Halloween is such a big deal here..

Today, the population on the entire campus was a little smaller than usual, probably because many students decided to stay at home or go somewhere and celebrate Halloween. Frankly, I don't see why it's such a big deal here... what 's there to celebrate about? Well, it was a bit amusing when we saw an evil-looking witch walking across a parking lot in the morning (on her way to a costume contest, no doubt).

Today's ASL class was pretty fun, because we got to learn signs for many European and Asian countries. English class was pretty fun too, although still a bit slow.

After lunch came the Math class. It wasn't difficult... we're still learning about probability, the kind of stuff that comes in handy when gambling. I probably won't use it anyway, because I don't plan on gambling at all.

Went home after math, finished up the homework, and continued writing my English essay until my brain went numb. At least there is less than a page to go! We ended up watching more Hogan's Heroes episodes after dinner.

Since it was Halloween (not that we're celebrating), we lit the candles in our feline jack-o'lanterns to see how they would glow in the dark. They looked pretty cute! One thing we didn't think about was that the kids would be attracted by the lanterns and come for "trick or treat", asking for candies.







Well, maybe they look a little scary from below.

First Sunday without Naomi

This morning, we started out with our own Sunday service. Since Naomi wasn't here, there were three of us, led by Erin. Erin spoke that each of us must seek to improve his or her spiritual relationship with the Lord. She also played the keyboards during worship. :)

We went to the 10:30am KCC service. It was basically the same as the Friday service, but it always seems more like a real service on Sunday. Today, Pastor Ron preached the last of a series of sermons about other religions that had lasted for 10 weeks. I think I'm kind of happy that it's finally over... there are simply too many religions in the world to cover them all anyway. The important thing is that Jesus is the one and only way.

After the service, we went to a Chinese restaurant nearby with Kaori and Ericson. We had a great time and food there together. Kaori comes from the Tottori prefecture (you know where that is, kids?) and is a really nice girl. Ericson seemed pretty tired from last night's party though.

Went home and relaxed... Priscilla and I watched three episodes of Hogan's Heroes while Erin took a nap.

For dinner, Erin baked some potatoes with cheese and ham and some salmon. While eating them, we watched Hitchcock's film The Trouble with Harry. It was a bit unusual because for once, this Hitchcock wasn't a mystery or thriller; it was a kind of comedy. A strange comedy about people who find a dead body called Harry, and each one thinks that he or she killed him.

Gotta go to bed now... the eleventh week of school is about to start, and I have two essays with approaching deadlines!

Carving a pumpkin is pretty messy work!

We woke up late in the morning today and finished our weekly cleanup and laundry. For some reason I had a stomach ache almost the whole day (maybe it was that pizza from last night). The three of us watched Hogan's Heroes while eating lunch.

Our house feels pretty different here without Naomi. In the afternoon, all three of us went to Borders bookstore with 20% coupons in our hands. I was going to get a CD, but in the end I bought a 365-day Garfield calendar for my own self. :) Can't wait till next year!

Afterwards, Erin went to swim at the pool. Priscilla and I stayed at home and relaxed until evening.

From 6:00pm, the two of us went to church for the "Pumpkin Party", a college people get-together thing. It seems a bit strange because Halloween is not a Christian holiday... nevertheless it was still a lot of fun. All in all, there were about 10~12 people. Ericson led the whole thing, and there were good food (including sushi) and entertaining games.


As usual, this game was very popular.








In the first game we played, we had to guess the number of M&Ms in this jar. It was hard because there were two different types in it!

Then came the game in which we got into two teams and did a tug-of-war with gummies. Two people had to hold a gummy stuck on both ends of a string in their mouths and pull! Whoever lost the string was the loser.

Next came the "pick out the marshmallows buried in flour with toothpicks held between your teeth" game (why does every game involve playing with food?). We divided ourselves into four teams, and I got second place. Unfortunately I was so busy pecking at the flour with the toothpick that I couldn't take any pictures!

