Aaah, already Friday!! :D

This schoolweek has really flown by quickly. Friday is a nice day with not much studies to do, so I sometimes confuse it with Saturday. But of course there was the ASL class in the morning, and then we went to church in the evening..

In the morning, I woke up not feeling very well. I even managed to stumble on my way up the stairs and scrape my toes... that doesn't happen very often. The ASL class went pretty well for me despite all that.

When I got home, I rested for about 20 minutes while Priscilla watched the movie Center Stage in the same room. I felt much better after that and was fine the rest of the day. :D
Until the evening, I stayed at home and finalized my English essay paper, did some computer, chatted with mother's side of the family (it turned out pretty crazy), and read a book.

Naomi, Priscilla and I went to the 7:00pm service at Kaimuki Christian Church. It was the first time for me to see Josh lead the worship... well, I'm not going to say much about it here, but most of it was.. not really something I'd call "worship". During the sermon, Pastor Ron talked about Evolution VS Creation. Of course, I (and Priscilla) knew most of the evidences the pastor presented against Evolution... we'd learned so much about it back in KCIS, and I felt grateful for the education we had on that subject.

After the service, eight of us (four of us + Christi, Brandon, Tina, and Yoko) went to "Chili's" for dinner. The food there is really good, but there is also a few drawbacks about eating there. First of all, Chili's is really chilly! We even had to ask the waitress to turn the air conditioner down a little because we were freezing! Also, the food takes a looooooong time to come. We actually ended up coming home at around 11:00pm. *yawn*
Yes mother, I'll go to bed very soon.

Tomorrow is weekend (hurray!), and Priscilla and I will probably go see a movie with Ericson.. how fun!! :D
Take a look at the birthday card Ericson gave me last week. Yeah, it's already one week since my birthday. This card was designed by a local Hawaiian artist and so is very local-ish. :)

Already Thursday?? (OoO)

The sixth week of school really seems to fly. Thursday is already over, and there is only one more class left for the week: ASL. Well, here's what happened today:

First came the history class, where we had our first map quiz. It was pretty easy, and there were only about 20 questions in all. I am unsure about one of them, though... I marked the dot on the map a few millimeters off the mark! I hope the teacher won't mark it wrong!

During art class, we continued on with our still life painting, so it was a quiet 2 1/2 hours. The teacher was sitting somewhere behind me while I was painting, and that made me a bit nervous because I could hear him breathing behind me... I imagined him staring at my painting and my back. Hehe! It will probably take a week or more before the painting is finished, so there is no picture yet. Sorry!

I was rather tired after coming home, but finished up my ASL homework before anything else. Christi and another lady came to our house at 7:00pm for Bible study, so meanwhile Priscilla and I went to Blockbusters to borrow some movies. :D We got home and immediately watched one of them: Serendipity. It was one of those cute romantic comedies.

Since my brother was kind enough to send me some photos from home, I'll put a few of them up.
Trust Takuma to put in a scenery-type photo. It's beautiful.. isn't it from Camp Akagi?






Awww, my little birdies... I miss them a lot!

Hehe... for some reason I like this one! :D

Untitled

I just can't think of a title for today's post! Today was our ASL class day again... we played a game at class using ASL, dividing into two teams and trying to guess the signs the teacher showed us in written form.

We went home, then after a while Priscilla and I went to the campus library, where our English class was held that day. There was another instructor who taught us today, mostly how to do research at the library and online. The library is a nice, quiet and relaxing place filled with big books... the kind of place I like! :D

Life is so much easier with Priscilla being able to drive. We drove home, ate lunch, then went to our math class. Oh, we got the results of our math tests. I made a couple of dumb mistakes on mine.. oops. Hopefully I'll be more careful with the later tests.

