It's just another day~ ♪

This morning was a bit rushed. My alarm clock rang at 7:00, just like it was supposed to, but I just heard it then fell asleep again! When Erin came to wake me up 20 minutes later, I sat up with a start and was horrified when I looked at the time. Well it wasn't that bad.. I had 25 minutes to get ready for the ASL class.

Today we learned how to sign shapes (like squares, triangles, stars) and learned differences between signs that look almost the same. It was fun, but there is one annoying lady who just can't memorize the signs but tries to correct others! :(

Let's see... what happened next? Oh yes, we went home and relaxed a bit before going to the English class. The English class was easy.. again. I wish the other students would speak up more. There are only about 4 or 5 students (including me and Priscilla) who reply when the teacher asks a question.

Went home and each cooked our own lunch. I had a ham-and-cucumber sandwich while Priscilla had fried rice. Erin had ramen! (iina...)

As for the math class, it lasted less than an hour. I think it will become more difficult later on, but for now it is pretty easy and fun! :D

I walked home while Priscilla went to her ballet class, then finished up my homework.

Like I said, this is a normal school day, so there's not much to write. Hmm... I wonder if there are any pics to put up. Okay, here are a few of my favorites from engrish.com:

More charcoal

After waking up a bit late, I had a light breakfast, checked mail, then walked to campus for the first time. We'd walked BACK from campus a few times before, but had never walked TO the place. It was tougher than we'd expected... because it was all an up-hill climb! We were hot and exhausted by the time we got to the History classroom. Fortunately for us, the room was very cold, so it didn't take long for me to cool down! The history teacher talked about prehistoric and neolithic eras, which was pretty fun.

We were thinking of having lunch at campus and going directly to our next classes from 1:45, but Naomi came by car to pick us up. That was nice, since I didn't really want to spend the entire afternoon at campus.

We had lunch at home, then I was dropped off in front of Koa, the art class building. We ended up doing charcoal drawings again (obviously the teacher thinks we should have a little more practice before starting oil). I was happy when the teacher actually complimented me on my drawing and told the others to take a look at it. :)
This drawing is somewhat similar to the one before... that round thing next to the cup is a pear, btw. A fake pear that lay on its side because it couldn't stand on its own.

I walked home with Erin, who had finished her class at the same time I did. Priscilla and I checked over our math homework which is due tomorrow. It's nice to be in the same class together because we can correct each other! :)

Oh, and Priscilla and I cooked dinner for the first time tonight! Well actually, Naomi had to help us, but I hope to be able to do the whole cooking without help before long! We had garlic chicken, spinach salad, and fried potatoes. They turned out pretty good, and I haven't heard anyone complain of having stomach-ache yet! :D

A short post

Today was probably something like what will eventually become my average school day... meaning everything went pretty normal.

At 7:00, I woke up and went to ASL class with Erin. We learned signs for colors, and that was pretty interesting! We went home at around 9:30, and unexpectedly, Priscilla was still in bed! Seems like she couldn't sleep very well last night.

My second class (English) was pretty easy... almost to the point of becoming a bit dull. But of course I payed attention the whole time and it went well.

Then, Ericson called our house and payed a visit to our house... his first time to actually come into the house! :D He came to lend me his nice Les Miserables CDs and pamphlet. I was so happy!! :D :D Thank you Ericson! I'm listening to them now.

Ericson drove us to campus after lunch.. very nice of him! Math class went pretty well too, although I was a bit sleepy because I had just eaten.

I walked home by myself while Priscilla went to her ballet class. Nobody was at home, so I did my math homework alone at my desk. Everyone eventually came home.
There's not much to tell about the rest of the day... Priscilla and I had dinner together while watching The Importance of Being Ernest. Such a fun movie!

I just remembered, tomorrow I'm going to be doing oil painting for the first time! *gasp* Yeah I'm a bit nervous, what with those more experienced ones around!

There are two kinds of people - Greeks, and everyone else who wish they was Greek.