Finally came the biggest part of the party: we carved jack-o'-lanterns! Again, we got into two teams, and each made its own pumpkin lantern. We had 30 minutes to do it. It turn out to be a pretty messy job, especially because the inside was so gooey, fibery, and smelly!

Finally we finished the pumpkins!! Our team (on the right) made a housecat. I'm saying it's a HOUSEcat because the other team also made a cat... a lion, to be specific.

We actually put candles inside and lighted them up.


Boogey boogey boogey!!
Our little group and our pumpkin.









Wow, I have so many pictures of the pumpkin! I look sleepy in this picture...

In the end, Priscilla and I got to take both pumpkins home! Right now they're sitting outside our doors like watchdogs (or watchpumpkins). All in all, tonight was a lot of fun! I'd better go to bed now so I'll be ready for Sunday tomorrow!


One extra pic: Ericson's piggy bank, Stanley.

Another short post..

Okay I'm keeping this one short as it is very late at night now.

Woke up at 6:30am and went to campus about 30minutes earlier than usual. We spent the extra time in the campus cafeteria, then went to our ASL class.

At around 11:00am, Priscilla and I dropped off Naomi at the airport and saw her off! Later today we heard that she has arrived safely in Seattle. I hope she has a great time there! :D

After dropping Naomi off, we went directly to Heather's house to babysit Malia and Bella until about 2:30pm. They got a little fussy, but didn't cause that much trouble.

From around 3:00pm to 6:00pm, I stayed at home and worked on my English essay... well, I admit that I played some Mahjongg solitaire games in between.

Erin, Priscilla and I went to Friday's KCC service, where Priscilla played the drums. Pastor Ron preached about Jesus being the one and only way to salvation.

After the service, we invited a few people to come over to our house and watch Batman Begins together with us... the only one who came was Ericson, but we still had a great night together. The only drawback was that the movie was 2hours 20minutes long, and by the time it was over it was past 11:30pm!! Okay now I'm really off to bed!!

All those crazy Roman emperors...

During history class today, we learned about the Roman empire. Most of the stuff was what I'd learned before, but Mr. Cassity made it more fun and interesting. He talked about the crazy Roman emperors like Caligula and Nero. Both persecuted Christians. Caligula was so insane that he had his favorite horse elected as senate. He even had a marble stable built for the horse.
The instructor said something about Nero that I did not know: that he thought himself a good musician. According to Mr. Cassity, while Nero was playing his instrument on stage, he wanted to produce a more dramatic effect, so he set fire on the back of the stage while he performed. You probably know the rest... the fire got out of control and burnt half of Rome (!).... Nero blamed the Christians for the fire. Hmph!

Oooh, this is one evil-looking guy! (Nero)


Art class went normally today... the teacher did not make any corrections on my painting; however I am going to ask Mr. Sunabe to correct me next week, when I will have finished the painting.

We hardly speak at all during art class, especially the corner I am at. The other side has more beginners and they can be rather noisy or chatty sometimes. On my side, I happen to be the only beginner surrounded by advanced Media Art students. They are sooooooooo quiet! Most of them listen to their own music on earphones while they paint.

Nothing much to report about after getting home. We watched three Hogan's Heroes episodes after dinner.. hilarious!!

Oh yes, Naomi is leaving for vacation in the Mainland tomorrow morning! :D

I am SO ready for bed now!

This was the first morning when I got to wake Erin up instead the other way around. Makes me feel good to be able to return a favor.. haha!
During today's ASL class, we simply continued learning about signs for family members.

Our English class was short today because we had a conference during which the instructor told each student his or her score one by one. Priscilla and I are both going for an "A"! :D The instructor seemed to really like my midterm paper.

Since we finished our English class 30min early, Nichelle drove us both off campus to a nearby Jack in the Box. Jack in the Box is another one of those fast food restaurants like McDonalds, except that the food is much bigger! Their mascot looks a little scary to me.

