A Week of Madness…
Wow… I was just going through what I have last written before the silence. Man! It has been a while and you guys were not updated about what has been going on in the bunny life. Well, just to whizz you through and not bore you with the details.. here is it.
My family arrived Monday morning (July 3rd) for my graduation. That day, we went to Narita-san in the morning and had lunch around the station as we waited for our pick up. We came back to the dorms, unpacked and then went for dinner at Osumi-san’s.
Tuesday, (July 4th), I took my family to DisneySea and we had a blast. I was really glad that my family enjoyed themselves. We spent 12 hours there. The first ride we got on was "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and we covered almost every ride (except the Gondolas). We caught every show and parade (except "Donald’s Boat Builders"). We were able to watch the last day of performance of "ENCORE!", a summary of American Broadway… in short, it was GREAT!!!
Tired, we spent Wednesday on campus as it was raining. I did my final duty of chapel translation for Kurasawa-sensei. Had lunch in the dorms with my family (hurrah for instant Asam Laksa noodles!) and went to "Meadow Grass" for cakes and coffee with my family. I took my sisters to Jusco and let them experience cycling in the rain, and got back to change and prepare for the ‘Pre-graduation/Farewell Party’ the ACTS-es students threw for us. Later in the evening, my family and I went out with some friends to get ourselves plastered in the park near campus. Yeah… sounds wierd, but it really did happen… no one really got plastered though… ok, maybe Kazuto.
The big day of the Graduation was Thursday. The schedule for the day was something like this. I had choir rehearsal in the morning, rehearsal for the ceremony, went back to change, grabbed lunch with my family, went to take the official pictures, finished up my lunch, going through the ceremony itself (which I will write in detail later), had a hectic time taking pictures and all, went for a farewell party hosted by the Student Council Farewell Committee, went out for a nice celebration dinner with my family, and then partied all night karaoke-ing with the boys.
Friday, the family didn’t want to go anywhere since we were having a Tanabata Party with my Friday evening English class, so, we just hung out at the station area where I brought the clan to the 100yen store. Man! They spent so much time there and pratically bought the entire shop. They even got stuff that I never knew the store carried! After the class in the evening, I got back and changed into my yukata as I totally forgot that we were doing yukatas. Kevin was in his, so I changed just for a picture.
I played tour guide on Saturday and Sunday. I showed my family and Kevin and Albert around Tokyo. We went to Asakusa, walked to Ueno through a street decorated for the Tanabata Festival, covered Ueno Park and then took a train to Tokyo Station to visit the Imperial Palace. My family was too tired to go to Tokyo Dome and Tokyo Tower, but as I chaperoned them back, the boys went and covered that. After resting for a while, I went out to play some fireworks with Matthew, Sunil, and Kevin… just hanging out with Sunil before he left for home. We got busted for making too much noise from a neighborhood guy and guess who had to deal with it as she speaks Japanese? Well, it is never too late to have a "first expereince" moment after being here for close to four years now. We went for Ramen later as Kevin was starving.
On Sunday, after church, the same group was led to Harajuku and MeiJi Shrine. We saw many of the "interesting dressers" around and after loads of pictures, we made it to Shibuya. After coming back from Tokyo, my family and I had dinner at the mall. I went out for drinks with the boys after they were done at the hot-springs. Instead of Karaoke, we just hung out at "wara-wara" a Japanese pub/restaurant. The Kevin, Albert, and Matthias were beat so only Matthew and I went for pool. It was great to be able to spend some time with Matthew before he left too the next morning.
And I deserved to be kicked as I totally forgot that Ruth left the same day and time as Matthew did. I heard her voice outside my door after knocking it Monday morning and I cried, dreading to see her go. I spent that day spaced out in my emotions after chatting with Ann Dee who left the same day too. I brought the family to the 100yen place again and left them there as I had a Korean BBQ dinner with the Korean students, Rose and Jewel. That night, I lost my cool with my mom… sigh!
Anyways… Tuesday was a day of eating and stuffing ourselves. I took my family over to Iwama-san’s place to meet my other class of students. The ladies had a great time. After resting for a while, we went to the Kobayashis’ for dinner with Kevin and Albert.
Wednesday was left for last minute shopping and packing. After settling some stuff at the office, we took some pictures that we weren’t able to on Graduation Day with the robes I borrowed from the office in the morning. My god-ma made "Bak-Kut-Yeh" for me and we had dinner with Motoko. I enjoyed the very last bit of "sambal" from the meal of "nasi lemak" god-ma made a few days ago. After that, Kevin and I went for drinks, and I came back buzzed to stay up packing and then another round of drinks with my sister, Suzanne.
Thursday was a teary day seeing my family off. I stayed back to see Kevin and Albert off too… and the rest is history.. as mentioned before.
So… that is about it… a week of madness… I guess being busy is not really an option in my life… and now… back to the packing… but tonight, I will spend some time with Motoko and Masako.. till then… stay tuned!