Okay the title above come from a quote from a movie we watched last week... that's just because we went to eat out at a Greek restaurant for lunch today! Well here's my day:

We quickly got ourselves prepared and went to the 8:30 service at KCC. Of the three services they have every week, I think that this 8:30 one is my favorite. There are some people I know (which aren't many) who are there, and there are older people.
There was one guy who was baptized during the service today, and that was nice to see. Thank goodness the sermons about Africa are over... the pastor talked about there being only one way to salvation: Jesus.

Went home and soon started our own service at 10:30. Priscilla and I played instruments, like we did last week. Naomi led the service today. She spoke about our love for Jesus, for His having chosen us.

After spending some time in indecision about where to eat lunch (during which Erin took a nice nap), we decided to go to a Greek restaurant. It was the first time for me to go there... all the food was delicious, and I enjoyed everything! Because the food is a bit hard to explain, I put a pic of it here. Mmmmmmmm... doesn't it look good? That's Erin's hand btw, not mine. ;)







Want some?












We were so full when we got home that most or all of us just sprawled on the bed and took a nap. I myself didn't really nap, but put on some music and relaxed on the bed. :D After 4:00, people started to get up and about again. Priscilla and Naomi watched some TV shows in the living room while I was "busy" reading a book.

Half of dinner was made up of leftovers from lunch, but it was still good! We watched another case of Poirot as we ate: Five Little Pigs. It was a really good case... now I feel like reading more Agatha Christie books!

School starts again tomorrow.. I pray that everything will go well!

A relaxing weekend

I woke up around 9:30 this morning, partly owing to the thickened curtains that effectively blocks out the morning sunlight. After taking some time getting up and ready and having breakfast, we had out cleanup! It took slightly longer than I thought it would because the house is pretty big! We each knew where we were supposed to clean, so it was fairly easy.

Naomi made some spinach salad for lunch. In the afternoon, Naomi and Erin went off to Costco to buy some things. Priscilla and I, in the meantime, watched the movie Open Range, directed and starred by Kevin Costner! He was really cool in it and I loved the movie! :) Yup, I love good westerns. But it's not R-rated for nothing, so it's definitely not for kids.

Hmm... not much went on the rest of the day. I did my English homework, checked mail, read a book, etc. etc. Naomi cooked delicious meat loaf for dinner. I'm glad that Priscilla and I are in charge of cooking dinner at least once a week now, because it makes me feel bad sometimes, watching Naomi cook every day.

After dinner, I went to Tower Records at Kahala Mall with Erin and Priscilla. None of us bought anything, but we were able to find out that it's better to buy stuff online at towerrecords.com rather than at the shop. Tower.com is actually cheaper than Amazon.com sometimes, especially the music.

I'll now end this post with the one and only picture I took today with my camera. What do you think this thing held between my fingers is?

Survived through the first week!

This morning, I did not wake up when the alarm clock rang. I must've been sleeping very deeply! I woke up 10 minutes later, and realizing that needed to quickly prepare to go to ASL class with Erin, took only a little breakfast. Erin seemed to have a hard time waking up as well, but we both made it in time.. whew!

It's nice to have three ASL classes a week because it allows me to use the signs more frequently. The other students had some difficulty in remembering my name "Makiko" in signed alphabets. They kept spelling it wrong, like "Nakiko" and even "Makaki". I hope they will have memorized it by next week!

Erin drove home after class, but I strolled off to the art studio after buying some kneaded erasers at the bookstore. I completed the art homework in about one hour... I'm not sure if it turned out very well as I'm still not very comfortable with charcoal. Behind the drawing, you can see the white objects I used(sphere, cube, cone, etc) and the lamp.

When it was finished, I walked back home and got there just in time to see Naomi and Priscilla go off to Costco. Erin had by then already left for her intern, so I was alone at home.

Aside from my ASL homework, I did many random things. I read a book, spent some time on the computer, then started talking with my mother. This eventually became a big "conference call" when auntie, grandmother, and Takuma (and the bird) joined in. Because my mother's side of the family tends to be very... enthusiastic, it became rather loud. Well, it still was fun to get to hear their voices.

I spent a rather dull evening as I was getting a headache. Priscilla came home once then left for her Ballet class, and Naomi later went to pick both her and Erin up. Naomi also did the cooking again. I loved the sashimi from Costco that we had for dinner.

