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Artist's Choice - Round 1 Brickfish

Exams

I have my first exam tomorrow. I can't believe that the semester is finally coming to a close.

Back Home

I made it back to Cleveland yesterday morning. Chicago is a pretty awesome place.

Saturday night I met up with Larisa, Kyle, Mariana, Steve, and Brittany for a nice dinner at Ginos. I think Ginos is the most famous deep-dish Chicago pizza place in the area. We got 2 medium pizzas and an appetizer. At the end there was almost an entire pizza left. It was pretty amazing. Afterwards Steve took us to his uncle's fondue restaurant. We had a chocolate fondue which the waitress set on fire. It was really cool and delicious. Larisa and I then returned to the hotel room to sleep while the others went out to a jazz bar.

More later...

Shitty Weather

There is some reeeeeally shitty weather out there right now. The snow is all melting and it's getting all slushy and wet out. My shoes and socks are absolutely soaked. I'm currently sitting in a coffee shop drinking some nice hot chocolate. I bought a pair of boots/snow resistant shoes because I needed them. I found a pizza place that Steve was talking about yesterday. It's called Ginos and it's on Michigan Avenue. There was a line of about 50 people standing outside so it's gotta be good.

This new lappy is awesome. I can hold it and love it and it keeps me warm and I can get on the internet and carry it around and it was cheap!

I got a free cup-noodle from someone on the street handing them out.

I am gonna try to get a hold of the other Japan Study peeps now!

Chicago

I made it to Chicago this morning. Union Station apparently has internet access and some nice bakeries for breakfast. It is way to early to be functioning so I'm just going to chill here for a while before I figure out what to do. Gotta get me some of that deep dish pizza for lunch and/or dinner!

It be Thursday

And most of my work is done!!! We got our programming project done (or at least as much as we cared to do) which can be found at:

http://filer.case.edu/jls84/index.php

I just have a shortened Japanese class tomorrow and then I'm off to Chicago!

Time Passes By

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone and I'm back at school. Going home must have been good for my sickness because I am much much MUCH better now. I finally got to relax and spend 4 days sitting at home doing absolutely nothing. Of course, I did family things, hung out with the cousins, went to see Santa come to town, stole a car to drive, rented Mirrors Edge, put up the Christmas tree, put up the lights outside, fixed my juggling clubs, and more... I did a whole bunch of stuff over break.

Back at school, it's crunch time. I managed to steal the Lumina and drove up myself this time. It seems that both mom and dad have to work when I get out from exams, meaning that I'll get kicked out of the dorms before anyone can come pick me up. Well now I can go home whenever I get around to it. This is the last week of class. Homework, projects, classes, everything is coming to an end. I will probably be pulling 2 all nighters to work on our programming project that is due this Thursday. Good thing I stole a coffee maker from dad!

OH MY GOD I'M STILL SICK >_<

My sickness seems to have turned into strep throat the past couple of days. My cough and cold have completely gone away but now this... FOR THE LOVE OF GOD RECOVER!

Case internet is also sucking it up this weekend. I can't do anything.

News

I think I have gotten over my cold. Still got a slight cough though...

First (make that second) Snow of the Year!

It started snowing in Cleveland already. I want to think of it as a good thing, but this just means it will be cold and dreary for the rest of my stay here at college. At least I have a heater to keep myself warm during those lonely nights of endless programming. I've almost got my JET application done. It needs to be sent in by this friday at the very latest.

I spent my Saturday at anime marathon. After the recent merge of Japan Connection and Anime Society, we decided to make the marathon more of a convention style than it was previously. In past years all it consisted of was 2 rooms of anime, a trivia contest, and food. Traditionally only anime society members attended. This year we had record attendance with the addition of a gaming room, panel room, and cosplay contest. It turned out really well. I only wish I had remembered my camera! My night was spent entirely in the gaming room playing such favorites such as Smash Bros, DDR, Beatmania, and Soul Caliber 4. I also spent some time helping in the kitchen and staffing the snack bar. Overall, it was pretty fun.

Sunday I worked on homework all day. The good thing is, I'm done now until friday Japanese ^_^

And of course, it snowed yesterday!!!

Hmmm

Ok well maybe I don't need to buy Mirrors edge after reading some of the reviews. I'll rent it over Thanksgiving break though.

I just bought Banjo-Kazooie. Yay!

I think I might be getting better finally. It took an ENTIRE week but my cough and sore throat are finally starting to reside. Now with just a little more coaxing, it will be completely gone! Go Vitamin C! Go other drugs!

I've been sleeping for 14+ hours a day recently. I skipped Japanese on Friday and some classes on Thursday for sleepy-time. Today I'll be taking it easy at Anime Marathon. I don't care if I'm an officer. Since I'm sick I can't help make food and I can't do any physical labor. So there!

3 Games I need to Buy

Gears of War 2
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts
Mirrors Edge

Of Pain and Sickness

I seem to have caught a cold in the past couple of days. I woke up Monday feeling like "meh" but when it extended to Tuesday well... That just sucked.

Tuesday morning I had an exam. I did the best I could considering I was still drowsy from the Nyquil and very tired from the lack of sleep. I took a nap afterwards and woke up for compilers. Compilers was canceled. YAYAYAYAYAY!!!! I spent the rest of the day lazying around my room playing Viva Pinata and the like.

Today I still don't feel much better. When I get home from class I am going straight to bed again.

Look at the brightside, I don't have any homework due until Friday! Everything has been postponed until next week. Lucky Lucky...

Back in the Groove

It's been a while since I posted anything of relevance to my life. This past week was pretty hectic what with the programming project due last Friday and all. I spent all Thursday night working on it to implement some new features. From here on out I need to keep working on it little by little each day so that doesn't happen again. On Friday night Emily's group all went to starbucks to redeem their pumpkin carving contest winnings. The starbucks here tastes just like it does in Japan. It's also just as expensive. We then went to see Wall-E at the film society. It was a really good movie.

Sunday I hung out with Emily all day. There was a Smash Bros Brawl tournament hosted by the residential college that we participated in. Sadly Emily lost her first 2 matches and was out. I won my first match, got absolutely destroyed my second, and the third came down to the wire (but I couldn't get the last hit). I wanna practice more!!!

Once we were out of the tourney we went and saw Kung Fu Panda. It wasn't as good as Wall-E, but still fun.

New Ipod Nano!!!

Key bank actually sent me the free Ipod Nano that they had an offer for! Now I have a brand-spankin' new 8gig 4th generation nano!



YAY! ^_^

It's Finally Over

After 8 long years the democrats are back in the White House. It is definitely going to be an interesting next 4 years.

