tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40788549004506652532024-02-19T06:53:28.627-08:00A Tale Told by MeKrystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.comBlogger69125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-52590247742663614802009-08-19T14:30:00.000-07:002009-08-19T14:32:04.414-07:00Back in HawaiiSo, I'm back... in Hawaii... no plans to leave (also no money) I'm cleaning the house and looking for work. (also improving my tan and playing with my puppy).<a id="publishButton" class="cssButton" href="javascript:void(0)" target="" onclick="if (this.className.indexOf("ubtn-disabled") == -1) {var e = document['stuffform'].publish;(e.length) ? e[0].click() : e.click(); if (window.event) window.event.cancelBubble = true; return false;}"><div class="cssButtonOuter"><div class="cssButtonMiddle"><div class="cssButtonInner">Publish Post</div></div></div></a>Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-69328309988339392002009-07-02T08:28:00.000-07:002009-07-05T06:25:43.878-07:00Because apparently the only way I can travel is in a whirlwindI went to America last month for two weeks. It was one of the greatest three week vacations ever.<br />First, I visited Seattle. The guy next to me flirted during nearly the whole flight even with my constant coughing and Japanese-style mask. Sarah and her boyfriend Evan picked me up at the airport, then we had some Thai food for lunch (Pad Thai!), and saw Wolverine (Hugh Jackman!!!) before heading back to her apartment. They have the most amazing couches ever. I woke up early the next morning and went to church with Reid. Jen picked me up from church and we drove down to Tacoma. It's weird because exactly one year previously, she was visiting me in Japan. Anyway, I saw the school from 10 Things I Hate About You, and we walked down to the waterfront for pizza and beer (which were both twice the size and half as expensive as in Japan). Then we saw Sunshine Cleaners at a locally-owned theater, had another drink at the Ram, watched Slumdog Millionaire, and went to bed.<br />The next morning, Jen dropped me off at the AmTrak station, and I took a train south to Portland, then a bus to Salem. It's amazing that one hour in a bus used to feel like a long time. Of course, it was raining when I hit Salem, so I walked to the house in the rain. I spent essentially the rest of Monday in the house. It was amazing to spend time with everyone. I met the new members and felt really old, and had a chance to walk around to see the new furniture and decorations. Adam remembered me as "cherry muffin girl" because those were my favorite. Luckily, it was the last night of formal dinner, so I got to eat one of his amazing meals. Then, Erica, Kelsey, and I hung out in the lounge during formal chapter. Of course, we hit the Ram after the meeting (just like before), except now everyone's old enough to get a drink.<br />I spent most of the next day wandering around campus and visiting with professors and staff people, and had lunch with Cliff. That night, Alyssa and Kelsey T. hosted a party at their place. We had Cool Ranch Doritos and Black Cherry Vodka (not together, of course). The night ended amazingly with group spooning, and finally, grilled cheese and nachos at the house (yes, I felt sick the next morning from too much cheese).<br />On Wednesday, I visited one more professor and got some recommendations for books to read (Octavia Butler, highly recommended) before Kelsey and I drove up to Portland. She indulged me in some noodles (more Pad Thai!) and coffee at Powells before parting ways. Jeff met me at the book store and we had a drink with Chris and Liz before going back to his house. We had Thai food for dinner (Pad Thai for the third time and still wanted more), then drove over to Shane and Jessi's place (I thought she was in Hawaii, oops). We had delicious crepes, then went back to Jeff's. Josh shared some cider and we played darts before bed. Everyone left for work the next morning before me, and I locked the door behind me before realizing that I had forgotten my cell phone. Oops. Anyway, caught the bus then the MET to the airport and flew to Chicago.