Not much to report for the rest of the day except maybe watching a movie after another one of Naomi's delicious dinners. I am now here, listening to music and writing my blog. :)

Okay, that was a boring post... but I have a feeling that many upcoming posts are going to sound like this, so bear with me please! ;)

The image upload is yet again not working... *sniff* :'(

Map Quiz coming up...

Today, during History class, we learned about the early civilizations of the Aryans and Dravidians; how they got to India and made the caste system. It was pretty interesting, but there is a map quiz coming up on Thursday, so I'd better start studying! There's also a book on Hinduism which I have to read.. great.

After having lunch at home, we each went to our afternoon classes. I took my homework (the candle in the glass) to my painting class, and the others somehow figured that it was mine although it was put up on the wall with the rest of the paintings. Most people painted easier objects such as pears, so mine kinda stood out. The instructor himself said I did pretty well with the glass... I think I'm glad I did something different from the others this time.

We started painting on our canvas, but I didn't get very far. Only finished the background of a still life painting of a teddy bear with some random objects like a lemon and a bottle.

Soon after I got home, Priscilla and Naomi left for a tap dance class as the University of Hawaii (UH) in which Priscilla was to participate. Erin and I were left at home, so I did the cooking. Well, not much of a cooking, since there was instant curry (wonderful invention!), some salad and leftovers. We also ate what remained of my birthday cake from last week. :P

I finished up my ASL homework after dinner. Seriously, our ASL instructor gives us too much homework. This class isn't even writing-intensive, but we have to write a full-paged paper for every chapter we read from our homework book. I'm fine with it, but I feel sorry for Erin who already has so much to do from her other classes.

Well, that's it for today. Miss all of you in Japan... good night!

The day of the Math Test has come... Shock horror!

Today was pretty much a normal day, except for that Math test we had in the afternoon. The ASL class went just as usual.. rather slowly. We learned all the names of the US states, but I remember less than half of them.

Our first draft of the second essay was due today, so we passed it in during our English class. Priscilla and I are obviously two of Ms. Lamb-Tamura (instructor)'s favorite students. That's because many of the other students obviously hate the class and don't do their homeworks. Not my fault if they get an F!

After lunch, we went to our Math class... today was the day of the dreaded math test! Well, it turned out that there were only eight questions in all. I think I may have gotten one of them wrong though. I hope I didn't do too badly!

Since there was that test, the teacher did not give us any homework... Yay! For dinner, Naomi cooked taco beef kind of thing over rice. Well, maybe Priscilla and I helped just a leeeettle bit... Erin did not come back till later as she was having her night class.

After dinner, Priscilla and I were going to watch the movie Charade together, but Priscilla later chose to watch TV instead... oh well, maybe we'll watch it another time.

I apologize for not putting up any pics for today.

An Eventful Sunday

We were awakened at 7:15am by Naomi so we could quickly get ready and go to the 8:30 service. As always, the people who attend the early morning service makes it feel more like a church service than the 10:30 one. Paster Ron preached about the practices of Buddhism today. There was one special thing during the service: Ericson gave a presentation about his experiences in Japan and showed a great slide show... yes, all the KCIS kids were in it, as well as the other church people back in Japan!

At home, Naomi led our own service. Her sermon was titled "Precious Stones" and was about us building our lives with things that last. We sang some of the older songs from our church, which was nice to sing again!

After lunch, while Priscilla and Erin were watching the movie Emma, I started my art homework. The assignment was this: I am to paint anything within reason (from scenery to still life) until Tuesday. Since I did not know what to paint, I decided to do something challenging by painting something made of glass:









After almost 2 hours, I finished! Here is the result. I'm still a little worried if it really looks like glass.

From five o'clock in the evening, we attended the
annual family celebration at Kaimuki Christian Church. Once every year, the members of the church gather to announce the church's financial and elder stuff. Though Priscilla and I weren't members, we went anyway for the food which everyone had prepared. :P

The food was much like the buffet lunch we have at our church in Japan (except I think the food in Japan is slightly better). The church people brought food of their own making. Everything was delicious, and now for the third night in a row I am stuffed!

