what the HELL?! Its almost December and...

Its 55 degrees F, all the snow has melted, what is going on????

Over the past week and a half me and 2 other international students have been working on a dance to present at the cultural show sponsored by Hokkaido University. Some days I would even practice for more than 4 hours...and on the final day of practice we were there for more than 7, yes *7* hours practicing! Then the show date finally came, this Saturday. All in all, I think the bunkasai (cultural show) went pretty well. I was SOO nervous, it was crazy. But not as nervous as when I did piano recitals when i was in junior high (no idea why!) The songs that I mixed for our show were U2 and Brittney Spears...yeah i know. But actually they were very good contrasts to each other I think. The first part was slow and more relaxed, and the second party was fast paced and edgy. If i get a hold of a video of it that someone took, I'll try to post it here. It was definitely rewarding when we finally finished it, and everybody congratulated us. Im just glad its over, and now I have REAL free time....kinda. I have a lot of work this week tooo.... >__<

And the snow! The snow now has accumulated more than 2 inches, and its not melting, so it REALLY feels like winter now instead of fall. And its getting colder! 3 days ago it was -10 C with the wind chill, and MY GOD i froze to death.

Which reminds me! That was the day me and my friend Cate and Liz made thanksgiving dinner for everyone (topic 2!)

So we had this idea about a week before, to make some kind of Thanksgiving dinner for all the American kids and some friends. Cait had her mom AIR MAIL her gravy (lol) because we couldn't buy it here. I took thursday afternoon off(skipped a class) and cooked for 5 hours with Cait (Liz cooked in her own dorm, then brought the food with here to dinner at 7) I made my mom's recipe of "butternut squash saute" but instead of squash I used sweet potatoes and pumpkin (the pumpkin here is more like squash and its very good) It was REALLY GOOD. Cait made the chicken(we can't buy turkey in japan, because its so expensive) We seasoned it like it was turkey though, and it turned out well. Then we made garlic mashed potatoes, Stuffing, Apple Cider. Liz brought over fruit salad, green been caserole, macaroni salad, and a pumpkin bar desert (all made from scratch) So with all that food (and in large quantities) we had a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday at 7pm. We told people to either bring 5 dollars (500 yen) or some drinks/snacks... and what does everyone do (but like 4 people?) they brink large quantities of ALCOHOL! SO, it kinda turned into a eat, then get drunk thanksgiving dinner...haha. The bad thing about it though, was that there were more than 20 people there...and we intended there to be less than that, but some people invited others (when they weren't supposed too!) But all in all, I think it went pretty well.

Now off to Laundry and HOMEWORK... >_______<

So about that concert...

I left with my friend Yuko on Saturday night around 5:30. We got there at six, and it was raining but there was a couple thousand people there. At 6:15 they finally let us in and the concert began at 6:45. Let me say, although im not a huge fan of koda kumi, she has a very good 'stage presence' ei-> she can dance REALLY well, and even her singing isn't that bad for a Jpop/hip-hop singer. The first scene was her swimming up through a REAL tank of water, coming out, flicking her hair back, grabbing a microphone, and SINGING, (soaking wet)...YUP! The whole show had this 'pirate' theme thing and there was a lot of costume and set references to it. The stage was also one of the ones that came out into the crowd, so every time she did that the fans went wild. All in all, it was a fun experience. Next time I hope I can actually go to a concert of one of my favorite singers... (but this was still fun)

Then me and Yuko went to a bar with real Penguins in Susukino, although the 'penguins' was only 1 penguin, and it looked kinda sad... >__< But! the drinks were pretty good anyway.

The night before (Friday) I actually did a one night Homestay with a Indian mother and her two children (half japanese). That was really a nice break from dorm life...I got to eat/make SOOO much good home-cooked food. We made Thai Curry!, Nan, a type of sweet bread, and a bunch of other thai dishes that were all REALLY good (she lived in thailand for a while, she's QUITE an international person) Her kids were nice too, we played wii together for a loooong time.

I'm going to a Koda Kumi Concert in Sapporo tonight!! YAY! sometime fun to do!

I'll report back later.

Its that wonderful time of year again. The time that it gets cold, the time when your homework piles up, the time when you just feel anti-social... BLEEEHhhh

I just finished writing a 6 page paper for a films class, i received the wonderful grade of C+ for the 2 days I spent working on it... The idiot who teaches this class (senaha sensei) needs to learn how to grade papers. He's Japanese, and believes that everyone in the class should be at his ridiculous standards, that DONT EVEN make sense. I wrote the same quality Paper I would write at UW Madison, and I got a shitty C+. Its also important to note that the lowest grade i've ever received on a paper in college is a B, and that is from a Japanese Professor who GRADUATED FROM YALE, so obviously he has higher standards. But this films teacher is just a douchebag. If you dont write the damn thing exactly how he wants, he'll just start dropping your grade whole letters. I had a VERY good argument, my paper was VERY well organized, I provided an INCREDIBLE amount of evidence, and all he can comment on is how i summarized too much. WELL BUDDY, when you write a paper about a movie, its kind of IMPORTANT to explain the scene that you're talking about before you just JUMP IN.... (rips hair out) UGH

so anyway! moving on...

I have very little free time during the week now, my classes are consuming me whole. I took way too many and I'm starting to regret it >__<

Its going to snow tonight, I think. There goes another luxery, the use of my bike, my wonderful...free...bike. I'll have to start walking to class now, 25 minutes ONE WAY >__< At least my new winter coat is amazingly warm and it looks good too, haha. Its green, and kinda shiny, and it fits perfectly.

On a slightly happier? note I think I'll be participating in a cultural festival at Hokudai on the 24th of November. Me and 2 other people are going to do some kind of dancing thing (modern music, not traditional stuff) So far the chosen songs are by U2, and none other than the infamous Britney Spears (yes, i know she smells funny and is a whore, but i like some of her songs, i can't help it!!) I'm the one who got to mix the songs (thats the fun part for me!) but now i have to memorize some dance steps...which i have NEVER done before...wish me luck! ( I also have no idea why I agreed to do this...maybe im going crazy?)

cya folks,