<br />Dan and Sabrina picked me up at the Chicago Airport. We had some issues getting out of the parking lot, but made it safely back to Dan's apartment. We ordered pizza and I met Dan's brother/roommate. Dan had to work the next day, so Sabrina showed me around the city. We visited the bean (a huge mirrored sculpture that looks like a bean), saw the Sears Tower and the Trump Tower, and walked on the beach (sand and waves, but a freshwater lake, not the ocean). We did some shopping and enjoyed a Reese's cupcake at the Hershey store before meeting Dan at work. Then Dan and I went to a birthday party at his friend's house on Shakespeare Street (I totally want to live there!). The next day, Dan and I visited his mom's apartment, and I played with his kitty. We had yummy gyros for lunch, and drove back to the city with a new bookshelf for Dan. That night, we went to a hipster party for his brother's birthday, which may have been the strangest party I've ever been to. A Chinese movie was projected onto a wall while the DJ (who was wearing a khaki Member's Only jacket) played 80s music. Fashion was interesting, hairstyles were interesting, and there was a dog. We ended the night/morning with breakfast at a 24-hour diner before napping for a few hours before my 9am flight.<br />Dan graciously escorted me to the airport the next morning, and I flew to New York via D.C. (land of delicious Five Brothers burgers). I arrived at 7, and we had Shabu Shabu at the same place we ate last time I visited. I met my sister's dog, Pickles, and mom and I drove back to our swanky cheap hotel in Manhattan. The next day, we drove out to pick up Evelyn (my sister), Collin (my sister's boyfriend) and Erica (my cousin). For some strange reason, I can't remember what we did on Monday, but we had steak for dinner and I spent that night at Erica's place in Brooklyn. On our way back to her apartment, we accidentally entered the Hudson Tunnel and ended up in New Jersey. Oops. We made it back, I did some laundry, and finally slept. The next morning, Erica and I went to Target before picking up mom, Evelyn, and Collin. We did a little shopping before seeing Shrek the Musical with Sutton Foster, John Tartaglia, and Chris Sieber. It was a lot of fun, and I had a really good time (of course, I got the soundtrack). Erica spent the night with us in the hotel, but Evelyn and Collin went back to their apartment. The next morning, we headed out to Yankee Stadium for Eva's graduation. 15,000 other people graduated, and Hillary Clinton gave a speech. We left before the chaos and went back to Manhattan. Everyone went to see a movie, but I spent two hours in Strand bookstore instead. For dinner, we went to Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. Everything on the menu was spicy, but the wine was good. I met up with Laura after dinner and we went out while Mom spent the night at Evelyn's (they live near the airport and she had an early flight the next day). I checked out of the hotel the next morning, wandered around the city on my own, and met Steve at Penn Station. We went to a bar and met Melissa, then headed back to New Jersey. The next morning, I visited one of Steve's schools, then he dropped me off at the airport. I flew back to D.C., then had a 14 hour flight straight back to Narita. We had to wait an extra 30 minutes after landing so health officials could check us all for a fever before we were cleared to leave the plane. I promptly called my boss and he gave me a week off work (so I wouldn't infect the children with a disease that I didn't have). So, that's the story of how I received three weeks of vacation for a two week trip to America. The End.Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-11910182721085236282009-05-18T17:02:00.000-07:002009-05-18T17:16:21.129-07:00Chennai and PaharganjAfter our last work day at KI, Emma and I returned to the hotel, showered, packed up, and boarded a train for Chennai in Tamil Nadu. It felt like a completely different country from Andra Pradesh due to the language difference. While the people in Andra Pradesh spoke primarily Telugu, people in Chennai speak Tamil. <br /><br />We checked into our hotel, I broke the water faucet, and we fell asleep since we had to get up at 3:30 the next morning to catch our 6am flight. We caught our flight up to Delhi, caught a taxi to Paharganj, and checked into our last hotel of the trip (9 total!). We shopped and rested for the rest of the day before our 11pm flight back to Japan. (A word of advice, very few of the sites in Delhi are open on Monday)<br /><br />The flights back to Beijing then Tokyo were uneventful, but I managed to catch my last train home. Emma took off half of the next day, but I'm out of leave, so I slept for 5 hours, showered, then went to work the next morning.