We sat in a circle together with some friends, so I took this opportunity to take some photos!

Sitting around in a circle...







This is an example of what happens to two people who have lived too long together. Observe the same angle of the tilting heads, the chopsticks held up, one leg slung over the other, and the same kind of smile. Scary!

We got home before it got late, and I have been here in my room since. Another week of school starts tomorrow! Wow it's already the 6th week... 11 more to go!

Second Birthday Party!

There's not much to talk about today's morning. We cleaned up the house and I finished my English homework. I had to write about the population explosion and how we should help poor nations of the world. It's a rather broad subject to talk about.

Before 3:00pm, we went to Wards Theater to watch the movie Flightplan. All of us saw it except for Erin, who went shopping instead. At the theaters we met up with Ericson. The movie itself was pretty good, better than I was made to expect. Jodie Foster did a great job in it, and Sean Bean was such a cool, dignified captain!

After the movie was over, Ericson treated us to Buca di Beppo (means Joe's Basement), an Italian restaurant nearby, to celebrate my birthday! There we stuffed ourselves again, like last night. The place was really interesting and fun, as you can see. The entire place was like a maze, and the walls were filled with pictures.







Ericson and Priscilla..






Just Ericson








A HUGE plate of garlic bread! Actually, everything here was big!





The most interesting spaghetti... it's hollow!






And finally... the day-after-birthday girl!






Thank you Ericson for taking us out to dinner! It was so much fun and I loved all the food!






Ericson also gave me birthday gifts: two children's books with great pictures inside. Trust Ericson to think of something interesting to give for birthdays! I really like these pictures and will look at and study them! :D I especially like the story about the flying frogs on Tuesday... freaky!!
(you can see that all the balloons are now piled onto my bed. Wonder how I'll sleep tonight...)

I returned to Ericson the CDs I'd been borrowing. In gratitude, I burned him a CD from a Phantom of the Opera recording in another language. Here are an example... have a listen. If you can guess what language this is, I'll congratulate you!
Phantom of the Opera:
http://www.geocities.jp/eaglemodjp/phantom.wma
(if this doesn't work, paste it on an address bar or search bar)

I must say that this birthday was one of the best I've ever had in my life! Of course there was the ASL class in the morning, but I enjoy the class and so did not mind studying a little on my birthday! :)

When Erin and I came home from class, a surprise was waiting for me: a huge wrapped box was in the room, balloons everywhere on the floor, and a big breakfast on the table! The others bid me open the big box first, and guess what it was! It was totally unexpected... an artist's studio set, complete with easel, canvas, paint and paintbrushes!






Aah.. I feel like an artist!





At around 11:00am, after I had played around with my new "toy" for a while and we had finished our breakfast, we went to Kahala Mall because Naomi went to get a haircut. Priscilla and I wandered around at Barnes & Noble and Tower Records for over an hour, waiting for Naomi to finish. It was lots of fun, but shopping and strolling for a long time can tire the legs!

Went home and watched the DVD Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert which my parents had given me while Priscilla went to her ballet class. I basically just relaxed and had a nice time until around 7:00pm, when we went out to a special place for dinner! Aunt Jean also came for dinner.

The place was an authentic Korean restaurant called Sou-something... aargh forgot the name! Anyway, there was a grill thing at the center of the table on which we cooked the meat. We ordered beef tongue and some interesting cold noodle with fish and vegetables in it.
All the food was excellent, and the Koreans who work there were pretty nice, too.
Aunt Jean gave me a beeeautiful gold chain necklace which I just fell in love with!

One humorous incident at the restaurant: When we had sung "Happy Birthday" and had cut the cake, the waitress suddenly brought us a plate of delicious Korean nori and told us that the two men from the table on the other side had ordered it for us, wishing me a happy birthday. How nice of them!
So I went to the men with two pieces of the cake which I offered to them in thanks. They asked me how old I was turning, and when I answered, one of them said "You are beautiful.". Hahahahaha!!!