The gang came over and we had an election party in my room. We watched the election from about 8ish until midnight, when it was sure that McCain had no chance of catching up in the race. I was expecting the race to be closer than what it was. It seems America does have a brain after all. Or maybe more people got out and voted in this election.

Class Class More Class

We got compilers done Sunday night which was awesome. I spent Monday afternoon taking a nap and getting my reading done for the week. Now I just have to get working on the rest of my homework. This week shouldn't be too bad.

Monday at 6 was the juggling club event at Quiznos to celebrate their 5th anniversary on the triangle. We all got free subs for doing it ^_^ Jack and Steve just happened to be eating there when I showed up, so I told them to stay and get a free sub. Jack isn't actually in juggling club, but he can juggle well enough to fool the employees.



Later that night I watched the Incredible Hulk with Emily and her gang. It was much better than its predecessor thankfully. That's all the superhero movies that I missed out on this past year!

And She Says Yes!

Emily and I officially hooked up yesterday at Halloween at the Farm. I had asked her about it a couple of days ago during one of our late-night conversations and she said she would get back to me. During the bus ride over to the farm, she said she had made her decision and grabbed my hand. This marks the first time I've had a girlfriend since Tessa and I broke up. Here is a picture of her wearing my hat at juggling club:



Back to Saturday! For Halloween Steve dressed up as the Joker from the Dark Knight and I just went as a guy wearing pink and black (one of my normal dress attire.) We invited Claire over and all headed to Chipotle together. They have an event every Halloween in which you dress up like a burrito (aka wearing tinfoil) and you receive a free burrito! I attached a tinfoil feather to my hat, Claire mad a tie, and Steve had a knife and bracelet. The line was pretty long, but it only took about 30 minutes to get through. Claire's friends also came with us. They bought shakes from Tommy's while we waited.

Upon arrival at my place we watched the Dark Knight together. It was a pretty good movie and I saw no flaws with it. I wanna watch it again once it's out on DVD.

Once that was over, we hopped on a greenie to northside to visit Theta-Chi. Since last year they have been doing a haunted house / dance party at their pad. On the way there we ran into Emily and her suitemates so I stole her ramen hat and gave her my pink cowboy hat. We had to wait about half an hour to get into the house. While waiting we partied on the dance floor with Charles and Mike. Check out the costumes:



Sexy. I enjoyed the haunted house. Claire was clinging to everyone which made me chuckle.

Back on Southside, Steve and went to Emily's suite and joined them for the midnight showing of Saw. Everyone left after the movie was over so we started another one, The Departed. I fell asleep 3 or 4 times before we decided to pause and resume it another day.

As I mentioned before, Steve, Emily, and I went to Halloween at the farm on Saturday for the free food. We stole some hotdogs, made some smores, went on the haunted hayride, and cowered by the bonfire to keep warm. Fun fun!

Back at school, Emily went home while Steve and I went to Kristyn's 21st b-day party. We got busted by an RA but managed to get out of trouble because most of us there were of age! Lucky!

This morning the power went out while I was making pancakes. I managed to finish them while the griddle was still hot. They were delicious. The power continued to be out for the next couple hours so I decided to go skating. I'm getting much better at riding switch.

Now the power and internet is back, so time to get back to work!

Final Day of the Week

I just finished my Japanese homework for today. Gotta go get my reimbursement from USG for the sushi event before class.

Yesterday I did really well on my pop-quiz for 393. I practiced skating for a little while after that. Then we had curry! Benson bought the carrots and potatoes while I provided the curry mix and chicken. It was a good party! Steve, Jack, Benson, Claire, Michelle, and Kristyn all showed up. The best part is we still had leftovers (which I am chowing down on now ^_^) One box of curry mix and 5 cups of rice makes enough for at least 7 hungry people. Yum Yum!

At juggling club we juggled and I took some pics.



Emily and Steve came over afterwards to play Smash in the lobby. Steve left about 10pm, at which point two other guys showed up and wanted to play. Cool cool. Emily and I then watched Lost in Translation. Steve Pitcern from Japan told me that it was an awesome movie. I thought it mediocre, mainly because nothing really happened. I could understand all the Japanese in the movie though ^_^

Good Day Good Day

I got my homework done at 4pm! That's right FOUR PM! The best part is I actually got the programming segment of it to work. Yay! I intended to spend the rest of the day playing video games, which I did a little bit of. I snuck into Fribbs and grabbed some food with Steve and Jack. Then I went over to Howe house to round up people for Smash Bros. I ended up not playing, but instead hanging out in Emily's suite until 3 in the morn. She lives with a bunch of interesting people, not to mention the guys who seem to hang out in there all the time. It was a good day.

I also made the last of the sushi for lunch. Yum.

Algorithms Homework

There is no delete and there is no replace
All you can do is insert space

Interview with Microsoft

I don't wanna talk about it.

VOTING

I forgot to mention that I filled out my absentee ballot and dropped it in the mailbox today. While filling it out I hopped on the net to see who all the candidates were for all the other positions. I couldn't imagine going to the polls to vote on all that stuff. I had no idea who anybody was besides those running for president!

I finished a good portion of the JET application. Just gotta get those recommendations and transcripts!

I also had a phone interview with Progressive about a job. I messed up one of the questions and I knew it so I apologized for it being a bad answer. The guy liked me though and invited me to participate in the next step of the interview process next month. Whooo! Jobs!

Getting Things Done

I realized that I havn't talked at all about my weekend since that post about the eggs.

Well the sushi event was a success in my opinion, albeit I didn't get a chance to enjoy it. Myself, Benson, Kristyn, and Olga worked round the clock making sure there were ingredients on the tables. There was a shortage of rice the entire time because we only had 3 rice cookers. Note to self: get more rice cookers next time! By the end of the day almost ALL of the ingredients were used up. I got to take home about 20 pounds of rice, 20 sheets of seaweed, some tuna, and a tiny container of carrots. That was it! We finished cleaning up a little after 8pm.

I went home and cracked open an ice cold brew. It was a loooooooong day.

At midnight, Steve, Claire, Kristyn, and I saw Rocky Horror Picture Show at Strosacker. It was quite the experience. I never wanna see that again.


Sunday I decided to do absolutely nothing the entire day. It was probably the best decision of my life. I played xbox for a good couple of hours, Benson and I drove the utensils back to Fitzgerald sensei's house, we made leftover sushi upon return, and then I went over to Emily's to watch the Exorcist. Relaxation is good!

The bad part is I only got a few hours of sleep...

Nailed it

I just got off the phone from my interview with Progressive. Now I get to go get interviewed on November 20-21. Hurrah!!

Food like a Madman

I've been cooking all this week getting ready for the sushi event today. I spent all morning preparing the eggs and the carrots.