After dinner we had a short meeting to set up a nice and tidy schedule for the coming weeks, then watched a DVD of Agatha Christie's Poirot! It had been some time since I had last watched Poirot, so it was a lot of fun (even though it wasn't one of his best cases)!

Tomorrow is weekend.. hurray!! We're going to do a cleanup of the whole house. I think our room needs it! ;)

The Origin of Man... ( -_-) *sigh*

I woke up late this morning, at past 8:30. We had some time to check computer, etc, before our second history class. I was a bit anxious about how the teacher was going to explain the beginning of history. As I had expected, the teacher started a Creationism VS Evolutionism discussion... oh, just wonderful. He said that he believes in both evolution and God, but that just doesn't make sense... he went on explaining about the "missing link" and man evolving from prehistoric ape. He also put Christianity down and vexed me to no end (though I put on a pleasant, smiling, attentive face the whole time).

We were so relieved when the class was over.. it's a good thing we're not going to discuss this any further in class because it could turn the classroom into a battlground!! Naomi came and picked us up. On the way home we stopped by at the post office, and I got to send some nice things (book, CDs, candies) to my parents.

Had lunch with Priscilla in our room, then went to my art class. I forgot to take my camera with me, so no pics today. :( In the art class, we drew inanimate objects like spheres, cones, rectangles, etc., with charcoal. Because I was still unused to the messy black stuff, it took time. However, it was still fun, and I also like the art teacher. The only thing I don't like is the fact that there are more advanced students who have been doing this stuff for a while now, and they kinda look down their noses at us newbies. One of them even kept complaining to the teacher saying "Why am I doing all this again?". How annoying!

Went home and did my ASL homework while Priscilla went to her tap dance class. Dinner we ate together at home, then there was our short but nice prayer meeting. It's great to be able to pray for each other together like that.

Tomorrow I have only one class (ASL) in the morning. After that, I am going to do my art homework at the studio... I hope it doesn't take too long. Other than that, I am free!! :D

Second 3-class day

On Mondays and Wednesdays, I attend three classes in all: ASL, English, and Math. Today was the second class for each of the three classes. Now that the introduction had been finished on the first day, we could get into the real studies.

I woke up at 7:00am, and of course tried not to awaken Priscilla while I got ready. This time, I ate breakfast (very important!) before going off to the ASL class. :) Although the ASL class is rather quiet because the teacher is a deaf person and she doesn't want us to talk much, the class itself was fun and easy-going.

Erin and I went home once after class. Naomi later drove us to our English class, which takes place in the same building as my earlierASL class. I think I'm going to enjoy this English class. We had a little discussion about an essay that we read. I was a bit surprised when the teacher came to me while handing out papers and asked me "You learned to write in Japan?". I said "Yes.". And then she told Priscilla and me that our writing is very good! Wow... she didn't say anything to the other students!

We walked home after class because Priscilla wanted to get the feel of walking home after a real class. This is the pic I took while we walked... you can see the downtown buildings in the background. By the time we got home, I was very hungry and ready for lunch!

Finished simple lunch, reviewed my math homework a little, then this time Erin drove us to the building where we have our math class. Mr. Astromoff, our math teacher, is seemingly strict (and is, in a way), but he is also nice and teaches math in such a good way that I understand it well and even enjoy it.

Because Erin and Priscilla still had classes after our math (and I can't drive the car home), I walked back home again. It was my 3rd time to walk home after school, and I find that I actually don't mind it at all, even though it takes about 20~25 minutes.

After getting home, I immediately and willingly did my math homework... it was actually fun and I didn't even look at the time while doing it. Priscilla came home from her ballet after 5:00, so I passed on the math textbook to her and decided to....

Draw! Since tomorrow is when my art class is starting, I wanted to do some warmup today. The art teacher had told us yesterday that we will be doing charcoal drawings tomorrow... and I was like "oh no, I've never even held charcoal sticks before!" So I did some practice today.. it is a bit embarrassing to put these up, but please remember that it's my very first time to use charcoal!

