Thursday, September 27, 2012

The Day a Bunny Was Born

So, I was born or something around this time a few years ago.

Anyways! Guess I better backtrack a little bit. Yesterday, what happened yesterday...Oh yeah! I had training class. How awesome was it? It was pretty awesome. Like 8/9 on the scale of awesome. So far. Pretty much, you show up to the machine room and do what you want. Everyone pretty much used the machines, but I went for the dumbbells, of course. First though, I ran with Daan and then Wendy around the mini gym track. We got to talk for a bit and it was nice getting to know them better. They're both from Belgium and they say they miss the bread there a lot. I think that's the most important thing to tell you about our conversations. lolol, nah, they're really awesome people though. They aren't used to the food here yet. Usually, they only eat 1 hot meal a day, so by coming here, their stomachs have been a bit upset. I can't believe it's only 1 hot meal a day O___O.

I found out that the 7 kg dumbbells I've been using are 15.4 pounds each. lololol. Oops. But yeah! It was kinda hard for training class because we have an hour and a half and I'm used to more of an intense 45 minute workout and also wanted to be okay for track practice later in the day. The teacher kept saying "すごいね” or "sugoi ne," which can mean awesome! or great! or wow! or something along the lines of that when he saw me working out, so that was a good sign. I was worried he would be angry that I wasn't really using the machines at all.

After, I went home and then went out to find more natural peanut butter at the store about 15ish minutes away. Sadly, they were still out from when I took the last jar so I was like oh....
I did; however, take these pictures along the way:

 Breakfast berries:
 lolol, kidding. maybe.
This picture really reminded me of Beth. It's just so Beth:
 MORE FOR GRANT, HAHAHA:
 Lauren, you'd even like small convenience stores:
 More Haagen Dazs flavors, Pumpkin, Creamy Mint, and Coffee Milk. Cold diggity dang.
 Then, I came home and found this Domino's Pizza flyer. Oh wow, a Mayo Jaga pizza! And then, a 4 cheese pizza that you put Maple Syrup on. I can hear Mrs. Mark's disgust from here. XD

 

More flowers for MoMo:
Then, I got changed again and went to meet Yuuki and the rest of the track club in front of the Library at school. Almost everyone was there this time, even girls, but then I found out that all the girls there were timers, supporters, and drink-givers. They're all really nice, but it was like wait, I'm the only girl athlete here? I think that maybe there are more athletes, but they were busy or something.
We took a train to the track we were going to run at. There were. A ton. Of people. I was thinking, how are we all supposed to run here? There had to have been 150-200 people there. This isn't a very good picture at all of it.
But you can at least see there were quite a few other people using it. It was kind of tough because we couldn't run all the time on it. We had to time it perfectly to use. There were people from ages 5-70 using the track and a bunch of different teams or random athletes. So this is where they all go...
We ended up doing a 3/4 mile warm up, 10 or so sprints, ranging from 30-150 meters, some random stuff in-between, and a cool down run, stretching, and competitive planks. It ended up being 4 hours long.
I'm really not sure if I want to stay in the club or not. I do want to stay because I really do like the challenge and I miss track. Also, I like talking with Yuuki. He's learning English right now and is really good at it. Some things are funny, like I taught him "Yo, dawg" and how he was sitting was called "Indian-style" or "pretzel style" and this light bulb sparked over him when he remembered what a pretzel was and how it made sense. It's really cool when the Japanese students trying to learn English don't understand something and you describe it as best you can in Japanese and they suddenly understand. Or, they teach you things in Japanese that you didn't know. So it's great practice.
Yuuki has taught me a few terms and stuff already and it's nice that we can help each other out. He's the only one in the club that I can really have a conversation with since the others don't know much English. Ai, the manager of the team, knows some English, but it's still hard to hold a conversation with her. I want to say so much, but get stuck.
Plus, if I stayed in the club, it'd be a good reason to need to pick up those sweet dangerously yellow Nike Olympic Track shoes. They have the spikes on them and everyone in the club who sprints has them. lololol. Well, if EvEryOnE haS tHEm...
There are a few things holding me back from staying in track, like the amount of time it takes and well, running is great, but I really like doing my own high-intensity training more and during practice, the amount of stuff we did could have been done in an hour rather than 4. Maybe I just need more patience?

I got back pretty late after having a very awkward conversation on the train with the girls from Track. I couldn't say anything and ended up saying it was my birthday tomorrow to them after they asked if I missed my family and said I did and realized how sad that sounded. I was like:
I went to sleep pretty early last night after studying some more for the Kanji quiz we had today and woke up around 6:30. Lauren had written a birthday email, which really made my morning. Plus, it was raining a little bit, so that's supposed to be good luck, I think ^__^'. I remembered that I had two birthday cards to open, too; one from MoMo and one from Diane.
Sweet deal! Diane gave me cash. I'll have to go to Shibuya to exchange currencies. Ohhh darnn. lolol.
Then, I opened MoMo's. AND BLANKED OUT THE WRITING 'CAUSE IT'S PERSONAL, YOU SNOOPY DOGS. lolol.
In it, was a complete surprise. It was a pendant that belonged to my Great Grandmother. I have a very different and special relationship with her. This made me cry >___<,
I remember looking through my mum's jewelry and had found this and loved it a pretty long time ago. My mum offered it to me back then, but I said I wanted it at a special time. To me, I don't like getting jewelry just because, like at Forever21 or something. It really has to be a unique, special, and a meaningful piece, given at the right time.
Now, it means even more to me than before. The chain is broken and I do want to fix it sometime or find a chain that has meaning to it too so I can wear them both together.
Thank you, MoMo!