We were driven back to campus for our math class. Once again, the calculator came in handy during the class!

I walked home first, finished up my homework, and started writing my English paper which is due next Wednesday. I have to write about the immoral modern day talk shows on TV... which I know nothing about because I don't watch TV much.

We all had dinner together at home, then watched two episodes of Hogan's Heroes. Oh, and while tearing apart a hard box of cardboards, I somehow managed to hit my head (hard!) against the kitchen cabinet... Oww! Now I can feel a really huge bump on my head, but fortunately my hair covers up the redness. I'm going to take a shower now.. I hope it won't hurt too much!

I love Tuesdays!!

Here are a few reasons why I love Tuesdays this semester:

1. I don't have to wake up at 7:00am like on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I normally don't mind waking up early, but it's hard to change clothes quietly and sneak out of the room without waking someone up! LOL

2. History class, which is a lot of fun! Today we started on Rome and the Punic Wars. Yeah, Hannibal was a great general in the 2nd Punic War... Mr. Cassity described his feats in detail and it was great!






Reminds me a bit of a scene from a certain movie...



3. Art class. Ooh I just simply LOVE this class now, it is getting really exciting (though I doubt most people would think of it this way)! I am now almost finished with the painting! Still needs a bit of touches on the hanging cloth, the bottles, and the red flowers. Mr. Sunabe told me at the end of the class that it's turning out pretty well and that he really likes the red cloth!



In the evening, Naomi and Priscilla went to Costco after Erin and I came home. They brought back some sashimi and California roll for dinner, so we had those... mmmm!

Priscilla and I watched a couple of episodes from "Hogan's Heroes", a hilarious show that takes place in a German concentration camp during WWII.

From 9:00pm, we had our prayer meeting. It was a great time, and after it was done we gave Naomi a gift to take with her on her trip: a star-shaped pillow. She seems to like it and has named it Peach, after the starfish in Finding Nemo.

Dinner with Aunt Jean

Today was a pretty normal day at school. I woke up with a headache this morning but it was gone by noon. ASL class was pretty interesting, since each of us showed their family pictures and identified his or her family members. The class ended with another one of Crissy (instructor)'s funny deaf jokes. It was about King Kong kidnapping a deaf lady... well, unless the audience knows sign language it is impossible to get the joke (that's why they are called "deaf jokes"!).

English class, on the other hand, was really drawn out and long. We didn't seem to get much done. Priscilla and I secretly signed ASL with each other with words like "s-l-e-e-p-y" and "s-l-o-w". ASL is turning out to be pretty useful! I was shocked when one of the English students did not know what a pronoun is!

During Math class, we learned about probability. I'm sure the upper kids at KCIS have learned this already... it's pretty easy. Like "what are the chances that a rolling die (6-sided) will turn out to have the number 3 facing up?" We managed to finish the class almost 40 minutes before time!

Naomi had been planning to go to Costco tonight... however, Aunt Jean called in the afternoon saying that she wants to take us out to dinner before Naomi leaves on Friday this week. So we all went to a Thai restaurant called Chiang Mai, the same one Naomi and Priscilla had taken me to on my first day here in Hawaii. The food is really authentic.

We happened to order HOT curry instead of medium, (and it was really hot!) so we could not finish it! :( Our mouths ended up feeling like they were aflame.

Naomi eagerly attacks the Thai fried ice creams. Those flowers on the plates are edible... they actually don't taste bad at all. I found myself eating almost a whole flower.

I wonder how the waitress would have reacted if I had eaten up the flowers on display... after all they are of the same kind as the ones on the plate!

That's Priscilla in the back, showing Aunt Jean some ASL signs.

Thank you Aunt Jean for taking us out on this special night! :D

Movie night at church

This morning, Naomi had to go to Kaimuki Christian Church twice because she danced Hula for both services, 8:30 and 10:30am. We had our own morning service after Naomi came back from the first service. Naomi led the service today... and said that we need to be pure and be excited for our church. I have been excited, but when Naomi said, that I was convicted that I need to be more excited for what God is going to do for our church.