Final Mid-Term

Tomorrow is the day! After my Japanese exam is over I'll be done!

I had an interview with CGI today during my lunch break. The guy doing the interviews works at the Cleveland branch dealing with the hospitals. It sounded like he had a pretty fun job. I told him my story about Japan, my experience with computers, all that usual stuff. His response was, "Too bad you're looking to be an intern, you would be perfect to work in my department!" I'm gonna take that as a good sign ^_^

He told me that if things didn't work out with me and the Jet Program, give him a call.

In other news, I may have gotten a really bad grade on my 393 quiz today.

I didn't do so hot on my compilers mid-term. The funny thing is, most people seemed to miss the same problems... There were a few problems where NOBODY got the correct answer. There better be a curve...

Finally, new juggling balls!!!

Back to the Grind

School sucks! I wish every weekend were 4 days long!

I spent the last day of break doing homework, alone, in my room... I was up till 3am doing algorithms homework and then I couldn't get to sleep. UGH! Once I pass the "tired" stage that usually hits me about 2am, it's really hard to get to sleep.

Today I received more attention than usual strolling around campus. Not only was I freelining everywhere, but I had my bright orange kyo (cat) hat on too. Everyone who was anybody stared at me ^_^ I like the attention!

I crashed all the Japanese classes today in order to advertise for our sushi event Saturday. It was fun.

Now I have tons of homework to do. Sucks.

Ice Skating!

I was seriously planning to get a lot of homework done today. It sadly didn't happen. We all decided to go ice skating at the nearby rink from 4-5. It was lots-o-fun! Claire used to play hockey and is really good at skating. Steve and I are okay because of roller blading a lot as kids. Emily did really well all things considered. She was zooming around in no time. We definitely need to do that again.

We dropped off Emily and picked up Kristyn to go to IHop. Yum. Steve and I got the unlimited pancake set of which we only ate an extra 3. Sooooo much food!

Back at my place Claire ditched us but not before telling us of treasure behind White building. We took Steve's car over there and went dumpster diving! Check out what we "found"



That's right! Four bowling balls and a full set of bowling pins!

We proceeded to watch Cloverfield (a very messed up movie) and Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guanatamo Bay (really funny) till 4 in the morn.

More Late Night Movies

I hung out with Emily the majority of the morning. We played Smash Bros in the lobby. She is really good with Zelda! I could only beat her with characters I knew how to play well (Lucas, Game & Watch, Olimar...) I was very impressed. Afterwards she showed me her dorm and we spent the next couple hours talking about Chinese and Japanese. I could understand most of her flash cards simple because the characters in Japanese and Chinese are so similar. We should study together sometime!

When Claire got home, Emily parted ways to do homework and I went to Claire's room. We then invited Kristyn over and had pesto spaghetti back at my place. Mmmmmmm! Thanks Claire's mom for the homemade pesto!

Smash Bros Brawl

I spent the entire day playing Smash Bros on my Wii in the lobby. I checked my playing time when I was done and it said almost 8 hours. There goes my day...

I did get laundry done and my room cleaned so it wasn't a total waste.

Later in the night Kristyn came over and watched Iron Man with me. Emily joined us halfway through the movie and brought carrots for Shiro. Emily went home after the movie to get some sleep while Kristyn and I watched Dawn of the Dead (the new one). She ended up staying the night on my couch because it was 4am when we finished!

Kagemusha 影武者

I went to see Kagemusha at the Cinemateque in CIA with Emily on Friday night. The internet went down about a half hour before the movie started, so I packed up my stuff and went to stalk Emily. She had the same idea and we just so happened to meet outside between our buildings. Haha.

The movie was really long (3 hours!) and really boring at points. The Japanese was pretty difficult to understand as it is set 500 years ago in the Edo period of Japan. I read the subtitles most of the time. The story is of this thief who impersonates the position of king in this warring clan. The king dies and the thief actually feels like the king. It was a very artistic movie with lots of landscape and army shots. The ending was really sad too.

Emily then came over to my place and we talked until 5 in the morning about random stuff.

FALL BREAK!!!

FALL BREAK STARTS NOW!!!

Don't expect to hear from me until Wednesday evening.

Haiku

Let the rain relax
Lean back and sip your hot tea
The week is done soon

Vertical Knowledge

I just had a phone interview with Vertical Knowledge. They are a small company of about 20 people (most of whom CWRU graduates) that work on various web-based applications and web-prowling projects. It looks like I will be able to work with them starting next semester and into the summer before heading off on the JET program should I feel fit. The interview went well. We are going to set up a more formal in-person interview within the next couple of weeks.

If that fails, at least I got some interview experience for my one with Microsoft ^_^

One down, Two to go

As expected, my algorithms test this morning destroyed most of the class. Out of 5 problems I knew how do do 3, which means I got at least a 60%. Yay I think...

Now on to compilers and project...

Even Maruchan Ramen can be GOOD

I made up some crappy ramen for a late-night study snack. I put in lots of extras that normally I wouldn't. First of all I added soy sauce to the broth to give it more flavor. Then I sprinkled ichimi and nori on top with a couple processed fish-cake things I bought at the asian store. It was good stuff.

This week so far has been hell. It will continue until 5pm Friday when I get out of Japanese class. The algorithms mid-term tomorrow is going to kill me. The compilers mid-term Thursday shouldn't be too bad. The programming project also due Thursday will most likely cause 3 people to be up all night. Great.

Programming Yo

But not really. I went to northside to get some hardcore programming done on our assignment and came back with nothing done. I'm gonna try to get some stuff done by myself.

Need.... Sleep...

I'm soooooo tired right now for no apparent reason.

Maybe it's because I only got 6 hours of sleep last night.
Maybe It's because I went to show-off juggling with the group at 10:30am.
Maybe it's because I spent the day learning how to juggle clubs.
Maybe it's because I chilled in Kristyn's and Joe's suite for a couple hours.
Maybe it's because I fell on my freelines and seriously hurt my left side.
Maybe it's because I spent 3 hours at Kaiwa club talking to some new ELS students
Maybe it's because I just had a glass of wine with my leftover curry.

It could be any of these things really. I'm not sure which and I don't really care. Time to go to bed.

Well.... Maybe after I finish my homework.

And Weekends are good for.... What Now?

We tried having a party last night. Didn't go over too well. Claire and I had valantino's for dinner and watched TV 'till Vaso showed up. Then we played Smash Brawl until 11:30. Then we played ping pong. Then real pong with Schell and his friends and Kristyn and Steve. Then everyone went home.

Today I skated up to Northside for the Intramural Cornhole Tournament. Sadly, I lost the first round in both singles and doubles. I thought I could throw better than that...