<br /><br />Overall, it was an absolutely incredible experience, and I really hope to go back (maybe December).Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-68313380092172184612009-05-18T16:11:00.000-07:002009-05-18T17:02:52.667-07:00Kothasatram-IndiranagarAfter four days in GP Village, we trekked over to Kothasatram-Indiranagar Village near Kavali City. We left in the morning after breakfast and arrived in the evening. On the way, we took a boat to an island for lunch. We had a variety of curries (and I ate fried rice). Jon also had some half-melted ice cream for dessert.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6LrLFvL17xzFHiCrm592LJQzGeBEnpzE0yPMa02xtn7n7P82NAC5uIqa-Yl1AuKtxAqFgL659V8796ygwktXBz3EhEmvZ_KBXHDM3aVKFrD3j3R9C6fxsiqftLuCXDV5DDxLSIp4Ew8Kr/s1600-h/IMG_7935.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6LrLFvL17xzFHiCrm592LJQzGeBEnpzE0yPMa02xtn7n7P82NAC5uIqa-Yl1AuKtxAqFgL659V8796ygwktXBz3EhEmvZ_KBXHDM3aVKFrD3j3R9C6fxsiqftLuCXDV5DDxLSIp4Ew8Kr/s320/IMG_7935.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337306711298210530" border="0" /></a><br />After lunch and another hour or so in the car, we stopped to visit Habitat for Humanity Andhra Pradesh (aka Ravi's old office). We chatted with his old boss and co-workers for a few hours while we figured out where to stay in Chennai (near the airport). Habitat requires recipients to pay them back for the houses, and as a result, leaves out the poorest people in the area. Average pay back is less than a few dollars a week, but the people we worked with barely had enough money to feed themselves and their families. As a result, Ravi left Habitat to help out those who couldn't afford a Habitat house.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzB7CQQEzIE37XW80fYXWJVJ6PZaIxvLGur7kp0-mSWr9rWoJx8Eorum-eTuY5MHst4NJ2NTOjD-MFjzy9XOwTeIhDeYgoCN68YQ_hX1EFyB9losxlC2TGZuAymjkh_a_S6HDsVqCEi_x9/s1600-h/IMG_7937.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzB7CQQEzIE37XW80fYXWJVJ6PZaIxvLGur7kp0-mSWr9rWoJx8Eorum-eTuY5MHst4NJ2NTOjD-MFjzy9XOwTeIhDeYgoCN68YQ_hX1EFyB9losxlC2TGZuAymjkh_a_S6HDsVqCEi_x9/s320/IMG_7937.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337312281639375362" border="0" /></a><br />About an hour outside Kavali, we stopped so the driver could get some food and we could have a stretch and bathroom break. However, the bathroom consisted of a tiled room with a drain and a faucet. We all waited until we got to the hotel.<br /><br />The next morning, we drove out to KI Village (about 30 minutes from Kavali). I was shocked at the sparseness of the village. While GP has a church, a school, and a community hall, KI has the houses. That's it. We gathered under a tree. We left our stuff in Adustruma's house (I'm probably spelling her name incorrectly), and worked on painting doors and windows. They needed to be painted so they would last longer and to increase visibility of crawly things that should stay outside. We paired off and painted about two houses per pair per day.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGOGZ_sVv2JwObfCXOurACCV-3l156IFRG4UoiYG60xJZCf57R-xl_m9mc7itgBjdt6zU4ZR9komZgQSxg-2QDQVdsq-ejCkPv4OwmKSclzhbnbe73ayEVpDz_-Whhw_tX7j0rzfzI2bwI/s1600-h/P1140600.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGOGZ_sVv2JwObfCXOurACCV-3l156IFRG4UoiYG60xJZCf57R-xl_m9mc7itgBjdt6zU4ZR9komZgQSxg-2QDQVdsq-ejCkPv4OwmKSclzhbnbe73ayEVpDz_-Whhw_tX7j0rzfzI2bwI/s320/P1140600.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337317492406019378" border="0" /></a><br />On our second morning, we helped out with the feeding center. Basically we served one egg and one cup of milk to each child, and one cup of tea to each adult. We also got them some watermelon, thanks to Jon.