I figured that I should try drawing a human face first. I didn't know who I was going to draw when I started, and even now I still don't know who in the world this girl is. Try to ignore the fact that there's an Altoid candy case on her head... I drew the Altoid first, and didn't think the head would overlap with it.
As a finishing touch, I stamped my fingerprints all over the white space. Charcoal really gets my hands dirty... or maybe that's because I'm not used to it.



Second try: a dragon. I somehow like to draw dragons and all kinds of other animals, using images from inside my head. Hmm... needs more practice. I sincerely hope and pray that I will do OK tomorrow!!





Well, that's about all that happened today. I shall now go read a little then go off to bed.

Second day...

So came the second day of school. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have only two classes: history and art (painting). I woke up before 9:00 this morning. Priscilla and Naomi were already awake and watching TV by then. I had a quick breakfast and wrote some mails before Naomi drove us to the history class that started at 10:45.

The history class was fun! :) The teacher was a big, Irish guy and was a very fun and good at keeping the students' attention on him. I'm going to enjoy his class! He's one of the more lenient teachers, I think, but gives more responsibility to the students.

After his class, Naomi drove us home once to eat lunch. Then she took me (just me) to campus again because I needed to go to the Math teacher's office and ask (or beg) for his signature. The guy was nice and gave me what I needed, then said that he is hoping I will do well with Math because Japanese students generally do well in it! Oh no...

I still had about 45 min before my next class, so I just hanged around on the campus, looked over my math sheet, and looked ta art supplies at the book store. When it was time, I went to the building called Koa, where the art classes take place.

The art teacher was the same guy who used to teach Erin... a short and amiable kind of Japanese local (?) guy called Sunabe. The art class is 2 1/2 hours long, but since today was the first day, he just explained about the class and the various supplies we need to buy (art supplies are expensive!). He also showed us a slide show of his oil paintings... and wow! Of course he should be good because he's a teacher, but still, WOW! I hope to be able to paint like that some day!
There were some weirdos with long hair in the class... oh well, artsy people are generally weird... I wonder if I count as one of them? :(

By now I had the signatures of three teachers: Math, English, and Art. I went to the office building and finally got enrolled into the classes and payed the tuition!! HURRAY!!! Now there's only one class (history) left to enroll in!

Went home and finished my ASL homework before dinner. Since then I haven't done much, aside from doing the computer and teaching Erin a couple guitar chords.

Oh yes! Erin gave me all her art supplies which she had gotten for her class before, now that she doesn't use them anymore. Thank you Erin for helping me avoid spending lots of money for the art stuff! :D I'm hoping I'll be able to paint a little at home too.

Sorry.. no pics today. *sniff* I should take some pics of the campus.. it feels rather crowded now that the semester has started.

First Day of School!!!

So begins the real reason why I came here. My first day of school consisted of three different classes with long breaks in between. I was naturally a bit nervous, but of course it was because I didn't know what to expect.

I woke up at 7:00 this morning with the help of an alarm clock. Trying my best not to wake Priscilla up, I quietly got ready and left for the 8:00 ASL class with Erin. I don't think I'll ever want to go to class without breakfast again... towards the end of the ASL class I was starting to lose my focus because I was so hungry!

The ASL class itself was pretty interesting, because the teacher is a deaf person... the whole class was very silent. She already gave us some homework that must be done by Wednesday. The class lasted till about 9:15. Erin and I bought the necessary ASL books before picking Naomi and Priscilla up and returning to campus.

I filled out the add/drop form for registering in the classes before going to the English class with Priscilla at 10:45. The English teacher was Swedish, which was a bit surprising. (O.o) There were also some weird students in class, including this extremely strange-looking guy, a guy who likes to gamble, a punk-ish afro hair guy, and a guy who's taking this English class for the 3rd time! (why are they all guys?)

The English class ended at 12:00, so we went home and had some lunch before heading off yet again for the Math class. The teacher was a sort of elderly man, but a good and strict one, I think. That was our last class, and that was a good thing since he gave us homework too!

Went home before Priscilla (who took her Ballet class) and started homework. I finished math and English homework after a few hours. Too bad ASL homework must wait until tomorrow.