And the rest of my day has been doing important stuff for my future. I'm working on submitting my resume / application to companies I met at the Job Fair. I set up an interview with Microsoft. I finished as much of the JET program application as possible. Finally, I'm finishing up loose ends with the my Japan Study last year (getting transcripts and credit transferred.)

No fun for me this weekend!

Or Not...

I took my midterm today and feel like I aced it. That usually means I did really bad, but... It just seemed too easy!

Turns out that I do have another midterm next week on Thursday in compilers. Sucks.

Today was an absolutely beautiful day! The sun was shining, it was warm, I could have worn a t-shirt and shorts! Under these conditions, what better thing to do than freeline all day? I practiced a whole lot trying to learn to ride switch. Sooooo difficult >_< I will get it eventually!

One and Only Mid-Term

I have my EECS 281 mid-term in less than and hour, but feel no anxiety or stress over it. It's a pretty easy class as far as I'm concerned. Even so, in previous years I did a TON of studying for all my other exams and tests.

I think going to Japan changed me into a worse student...

Homecoming

Today I went to homecoming (kinda.) I had to wake up bright and early at 9am to get ready for the parade. The juggling club participated and I wanted to be in it. Good practice of juggling while walking and we get to promote ourselves? It doesn't get any better than that! The juggling club ended up leading the band! You heard me. We were in the very front of the parade right behind the people holding the sign and in front of the band. It was amazing. Juggling while walking for 30 minutes is pretty difficult. I had my fair share of drops.

I spent the rest of my day in the village. I visited Ben and Bruce in the morning, then went over to Kristyn's suite for lunch. Kristyn has a really cool suite. It's on the 3rd floor overlooking the stadium. That means you can watch any game from the comfort of your own home! We watched a bunch of movies, the football, and soccer games until they ended around 9:30ish. It was a lot of fun.

Homework

I did lots of Japanese today. I finished half of the first chapter to my thesis. In class I was brain-dead (AKA me no comprehendo nihongo).

It finally got cold out 3 days ago. The very last day of September the coldness started. ewwwwwww. It doesn't look to be warming up anytime soon. Time to break out the sweatshirts and pants!

Job Fair

Today was the big day to show my stuff. The semesterly job fair was held in Veal today with the biggest company turnout ever. It's a good year to be a senior! I printed out 15 resumes, put on my black khakis and blue blazer, and headed off to the fair after class. I spent about 3 hours there talking to random companies. Some of the bigger names were Microsoft, Progressive, CGI, and Rockwell Automation. At the end of the day I had a free bag with tons of goodies in it (count tumbler, flashlights, pens, t-shirt, bottle opener, and even ping pong balls!) For my first career fair, I would say it was a success.

After the fair I had class, blah.

After class a company called Citgal had a presentation on the above floor. The two representatives are CWRU alumni. Amazing people. It was one of the most interesting presentations I've ever attended. One grad went over the differences between programming in school verses the real world. The other provided insight with real examples that happened to him. That is the kind of stuff I wanna deal with when I get out of college!

Juggling club started it's first meeting in Veal today. They used the raquetball courts instead of the gym as it was still dirty from the career fair. The courts are not good for juggling. It was insanely loud. Ugh.

Microsoft also gave a presentation at 7:30. Steve and I were a bit late after juggling, but managed to catch the end of the slideshow and were just in time for Q&A. I won a sweet deck of cards and more ping pong balls for asking questions. Steve, Vaso, and I stayed after everyone else left to play with the new Zune software and chat with the reps. They were also all CWRU grads! I hope I can get a job with people as cool as them!

雨

It's raining today and you know what that means? No? Well it means that I skip all my classes that's what! I don't have an umbrella and you would be really lucky to catch me walking around drenching wet in the rain. I spent the morning reading and doing 281 homework (the class that I skipped). I attended one class, compilers simply to turn in my homework. I then proceeded to skip 393 and go to Japanese 201 instead with Steve. They were having a test so Steve and I decided it would be fun to take the test along with all the other students. It brings back memories of "nice" tests...

Not much going on to be honest. Work progresses, school progresses, life flies by...

Oww

I twisted my ankle yesterday while skating. It hurts.

In the course of 2 playing sessions, Steve and I beat Halo 3 in co-op mode. It was really fun. However, I didn't like how Bungie chose to end the series. I knew going into the game that it is the last in the series. Because of that I felt that the story should be absolutely epic. Sadly there's no plot twists, no super-cool boss fights, and no explanation for that giant tentacle monster from the 2nd game. Everything ends how you would expect which deters from the coolness of the story. All well, at least I can say I went through it.

In school news, I finished the first 1/3 of my translation for Japanese. I also started writing up an overview of what the project will be about. I set some deadlines which I need to follow in order to complete the project. It will be an interesting study.

Bye Bye and Good Luck!

I just got back from Brenden and Mayumi's farewell party at Fitzgerald sensei's house. We went really early at 3pm and just got back at 1am. Wow. Everyone from Kaiwa club was there. I worked with Kenneth to set everything up. We moved tables, got chairs, put out food, made kabobs, and tons of other stuff. I brought a cheese plate for everyone to munch on in the meantime. We didn't end up eating until well after 8 o'clock. It was a fun, good party.

Track and Field

I dunno if I mentioned it before, but I joined a residential hall intermural team. Previously we had been playing football. Today was the Track and Field meet. After Japanese class I skated over and met up with 3 other people: Tony, Rob, and Eric. It's a good thing I showed up otherwise we wouldn't have had enough for a relay team!

Sadly, there were no other res-hall teams at the track meet which meant that we got 1st place in every event we participated in. Even so, it was fun to run against the fraternaties. We all did the 4x100 meter dash and came in first in our heat. I decided to run the 400m individual event to see if I still had it in me since high school. Turns out I do. I got 2nd overall with a time of 57 seconds. That is crazy fast for not running in almost 4 years. It almost makes me want to join the track team...

I had a great time running today and you can bet that I'll be super-sore tomorrow!

More Fun at College

Yesterday at noon the juggling club had their first performance in Thwing hall. It was for Health and Awareness week put on by the university hospitals. It was pretty fun. We had about pretty big group go out and juggle 3 balls (the group I was in). I managed to not drop anything which is awesome.

Later that night Jack, Schell, and I went to Giant Eagle to do shopping. For the first time I really didn't need much. At this point I have enough food to go about a month without shopping (aside from the occasional gallon of milk.)

Finally, Steve and I being the skater bums that we are went to the parking complex near my dorm to skate. We took the elevator all the way up to the 7th floor and skated all the way down to the bottom. It was soooooooo fun! Now I have a lot more confidence turning and stopping at higher speeds. I'm just hoping that nobody actually looks at the cameras all over the place...