Anyway, here follows the photos:
Yum yum!








Me, sandwiched between the sisters.





Happy birthday to meeeeee~!







Priscilla using her POWER to cut the rock-hard cake. heehee!




Erin happily eating the Korean nori.







Thank you Aunt Jean for the necklace!






Well, lots more happened but I can't list every nice thing that happened today. I would like to thank Naomi, Erin and Priscilla for making this day making this day so wonderful and worth remembering.

The wonderous "Red Ball" becomes inspiration...

Today's history class was better than Tuesday's... we moved on to the Indian Subcontinent and learned about the ancient Indus civilization, a civilization that didn't survive for some mysterious reason.

We drove home, ate lunch, then went back to campus a little early, maybe 20 minutes before class. I went to the bookstore to claim the canvas I had bought the day before. It's basically just a thick, coarse piece of cloth, but is really a great surface to paint on, once coated with white gesso.

During art class, some of us started on another red ball, this time a little more complicated and detailed than the one before. I happened to finish mine first. For some reason, my art teacher said "put it up over there so that it will be an inspiration to others.". Inspired by a red ball? That notion was a bit funny to me, but I did as he said anyway. :)

He also taught me how to make a canvas. There was more muscle-work then I'd expected, so by the end of class I was pretty tired. It take time to stretch out the canvas and staple it to the wooden frame. The teacher also had me help the other students make their canvases.

After coming home, I've been doing homework most of the time. There is a 3-to-5 page paper I have to write for English class by next week. The topic is something like "should rich nations help the poor?"... not an easy thing to write about!

Good night to everyone, and my sincerest thanks to all who have sent me an e-card today! :D

More papers to write..

This week seems to pass by slowly... probably because I am looking forward to my birthday too much! :D Today was an average day so I'll keep this post short.

Nothing to tell about ASL class... the instructor told us a deaf joke, which was actually pretty funny as she acted out three parts of a story by herself. Deaf people make great actors and actresses!

Then, for English class, Priscilla drove for the first time without Naomi or Erin in the car, now that she has her license. She drove while I sat next to her. During the English class we discussed about the harmful effects that painkillers can have... oh, and we learned that the guy called Eric in our class was in the navy in Iraq. There is also another paper due next week, so I'll have to start on it soon.

We drove back home, had quasadia for lunch, then went to our math class, where we studied for the upcoming test next week. Uh-oh... I hope it'll go okay.

Came back home and finished up my Epic of Gilgamesh.. I have this nagging feeling I'm going to get a B or something though. It wasn't an easy thing to write about.

Finally, after Naomi's delicious dinner, Priscilla and I watched Muppets in Manhattan. It may sound strange, but I had never watched that one before. It was really funny and had me laughing a lot!

I'll go to bed earlier than usual today, so good night to all!

Guess who can drive now! :D

Well, there's not much to tell about morning today. During history class, we only had about 15 minutes of actual history-studying because the instructor kept talking about today's news and important issues such as the causes of the rising gas prices in the States right now... almost for an hour! We learned about the Assyrians... they were a conquering, cruel civilization. Eeewwww..

Priscilla left for her driving test right after class, so I stayed at home by myself for about an hour before walking off to art class with Erin. In a mishap while making lunch (instant ramen), I managed to scald my fingers... ouch.

Here's what we did during art class. I finished my second green cube and also completed a red ball. I was a bit surprised when the instructor, Mr. Sunabe, told me that I am an impressionist painter.. I take that as a compliment because I like impressionistic paintings! :)









A close-up on the ball.

On Thursday, we're going to learn how to make a canvas... so I'm looking forward to that!