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXDbi95DaXseF2cwlbVbNPWV5-c6M-oVv_90K0fl9GXq82ygTf4uMBKXmhv1NBf0ihxF2b9FlCll4E6yu2qaq_QIUlbE1ossL1yADyb-ir4L8gyByLDvJhcg6LeoWr4QDg16dRfg_C0YYS/s1600-h/P1140629.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXDbi95DaXseF2cwlbVbNPWV5-c6M-oVv_90K0fl9GXq82ygTf4uMBKXmhv1NBf0ihxF2b9FlCll4E6yu2qaq_QIUlbE1ossL1yADyb-ir4L8gyByLDvJhcg6LeoWr4QDg16dRfg_C0YYS/s320/P1140629.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337317143193007682" border="0" /></a><br />Sadly, after our second day, Sauna and Jon went back to Japan. Emma and I worked together on the third day, and I had a brand new partner on our last day. She wasn't the neatest painter, but she was much faster than me. We worked together to paint the higher places since neither of us could reach them on our own. Doors are about a foot higher than the ground outside due to flooding problems during monsoon season, so that made painting the outer frame difficult.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgytKZuz5VxJUcbKIJKqFJc0I91PBBTpdtqMFKTk5B_KhSIBz9n5rix8ntU9zEIaY5SFXxZsOmuxacDXtXtRIuktziUkD9WmE7gJzBydNBWzEScNcG1xoHPnbBVlwpWmYG9Y3CRGVQ_LVFp/s1600-h/P1160706.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgytKZuz5VxJUcbKIJKqFJc0I91PBBTpdtqMFKTk5B_KhSIBz9n5rix8ntU9zEIaY5SFXxZsOmuxacDXtXtRIuktziUkD9WmE7gJzBydNBWzEScNcG1xoHPnbBVlwpWmYG9Y3CRGVQ_LVFp/s320/P1160706.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337318205659999250" border="0" /></a>Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-9302436213461695292009-04-27T01:01:00.000-07:002009-04-27T01:09:12.641-07:00Gummallapadu, part 1The next morning, Emma and I took our time getting up (which meant sleeping in to nine), ate breakfast, and ventured over to the airport. We met Sauna (another JET volunteer) at Delhi Domestic Airport, then flew down to Hyderabad. Of what little we saw, Delhi Domestic is crowded and kinda depressing. Hyderabad Airport is brand-new, spacious, and generally far superior. Of course, the big problem is that it's located far from the city center (about 50 minutes by taxi).<br /><br />The man who picked us up at the airport is amazing. His name is David, but we called him a range of names including Dr. David, Dr. S, and others (we thought he was a Dr., but found out later that's not quite right. I'm still not sure...) He's working with Ravi (who I'll get to later) to spread word about the issues facing the Dalit population in Andhra Pradesh. He knows a lot about Indian politics and how to work the system. During the trip, he shared a lot about his experiences and expressed his frustration at the rampant corruption. For example, apparently, politicians bought a lot of land around the location of the new airport before the location was announced. Then, after the public was notified, they sold the land for over 100 times what they had purchased it for. This sort of thing is common in Indian politics.<br /><br />We arrived at our hotel (hotel #5 for those keeping count), wandered around Hyderabad in search of the post office and snacks for the train, had dinner, and went to bed. This was the only night that we shared a room between three people. Jon (the final member of our group) arrived in Hyderabad at some point in the night, so we met him the next morning. Then we boarded the train for our 7-hour train ride. Luckily, it went by fairly quickly. I taught Jon and Dr. S how to make origami cranes and we gave them away to the children behind us.<br /><br />I expected the trains in India to be fairly crowded, loud, and dirty, but luckily it wasn't so bad. Ravi booked us seats in the air conditioned car since we were traveling in the morning, and it was definitely worth the extra money. However the ac was so strong that Emma was cold. The economy class cars looked to be more along the lines of what I imagined riding a train in India to be, but safer. There were guys hopping on and off the train as it was moving, and others were sitting with their legs dangling off the sides. Apparently, it's now illegal to ride on the roof of a train.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8sfhkty6Cn7jNipypXpsluUbwwVFP-N8oOmTyy-2LxcD_tf-fPmM7Dz7gu7tJdq4nIxSIYOuzQ0vm5GTvNU7soa8jb_LBZ3hPZoDH_WPdHCxflzftj58G41m6loBGvBHSrNFgOYECrfAB/s1600-h/IMG_7791.