BTW

For anyone who doesn't know what Freelining is, check out this site:

http://bushi.freelineskates.net/

Wiped Out

I know my posts have been really short and sweet lately. I don't really wanna drone on and on about how school is going because frankly, every day seems to be the same anymore. It is nothing like Japan...

As I said, I go to class, do my homework, and then figure out what to do with my free time. I joined the juggling club a few weeks ago and am going to be in a show tomorrow. It's just simple stuff really. I learned to juggle 3 balls in a matter of a couple days and now I'm moving on to other tricks with those. Everyone in the club is really cool and seem to have their own specialty.

I've also been spending quite a lot of time freelining around campus. I really, really, REALLY like doing it. It feels a lot like snowboarding or wakeboarding except on a sidewalk. My favorite thing to do is glide from the athletic center Veal all the way through the quad to Euclid. Just carve back and forth with no effort needed! Yesterday was the first time I actually fell. Sure I've bailed what seems like a million times already, but this time I flew off and scrapped up my knee and palms. I wasn't paying attention to the ground and hit a pothole. My right wrist still hurts because I landed so hard on it. Hopefully it's just a sprain.

Shiro is doing great. He is starting to tear up the newspaper in his litterbox for fun. It's better than him chewing up my homework! After the shot he got for mites, his hair has been starting to fill in and his coat looks overall much better. The bad part is, he eats a TON of hay!

I better get back to doing homework now. Steve and I wanna go freelining when he gets out of class at 4!

Freelines

People like to stare at you when you freeline around the quad. Too bad I still can't go uphill very well...

Another Day Another Party

I got absolutely no work done this weekend. It's not exactly a bad thing I suppose. Our new suitemate moved in Saturday morning while I was still sleeping. Later that night we held a housewarming party. It included lots of curry and lots of pong.

Suns Flying By

I can't believe I have already been at school for a month. I've hardly been spending any time in my dorm except for the occasional gaming session or movie watching. Last night Claire and Michelle came over for the FIRST TIME EVER to hang out with us. Those two spend way too much time on homework and not enough time with us. 6 people can comfortably sit in my room and enjoy a Golden Eggs Marathon. Sweet.

Lots of homework, I don't feel like talking about it.

From here on out I should have some free time. Not too much, but enough to finish my homework early and enjoy more gaming sessions.

Defense

Today Brenden is defending his PhD thesis. Good luck Brenden!

Another Late Night

The festivities are over and everyone is finally going home. The second batch of Waseda students were here the past couple of days causing me to be out and about from morning till night. I'm really pushing being up this late. I need my sleep for tomorrow. I'm even passing on the shower tonight (morning showers are a rarity) to sleep early and get up a little earlier. Now if you'll excuse me...

眠い

寝たい！

Stormy Weather

There is one heck of a storm out there right now. I walked back from Kaiwa club and a meeting for Anime Society/Japan connection with Steve and Claire. There are tree branches blown all over the ground, orange barrels flying down Euclid, and surprisingly no rain. There was also this large metal structure lying across the binary walkway. It was wrapped halfway around a lightpost. Scary stuff. We made it to Olin okay and Claire made it back to her dorm. Steve and I worked on Compilers for a while and proceeded to get burritos at Qdoba. Now we're gonna finish the homework in my dorm. We'll see how that goes...

完成

味噌汁できました！

10AM is the Magic Time

When the sun comes up and shines through my window, it scorches my black sheets turning them into an inferno. Thus waking me up and pissing me off. Note to self: Close window blinds at night.

Back to Japan

I am so sad!!!! All of the Waseda students are leaving Cleveland tomorrow!!! That leaves all of us here sad and alone. I have never been so attached to any group of exchange students before. It is so sad to see them leave!!!

Under Claire's discretion we made eggs and pancakes at my place. That is a suitable going away party no? My dorm has never been so packed with people since I arrived! It was a pretty good party but without the booze. My speakers got a workout when everyone decided to crank them and move the party into my room. I had no idea that 8 people could fit in here!

I wanna put more down here but sleep is coming over me....

Friday with a few Exceptions

I've got Japanese class in a couple of hours, but I figured I would write here before starting my homework. Yesterday out of the passion of Steves heart, he drove us to the nearest pet shop in order to get more hay for Shiro. I bought a 50lb bale this time. It should last pretty much the rest of the year as far as I'm concerned. While we were out we also got Subway for lunch and picked up some goggles at Target.

I went swimming by myself and did waaaaaay too many laps. Sooooooo sore today.

Finally, the Waseda students did their final presentations at a dinner party. They each had to design a poster and explain it to anyone that asked them. I was a little late and didn't get to see all of them but I saw my face in a lot of the pictures. The dinner was amazingly delicious. Salad and beef and fried veggies and pizza-like things. Mmmmmm...

The after-party was at their hotel. We watched a documentary about 9/11 and once that got to be too sad, changed to the playboy mansion show. The're the same thing right? People started falling asleep at midnight so I took my leave.

This morning I made a kim chi omelet. It was amazing.

Algorithms and Me

I don't like 'em, they don't like me, but we have to work together in order to fulfill my graduation requirements. Algorithms is a pretty interesting class, but I am having a hard time remembering all the math (induction I'm looking your way!) to do all the problems. The homework took longer than I thought it would but I got it done. Yay.

After class Steve, Yuki, and I went to free swim in Veal. There were a lot of people there. Yuki said that he was the captain of his high school swim team. Wow! It really showed once he jumped in the water. I wish I was that fast.... Anyway, Steve and I never really having swam before didn't have goggles. That makes doing anything other than backstroke really tedious. We swam for a good 45 minutes before getting dressed and heading to dinner.

We ran into Brenden outside of Veal and walked to Mama Santa where everyone else was waiting. The pizza there is amazing. For the first time I tried anchovies on a pizza. It wasn't bad but it was too salty for me. I'll stick to the pepperoni and double cheese thanks!

Went to Juggling club afterwards but as it was getting dark, couldn't really do anything.

Went to Northside to work on homework with Joe and Jim. We kinda finished it and kinda ended up playing smash bros afterwards. Good times.