Oh yes, big news.. Priscilla got her license today!! Of course you can read more about it in her blog... to celebrate, we went to have dessert at Chili's. Wow the cakes were HUGE! Congratulations Priscilla! I hope she's a safe driver because I'm going to ride while she drives! (O.o)

Another big thing, this time for me... I got a package from my parents, and it had all kinds of goodies in it! :) I especially love the three little glass birdies!
Aawwww!!




There's no space left in the already full kitchen for all this stuff!

Yay for the big letter "A"!

I didn't sleep so well last night, but for some reason I was mostly alert all day! That was good, because we had the 2nd ASL quiz today. Another easy quiz, this time about informing in ASL where to find each classroom from the hallway.

Next came the English class. I got my essay back, and much to my relief it was an "A"! I am so relieved, although the instructor said that she was a bit lenient grading the first essays. We also got the results of our quiz.. Out of around 17 students, 10 got an "A" (including Priscilla and me), 1 got a "B".... and 3 got an "F"! I found that strange, since most are people to whom English is their first language! What's more, it was an easy quiz.. all we had to do was fix sentence fragments! I felt really thankful to Mrs. Ean and other teachers who taught me English.. particularly for written English!

After English class was over, we went to the bloodmobile that came on campus today for students to donate blood. Priscilla wanted to be very generous and donate blood (well, actually the Math instructor said that he would give extra points to students who donated blood, so that's part of the reason), but it was crowded; we were told that we would have to wait 2 hours for the whole procedure to finish! Maybe Priscilla will be able to give some blood the next time they come.

At math class, Mr. Astromoff showed off (?) the bandage he had on his arm, to show us that he donated blood that day. I think he must be a regular there since he donates every time the blood bank comes. Math continues to be fun and amusing.. here are a couple examples of the logic problems we had to solve today:

All frogs are poetical
Kermit is a frog
____________
Therefore, Kermit is poetical


Some birds bite
All things that bite are dangerous
__________________
Therefore, some birds are dangerous

It may sound funny, but I'm not joking... this is what we're doing right now. :) You see why it can be fun, right?

Anyway, after walking home by myself, I finished up some homework. There was no one else at home. At around 5:00pm everyone came back, then left again, Priscilla to babysit, Naomi to practice Hula, and Erin to her night class. I spent some nice, quiet time alone and fixed some dinner for myself while watching the Emmy awards. Some actresses wore an icky dress!

That's about it today.. no pics again today! Here's something crazy: a pic of one of those Hummer Limousines that we saw the other day on highway. I was shocked because I didn't know such a vihicle existed! (O.o) I shall NEVER drive anything like this!


First, here's a normal Hummer.





The mighty Hummer limousine! Looks like some kind of flat bus. :P

Angry-looking Genki Sushi


This morning, our church service started at 9:00am instead of 8:30, so we did not have to wake up until around 8:00. It was Erin's turn to lead; she talked about our having to prepare and be prepared for what God is going to do for us. The title was something like "The Way of God"... not sure as we only heard it in Japanese.

We arrived at Kaimuki Christian Church 20 minutes before the 10:30am service started. The worship was really good today compared to the weeks before, and it was very fun and not any kind of professional-performancy thing.

We all came back, ate our own lunch, then spent some lazy time at home. Erin went to swim at a nearby swimming pool in the afternoon, and Naomi and Priscilla drove to Costco to do some shopping and let Priscilla do some practice on driving. She seems to think she's not going to do well getting the license, but I think she's gonna do just fine!

In the evening, we went to a kaiten-sushi place called Genki Sushi. From what I heard, it's the place where Ericson's father works. It wasn't that big a place (well, compared to some sushi places in Japan) but the sushi was better than I'd expected, especially the salmon, which was big and fresh! The chawan-mushi was good, too! Oh, and that picture on top of the blog next to today's title is the logo for Genki Sushi... don't ask me why it looks angry, I don't know.

Since I took no photos today, I'll post a random one. This is the view from in front of Mokihana (our ASL class building) in the morning around 8:00am.