<<-----You see, here's the evidence to show that I was actually studying! I must try my very best with all the subjects during the whole of the semester! I thank God for giving me this great opportunity.





Naomi cooked New England corn beef for dinner, and I just loved it! :P Her cooking is always great, and I'm hoping I won't get too used to it! Good night everyone... I'm so happy school doesn't start until 10:45 tomorrow! :D

I am a Leader in My Own Way (?)

Okay I'll explain today's strange title later. This morning, Naomi woke us up at 7:35am, and we quickly got ready and left for the early 8:30 service at KCC. Erin had already left before we woke up because she was part of the worship team.

The morning service was just about the same as the Friday evening one we had attended. The pastor talked again about the orphans and widows in Africa. I was struggling to keep my eyes open the whole time because I feared that once I closed them, I won't be able to open them again. Maybe I should've gone to bed a bit earlier last night. :P

We went home and had our own service at 10:40. Like I said yesterday, Priscilla and I played instruments during the worship. It was Erin's turn to lead again, and she talked in her sermon about being thankful and joyful at all times.

We went out to eat together at Kahala Mall's Panda Express (Chinese fast food), which Priscilla loves! It was the paper within the fortune cookie I ate that had the words: "You are a leader in your own way" written on it. That explains today's title!

Went home and took a little nap, or something like it at least. I just listened to music while half asleep on the bed. I love doing that... favorite way of listening to music.

From around 3:00, I stayed with Priscilla while she taught the KCIS kids some sign dance via webcam. It took about two hours and we finished two songs. It was a bit hard to see over the webcam, but I think the kids still did very well! It was great to see them all again.

Dinner was excellent, and we had some special dessert.. Naomi's blueberry pie! Hmm it seems to have turned out a bit shapeless, but it was still delicious! :D

Watched a movie called My Big Fat Greek Wedding after dinner. It was a fun, cute romantic comedy and I enjoyed it.

Tomorrow's school, so I'm going to bed a little early. There are the ASL class, Math class, and the English class. Wish me luck! ;)


A random pic of my bird. I miss him!

Great Weekend!

Since we'd all been tired last night from the trip, I slept very well and deeply until past 8:00. Since this was our last weekend before school starts, we relaxed and decided to go see a movie in the afternoon! Oh, and Erin went shopping in the morning with her friend.

Meanwhile, I had a great morning... I watched the DVD of the Gilbert & Sullivan show Patience which had arrived yesterday from Tower Records. Why was I interested in that particular show? Because that was about the only available DVD with the marvelous Aussie vocalist Anthony Warlow in it! It was a funny story about twenty lovesick maidens who are after two poets, who are in love with a milkmaid who has never loved anyone in her life.
Anthony Warlow was wonderful in the DVD, as I'd expected. He has the most amazing voice... he became famous when he played the part of Enjolras (a revolutionary leader) in Les Miserables and Erik in the Phantom of the Opera. He had to stop for a while when he was diagnosed with cancer in the throat, but of course he has recovered since then and still sings. :D
His CD also arrived today, and I had lots of fun listening to it.


Naomi, Priscilla and I went to see the new movie Red Eye at 2:40. It was a thriller movie and was therefore pretty scary, but at the same time exciting and suspenseful! I'm not so good at explaining the story, but it goes something like this: A lady meets a guy at the airport before her flight. She sits next to him in the plane, then finds out that he's an assassin who must use her to fulfill his mission. She has no choice but to obey him because he threatens to kill her father unless she complies. Oooh scary!! (O.o)
Glad we went to see this instead of Valiant though.

Came home and did some computer, listened to music, etc. In the evening Priscilla and I practiced some worship music for tomorow's service. Priscilla did the keyboard and I the guitar.

We ate dinner at home. Though there was some talk of playing a little board game or uno, but Naomi and Erin were tired, so they retired for the night.

Tomorrow will be the last day before school starts!! Am I excited? Of course!! :D

To the North Shore!!