Now for some ZZZZ's

Curry!!!!!!!!

and rice. Steve, Jack, Shell and I made a beer run to Wally world and Giant Eagle. Shell was the only one who actually bought beer. I picked up a bunch of random stuff that I needed to make life easier. I got a water purifier for the horrible Cleveland water. I got some new shoes for walking and skating purposes. Then I bought lots of food for curry. Yes curry! One of the most simple things to make in Japan is actually a pretty hard dish to make in the states. Acquiring the curry was the hardest part. We spent about an hour in my dorm preparing all of the ingredients. Curry, Potatoes, Carrots, Onions, and Chicken. You fry all the veggies and meat together in a large saucepan, boil water in a giant pot, put said veggies in the pot, add curry once all the veggies are cooked. It is so easy yet curry is insanely hard to find in the states. Anyway, a burst of Japanese goodness with American products was amazing.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... Spicy...........

In other news, I was an hour late to a lunch meeting with 2 of the deans of engineering. Whoops. The important thing was that I showed up and I got free food though.

In swimming we moved on from freestyle to backstroke. After class Pablo and I learned that free swim is from 11-1 and we were free to stay and practice. We did some laps, very slowly I might add, but it was a good workout none-the-less

Printers Hate Tech Guys

Once again, the printers have proven that they are the bane of my existence. Steve and I went to the computer lab to do our compilers homework. It took a little over 3 hours to get the program working correctly. Apparently you can't just copy code from a pdf file to a text editor and have it work. Oh no. You gotta type everything in by hand or else the compiler things you did some weird stuff to it. I finally got it working, then I couldn't print it. OMG! There were no printers connected... We went to the gaming lab. The print option was grayed out... We went to the circuits lab. The printers were not there!!!! I found out that for some strange reason, the printers would not show up on any word/notepad/wordpad/IE document, but if I opened it in Firefox the printers showed up. I had to save my homework.out file to a homework.txt file, email it to myself again, open it in google documents, and finally print it. OMG that was the most retarded thing I have ever seen computers done.

Asian Market

While everyone else was having fun at Niagra Falls, I was at home doing homework. I only left for a few minutes to pick up my mail (yay compilers and 281 book!!!) I got a ton of reading done and a bunch of my homework for next week.

I started playing Spore at about 10pm last night too. Sadly, it does not live up to my expectations. After being in development for soooooo long, it feels like it is still in beta. The creature and building creators are really cool but the gameplay sucks. All well.

Today I got up today with Steve, Claire, Michelle, and the Waseda students to eat breakfast/lunch over in coventry. Pacific East was the plan, but they don't open till 3 on Sundays. Tommy's was really crowded so we went across the street and settled for Panini's. Apparently Houston and Pittsburg were playing and there were a bunch of people cheering them on. The Waseda students enjoyed watching football and cheering for whatever team had a good play.

Joe and Leah took Steve and I to the Asian market down on 34th street. At Tink Holl I spent $60 on groceries for the next couple of weeks. I bought all sorts of stuff used to make Curry, Miso Soup, Soumen, Udon, and of course sushi. This week is gonna be a lot of cooking with Japanese Food!

In Good Health

With the help of Steve (thanks a bunch!) I took my rabbit to the vet today. We were a bit late for the appointment and had to wait for 20 minutes or so anyways. I think it is the first time I have ever been to the vets office. Anyway, the assistant did a quick examination and saw that his nails needed trimmed. They were really long! She had to have taken at least half the nail off each toe! The vet, Dr. Mandell, was really nice and informative. He confirmed that Shiro is a male and has not been altered yet. I am probably going to get that done in the near future. He told me that he has a rabbit at home that is the same species. Next I asked about the apparent fur loss right above his tail and it turns out that he has mites. I was told that they are kinda like fleas, but smaller and cause hair loss in patches. Dr. Mandell gave Shiro a shot that is supposed to kill all the mites, but not their eggs. After all the eggs hatch in another month he has to get another shot. Aside from that, everything was fine. I was told that rabbits can live just fine on only hay. Veggies are for treats and pellets should not be used at all. I kinda knew that already but didn't realize that you can get by feeding rabbits just hay.

After the vet, Steve drove me to a local vet store where I bought some hay and a bowl for water.

Back at school I grabbed my stuff and headed out to get my final class scheduled. Professor Podgurski had absolutely no problem with me signing up for EECS 393 and approved it right away. Yay! No more worry about class until my transcript shows up from Waseda!

I ended up ordering the freeline skates from Skates.com. They have free shipping on them. It's gonna be pretty exciting trying to learn how to ride those!

Yesterday I went to juggling club under Steve's advice. They said I was doing exceptionally well for my first time. I can juggle 3 balls about 9 times before screwing up or throwing a ball wrongly. They also had a tightrope there too! It is something new they are trying. I could stand on it for a couple of seconds before losing by balance and falling off. Soooooooo difficult! The juggling club might be turning into a circus club.

Last night I was planning on having a movie night at my place after juggling club. Problem was most of the people I invited ditched the idea and did homework instead. I still don't understand how people have homework on the 2nd week of class. I suppose it will be catching up to me pretty soon... Steve and Kristyn came over and instead of watching a movie, talked and played Castle Crashers. Fun stuff ^_^

Homework Doesn't do Itself...

Or does it? I finally "acquired" the homework problems for logic design and compilers (my 2 classes with homework due tomorrow. I got half of both done because of computer access problems. I got all the book problems done which is the bulk of both assignments. Steve and I went on an adventure through all of Olin looking for UNIX computers with free access so that we could compile our programs form compilers. We couldn't find any so we mailed the professor about it. They were supposed to give me an account last week, but somebody has been really lazy about it. My other homework assignment doesn't specify what we need to do with the program that we make. The instructions are so vague to the point that I did what the TA did in recitation and quit. They don't even mention whether or not it needs printed out and handed-in in class. weird.

I found out once again that I am terrible at basketball. We played in Veal with some of the Waseda students and some other random people.

Einstein Bagels are really good but they raised the prices.

Claire is a big meanie.

My swimming coach made me demonstrate my stroke in front of the intermediate class today. It made me feel special and like a douche at the same time.

Apparently the game Spore has been leaked. I saw Chris playing it in his room.

I got my new speakers today. They are freaking sweet! When I went to Fribly to pick them up the lady said "Oh so you're the one!" The box was very big and very heavy. I had trouble carrying it to my room. I may watch a movie with lots of action tomorrow, or at least this weekend to test them out. Music sounds so much better than headphones and I think even better than the system at home. I am very satisfied.

I'm running out of hay for Shiro. Gotta buy more.

I finally got my classes figured out. I need to take EECS 393 which is the old senior capstone and it will count for mine as well. I will be graduating on time unless I fail a class!!!!

Cleveland Indians

So we went to a baseball game today after class. It was the 8 Waseda students, Kristyn, Amon, and I. The Indians ended up winning 9-3 and I think we all got to appear on TV. Pretty fun day.