Oh, and here's something I found interesting: The Japanese rendition of the Phantom of the Opera. It cracks me up when Erik (Phantom) goes "Sing for meeee, my Angel of Music!" in Japanese! LOL.. Don't get me wrong, the cast is wonderful, especially the Phantom!
http://www.shiki.gr.jp/applause/operaza/song.html

Yay a chair!!

I did not wake up until 9:2o today, so the morning was a bit short. Some of it was spent cleaning up the house. Since Priscilla went to her tap dance class today, I sweeped all of the floor.

The four of us were thinking of going to a movie by ourselves today, but then thought "hey, would Ericson like to come too?" So we asked, and he did!
After Priscilla came back from her class, we all went to Ward Theaters and met Ericson there.

The movie we watched was Just Like Heaven, with Reese Witherspoon. It was a fun and cute romantic comedy. Fun, but not something I would watch very many times. :) I thought Reece Witherspoon was cute in it.

We went to Office Depot after the movie, very close to Ward Theaters. There I bought my chair. It was good that Ericson came along, because he helped me pick the right chair (on sale at half price!) and carried it to the car for me. So thank you Ericson, you were a great help! ;)

We also had lunch together at a nearby diner then stopped by at Logos bookstore, where they sell all kinds of Christian things. Here we are seen having lunch --->

After getting home, I assembled the chair... it's big and very comfortable! I guess it's about the normal size for Americans, but it's so big for me I can curl up on it comfortably whenever I want to shift my position. :D I love it!

Aaaaaaah, nice and big!








Curled up, reading (or skimming through) a book on Sumer.

Naomi cooked great dinner for us again.. there was fried gyoza and unagi. After dinner Priscilla and I went to our room and watched the last of the four Poirot DVDs, The Sad Cypress. It was another good Poirot case... Agatha Christie was a real genius!

Gotta go to bed now so I can be completely awake and alert on Sunday!

A day spent researching and writing...

This morning we again went to the ASL class, but on the way back we stopped by at the post office to get my stuff from Amazon.com. I have the package here now but I cannot open it because it's the birthday present from my parents.. still one week to go.. argh!

After coming home from ASL, I haven't gone anywhere outside the house (except maybe to check mail). I continued writing my report for the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is now almost finished. I worked on it for hours today! And it's not a very fun subject to write about.. it's hard to concentrate on it.

Sumerians seem to be a strange, superstitious lot.. look at some examples of their art (or what remains of their art)... creepy! These people believed in many gods, like the Greeks, and whenever something bad happened to them they thought that the gods were angry with them.




Erin and Priscilla went to meet one of Mrs. Stafford's students who is in Hawaii now. She brought us some things from our families in Japan. Nice! I got "ikameshi" from my parents.. that's squid stuffed with rice. :D Since my parents wanted me to take a photo of it, I did.

While eating dinner (pizza!) we watched The Sting, a gangster type movie of the 70's starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. It was cool and had a really neat, surprising ending! 8) No, of course I'm not telling how it ends.. it would ruin the movie! ;)

Tomorrow we might go watch a movie.. and I might get myself a chair for my desk, so hurray!

Rainy season...

Yup, it's still raining on and off outside, and will probably be that way for some time during this season. It's growing a little cooler recently, but I don't feel much change because.. well, I'm probably not so used to this climate yet. It still feels very hot to me!

Today we took our second history quiz. It wasn't that big a deal... only five questions, three of them multiple choice. The teacher spent about almost the entire class talking about the O-so-great Epic of Gilgamesh. Although I really enjoy the history, I don't feel very comfortable when he bashes the Bible, saying that he's open-minded!

For the first time, Priscilla and I stayed with Nichelle and had lunch together with her. We bought sandwiches at Subway and ate in front of the cafeteria. Nichelle is a fun and easy to be with, an we had a good time together.

