Shao Chan's Hokkaido Adventure - シャオちゃんの北海道の旅

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... >_______<