March-ed
Hey people!
What has this bunny been up to? Well, busy as always… I can’t believe that March is already over! NO!!!! I apologize for the long silence. I know you guys must be wondering (if you do) what I have been doing, especially since my spring break will be over on Monday. So, just add this to my schedule life of classes and part-time jobs, and you will get what I have been doing in the month of March.
1- Rested my throat after singing in the recital the night before (February 28). I did “Caro mio Ben;” totally freaked out during the rehearsal but thank God everything went well.
2- Lunch with Dr. Gustafson at Yanagisawa-sensei’s. Yanagisawa-sensei organized a lunch for the seniors to meet and have fellowship with our favorite professor, Dr. Gustafson as he was in Japan just for the week. It was great seeing him again.
3-5- Went to Okutama, in the outskirts of Tokyo for Tokyo Union Church’s Youth Retreat. Just a small crowd of 9. We had a blast of a time… ala Americano! very relaxing and we had a great time playing board games and watching movies apart from Bible study and all. We were all brought closer, the youth and I.
6- Day of farewell parties.
I attended the farewell Japanese Tea Ceremony at Yamato-sensei’s place. Yamaguchi-san, a tea master by profession came to perform the tea ceremony for us. He came all the way from Kyoto (the place where he teaches Buddhist monks the art of tea) bringing snacks from the Imperial household. We had a fun time there. I got the opportuntiy to perform the ceremony too while being tutored by him. He will officially come to teach us, the Japanese Tea Ceremony Club. He is also an invited guest of Yamato-sensei to teach us during his classes of “Eastern Thought” where I would translate for the class. (hmm.. so, I better brush up my listening skills to pick up the Kansai-accent.)
After that, we had a farewell party for the graduates at the Dining Hall. This time, it was done a little different where they made all the graduating seniors to dress up.. it was a nice party. I joined the graduating class for a time of fellowship and prayer at their last prayer meeting,
7- Graduation Day
8- Went to Tokyo Disney Sea with Seth. Personal preference: I like Disneyland, I LOVE DisneySea. It was really cool. We had tonnes of fun. haha… imagine suemae and seth, both WAY into our 20s but running around like kids. We had tonnes of fun teasing people who were dating there. However, I must say, I am pretty proud of myself being able to get on every ride and watched all the major shows and parade! Wow! I AM a Tokyo Disney Resort junkie!
9- Kaiseki lunch with the ladies from the Inzai International Friendship Club. These were the ladies who I help out, teaching them conversational English. It was also a farewell party as Saiki-san and Kitamura-san decided not to continue their lessons anymore. We had a great lunch eating a traditional Japanese course. I will miss these ladies.
13-17 Stayed with the Fujihara-family at Chiba City as I was involved in the APEC International Symposium
13 Went to Chiba University for the rehearsal and briefing of my task at the Symposium. It was great to see Ishido-sensei again. I also made new friends with Casey (the Philippines), and Anne (Nigeria).
14-15 APEC International Symposium. Enjoyed myself as I slaved to take down notes and dictations at the symposium. It is a part-time/volunteer job. I got to meet and greet, dine and wine with many INTERESTING people.
16 Technical Tour around Chiba for the APEC delegates. I joined the convoy and accompanied the delegates to Kazusa Research Institute and Tokyo Disney Resort for the technical tour. It was very enlightening. Though given the opportunity to get into either Disneyland or sea without me forking out any money, I decided to spend sometime catching up with Ishido-sensei, meeting his brother and a new friend who was a translator/interpreter by profession. We were all celebrating the end of the Symposium over cakes and tea.
17 Dinner party with my Friday Evening English Conversational Class.
18 Moved back to the Women’s Dorm
20 Officially a resident of the Women’s Dorm again. I have my own room now… and it is so cool!
22-30 Worked in the library moving books from 9.30-4.30 daily except weekends.
22 Took a break from life. Went for a movie and good italian food by myself to fight depression.
24 Attended Nishinohara Nursery’s Graduation.
30 ACTS-es Spring Food Fest. We had a spontaneous night of potluck, music and dance.
31 Took a break from moving books to rest my wrists.
That’s about it. I will try to give you some sort of a detailed account of the above when I have the time. Feel free to ask me about it for any perosnal scoop. In short… I really had many great experiences in the month of March. Though it was a month of farewell and goodbyes, but there were many events which I would cherish for life!