Sunday service at KCC 10:30am was pretty similar to the Friday one. Priscilla did a great job at the drums again, and I think that Naomi did even better at Hula than she did on Friday.

Went home and ate fried rice and egg-drop soup. Afternoon was pretty lazy... I spent most of the time reading.

Then, from 6:00pm, Erin, Priscilla and I went to church again, this time to watch a movie: Left Behind - World at War. It's the third installation of the series and the DVD is going to be released on 25th. The movie itself was not bad, maybe a little better than the second one (Tribulation Force). Again, Carpathia was creeeeepy! And now he's becoming more openly evil.

We had some hotdogs and chips at church, then drove home. Now I've finished up my ASL homework and printed out a picture of my family for ASL class tomorrow. We are learning to identify each family member.

An Octopus for Halloween?

This morning, we did our usual weekend cleanup and laundry while Priscilla went to her tap dance class. The morning was rather short because I woke up late again. Today was very rainy and windy... not a very pretty day.
For lunch, Naomi baked some sausage croissants... they were soooo good! I wish we had those packed, ready doughs in Japan, like they do here.

From around 2:00pm, Erin, Naomi and I went to church to help Ericson prepare for the upcoming kids' Pumpkin Party. I was surprised to see that there were only two people before we came: Ericson and Bao. We painted some large backgrounds. One of them was of an underground cave with a cart, gold, bats, and for some reason, a giant octopus! Weird... but much better than skeletons and gravestones. My camera ran out of battery so I couldn't take any photos. :(
I'm glad we went to help, because with the added numbers we finished up pretty quickly. We got back before 5:00pm. By then, Priscilla had already left for her new babysitting job (she stayed there until 10:00pm).

At home, there wasn't much to do, so I read the book I'm borrowing from Naomi... it's getting harder to put down! I also chatted and talked to my family and took some time listening to Into the Woods, since a friend sent me some songs... it's a Broadway musical that has all kinds of fairytale characters mixed up in one story. Quite funny!

Well, not much to tell about the rest of the day... Priscilla came back a short while ago and we are hopefully off to bed soon! :)

Oh yes, and here's a pic from yesterday's water baptism!

At last, the Californian Pizza Kitchen!

At our morning ASL class today, we learned to ask each other what kinds of pets we own. It was simple for me because I have two birds and that's it, but one girl had 15 lovebirds, 5 or more dogs, a countless number of fish, a rat, and a Jackson chameleon (maybe she had cats too)! So it was an interesting class.

Soon after Erin and I had returned, all of us left the house. Erin was dropped off at her intern place, and the three of us went to Borders bookstore to spend some time looking at stuff. Later in the morning, Naomi had her newly lasered eyes checked at the surgery place while Priscilla and I waited. When that was over, we picked up lunch at McDonalds and drove home.

In the afternoon, I stayed at home and read a book while Priscilla went to her ballet class. Friday is so nice and relaxing.

In the evening, Naomi, Priscilla, and I went to the KCC evening service... it was Priscilla's turn to play the drums during worship again. This photo is a bit blurry, but there she is, behind the drumset!

Also, today was Naomi's Hula performance day; She danced with the same song as the one she did for our graduation day, but with three other people. It was really great... when more than one person dance together well, it looks truly beautiful in a different way!

Oh yes, one more important event: two of the Japanese girls from the Transpacific college were water-baptized today!! We were so happy that they made the decision.

The sermon was told by Jay Jarman, who preached about Scientology in his own entertaining way (for those who don't know, Scientology is the religion Tom Cruise is in). The Scientology belief is very science fiction-ish... after all, the person who made it was a science fiction writer.