Priscilla walked home after lunch, and I still had about one hour before my art class. So what did I do? I went to the library to do some research on the background of the Epic of Gilgamesh. I ended up borrowing one book on the Sumerian civilization.. I'm hoping it will be of some help when I write my paper.

During art class, we finished our green cube paintings. I got to take a photo of my two paintings together. The one on the left is not completely done yet. The difference between the two paintings is this: the left one has the brown, monochromatic (one-colored) underpainting beneath the color while the right one is simply the paint colors directly applied to white canvas. Which do you like better? These earned another compliment from the teacher... me is happy! :D He's a very nice and easy-going guy.

Got home and helped Priscilla build her newly bought desk with Naomi. It's a really nice desk... you can see plenty of its photos on Priscilla's blog. We finished shortly before 7:00, just in time before the Bible study with Christi began. I decided not to join that class.. for reasons. Priscilla and I did our homework while eating dinner in our rooms.

I've just finished my ASL homework. Yippee!! Tomorrow is the one-class day! Then I'll go home and write my Gilgamesh report... *groans*

Raindrops keep falling on my head~~♪♪

Yes, it was a bit rainy today.. but not like the way it rains in Japan. Raindrops in Hawaii are pretty big, and they go off and on like crazy. It usually is rainy and sunny at the same time. We got to see some really beautiful rainbows today! Too bad I forgot the camera...

Unfortunately for me, I had a nasty headache again for most of the day, so I was slightly in a daze during all the classes.

Anyway, this was a wake-up-at-seven-in-the-morning day again... for ASL class. This time, miraculously, the alarm clock actually worked, much to Priscilla's dismay. During ASL class we learned how to give directions in sign language... for example, "The English classroom is beyond the Math classroom."

Got home, finished up the English homework before going to its class a bit early. We waited in front of the building with a few of our classmates including Nichelle and Eric.

We finished English class at 12:00 and walked home most of the way, but Erin picked us up by car just before we arrived home. We each made our own lunch, then headed off to Iliahi, the building where we take out math class.

Math is still pretty enjoyable, and I enjoy sitting at the very front.. right in front of Mr. Astromoff. Not only can I see the numbers on the boards better, but the teacher is also fun to watch.

I walked home by myself after class, finished my math homework, then spent some time relaxing and trying to get rid of the headache.

Naomi cooked delicious dinner for us.. something like "soboro gohan" made with beef and egg, then there was spinach soup. After dinner, we watched Poirot's Death on the Nile. It was a really good case!

Tomorrow I'll have to start preparing for the 4-page paper of The Epic of Gilgamesh. I pray that it will go well!

How nice it is to not have an early morning class!

I didn't wake up until 9:00am today... on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I can sleep in because there's no ASL class.

During History class today, we learned about the Hebrew culture. Like how Abraham led the people out Ur, and how the Israelites were later divided into Israel and Judah after Solomon's death. We also discussed the story of The Epic of Gilgamesh a bit. We have to write a 4-page report on the story by Sept. 20th. Not looking forward to it!

We walked home most of the way (Naomi picked us up before we got home all the way). I ate what remained of yesterday's Korean takeout food. One takeout meal is big enough for 2 1/2 full meals for me... everything is huge here!

Erin dropped me off to the art class. Today we painted a green cube about 15cm in diameter. It sounds simple, but it's actually not so easy to get all the shadings nice... well, it's not easy when you're not used to the medium! Here's the result of last week's oil painting practice. I know it's not much, but can you tell that it's a piece of folded brown paper?

After getting home at around 4:30, I concentrated on finishing two papers for tomorrow's ASL class. Surprisingly, ASL is the class that gives the most homework. Me and Erin's teacher gives more homework than Priscilla and Naomi's.

Priscilla and Naomi prepared dinner for us... there was salmon. Mmmmm!! I went back after dinner to finish up the last of my homework while Naomi and Priscilla went to Tower Records. Ah, now the homework is finished!!!

10 more days before I'm nineteen (can't believe it!)!