Packing away...

Erin was gone most of the day, taking her relatives everywhere. So I had the house to myself all day... how fun! Well I enjoy being alone at home, but one drawback is that it's no fun to eat lunch and dinner by myself. In fact I almost forgot to eat lunch.

The most important thing I did today was pack. It was actually more difficult than I thought, because the luggage weight limit is pretty strict (50pounds/23kg per luggage). In the end, though, I managed to put everything into one big trunk and one small one.

In the evening, Erin called me and said I was welcome to join them for dinner at the 12th Avenue Grill! It was very nice of them to invite me to come along. They picked me up, and we all went there together. They all looked like they had a great day. The food at that place is excellent, especially the steak. Erin and I shared a salmon plate.. mmm looks good doesn't it?

Mrs. Sato also got me a cute little gift! It's a little stuffed birdie in a little house-shaped bag, and there's a hole in the bag from which it can peep through. Awww I love it so much! Thank you Erin and Mrs. Sato for everything! :D


My flight tomorrow leaves at 2:55pm (Hawaii time) and will be arriving at night in Japan. To everyone in Japan: see you soon!!

Happy Mother's Day!

Well yes it might seem a bit late, but today was Mother's Day for us.
And sorry about not updating for two days... I was too tired to do it on the first night, then last night I just totally forgot to update!

Two nights ago was Erin's graduation ceremony... it was a wonderful time, with many of Erin's friends and relatives there to celebrate. Here is one picture, taken at the Old Spaghetti Factory, where we went to for dinner. :)



As for yesterday, it wasn't very eventful but I had a good time at home, getting things ready to pack.



Today, which was Mother's Day, Erin and I had a chapel (in Japanese) at home with Erin's relatives. After that, we drove over to the Kaimuki Church, where they were doing the last half of the sermons about the Da Vinci Code. They also gave little gifts to mothers, which was nice!
For lunch, 7 of us including Tina went to eat at Genki Sushi. I was a little surprised that they wanted to eat Japanese food so much in Hawaii, but I guess that's to be expected. lol

In the afternoon and evening, Erin took her relatives over to the North Shore, so I had the house to myself. I had a fun time using Photoshop and watching DVDs.

Oh wow I am going to leave in two days and won't come back for 3 months! Just seems like a very long time to be away... but I can't wait to go home! Slightly mixed feelings, I guess. Well good night!

The final Final Exam!

I woke up before 7:00am this morning and walked over to campus because Erin took the car to pick up her mother and relatives who arrived here today! Erin then had to go to her eye laser surgery, which was successful! :D

Today, Priscilla and I both had two Finals. Well my music class final wasn't an exam; we just had to hand in the papers we had written, and listen to the remaining student presentations. It was still sad to say good-bye to the teacher though.

After walking back home, Priscilla and I studied very hard for our afternoon geography final exam. We weren't looking forward to this one, but I just couldn't wait to get it over with... so we studied the best we could. Mrs. Sato came to visit our house and stayed over for lunch when Erin came home from her surgery... it was so great to see her!!

Well finally it was 2:30pm, the time for our exam. It wasn't that difficult, I think, though I know I've made a couple mistakes. Can't wait to find out the results!! And now that this exam is finished, it means....

SCHOOL IS FINISHED!! Yes, everything! It's a strange but nice feeling.

Tomorrow is the big day: Erin's graduation ceremony! Oh I really can't wait... I'll remember to take lots of pictures! ;)

Costco!

Naomi, Priscilla and I went for a quick trip to Costco this morning to do some shopping. I bought more macademia nuts again... my corner of the room seems to be occupied by various types of macademia nuts now. Mmm they look so good.. unfortunately they are not for myself. :P

In the afternoon I read and read Jane Eyre until I finally finished it at night. Ah I love this story!! I also studied for Eiken and tomorrow's Geography final exam, though I found it hard to concentrate. I think I've said this already before, but there is so much material to cover for geography. But after tomorrow, school will be done completely!

Oh, and tonight's American Idol... it was Chris who had to leave the show. That was shocking and sad! :( I was hoping that someone else might leave.