Today was a holiday in Hawaii.. the day Hawaii became a state of America. Erin did not go to her intern workplace today, so we all had a day off. We had decided to go to the North Shore the other day, so after all the household chore had been done and we had taken a short trip to the drugstore, we were ready for our trip!! :D

Priscilla was the driver. Because the North Shore is pretty far away on the island, we got a little lost along the way... it took a little over an hour to get to our destination, I think. We stopped by to grab some lunch (sandwiches) before finally reaching the park in Waimea Valley. It was a beautiful place, and of course I took tons of pics!

At the place where we had our lunch, there were many types of birds walking all over the place, waiting for crumbs. There were peacocks, chickens, doves, etc. I made the mistake of feeding the little dove. Unfortunately, the greedy peacocks saw that and immediately hopped onto our table to snatch our food (they didn't succeed, however).

Here's the predator... and its prey (my lunch!)

When lunch was over, we walked through the beautiful valley to the Waihi waterfall. Here follows the pictures:

Oooh pretty!!

No, this is not the Waihi Fall. ;)

Erin: "Welcome to my humble dwelling!"

And finally, the real Waihi Fall!! *clap clap* It would have looked prettier without all the people swimming in the water.

There are actually many more pics, but I'll put them all up together another time. Anyway, after we had seen everything, we went to the beach! The beaches on the North Shore are pretty different from the touristy ones down south. It is cleaner, less crowded, and more relaxing. Erin, Priscilla and I swam (or floated) among the waves for a while, then relaxed in the shades.

We got up and finally left the beach at around 4:00. We were hot, dry, and tired, so we went to a place called Matsumoto Grocery Store to get some shave ice. Mmm!! They were huge, not to mention colorful!!

Went home and immediately took shower, but did not get much time to relax as we all went to the Friday evening service at KCC. Pastor Ron talked again about "feeding the multitudes in Africa". It was actually more like a projector presentation that a sermon, but it provided some food for thought and study at home.

We were all tired, so we didn't go out to eat dinner with church friends.. instead we bought food at Taco Bell and ate at home while watching a movie called Sneakers, with Robert Redford, etc. Look at Priscilla blog for more detail. ;)

Okay I'm off to bed now.. I really want to put more pics up, like I said above, but that will have to be another time.. I like this blog, but it just takes too much time to upload pics!

A Little Walk Under the Sun

I woke up extremely late this morning... again! Maybe I'll have to set an alarm clock in the future. In the morning I taped more Star Trek episodes for Takuma, and even watched one of them. It was rather creepy!

After lunch, Priscilla and I walked to Kapi'olani Community College to see how long it takes to get there when we cannot go there by car. Walking to and from that place each took about 25min average. Under the baking sun it was really hot, but we were armed with bottles of water. :)
A beautiful tree I saw on the way. I like these trees!










The flower reaches out to grab Priscilla's pamphlet!








By the time we got home, we were very hot, so we sat down in our room and watched a movie called The Watcher in the Woods. It was a kind of horror movie.. twas interesting, but I wouldn't recommend everyone watch it.

At night, we had our second prayer meeting... we prayed about many things, including my registration at KCC, which isn't going so smoothly. At the moment I've yet to hear from some of the teachers if I'll be able to get into his/her class or not. I ask you to be praying about it.

Okay that's about it for today..
To everyone in Japan.. have a nice weekend!

I'll keep this one short..

Today was somewhat more eventful than yesterday because we (as in Naomi, Priscilla and me) went shopping in the morning. I didn't get to see Erin until the evening today because she had gone to her work place before we woke up!

In the morning, the first place we visited was the college campus, where I got my last hold removed and got some papers for signing up for class. That done, we went to Kahala Mall.. or more specifically, to Longs supermarket.
I bought bags of macademia nuts for my mother and grandmother (mother's side of the family seems to love nuts). Bought nothing remarkable for myself, except maybe some beef jerky. :P Yum!

As for lunch, we ate at the Kimuraya bakery.. somewhat different from the ones we have in Japan. There was a little bakery connected to a restaurant kind of place. I ate my first Loko Moko there (fish loco moco to be exact). I forgot to take a picture of it *snaps finger*! Anyway Loco Moco usually looks something like this.

