very delicious. And the next night we had our own in the Seminar House Lounge.



When Abby went to the store to get more Pumpkin there wasn't any!!! She with a little bit of my help she made a blue berry...pie...cobbler...thing...It was tasty.




I must say it was a good substitute for being with my real family. Thought the skype session I had with them all on friday morning for thier Thanksgiving made my entire weekend. Even though I accidentally broke me DBZ Head phones, deepest, darkest of all sadness. maybe now they all understand why I wanted them all to download it before I left. Lol. My skype name is level7_gretchen, and my yahoo is Charcoal_Sketch. I would love to talk to everyone!

All is well, Gretchen

PS I managed to color correct and get salvage a pic of the cola fiasco! You can only see a little bit on the ceiling though. My kind of camera, Nikon, actually has a film on the lens and makes all pics turn out either slightly or much more yellow than there really is, and some times even photoshop can't save the pic. :(

CooraaBikkurishita!!

Title: Cola Surprise!

First off I'm extremely sad to say that I have no pictures of this incident. :( Friday Abby and I took a trip to DonQquixote for groceries and other necessities. It was there where we found the a two liter of Coke for the first time. It was on sale too, so why NOT get it...we were wrong so very wrong. By the time we got back it was supper time, and we had planned on eggs, but first we had to put everything away. So I cracked open the coke, and wait for it,...I poured Abby a glass just fine. It was normal, nothing out of the ordinary. So I got to pour myself a glass, using my water bottle cause I only have one drinking glass, and it explodes. Literally, the coke back lashes out of the water bottle covers me, sprays onto the wall behind me, and the ceiling. All the cupboards, the fridge, microwave, the window above the sink! My entire kitchen COVERED in coke, and I have no idea how, or why.

On the bright side, look at this.

Boushigadaisukida!

Title: I really like hats!

Just a small post, maybe I will keep up more if I do lots of small post rather than gigantic ones. I've taken a recent liking to hats, probably because everyone and their mother here says I look wonderful in them. And I find that I'm accessorizing more here, Femininity here I come.




And I found the best thing ever at the DonQuixote. For about 12 American Dollars.



FINAL FANTASY V for the Super Nintendo!!! I can't wait to get back and see if it works in my American system. Classes are fine, getting more into the stuff I don't know but it's not hard. I', told that I'm getting more fluent each week.

But it occurs to me, does the American Legion get wireless signal? (This really only pertains to my family) But if the American Legion gets wireless signal then some one can set me up on Skype, and I can sort of be there. Abby's doing something similar for her family Christmas parties that she'll going to miss. I could just be set down on a table and people can sit and talk with me! That and I want to see the look on whoever gets my present for the exchange, I'm going to mail it home soon. Muwahahhahahaha!

All is well.

Love Gretchen.

Watashi no Tanjobi!

Title: My Birthday!

Holy crap, so busy. I think I'm just going to post about whats going on right now, and when I have a little more time, or just decide no to sleep on night, to post the catch up. I haven't been taking as many pictures as I should be, but that can be fixed with the wonders of facebook. Look on the bright side, now there will most likely be more pictures of me. Like this one.




This was my Halloween costume, I was a Surprise. But Abby totally kicked my butt with Moon Princess power.



We got Morpheus and Jesus



Jigsaw eating a McPork




Pikachu



Some lovely maids to clean up after us





And for a short update, All is going well, so well in fact that I have made the decision to come back to Japan next semester. I'm still coming back for Christmas though, no worries. Abby and I have both decided to stay actually. Everyone is having their second round of tests now, I had mine on Tuesday morning, and I think I did okay on it. Tuesday night we went out to celebrate my birthday. I'll put up pictures just as soon as some one else puts some up on Facebook. We went out to Sushiro, the nice sushi place conjoined with an arcade, twas awesome. And then we went to a kareoke called Joy Joy, which was also wonderful. Bunch of Americans screaming Journey's Don't Stop Believing at the top of their lungs. Best Ever.

All is well,

Love Gretchen