Erin is getting her eye laser surgery tomorrow! Hope that all goes well...

Not much to write but here goes:

What did I do today? Well I started my music class final exam paper and finished it... it was really easy, almost too easy. I also walked over to Longs to get some more shopping done. For the rest of the day, I was reading Jane Eyre, which is so beautiful and captivating I couldn't put it down!

In the evening, Noami, Priscilla and I went to campus to see Erin's presentation of her works. The classroom was full of people because many New Media students were showing their works and people were going around looking at them. I thought Erin's design was one of the best... no I'm not flattering, I honestly thought so.

After that was done, Naomi took us to Bubbies, an icecream place, to celebrate Erin's finishing up all her work. Congrats Erin!!! :D

Painting with watercolor

This morning, I woke up late in the morning, prepared my Flash project to turn in, and went to the campus to drop it off at the teacher's office. On the way back, Naomi took me to Longs drugstore, where I got much of my shopping done. Yay!!

After driving back home and having lunch while watching The Mummy, I proceeded to make our study guide for our Geography final exam, which will take place from 2:30pm on Thursday. This exam is going to cover all of this semester's lectures (which is a lot!). *starts getting nervous*

I finished a watercolor painting today. It's taken from a photo of a bobcat. This one took a few days to complete, not because it was it was really really difficult, but because I decided to take my time with it. I left all the painting tools out on my desk and worked on it whenever I felt like it... that's the cool thing about watercolor.
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c223/Gwaihir_WL/CIMG2452.jpg

Our last Sunday together in a few months.

This morning's Sunday service was led by Erin. This is the last Sunday with all four of us together in about 3 months, as Naomi and Priscilla will be gone next Sunday, and I will be departing next week. :(


Oh guess what... I finished my Flash movie clip, and here it is! You have to have Flash player to see this. It may not look very difficult to make, but it took me many long hours for just one short clip! I hope you enjoy it. The song is the Beatles' "Free as a Bird", recorded in 1994 (?) using one of John Lennon's demo tapes.
http://www.geocities.jp/eaglemodjp/MakikoProj4Final.swf

Getting late now so good night!

End of a Long Week

A great part of my day today was spent finishing up my Flash project. Well actually it's not quite finished yet... but it's close! I thought it better to do most of it today than leave it till tomorrow, which is Sunday.
I'm also painting a watercolor painting. The cool thing about watercolor is that you can leave everything, paint and all, out on the desk and work on it whenever you feel up to it.

In the evening we went to a pot luck at the Kaimuki church for the Nebraska people who had to leave tonight. There were many people, and lots of good food.
Mmmm... on the other side of the table was sashimi and poke!







Left to right: Erin, Bao, Kaori, Yuriy

Another quickie post...

Today was another day with no real plan during the daytime. That doesn't mean I didn't do anything useful though... I did some watercolor painting, went to the Hallmark store to do some shopping, then enjoyed watching the G&S operatta Pirates of Penzance with Priscilla.

The highlight of the day was going to the church service, during which they did part 1 of a 2-part series sermon about the Da Vinci Code. It's a very... strange.. story.

After the service, Erin, Priscilla and I went to eat dinner at Big City Diners with Kenny and Tina. Gotta love the huge sandwiches! :P Well it is pretty late (almost 1:00am) now, so I am off to bed! G'night!

Another quickie post...

Today was another day with no real plan during the daytime. That doesn't mean I didn't do anything useful though... I did some watercolor painting, went to the Hallmark store to do some shopping, then enjoyed watching the G&S operatta Pirates of Penzance with Priscilla.

The highlight of the day was going to the church service, during which they did part 1 of a 2-part series sermon about the Da Vinci Code. It's a very... strange.. story.

After the service, Erin, Priscilla and I went to eat dinner at Big City Diners with Kenny and Tina. Gotta love the huge sandwiches! :P Well it is pretty late (almost 1:00am) now, so I am off to bed! G'night!

Artsy day at home

Wow it felt so strange having no class on Thursday! I kept thinking it was Friday or Saturday.