I've been thinking about a different mode of transportation around campus. I already have roller blades at home, but they are a little too big and need a new set of wheels. Then Steve introduced me to something called a Ripstick which is a kind of caster board. Basically you have one wheel on each end that swivels in 360 degrees. The board is two smaller boards for your feet and a torque rod in the middle which swivels and provides a bending motion. I was thinking about getting that but then I stumbled upon something called freeline skates. They consist of a platform with 2 wheels on it. Super small and super portable makes it look like a better deal. Plus there is the added benefit that it looks sweet. They are both a little on the pricey side, but it beats buying a pair of new skates.

Homework Update

I still havn't done it. Spent all day taking it easy around the suite and then playing Castle Crashers with Steve.

It's Not What it Looks Like!

I swear that I am not an alcoholic.

We had a good time yesterday. After cedar point I slept in until noon for the first time since I have come back from Japan. I spent the morning not doing my homework which may come back to haunt me today. Instead I spent some time playing video games and then at 4 met up with Hiro and Claire to go to Kaiwa Club. Once again there was a huge attendance. The 2 hours of Kaiwa Club always seem to fly by.

I decided not to go eat with everyone because I wanted to get homework done. Hiro, Claire, and I returned to my dorm. Hiro and I played pool while Claire did her homework. She is so much more dedicated than I am. Eventually some other guy named Peter came and hung out with us. We watched a little bit of the US open on TV before deciding to find the other Waseda students.

It had to be almost 11pm by the time we started drinking. Last time we went to the Waseda students dorm they taught us Japanese drinking games. This time we got to teach them American drinking games. It's pretty bad I know. It was a really good time. Back at my place 3 of us continued the party and even one of my suitemates came out to join. I went to sleep pretty okay, but the others did not.

I swear I'm not an alcoholic.

The Point has been Conquered

On Friday I attended Anime Society for the first time. It was pretty interesting. The people there were a lot more outgoing than I expected. Later than night I attended a party at Ben and Bruce's in the village. I would have to say that I didn't know over half the people there. And as with all parties comes loud rowdiness and a drunken walk home. Hey at least the half-hour walk to southside only seemed like a couple of minutes while talking to Sarah and another guy whose name I cannot recall.

Anyways, I only got about 4 hours of sleep when my phone rang. Steve woke me up and reminded me that we needed to be on the road in a couple of minutes. I'm really surprised I remembered to bring all my crap. I grabbed my camera, deck of cards, phone, ID, a pop-tart, and put on some clothes. The morning was not good to me. I slept for an hour in the car while Steve drove.

We arrived at Cedar Point a little after 10am. There were 3 cars being driven by Jeff, Steve, and Michelle. The college paid for all of our tickets so we got a free trip to ride some coasters! The day was really fun. We started at the Millenium Force (which Hiro and someone else rode as their first roller coaster ever!) and worked our way around the park. We hit up pretty much everything. It was a great day.

Castles have been Crashed

I just got done with a 4 hour playing session of Castle Crashers for the Xbox live arcade. I played a co-op game from start to finish with Steve sitting beside me and Ben on the other side of campus. Bruce was supposed to play too so we had 4 people, but he was being a lazy bum. It is like crack and I will be playing through it again soon.

The classes I had today were actually pretty interesting... That is, I stayed awake in all of them >_< I also had Japanese class today! It was great! There are only 5 people in it, 2 of which are Japanese. The other one is a 5th year student who started taking Japanese as a Fresman. Talk about dedication. Finally, there is Mieon. I'm not sure if she is going to stay in the class or not.

I decided on a senior project for Japanese. I am going to do a translation of the Goemon 2 script and then revise it while playing through the game while looking at both the original and my translation. It will basically show how important it is to translate in context. After all, knowing who is speaking will alter how the script is translated.

No class tomorrow! Whoo!! Study!!!

First Day of Swimming

I am really glad this week is slow. I had Algorithms this morning and swimming right after. The rest of my classes were canceled.

I found out that I am not a good swimmer anymore.

We did a swimming evaluation at the beginning of class (freestyle of course). Along with most of the other guys, I did pretty terrible. That whole breathing thing is what killed me. It's kinda required. The coach put me in the intermediate level which is where most people were placed. We get to spend the semester perfecting our strokes and hopefully getting better. At the end of the session I tried swimming across the pool again and did much much better. Yay! Now I really wanna go swim during free time at the pool. It's a really nice break from classes.

Swimming left me dead. I wanted to pass out on the grass in the middle of the quad... But there were other things to take care of. My ID card money needed some fixin' at Crawford. I stood in line for 15 minutes downstairs. They told me to go upstairs. The guy up there messed around with my card and the computer system for 10 minutes before saying that I needed to go downstairs again. GAAAAAAAAH! Luckily he came with me and I got to bypass the line. Apparently when the school switched from using our social security numbers to random student ID numbers, it wasn't changed everywhere. The number in the system was my ID number, the number on my card was my social. I got the magnetic strip re-magnetized with my other number so hopefully it works now. I really should try that tomorrow by getting a bagel or something...

In Nord I noticed a security guard sitting on his laptop playing solitare. Good job CWRU security.

Once home I took a nice long nap. Refreshing.

Note to self

Do not under any circumstances eat an entire box of mac and cheese ever again.

2nd Day of Class

It was the same as the first. I just got to my computer moments ago (it's already midnight!) I am still trying to figure out exactly what I need to graduate. If all of my credit transfers smoothly, I just need to take 4 EECS classes I am signed up for now, 2 EECS classes next semester, and a final project in Japanese and Computer Science. It sounds pretty manageable on paper, but after browsing through my portfolio and trying to figure out what I still need something may have been lost. I am going to talk to undergraduate studies tomorrow about graduating.

My classes today looked pretty tough. Compilers is going to be a really hard course, Computer Logic Design is going to be really easy, and the senior capstone course (which I am unsure if it is required at this point.)

During lunch I found out that my ID card isn't working for money transactions. Apparently it has been happening to all the abroad students. I had to pay cash for my subway. Hopefully I can get that fixed soon too.

After class I went to Thwing with Claire, Michelle, and Hiro to the poster fair. I didn't feel like spending the money so I just browsed. Hiro tried to buy a foil poster of the world but Claire and Michelle insisted on paying for it. Hiro is 20 today. They convinced the cashier to not accept Hiro's cash and were successful at buying the poster as a birthday gift. We then headed to the party.

