recovery is a long process

I feel like I still haven't recovered from my trip to America three weeks ago. Of course, I had soccer the first weekend I was back in Japan. Then last weekend was filled with two birthday parties and a WU/TIUA reunion. It's now Thursday and I (thankfully) have no classes today, and all I want to do is crawl back into bed.

Last last Friday I went out to Omiya to celebrate Cristina's birthday. We all generally had a good time. Of course, there was karaoke (Emma and I were inspired to sing a Mariah Carey song about everyone leaving us. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Emma sounded a lot better than me.) We ate potluck style and a a lot of people brought noodles and salads. I suppose I'm used to the Hawaiian-style of potluck (that usually has rice, tons of meat, and several different types of macaroni and potato salad). As a result, I think this was the healthiest potluck I've ever attended.

On Saturday I met up with Katie in Ikebukuro. While we were drinking coffee, the nice lady who used to work with me ran up to say hello. It's always so shocking for me to run into people I know in Tokyo since it's such a huge city. Anyway, Katie and I had gyoza for lunch at Gyoza Stadium in Namja Town, then ice cream in Ice Cream Stadium (on a side note, I recently discovered that I may be lactose intolerant. booo). We then headed over to Shibuya to meet up with WU and TIUA people for a reunion, then up to Omiya to celebrate Shane's birthday party at the George.

Sunday was a day for sleeping early and cleaning my apartment.

Liz has been talking about the same bar for as long as I can remember. Since she's leaving so soon, I decided to go with her this past week. Apparently there's a big group of regulars who go every Wednesday. We met up with some of our friends for dinner, then hit the bar. It was a pretty eventful night, two people were leaving Japan (thus it was their last night at the bar), and it was someone else's birthday. The birthday boy turned three that day. He's an adorable little boy with poofy hair, he speaks French, Japanese, and a little English, and he probably outdanced everyone in the bar. Seriously. We sang Happy Birthday, then those that could sang Bon Anniversaire (I probably spelt that incorrectly). I met some pretty awesome people before I had to catch the last train home (because I'm hardcore like that). I finally stumbled into bed around 1:30 in the morning, which would be a problem if Thursday was a normal school day. However, it wasn't. Half the school was away for JHS sports tournaments. The only reason everyone wasn't gone is the outdoor sports games were postponed due to rain. I spent half the afternoon reading "The Giving Tree" with my kyoto-sensei. It was awesome.

Anyway, I've been fighting off a cold for a week now, and sleep is calling to me. I'll write about this weekend later.