Today I spent most of my time at home, except when I walked over to the nearby Longs drugstore to do some shopping for people in Japan. Bought lots of macademia nuts and snacks! :)

What did I do while I was at home? Well, most importantly, I did my Flash project. It still can be frustrating sometimes, but I'm glad it's progressing. I promise I'll post it up when it's done, maybe on Monday, the day I turn it in.

In the afternoon, I was alone at home and decided to practice charcoal drawing. What a messy but fun medium! At the moment I think I have about a 60% chance of messing up the drawing, because I am clumsy with it. But today's drawings belong to the other 40%, I am glad to say!! :D Hopefully this means I'm starting to get used to it.

I made fried rice for dinner, then did some more Flash and read Jane Eyre at night.
Less than 2 weeks before I go home!!

*~*~End of the Semester!~*~*

The last day of lectures was surprisingly easy. Art class went on just as usual, though we had to give a presentation of our unfinished work.

During English class, the individual groups that had been formed each performed a short scene that they wrote for the finals. My group's scene was really weird... I had to appear as the spirit of the main character's dead mother who gives advice. lol At least it was really easy! One of the students brought an ice cream maker into the classroom, so we all enjoyed icecream during class. Mmm!

Thus ended the last class of this semester! Hurray!! Of course there are some finals left, but that's only on Thursday next week. So there's a plenty of time to study and get some shopping done! :D

In the afternoon and evening, I chatted with a few people and started getting into Jane Eyre, which is becoming more and more interesting. Before I knew it, it was already dinnertime.
Erin made tonkatsu for dinner, and they were so good!
At night we watched American Idol... the 5 contestants are now down to 4. I wasn't surprised that Paris had to leave though.

Wow it feels strange that there is no school tomorrow! Wonder what I'll do...

Countdown: 1 more day of lectures!

Today was my very last day of class for music, theatre and geography. It was kinda sad to know that it's all finished now, especially theatre class. But these last classes were great!

Music class went on as usual, except we were given take-home finals to hand in next week.

Theatre class was a lot of fun. Since both Priscilla and I had finished our own final scenes already, we got to watch others act and rate their performances. One of the groups did so well and I was impressed, while others were not so great. After class was over, we spent almost 30 minutes saying good-bye. I really loved this class!

Priscilla went home in the afternoon while I stayed on campus, had lunch, and went to talk to a couselor about my second and last year at KCC.

Geography class was pretty fun, too. We did a quiz game, and Priscilla and my group beat the rest of them! Muwahahaha!! Our teacher is not going to be there for the finals, but another person will be watching over us next Thursday as we take it.


After walking home after class, we had dinner and watched American Idol, which is getting more and more interesting because the contestants are getting fewer. Well that's about all that happened today, to put it briefly. :) Tomorrow is the last day~~~~!!

Countdown: 2 more days of school!

Sorry I didn't post in my blog yesterday... I was up late chatting, and totally forgot about it!! Well it was nice getting a little break from writing the daily blog, but I will try not to forget.

Today we had our last Monday classes. Art class was really fun since I'm FINALLY starting to grasp the basics of Flash! It took me long enough to figure out exactly how the motion and shape tweens work with the symbols and the scenes. I guess I don't make much sense to most people, but this is something for me to be happy about! :D

As for English class... I'm not even sure if this is "English" class anymore. We had our class today in a different building, Manele, because we had to use computers and printers for our script-writing. My group now consists of four people instead of the original three. Which is actually nice, because I know our new addition Mark better than the other two and it's easier to work now. Class was a little frustrating for a while because we had a hard time creating the story for the scene, but hopefully things will be a little more smooth from here.

After getting back home after 12:00pm and eating lunch, I wrote two concert report papers of the concert I went to yesterday with Erin. There had been Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and most interestingly Javanese Gamelan music at that concert.

This is the only picture I took from yesterday's concert before my camera's battery died. :(


Writing 2 reports actually took longer than planned. In the evening I went to the post office with Erin and grabbed a bubble tea drink on the way home. Mmmm I love those black tapioca.
Priscilla cooked German potato and mabo-dofu for dinner.

Tomorrow is my last music, theatre and geography class!!