After dinner, I went out to dinner with Naomi, Erin, and Tiffany. It was a small group, but I was happy because I finally got to eat at Californian Pizza Kitchen! We'd tried to eat there three or four times, and it had always been too crowded. The pizza was pretty good, and so was the salad.

Well, now I'm home and it's past 11:00pm. I'd better quickly go take a shower and go to bed! Tomorrow I will be helping Ericson out with the preparation for KCC's Halloween Pumpkin Party.

The last midterm exam!

This morning, Naomi had her laser eye surgery... and it went well! Hurray for her! While she was having her surgery, Priscilla and I took our history midterm exam. We'd studied for hours for it the night before, so we were prepared for it. I had so much to write in my essay and I barely finished it in time! Thus did we complete our last midterm exam... I am so relieved!

When we came back for lunch, Naomi was home already, sleeping. So we had lunch by ourselves. Jenny (from KCC) had brought us some spam/sausage-musubi, which I thought was really interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I took a photo of it. :D

Hmmm... do they look appetizing?


We spent half of our art class today doing a critique of each others' paintings. Remember my teddy bear painting? Since most students did not know how to criticize very well, we ended up mostly with compliments, such as "I like the color of your teddy bear", etc. etc...
Since we only had one hour to paint our current painting and we didn't get very far, I didn't take a picture of it today.

For dinner, we brought home take-out Korean food at Kahala Mall. I ordered the so-called "Mini-pack", which was too big for me to finish. The food was all really good though!

I stayed hidden in my room the rest of the night while Naomi and Erin had their Bible study and Priscilla went to the worship practice at KCC.

Here comes the Math test!

This morning, our ASL class had to separate into four groups, and each group had to do a short skit with only gestures and no sign language. In my group's skit, I had to throw a party, offer drinks and chips to the others, dance along with nonexistent music. It was quite funny! Erin was in another group and had to be a nurse while another student was a doctor.

Almost as soon as coming home after ASL class, I was dropped off at the campus with Priscilla to wait for our English class. Since we had over an hour to wait, we sat down at a table outside, under a tree's shade, and each read a book. KCC has such a nice, relaxing campus!

English class itself was pretty easy... oh, and we got our second Essay results today... we both got an A!!! :D The remaining two essays look a bit difficult, though, so I'd better be careful.

We walked back after class because Naomi still had the car (she had gone for final eye exam). For lunch, we ate the sushi which Naomi had gotten. Oh, and Naomi is finally going to have her eye surgery done tomorrow (and say good-bye to those nasty glasses!)!

During math class, we had our test! We were dreading it, but it turned out to be all multiple-choice questions... you cannot imagine how relieved I was!! I think I still made one mistake, but I'm not sure at the moment. Well, the questions were easier than I thought it would be.

After getting home, it seems as though I have been doing nothing but study for tomorrow's history exam, but that's not really true, because there was the dinner in between. Naomi, Priscilla and I also went to Ala Moana at night to find a pair of sunglasses for Naomi. She found a nice one, so hurray for her! :D

I think I'll have to study history a bit more tomorrow morning before class... wish us luck!
Matt and Priscilla in a tree during last week's hiking.

Studied for history exam..

This morning during history class, we had a big surprise. Mr. Cassity, the instructor, walked into the room and suddenly said "We're starting with a quiz today." Since we had not expected a quiz today, we hadn't studied! We were dismayed, but fortunately the quiz was really easy. The only thing we have to really worry about is the midterm exam on Thursday.

In the afternoon I worked on the painting with the others... in silence, while some weird music was turned on. I think I did pretty well today.. the photo looks rather dark, but that's because the light in the room was turned off.

Mr. Sunabe, the instructor, did not say anything to me about my painting until the end of class, when he stared at it for a while then slowly said "..very good, Maki." I'm glad he got my name right that time.. he still sometimes confuses it with another student's name, which is Miwa.