Yoshimoto and Michiyo came to visit everyone today! We had a dinner party in the Hvorka Atrium that was really fancy. Everyone that had any relation to the program came if they could. There was lots of free food and free drinks. Yay for being 21! I got to drink plenty of wine and beer on the schools tab. ^_^

Once back at my dorm I had to show everyone my rabbit. He is getting pretty used to people now and let everyone pet him. We then went downstairs to see Jack's hamster. It was so cute! Finally, before getting to my shower I got to meet my roomates for the first time, Mike and Lin. Mike is a senior Electrical Engineering student who is one of the head members of the fencing club. Lin is a junior Business student who loves to play sports. They both seem pretty nice and they are both really quiet at home so I'm not complaining. Looks like it will be a good year with them.

Just One More Hour

I keep waking up 1 extra hour before the time that my alarm is set. I dunno if it is instinct or just the change in living conditions. My bed is not as comfortable as my one at home. I guess it gives me time to get everything around and play with Shiro for a little bit. Speaking of which, he is doing good. I have not taken him to the vet yet but his condition is getting better. The fur near his hind legs and under his feet were a yellowish color, probably from living in a small cage for months at the animal shelter. That is starting to turn to a nice shade of white. He is also getting more genki (happy/spunky) by the day. He likes to come over and nudge my legs when I'm on the computer which means "Pet me! Pet me!" As for the litter training, it is going good. He always goes number 1 in the litter box thankfully so I don't have my room smelling like piss. Number 2 is about half and half though. It's all right near the litter box so I am almost there I think. In any case, it is fun to have someone to come home to every day and take care of!

Senior Woes

Today was the first day of class and as such it has just dawned upon me that I am a senior. It doesn't seem like 4 years ago I was a beginning senior in high school. Time really does fly with wings.

I only had one class today, alogrithms, which was in the morning. After that I attended an intro session to my physical education class. Swimming starts on Wednesday!

First and foremost I finally declared my Japanese Major and switched my computer science to a B.A. It really is the only way for me to graduate on time. Along the way I had to talk to my adviser Podgurski and asked about what kind of thesis is required. He said that there are 2 options. I can complete it in the fall with a 3-credit, lecture based course in which has a very large group project. The other option is to do an independent project worth 6 credits in the springtime. I am fairly certain that the first option will be much easier on my part, but I need to drop another class and/or overload. For the Japanese end of things, Hagiwara Sensei needs me to declare some sort of research project/topic very soon (within the next two weeks.) I don't even know where to begin to look. My original thought was to look at localization within Japanese game companies like Nintendo and Sony. Research why some games come over and some don't. Another thought was to look at the original Japanese and English translation of a particular game and see what kind of things were lost/changed/improved with the dialogue and story. The latter is more of a compare and contrast thing which doesn't work too well for a senior thesis. Today I came up with the topic of Buddhism (because I loved the classes I took at Waseda) but again I have no idea where to go off of that. Blarg.

It's the first day and I already have too much on my plate to think about.

So I decided to go have some fun. I attended almost all of the 101 and 201 Japanese classes in order to promote Kaiwa club. It was great to see all the sensei's again. I also saw Debbie in order to get a $60 refund for the BBQ that we had with the Waseda students. Hiro and Michelle also happened to be there looking for something t do. Michelle mentioned tennis and we were off. The problem was finding rackets. By the time Clair called saying that she could play with us, it was almost 6 o'clock and time for the actual tennis team to use the courts. We'll try again another day.

Dinner was at a noodles place down the street. Tasty.

Joe and Yuki met up with us and decided to hang out at my place with Smash Bros. As always, once set up in a dorm room, it is a magnet for other geeks to gather around. Brilliant. I had a great time studying my Japanese (and helping Claire!) too. My kanji writing ability has went down the drain... Heisig here I come!

Kaiwa Club

I didn't do anything this morning but figure out my classes and play a little 360. At the moment I will be taking 4 EECS courses, a graduate level Japanese course, and a physical education class (swimming). It is going to be a tough semester with those EECS courses. Tomorrow I am going to add my Japanese Major and change my Computer Science BS to a BA. I'm not 100% sure but I think I can graduate on time. I also am going to talk to my advisor a little bit about it.

Anyways, Kaiwa Club was today! I got to meet Matt and Brenden for the first time in a year. I still cannot believe how far my Japanese skills have improved. I wasn't the only one. The other students from Waseda had yet to hear me speak a word of Japanese until today. They were floored when I started talking to them. What a great feeling. The club had an attendance of 20 or so people including a Freshman from CIA (Cleveland Institute of Art) and a senior high school student with her father wanting to Major in Japanese. Crazy. I hope they decide to keep coming to Kaiwa club. Afterwards we went to a Chinese place with everyone. Yummy.

Tomorrow classes start and as far as I know only two other people have moved into my suite. I met one of them briefly before Kaiwa club and just noticed moments ago that someone elses door was open. He was stealthy. There was nothing in the kitchen and nothing in the bathroom. I hope they are on the meal plan so I have the kitchen to myself...

Tomorrow is the first day of class! Better get some sleep before then!

Back and Ready for Action!

Well not really... I got back to school 3 days ago and am starting to realize that classes start very soon. I am most definitely not looking forward to it.

It has been exactly 1 month since I got back from Japan. It sure doesn't seem like it. Being back at college is really surreal.

My summer was cut short to a mere 4 weeks at home. Sure it was a blast for the most part. I spent a ton of time at home playing my 360, hanging out with friends, riding my bike around town, going to the lake, awww I miss it already. Even though it was really short, I believe it was the most relaxing summer I have ever had. I had absolutely no obligations to fulfill and nothing to worry about. Rock on. I spent a lot of time with my cousins Ed, Alysa, and Logan. I also spent a lot of time with Jessica, a classmate from high school with whom I rarely talked to. It just goes to show you what happens when people grow up. The day before I went to school I went up to the animal shelter and adopted a rabbit. His name is Shiro and he is white just like my cat. He is a friendly little guy who is still warming up to me.

Back at school. I moved into my dorm room, got everything unpacked, and left. The Japanese students arrived last week and Debbie is looking for people to go out with them. So for the past two days I have been hanging out with them. Yesterday we played basketball and had a sweet drinking party at their apartment. The CWRU students were me, Clair, Kristin, Meion, and Joe. There are 8 Japanese students whom I still cannot attach names to faces. Ryo, Yusuke, Taka, Hiro, Hideki, Abe, and 2 more. We taught them one of our drinking games and they taught us a few of theirs. I wrote them down as soon as I got home so hopefully I can get some of my other friends to play the English equivalents at our next party.

Today I met everyone at Little Italy for lunch. The food there was delicious and pretty cheap too. Then Claire and Mieon left and I took everyone to Severance Town Center to do some shopping. I think everyone liked picking up some English stuff there. I got a book about the comic strip Dilbert. We got back around 7:30 and I cooked myself some dinner. It is going to be really weird doing all my own cooking this year.

Now, off to see Bruce and Ben!