hi, i'm alive

soooo... yea sorry I've been MIA for the past 3 months ( -_-) but after winter break ended, we had 3 weeks of school left and then BAM - finals in my face. ugh... it was a lot coming to an end. Like not only classes, but my also my CIEE program. I had to face reality and ultimately say goodbye to people whom I had grown so close to <3 Of course we tried to make the most of the time we had left, but it just sucked having to be constantly reminded of "the end" coming closer and closer. But here's like the abridged version of what's been going on in my world up until now:

My friend Masa invited a bunch of us to his house and we cooked dinner!! :D Guess what we madddeeeee~? :)
gyozaaaaa~! :D yummmerrrzzz <3

And this is from when SISEC (that club thing I'm in) held a farewell party for the study abroad students who were only studying for the fall term. They ordered pizza and stuff like fried chicken and salad for lunch, and then we played a bunch of games together :)


My friend Scott found this like cork shooting game in Shinjuku, and like became pro at the game. He came in that day with 2 bags full of prizes - and these were like BOXES of prizes. Like remember back in the day when we'd have Tunnels of Fun/TW Sports or if you ever went to Chuck E'Cheeses'? (I never got to go to a Chuck E'Cheese ( -_-) but we had Tunnels of Fun&TW Sports in lieu)


Anywho, like he started showing his prizes, and giving them out to people b/c he had too many haha.

One of the games we played was like a mix between Whisper Down the Lane and Pictionary. Basically, the 1st person out of a team of 4 was shown a word and had to drawn that word within 10 seconds. And then the 2nd person can only look at what the 1st person drew and draw their depiction of what they think it is. And it continues for 1 more person, until the last person has to guess from the final drawing just what the word on the card was.


Some of the drawings turned out SO funny - like looking at the transition for some of the pictures just made everyone be like "WHAT? why?" haha. We also played Charades, and a game that was essentially Musical Chairs (minus the music). It was called "Fruits Basket," but you play it by all sitting in a circle with someone standing in the middle. The person in the middle then calls out something that everyone sitting in the circle may have in common, like: "Anyone wearing jeans." Then everyone wearing jeans has to get up and scramble to move to a new seat, and whoever is left standing is "It."


Ohh childhood.... I always forget how much fun simple games like that are. It reminded me of Thanksgiving last year when a bunch of us gathered at Tina, Lisa, and Liz's apartment and had Thanksgiving again <3 We played Charades after dinner, and it was surprisingly a lot of fun :) It also made me realize I have like 1 pose that I think translates for 5 different things... haha

So after the last day of finals, Feb. 1st, we all had a final get-together before everyone had to leave on the 3rd. It was so awesome having us all together just to enjoy each others' company. Oh yea, btw's - it snowed that day too. So it was FREEZING and Tokyo like flipped shits over the 2 inches it snowed. Thankfully I had gotten the key to my new apartment (oh yea, I moved out of the dorm into my own apartment <3 but I'll elaborate later) so I took the subway to get home. But like my neighbor when I was in the dorm, Naoko, had left right after and was like fine time-wise in terms of making the last train on a normal day, but Keio was again being "Keio" and they made the train she got on the last train, canceling the rest for the night. 

And of course, any night in Tokyo wouldn't be complete without karaokeeeee~ <3 This is my friend Mark belting out everything he's got for whatever he was singing :)


 I feel like Japan just has this way of bringing out everyone's hidden passion for karaoke. Like I usually hate singing around other people, but I don't know... I get like super-excited if someone suggests karaoke when I'm here. So as we sang our hearts out that night, said our final farewells, and also celebrated the beginning of Spring Break. 


Oh, so about my new place~ :D Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of it... (;-_-) but it's a furnished studio located in Toranomon, in the Minato-ward of Tokyo. It's legit like 3~5 minutes away from the Kamiyacho subway station so the building is named "Kamiyacho Duplex C's",  but the address is technically Toranomon. It's located on the Hibiya subway line, right next to Roppongi - which is infamous for its ritzy clubs and high population of foreigners. 


But I basically live around a bunch of office/government buildings. My mom said I can walk to the State Capitol if I follow this one road apparently - I don't know, I'm not going to try. Oh but yea, on the 1st night I spent in my new place, I tried like "exploring my surroundings"... yea, I got lost and just kept going west apparently. B/c like at one point, I ended up coming across the next subway station over (Toranomon) and like turned in the direction that I thought would circle me back to my place... I don't know WHAT I was thinking, but I apparently just kept going west b/c I ended up looking at Shimbashi - which is not only on the JR line, but also located near the bay - fml. So I just turned 180, re-traced my steps, and thankfully made it home by myself. Needless to say - I have not explored west since. 


Another major thing that has happened is that I got a Co-op here in Tokyo!! That's also kind of the reason why I didn't update for February - b/c like I was in the middle of my dire search for a co-op and I didn't want to be making blog posts in my spare time (which is had like A LOT of... ) and just being like: "Oh hey, I'm just chillin instead of looking for a job." But thankfully I did, and I absolutely love it <3


My co-op is with this travel agency called STA Travel, and I work at the Japan headquarters in Ikebukuro, Tokyo :D I like didn't think I was going to even get a response from this company when I e-mailed them my cover letter and resume. I like legit had tears from joy when I did get a response. I also wrote my 1st Japanese-style resume, which I handed in when I went in for my interview. Just as a btw's though: Japanese-style resumes are SO different from the ones back home. Like they ask for your birthday, interests/hobbies (like why is it important for you to know that I like to bake?), and require you to paste a picture of yourself on it. SO WEIRD - but I did it of course b/c I was doing everything that I could to get a co-op. 


But yay for me getting one~!! \(^o^)/ I get switched b/t the Marketing and Web/Operations department during the day and I'm surprisingly doing a lot more than I thought I would have been. I'm helping like edit the English version of STA Japan's website, helping update certain web pages, and also helping make new webpages. Like you can see what I type for some of the pages online~ (O_o) 


Another job I have is inputting the prices and flight conditions for different airlines. So like when you search for a certain flight via the search option on STA's home page, MY data comes up (O_o) Both my supervisors in the Marketing and Web department laughed at how excited I got when I realized that like the work I was doing was legit going to be used. But like DUDDEEEEEEEEE~ It makes me feel like I'm legit helping out instead of like just doing busy work. 


So that's been everything that's been going on in Tokyo for me up until now :) The majority of my friends spent their time traveling around Japan or (legit) the world, so spring break was kind of quiet - but everyone has started to come back so I've been able to see a lot of people again <3 Working in that sense has been "blah" though... b/c like everyone is still on Spring Break, but I've had to work - so I've missed out on a couple of things they've done during the daytime ( -_-) But my friends are super awesome and have kept me in the loop, so I've still been able to meet up with them <3


I hope everyone has been having a great couple of months back home / wherever in the world you may be~! It's so weird thinking it'll be April later this week... so surreal... but I guess it just means that it'll only be 4 months-ish before I come homeeeeee~!!! :D I hope I won't be too lost with everything that has happened... I'll just be bouncing around trying to catch up with like the world though so expect to see me creepin in on your lives again soonnnn~ <3