After art class finished at 4:15pm, I went to the cafeteria, where I joined Priscilla and a few friends from history class, who were studying for the midterm exam. We stayed there until about 6:00pm. It was very good to be able to study together, although I was starting to feel sleepy from the art class.

For dinner, Priscilla and I had unagi with rice!! Mmmm, it was so good! Now I have finished all my homework for tomorrow... oh, that reminds me that we have to take a math test tomorrow.. aahh!!

The calculator is a wonderful invention

This morning, Erin and I had our ASL midterm exam. It covered the entire 8 weeks of classes so there were many questions. It turned out to be pretty easy, although I know I made one or two mistakes.

Most of English class was rather boring... however, most of the class found a bit of entertainment when one student (the haole guy from Mexico) started nodding off. He did not even notice when the teacher was handing out papers to everyone! Heehee... I would've died of embarrassment had I been in his place!

We went home and ate our lunch, as usual.

During math class we did our review/practice test for the upcoming test on Wednesday. I'm really not looking forward to this one, but hopefully the notes that I took will help during the exam. I also used my new calculator for the first time today! Aah, it makes life so much easier! Mine looks something like this one:


Back at home, I made my notes for the math test. We are allowed to have one sheet of notes and equations on our desk during our test. Our teacher is so nice! There were many kinds of formulas to go over, so it took some time.

Not much else went on for the rest of the day. Tomorrow Priscilla and I are going to study for the history midterm exam with our friend Nichelle. Tomorrow is also art class.. can't wait!! :D

The beginning of a new week

This morning, we went to the early 8:30am service at Kaimuki Christian Church. The service went as usual, with Tony leading the worship. There was another guy who preached the sermon instead of Pastor Ron today. He spoke about Hedonism, a religion of earthly pleasures.

Back at home, we started our own church service at 10:30am. Erin led the service today and talked about the importance of fellowshiping with one another. I think we are getting used to having our services at home now, but now that I think about it, a Sunday would be like a Sunday without our own service and worship. It's very different from the KCC service.

For lunch, we decided to go out to eat at Happy Day! I think that this Chinese restaurant is my favorite place to eat out in all of Hawaii right now. The food is pretty authentic Chinese, and there is lots of seafood!

At 1:30, Erin, Priscilla, and I left for Ward Theaters to watch Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit with Don. We'd been wanting to see this for a while, so it was great! The movie did not let us down... it was just as good as I'd expected it to be.

All dogs should be like Gromit: smart and loyal!

After the movie, we stopped by at Office Depot (where I bought a calculator) and Nordstrom Rack (where Priscilla bought shirts).

For the rest of the evening, we stayed at home and relaxed. Well, I did a little studying since there is the ASL midterm exam coming up tomorrow!

At night, we did a video conference with Pastor and discussed the next step for our church here. We need to pray for a vision to be a church for Japanese-speaking people in Hawaii.

Oops, it's bedtime already.. good night!

Hiking through mud

Today, Priscilla and I went hiking together with Matt, Yuriy, Yoko and her friend Satoko, and Ericson. It was a trail about 4 miles long, called the Nu'uanu Trail. Priscilla and I were picked up by Matt at around 12:00. We actually had some trouble getting to the place because that part of the highway was closed! Ericson, who came in his own car, ran into the same problem as well.

While waiting for Ericson to arrive, some of the others started climbing a big tree (can you see Yoko at bottom left?).
I stayed below in the meantime and managed to collect about ten mosquito bites! At least mosquitos here are smaller and easier to swat than the Japanese ones.




Therefore, I named this street the Mosquito Street.



Going uphill took about two hours. Some parts were pretty steep and tiring, but it wasn't a very long climb. It reminded me a bit of our hiking trips in Japan, because our family loves hiking. The worst part of the trip was that it was extemely muddy! Because I was wearing sandals, my feet got all muddy and dirty. Eewww. I'm glad I didn't get myself too muddy though (although I did slip and fall once).

Finally we got to the top, where the view was superb!


Ericson the triumphant!!!!