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8sfhkty6Cn7jNipypXpsluUbwwVFP-N8oOmTyy-2LxcD_tf-fPmM7Dz7gu7tJdq4nIxSIYOuzQ0vm5GTvNU7soa8jb_LBZ3hPZoDH_WPdHCxflzftj58G41m6loBGvBHSrNFgOYECrfAB/s320/IMG_7791.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329279420957488962" border="0" /></a><br /><br />We arrived in Eluru in the afternoon, checked into hotel #6, dropped the luggage, and went out to the village for the first time. Since we were intercepting the previous group as they were leaving, they combined our opening ceremony with their closing ceremony. The ladies of the previous group looked lovely in their saris, the boys looked handsome, and everyone had children all over them. We also finally met Ravi (but I'll talk more about him later). The ceremony was great, a dancer started by performing for us, then three of the boys danced for us as well. Then the usual speeches (in English and Telugu), from Ravi and the village leaders thanking the first group and welcoming us, from Anna, the leader of the first group, and from Emma. Then we had a big dance party before Ravi herded us away from the kids and into the cars so the other group could make their train. I love my group, but the group before us seemed fantastic. They were energetic, friendly, and pretty crazy. I half wish the groups were combined, but the other half of me knows that I would not have had the same intimate experience if the group was that big. However, try to imagine this: ten people in a standard SUV singing Disney songs (and listening to someone make up rhymes about the passengers) for an hour in the middle of the Indian countryside under a clear, starry sky. It was amazing.<br /><br />The next morning, we slathered ourselves with sunscreen and insect repellant and were ready for our first work day. Unfortunately, Emma had been feeling ill since Jaipur, so Ravi decided it would be better for her to stay and rest for the first day. So our driver, Sauna, Jon, Ravi, Sagar, and I headed out to the village.<br /><br />Ravi may be the most compassionate man I've ever met. He's incredibly devoted to his cause no matter what the cost. He used to work for an NPO in Hyderabad, but left the organization because of a conflict in ideals. The NPO was working to help people who had nowhere or insufficient places to live, but required repayment over several years. As a result, the poorest people were shut out of the system. Ravi left behind a stable salary (even a low NPO salary) to help the poorest people. His current project is focused on building homes and he has also implemented a program to improve nutrition in the second village we visited (I'll get to that later). Long-term, his main goal is to improve the livelihood of the people in these villages. Many of them are brought up to think that they are worthless and "untouchable," and Ravi's main work is trying to convince people that they are not. The main purpose of bringing volunteers from Japan to work in the villages is not for the actual work. The villagers are more than capable (and far better than us). We were there to send the message that they matter so much that people from around the world travel all the way to their tiny village for them. Sagar is his right-hand man, like the Kronk to Ravi's Ezma (I'm sure there's a better comparison, but I can't think of one right now. They also reminded me of Bert and Ernie, but in personality, not relationship).<br /><br />Anyway, we spent the day tossing bricks and passing cement on metal trays. Around 12:30, we stopped for lunch (rice, chapatis, three slices each of tomato, carrot, and cucumber, and two types of curry at every meal). Ravi encouraged us to lie down and take a nap since it was extremely hot in the middle of the day. At first we rested for about 2.5 hours, but as the days went on, we became too popular. The boys were always yelling for Jonathan to play volleyball with them, and the girls liked making me look beautiful.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOczpSrTHrjTIBDVHlDXCCRqvkTxvSo7KtQUjpwZTi59Z4CT50o2_vepxg2tNQiWxVlOUOMD9M6h63fCCfxZDnJTRZ0b0OrITJ6q_I4HziGgoKXIf3u4mJujTdW5AOIvfB00VlibiZv9_t/s1600-h/IMG_7813.