We went to Star Market after lunch to buy some food. There Priscilla bought herself some yummy snacks. Drove home when all was done, and I have been here at home ever since.
I spent the rest of the day doing computer and reading... and trying to find out when my CDs from Tower Records will be arriving!!

So I took no pictures today. :( how sad.. my blog looks so empty without pictures.

Here are a few random pics from Hawaii.. enjoy!!

A cute pitcher at Aunt Jean's house. Pretty big and heavy!













Hybiscus flower (sp?) Not a very good pic as I was in a hurry.







Tell me if I've already put this one up before.. I love the color of the ocean! :D








One of those tourist attractions along the beach. I happened to see this guy make a mistake on one of the letters, but he just ignored it and didn't fix it... I felt sorry for the person for whom that was made!


That's all for today!!

What to say~ What to do~ ♪♪

Today, I didn't have much to do... in fact, I stepped out of the house only once: when I went to get the mail from the box. So it was a rather lazy day, doing computer, reading, drawing, eating, watching movie, etc etc.
Naomi and Erin left in the morning.. Erin to her intern place and Naomi to babysit. That left Priscilla and me free to roam in the house (not that we moved around that much).

From 10:00 to 1:00, I taped Star Trek: The Next Generation for my brother. They do three episodes each day.. commercials over here are sooooo long and annoying (and sometimes weird). I'll be sending that to him when the tape is full... so have patience, Takuma!

Priscilla and I had lunch which consisted of leftovers. To say the truth, all three meals of the day were made from leftovers. We still ate well, though.

While eating, we watched an episode of the TV show MacGyver. I normally don't like watching TV while eating, but good TV shows are exceptions.

In the afternoon, Priscilla and I drew pictures on paper using glow-ink pens. I think a pic of it can be seen on Priscilla's blog. We're going to stick them up onto the ceiling so they'll glow with an eerie light in the pitch-black darkness of the night... muwahahahahaaaa!! *cough* sorry got carried away a little.

The afternoon was spent.. like this.>> That doesn't mean I didn't do anything worthwhile though.

Had a kinda early dinner with Priscilla and watched the TV show Law and Order while we ate.

When Erin came home from her intern place, we continued watching Pride & Prejudice from where we'd stopped last time. No, we didn't finish it, but yes, the story is getting more and more interesting! :D

Oh, and check out some video clips from the Disney movie Valiant which will be released soon (over here)! Looks like it's going to be a fun movie!
http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1808470370&cf=trailer

Shopping Day

This morning, I somehow found it hard to get up and out of bed. I slept on and off for a few hours before finally getting up at 9:30. I don't really like it when I wake up so late because it makes the morning feel short, but sometimes it just happens. Fortunately, there was a-plenty to do today!

At around 10:30, Naomi had to go to the post office to send some things. Priscilla and I tagged along and got delicious smoothies at Jamba Juice. Got back home, but soon left again to go shopping. First, though, we dropped off Erin downtown because she had to go to her internship thing. The three of us who were left went shopping. This shopping took the entire afternoon and lasted until almost 5:00pm.

First, we went to Ross, where they have aisles after aisles of clothing. We dug up all kinds of clothes, and Naomi and Priscilla tried on and bought a few. I didn't get any clothes because.. well, I didn't feel like I needed any clothes at the moment. However, I found a nice backpack for a very good price, so I bought that.. along with a pair of shades (Fossil). Ross really has lots of stuff for good price, so I enjoyed going there!

We left Ross at 2:30, but we decided to go to Walmart before having lunch. Why Walmart?.... because Priscilla and I (Priscilla especially!) wanted curtains for our room's windows. The sunlight would pour in every morning at around 6:30 and wake Priscilla up (but never me). She could stand it no more, so we decided to get nice curtains at Walmart. That was not hard to find... We got nice blue ones. Also bought some other things. The thing I found annoying was that the checkout where we paid was automatic, and had to pay to a machine instead of a person. It took some time to complete checkout, and when we were done I felt quite relieved!

Went to Ala Moana and ate at the foot court. As many of you know, Ala Moana is a pretty touristy and big place, so it was crowded with many Japanese. Priscilla and I shared Chinese food, and Naomi had some salad. What a late lunch.. it was already 3:30 then!