Yoko and Satoko.

The way down was somewhat less tiring, though harder on the legs. Some of us ran part of the way becaues Yoko was really worried about getting down before sunset. By the time we finished the trail, it was already past 5:00pm.

Although Erin was planning to take the four of us out to dinner tonight, it didn't work out because Priscilla and I could not get home in time. We hikers decided to go out to eat at a restaurant called Lam's Garden Chinese Restaurant(?). The food was all great, especially the pekin duck which Ericson ordered.

Upon returning home, we immediately took a refreshing shower.. aahh. :D My legs hurt from all that walking.. I hope it won't be too bad tomorrow!

For more photos, you can go to Ericson's place at: http://homepage.mac.com/moonarts/PhotoAlbum41.html

Friday!!

Aah Friday is so nice with its one class. I fortunately got up on time this morning and so did not have to be in a hurry to get to the ASL class. Our class was a bit shorter than usual because we mostly reviewed the entire half semester in preparation for the midterm exam next Monday. Oh no... but ASL is not so difficult, so I'm not as worried about it as I am about History!

After class was finished at around 9:00am, Erin went home because she had to go to her intern. I myself stayed at campus and went to Koa (the art building) to work on my painting a little. Now that I'm starting to get used to oil paint, it's getting really fun! I worked on it for about an hour, though it seemed like 30 minutes!

Day 2.

I still need to put more layers of paint over the painted parts. I also should fix the shape of that bottle... it's kinda bent. Or maybe I should leave it like that to add an abstract-ish touch. :P


I went home a little before 11:00am, and have been at home since. Well, it's not like I wasted the time at home. I am now nearly finished with the Buddhism book Siddhartha. I also got to talk with my family.. and my auntie.. and my grandmother. They tortured me by sending me photos of good Japanese food and talking about how good ikura is! Argh!!

Naomi and Priscilla are gone to dinner again, this time with some of the Japanese girls from the Transpacific college. They are nice and fun to be with; I would have gone too, but I'd already had dinner, and it would have felt strange for me to have just sat there looking at everyone's food while they ate, waiting for dessert. Hmm maybe next time I will go!

History midterm exam next week! aargh..

We did a small quiz on Chinese history during our history class. It was relatively easy, though we had to know some things about Chinese philosophy (like Daoism and Confucianism). We also learned some interesting things about Greek history... like the triremes (the ship below) that could ram into other ships and sink them.


One thing I'm not looking forward to is the history midterm exam next week! Half of the score depends upon the essay we have to write.


During art class, I started the next still-life painting.. yay!! The canvas is a little bigger than the last one (24"x30"). I finished up the underpainting in ultramarine blue today. Time really flies during art class because I get so absorbed into what I'm doing. Although it's twice as long as my other classes (2 1/2 hrs), it feels really short. I will hopefully be putting up photos of this painting every week to show its progress. So this is the first one:


After coming home and having some good dinner, Naomi and Erin had their Bible study. Priscilla and I took this opportunity to watch a movie which Priscilla had rented a week ago.

Well, there is already only one more class left for this week! *does a dance*

English Midterm Exam

I am ashamed to say that I almost missed the morning ASL class today (!!). The alarm rang at 7:00am as usual, but I could not wake up! Next thing I knew, Erin was knocking on the door, and it was past 7:40! (class starts at 8:00) Horrified, I got up immediately, changed clothes, and got ready in five minutes. We got there in time.. whew! That was close!

ASL class was pretty fun today because the teacher brought two deaf guys to help out. We sat around in a circle and asked them questions each in turn. One of the guys was from the mainland and the other was Erin's classmate, a Belgian.

We had our English midterm exam today. It was basically a simple essay we had to write about "living a solitary life". It was pretty easy, and I'm sure I didn't do too bad.

After a lunch break at home, we went to our math class. Again, we learned about very useful things like mortgage payments. I'm so glad we are allowed to use a calculator, or I would not know how to solve the problems!