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOczpSrTHrjTIBDVHlDXCCRqvkTxvSo7KtQUjpwZTi59Z4CT50o2_vepxg2tNQiWxVlOUOMD9M6h63fCCfxZDnJTRZ0b0OrITJ6q_I4HziGgoKXIf3u4mJujTdW5AOIvfB00VlibiZv9_t/s320/IMG_7813.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329279077608426802" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXUlDndOjICmD-3N5PEQOlL0aTvE2eH9vxSgjXpZkpoF_HjfLoIjUcKHkRIBgyCZEK-rzVlMbtYKqD4MSOoC0qpxX0HSDC7JfsvLWlW_hGQZI7GaSUWlnRB7MfiCpw6YfWo8Dsac0qN5tC/s1600-h/IMG_7824.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXUlDndOjICmD-3N5PEQOlL0aTvE2eH9vxSgjXpZkpoF_HjfLoIjUcKHkRIBgyCZEK-rzVlMbtYKqD4MSOoC0qpxX0HSDC7JfsvLWlW_hGQZI7GaSUWlnRB7MfiCpw6YfWo8Dsac0qN5tC/s320/IMG_7824.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329279073067517874" border="0" /></a><br />In all honesty, the days sort of run together, so from here I'll give you highlights from the four days we spent working in Gummalapadu Village.<br /><br />Tossing Bricks and other things:<br />At first I was awesome at tossing bricks to the workers. However, after the first day, I kinda sucked. We also experimented with tossing other things. Some, such as water bottles, became useful and common while we were working. Others, such as trays of concrete, didn't work out so well. Jon tried to toss a tray to one of the workers and merely suceeded in showering everyone around him with concrete. I didn't even try tossing concrete after I accidentally dumped a tray of it on someone's feet while only passing it.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhInfXHiQcqFoLErZHDes1wVT6gZakxzTao1uEAFbMqg9o-yCaDLQERoHHP7W6JQ09jARWWUymQ6e1FtyjsBXTM733VXf-VGeQgW_hJIL52I1H-XOXxlTdqfPUOLzoM02FdzwMHhpNt9b8u/s1600-h/P1080426.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhInfXHiQcqFoLErZHDes1wVT6gZakxzTao1uEAFbMqg9o-yCaDLQERoHHP7W6JQ09jARWWUymQ6e1FtyjsBXTM733VXf-VGeQgW_hJIL52I1H-XOXxlTdqfPUOLzoM02FdzwMHhpNt9b8u/s320/P1080426.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329279889682551042" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Telugu:<br />The language of the villagers is Telugu. Most people (myself included) have never heard of this language, even though it's spoken by over 70 million people. The reason for this is it's spoken primarily in southern India, and rarely found in other countries. Many of the villagers spoke a few words of English, but conversation was limited to whose house we were working on, children, siblings, and "whatisyourname?" Emma sent us a sheet of useful Telugu phrases and words before we left, so I had a chance to attempt learning a little before we arrived. I learned that "na" means me and "mi" means you. This saved us some confusion when the kids pointed at us and said "mi name?" I had also learned "wandanamuru" which means "thank you." On our first day at the village, I learned one new word. "Aradi pandu" means banana. It's not as easy as it sounds. Telugu is full of retroflexive vowels that sound the same as regular vowels to native English speakers. The next day I learned how to count to 10. Suriya, the guy who taught me, was awesome. We spent hours counting (I taught him Japanese), and otherwise conversing primarily with the words/phrases "good boy," "bad boy," "dance," "sing," and "lover" (he was also quite the romantic... he had a necklace with his "lover's" name around his neck. He was also super excited about marrying her the following year.) After I mastered those numbers, I started learning animals, and other fruits (mamorikaya pandu means mango). Ravi told me that I could become fluent in Telugu in 6 months, but he's also trying to recruit an English teacher.Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-75437174553688947742009-04-14T06:04:00.000-07:002009-04-14T06:32:45.912-07:00Agra and DelhiWe woke up bright and early and left the palace at 6:30 on Tuesday morning. I promptly fell asleep and woke up only once during the five hour long trip to Fatehpur Sikri.