The moth, leaves, and feathers are all real.

After opening the cards, I went to classes. Today was a full day, 9:00-5:50 classes. w00f. And 3 new classes, Basketball, Calligraphy, and Aerobics.
We had an earthquake drill after our long Japanese class this morning. Over the P.A., they had earthquake sounds: things falling, grumble grumble of the ground, plates shattering, the whole shi-bang. It was like being in a Nintendo 64 Rumble Pack controller without the actual rumble. Actually, it probably wasn't anything like that.
Oh yeah, Daan, Wendy, and Sabrina gave me these birthday notes today:
 I blame Facebook for them finding out it was my birthday. And I appreciate it too. ^__^

It was off to lunch. Wendy said I inspired her and she brought her own lunch too and it looked like a delicious salad. Yay, I'm inspiring people to become healthier! She also wants me to help train her. Excitingness!
There was some hooligan, freakin' shady lookin' character that told one of the other exchange students and then us that Calligraphy class was cancelled. I didn't believe him and neither did Tom, so he emailed the teacher to check and lookie looky, it wasn't. So, we ran into our first jerk/bully here. Honestly, dude. We're in college.
I headed off to Basketball class and ended up going to the wrong building. Apparently, there was another gym. whoops. Well, I showed up a little late, but they didn't start yet, so it was okay. The teacher noticed that my Nike shoes were for Training and I was thinking woah! She knows the difference! It was pretty awesome.
Class was pretty fun though. It was a lot of back and forth, a.k.a. what basketball is. I got to meet a few new people and a really nice girl that is in the same Training class too. I really think I need basketball shoes 'cause I do want to stay in this class. I have blisters from track already XD and I think I got 2 more from basketball today. oopsies.
It felt like high school gym basketball at first, with people not passing to you because you're the newbie. Then, it got better later. It's exciting getting back into the sport. Plus, when the teacher is yelling stuff, I usually don't understand what she's saying so I can keep a positive attitude the whole time XD. lolol. And when she was giving the speech in the beginning, explaining the class, I was like:
We did some basic drills and then played 4 or 5 short 5 minute games.

I had Calligraphy immediately after, so I went there with Tom, Yuliya, Sabrina, and Yu. So, there were only 2 other people in class to begin with. lolwut. We were given these kits that we can use throughout the year. My ink is all out and the scrubby thing is broken, but hey! Free stuff, man.
So the entire class, we drew. two. kanji. The entire hour and a half class. We drew two. kanji. lolol. Well, he showed us 4 new ones that we can draw next week.
So his is on the right and I was like...

lol, sort of. For some reason, I kind of liked the class. It was relaxing. I used up all of my paper though already, ughhh. So Tom gave me one of these pieces of paper (that was blank at the time) for my birthday because I complained to him:
Those are some of the new kanji we got to try in the last 5 minutes.

After Calligraphy was Aerobics. This, well this class I considered not going to. I was questioning if it was the kind of low intensity aerobics I was thinking it might be. Yeah, it was. I'm not going again. The teacher was really nice, but it was all that heyyy, we're stepping to the left. Ohh, foot stomp here. How about we move our arms now?
I was like

I mean, it's great that you're getting exercise, but the class just isn't for me. I kinda wish I liked it because Hanaka is in it and she's just a really awesome person and easy to talk to. But Beth probably knows what I'm talking about when I say that you need coordination and we just kinda lack that (But not as "intense" as belly-dancing).

So by the time we're all done, it's near 6 and I haven't really eaten anything since 12, which wouldn't be a big deal but I had 2 exercise classes already since then, so I went to the groce to see if bananas were on sale.
OMG, IT IS MY BIRTHDAY. They were on sale! But now I know why...they're like tiny bananas. What deceiving packaging they have. But that's okay! ^____^ And onions were on sale! and cucumbers! So awesome. lolol
Hopefully peanut butter comes in stock soon. They have Monkey PB here too, but it's really pricey.

I come home to find that the package my family sent me arrived, but I missed it. I was like NO. NOOOOOOOOOOO. Y. WHY. Y. I was of the saddest. Or maybe just hungriest but didn't know it and it doubled the sadness.

The doorbell rings and Kirsty is outside with a birthday card and Godiva truffles for me =].
Pretty darn awesome pop-up card! Omg, and chocolate! It was just what I needed. She really made my night. I told her I missed the package and looked online and saw that the post office was still open. ANOTHER CHANCE. She needed to pick up a letter she missed too anyways, so I'm like LET'S GO. WE'RE GOING. ARE YOU READY? LET'S GO. LET'S LEAVE THIS TOWN. Well, not town. But we did have to venture. It was a different post office that we hadn't been to yet and luckily she had her GPS from her phone to help us find the place. It still wasn't very far though. We get there and after handing the man the slip, he explains to us that it isn't there yet since it was today that they tried to deliver it. I missed it BECAUSE OF YOU, AEROBICS. NEVER AGAIN.

Luckily, Kirsty is able to get her letter. I rescheduled the delivery time for tomorrow, so it should be arriving then. I'm really really excited. I know I'll probably have to wait until Saturday to open it because of the time difference and my family asked if I could open it while video chatting. It's really the least I can do because they put all of this effort and everything to send me a package. I'm really really grateful. =]

I should probably be going over the Kanji for another quiz tomorrow. Don't worry, Grant. I'll show pictures of what the Hatch really is sometime soon in another post. Or leave you all wondering. It's kinda cooler that way, right? It could be a stolen and misplaced Magic Wishing Well [Huff Puff, please tell me you get that reference].

Hey, if you're reading this today...then it's my birthday again! lololol.





No comments:

Post a Comment