After getting home, I spent the time quietly doing my homework, doing computer, and reading the history assignment book.

Wow... this watercolor was painted two years ago! If I were to paint the same thing today, it would probably be very different from this one. I don't paint in this straightforward way anymore.

First painting done!

During history class today, we finally got our Epic of Gilgamesh paper back... I didn't do too bad, but the instructor said that my analysis will have to be longer next time. Okay, at least now I know how to write my other papers.
We learned about the early Greeks, like how the numerous city-states and the Olympics originated.

Went home, had a lunch break, then headed off to art class.

I finally finished my first oil-painting today! I was expecting to use the entire 2 1/2 hours of today's class to finish it, but as it turned out I finished it in 30 minutes. Well I guess that's not strange, since I had been working on this for over two weeks now.

Aawww a teddy bear!








Because I did not have a big canvas ready for the next still-life painting (oops!), I spent the rest of the classtime constructing the canvas. Like I said before, making a canvas takes a lot of muscles!!


After getting home, I did my ASL homework, which took some time. In between, we ate pizza while watching The Interpreter, with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. It was the DVD that Priscilla had ordered from Amazon and had finally arrived today! I was glad to be able to watch it at last!

Another three-class schoolday tomorrow. Good night!

A relaxing schoolday

If there can be such a thing as a relaxing schoolday, today is one. ASL class in the morning was fun, the English class was too easy... almost boring (we're learning about where to put quotation marks!). I am surprised at how some students don't know these basic English skills.

During math class we are learning things that will probably come in useful someday, such as add-on debt and interest rates. I need to get a scientific calculator for the upcoming test!

There was no homework at all after I got home. Yay!! Well, I wasn't going to waste the entire evening away... I took out the novel Siddhartha which we have to read for History class. The story is about Siddhartha Gautama, the guy who invented Buddhism. I only finished Part 1... and all I can say is that so far it's all about meditation, self-denial, pilgrimage, and achieving Nirvana......
(-.-)..zzzZZZZ

We all ate taco salad with the chicken Naomi had prepared for us. After dinner, Priscilla and I watched the movie Charade, starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn! It was really great and suspense-filled... I love these old movies.

Tomorrow we might get our History paper on the Epic of Gilgamesh back! *heart pounding*




Random pic of the day: it's a bit dark, but this is the beautiful cactus garden at KCC campus.

Another birthday dinner!

This morning, we started our own Sunday service at 9:00am. Oh, but before that, Priscilla and I washed our poor birdpoop-ridden car clean! We consider that a great accomplishment, although the car gets dirty again very quickly.

Today was Naomi's turn to lead the service.. Her message's title was The Law of Christ; she talked about our having to help our brothers and sisters in Christ with the spirit. She had prepared the message in English but spoke in Japanese.
At the 10:30am KCC service, Priscilla played the drums! Woohoo!! I think she did a great job... the worship team had unity, and overall it was very good.
Pastor Ron preached about Mormonism today... it was a pretty long one that involved three guest speakers. Dave also came up as usual and did his little skit with Pastor Ron, which was really funny!

After getting home, the others simply went splat upon their beds and promptly fell asleep. Well, maybe I exaggerated that a bit... but the others obviously needed a nap. I myself was not sleepy, so I stayed awake.

From 5:00pm, we went to a very nice retaurant at Ward to celebrate Tiffany(one of the church friends)'s birthday. There were a few others who came: Don, Brandon and Christi, and Yoko.

The birthday girl! (some of us were saying that the guy who served us looked somewhat like an Asian Jim Carrey)






Not a very good picture... none of them are smiling!






The food was full course, so naturally many of us were stuffed by the time dessert! came The nine of us said our good-byes and left at around 7:30pm.

I think that I am getting more used to these chuch people's company and am more comfortable with them than I used to be... I belive that's a good progress. :)

Eighth week of school, here I come!!!