<br /><br />Fatehpur Sikri is a palace that was abandoned due to lack of water. The guy who built it was extremely happy with his creation, but no one else was. As a result, everyone left shortly after he passed away. Luckily, since no one lived there since there was no water, the palace is in extremely good condition. There were a variety of interesting sites including a building with a giant column in the middle and four walkways extending toward it. Allegedly, he used to have conversations and debates with four of his advisors while atop the pillar. Also, in the courtyard of the palace is a Pachisi area where he allegedly played the game with slave girls as pieces.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ZRx-6k16ggxey-jNCULFvdE_ra5gr5axp3srz12zs5rAAZ-VpzTi5cVQo6RK_3X1FgMbslUN9M6vI6VdmQp88PvLbtaVX94E-pKl5DrN2MgVi0xJvjmpSjBUylQEu05Z-7in3SJ7mnza/s1600-h/IMG_7655.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ZRx-6k16ggxey-jNCULFvdE_ra5gr5axp3srz12zs5rAAZ-VpzTi5cVQo6RK_3X1FgMbslUN9M6vI6VdmQp88PvLbtaVX94E-pKl5DrN2MgVi0xJvjmpSjBUylQEu05Z-7in3SJ7mnza/s320/IMG_7655.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324537004233171522" border="0" /></a>There was also a striking white mosque which really stood out against the red brick. We had to cover our heads in the mosque, so we borrowed plastic basket like hats. Emma also made friends with a guy who was trying to practice his English. On a side note, I pretended not to speak in English whenever we were approached by annoying potential tour guides, salesmen, etc. It worked extraordinarily well, except poor Emma couldn't get away with it as I could.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyBNcoXan31lT5NcYQ8qmHGB5ct2GcpMZiLFKKxed2InmPyO5u2UY1AnmHX_0uzE2aestW3-UNBRUU9U28SItbn6r_SWRNg5E7_mdGrk8z7R4jFahyu2sVVeQouWXyRE-RpW_oTzp6riO7/s1600-h/IMG_7692.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyBNcoXan31lT5NcYQ8qmHGB5ct2GcpMZiLFKKxed2InmPyO5u2UY1AnmHX_0uzE2aestW3-UNBRUU9U28SItbn6r_SWRNg5E7_mdGrk8z7R4jFahyu2sVVeQouWXyRE-RpW_oTzp6riO7/s320/IMG_7692.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324537013108395634" border="0" /></a><br />After another hour long drive, we arrived in Agra and checked into our hotel (not at all as interesting as the first one. In fact, our first hotel was by far the best). Darshan advised us to catch the Taj at sunrise the next day, so we visited Agra Fort that afternoon. This fort was different from Amber Fort in that it was mostly open space.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzkQ9Hp1-mtY1PkDB2xMw50yV4i0ycVtrCmjzN-WsI6IOi6WGrlmVxz6dvn-pU7_Qr2C66mNOfSKs36NNoSICjCpzYd1zOarNwvKqrvhPbE5EZC09VUvnbWR1AmJrOKQ8J-x3qSdRnHQGH/s1600-h/IMG_7699.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzkQ9Hp1-mtY1PkDB2xMw50yV4i0ycVtrCmjzN-WsI6IOi6WGrlmVxz6dvn-pU7_Qr2C66mNOfSKs36NNoSICjCpzYd1zOarNwvKqrvhPbE5EZC09VUvnbWR1AmJrOKQ8J-x3qSdRnHQGH/s320/IMG_7699.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324537008115253186" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The guy who built the Taj Mahal was extremely rich (obviously). However, he didn't have infinite amounts of money and his son was worried that he'd spend all of it before he died. The Taj was built as a memorial to the guy's wife, and he only wanted the absolute best for her. The son felt differently, overthrew his father, and locked him in Agra Fort where he could only gaze at the Taj from afar. Sad, no? Emma and I sat on his throne, which was a huge black table with a crack in it that reminded me an awful lot like the table Aslan was sacrificed on in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRkTrgHW11KXkWzipEpfc99nElbnMHImKbepIEzYYANn5c8ynNkNj56FXAygXwxpZ16cyOnB9R1amuUW-7TB9dM_WEj908fpec_79e3rgkeJLZdU8rgediw0UWhV51pTjXkIuxDavyZzqE/s1600-h/IMG_7729.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRkTrgHW11KXkWzipEpfc99nElbnMHImKbepIEzYYANn5c8ynNkNj56FXAygXwxpZ16cyOnB9R1amuUW-7TB9dM_WEj908fpec_79e3rgkeJLZdU8rgediw0UWhV51pTjXkIuxDavyZzqE/s320/IMG_7729.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324537988397226722" border="0" /></a><br />After the fort, we went back to the hotel, had dinner, and fell asleep early.<br /><br /><br />The next morning we left the hotel at 6am to catch the sunrise at the Taj. It was amazing! It's definitely something everyone should see once in their lives. The detail in the stone work was incredible. Each piece was shaped by hand by a craftsman, and these are not even the most detailed. The smallest, most intricate designs were inside where photography was not permitted.