We still had some time before going to pick Erin up at 5:00, so we drove to a nice park by the sea.. called Kaka'ako Park. I took many great pictures there, so here they are!

A typical Hawaiian limou that you see just about anywhere. I don't know how they can drive those things! I'd been meaning to take a pic of it for quite some time and finally managed it! :D Yeah I know, I'm weird...











Hawaii makes me feel lazy... must resist!!












The moment the wave hit the rocks!













Beeeaaaauuutiful!! This has become my desktop background.












Can you see the airplane? (taken by Naomi Stafford)












We went back downtown and waited for maybe 20 minutes for Erin to arrive. During that time, the evening sunlight was very kind and gave me yet another headache. Wonderful. So we went back home at 5:30. Although we were supposed to participate in the sign dance practice at the church from 6:00, we were all too tired to go and stayed home. My head felt dull.. did nothing worth writing down here... just some computer and reading.
At around 7:00 (?) Shirley payed our house a short visit, and we showed her some video of the KCIS kids' sign dance.. and of course, she seemed impressed!

Dinnertime!! We had curry and some kind of chingensai dish. Mmmmmmm!! After that was over, Erin went to do a little shopping and bought me the blank VHS I had asked for. Meanwhile, I went back to the room and took some rest on the bed, listening to some music.

Oh yes, one more thing.. Priscilla got a table with short legs that can be placed on her bed. She's very pleased with it because she now has a solid place to put her laptop on. I'm very happy for her! (partly because I now don't need to buy my desk.. lol!)

Good night everyone! Tonight we sleep with our new curtains down, so hopefully Priscilla will not be awakened too early tomorrow!

Second Hawaiian Sunday

This morning we woke up earlier than usual, at 6:45... or rather, we were awakened. We went together to a church I'd never been to before. We quickly got ready and left in our car. On the way, we bought breakfast at MacDonalds and ate in the car. First time for me to eat at Mac in Hawaii since I came. I couldn't finish all my Macegg-muffin, so I saved some for lunch.

The church, Hope Chapel of Kane'ohe Bay, was interesting.. it did not consist of one building, but was more or less out in the open, with some tents and parasols and one huge hard, white tent-ish structure in which we had the Sunday service.

As for the service itself, the worship team in front was pretty big and a woman was leading it. Somehow, it was a bit of a disappointment to me, maybe because I had expected it to be more... alive (?) and spirit-filled. However, the sermon that was given by the pastor was good! He talked about what power and pride has to do with serving the Lord. Unlike the other New Hope church we had visited last Wednesday, we actually opened from the Scriptures! :D

On the way home I took some pics from inside the car. The church was on the windward side of the island of Oahu, the side which rains a lot and therefore is very green. It was beautiful!

We got back home at 10:15 and started our own service 15 minutes later. It was Naomi's turn to lead. She said later that it was difficult for her to speak in Japanese, but I thought her Japanese was terrific! I'm really not so confident about speaking in Japanese either..

Lunch consisted of leftovers (we had plenty of those in the fridge!) which were still delicious! :P After we had eaten, Priscilla spent the afternoon watching the TV show Law & Order. Meanwhile, I did some things on the computer, talked to my family, and read some more pages of Les Miserables. It's really a great book, and I finally finished over 1/10 of it... whew!! Definitely not an easy book to read though.

At around 4:00, Erin, Priscilla and I decided to watch a movie together and so we watched Dave. I really liked Kevin Kline in it.. he was great! The movie somewhat reminded me of the classic novel The Prisoner of Zenda.

After that movie was over, we felt like watching another one! So we started watching Pride & Prejudice while having dinner. It was a long movie separated into several episodes, so we didn't get to watch half of it. What we saw of it, however, was really fun to watch. Can't wait to see the rest!

Ah.. found a nice pic of the two main characters of P&P together!

Now I'm about to go rest my eyes a bit after staring at the TV screen for hours on end. At the bottom I'll stick the pic of my treasured item, the Swaovski crystal guitar which the church people gave me as a graduation gift. Thank you everyone who helped get this for me! It sits right next to Priscilla's piece right now.