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3UgLDfR63to2sFll3RZoGe82koNLu2dD1xT11PN8B-Q0sDEOgCtM5jdoMeOpJ2QL1DLmu4R2LZVWGrWfI-tywfwxwsSD8O8Xyf_kplEyFYGdwkAuW8K6fdfsRSK5DGaYYr11wQY9_4jFh/s1600-h/IMG_7756.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3UgLDfR63to2sFll3RZoGe82koNLu2dD1xT11PN8B-Q0sDEOgCtM5jdoMeOpJ2QL1DLmu4R2LZVWGrWfI-tywfwxwsSD8O8Xyf_kplEyFYGdwkAuW8K6fdfsRSK5DGaYYr11wQY9_4jFh/s320/IMG_7756.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324537991588899842" border="0" /></a><br />It was especially amazing to watch it change from gray to orange to white as the sun rose. Note the difference between these two photos. These were taken only 10 minutes apart. I highly recommend the sunrise viewing of the Taj if you have a chance.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD1ix0QyAIvSHdfHgjK5RrKVsMziZOsFUemNNHN-hHpaT9H7GyvPtAk_FnzTwli6sbECf3Ao0_r0HRETiyyhPDR3wWbUw9uASroryZVsVvQl-eDRsZrVrrsI8XH3SMkAJ9dmBx9wza0th2/s1600-h/IMG_7737.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD1ix0QyAIvSHdfHgjK5RrKVsMziZOsFUemNNHN-hHpaT9H7GyvPtAk_FnzTwli6sbECf3Ao0_r0HRETiyyhPDR3wWbUw9uASroryZVsVvQl-eDRsZrVrrsI8XH3SMkAJ9dmBx9wza0th2/s320/IMG_7737.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324538008860675378" border="0" /></a> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVop-aIOu9UANq7ntfPJSBoyNbowAcXpxy8vazccPAPvpzWJFF4ZjufLJ8ITWAh_S_snoBk7F8px8hPZtFYR2IQgo6gHOeNGCQBIWN5dH9h6Qcij-rg3T6ySLUBmSIWm5nmi-DU-WyO-wJ/s1600-h/IMG_7747.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVop-aIOu9UANq7ntfPJSBoyNbowAcXpxy8vazccPAPvpzWJFF4ZjufLJ8ITWAh_S_snoBk7F8px8hPZtFYR2IQgo6gHOeNGCQBIWN5dH9h6Qcij-rg3T6ySLUBmSIWm5nmi-DU-WyO-wJ/s320/IMG_7747.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324538584740456482" border="0" /></a><br />After the Taj, we went back to the hotel, grabbed some breakfast (and I fed a monkey!), and then were off again for another long car ride back to Delhi. I slept. We got into Delhi in the afternoon and said bye to Darshan.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhliI1rxPvM_ErdfsesIERJVBuIIxCQbMAdB-jwpWhYhnosm4TAZ4CVzdKWlNZtmqP3FSm0cuLR4xNMGSMmlXpHxTUYLlIlGk5aq2QZ8a_rMyQa26XAUE98qLC_pnx_gJCHm10mlP7AMiF0/s1600-h/IMG_7775.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhliI1rxPvM_ErdfsesIERJVBuIIxCQbMAdB-jwpWhYhnosm4TAZ4CVzdKWlNZtmqP3FSm0cuLR4xNMGSMmlXpHxTUYLlIlGk5aq2QZ8a_rMyQa26XAUE98qLC_pnx_gJCHm10mlP7AMiF0/s320/IMG_7775.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324538932387083986" border="0" /></a><br />We checked into the hotel, relaxed for an hour, then went off to see the Baha'i Lotus Temple. Simply stunning. It was pretty amazing to visit both the Taj and the Lotus Temple in the the same day since they were both spectacular buildings made of white marble, but for entirely different purposes and with entirely different stories. Emma and I were incredibly lucky to catch a 5-minute service. Baha'i is a fascinating religion with a universal message of acceptance, and the steady stream of visitors from all over seemed to be an interesting literalization of their belief. The temple was surrounded by 9 reflecting pools which are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also keep temperatures down.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_NPLbXUy-CcAcq-THl3Cfb_EJj2tRzQB0llSU1B6Eutt96q5R6wJlFVhW9dVxuiA3SjayE-I4Qgo4ulOjNCpNN2wUxQNjgalyG6bIJwzR-jRY18B6-sEpFYFJwJNSF39xAPw2E_sUeka/s1600-h/IMG_7780.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_NPLbXUy-CcAcq-THl3Cfb_EJj2tRzQB0llSU1B6Eutt96q5R6wJlFVhW9dVxuiA3SjayE-I4Qgo4ulOjNCpNN2wUxQNjgalyG6bIJwzR-jRY18B6-sEpFYFJwJNSF39xAPw2E_sUeka/s320/IMG_7780.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324538934880718514" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT3GyLENqubc5O402K24tCJdgTaA112XR77MSl5ujqMlnoMpzda5npplKfNl_TV1i_O7r7MQylIJZOfAN9areLeFF97L9Iy98vivL1cvxFkQaNS9A7s7F_1Fi7r58s8D2X-bjIWeuDKJQI/s1600-h/IMG_7781.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT3GyLENqubc5O402K24tCJdgTaA112XR77MSl5ujqMlnoMpzda5npplKfNl_TV1i_O7r7MQylIJZOfAN9areLeFF97L9Iy98vivL1cvxFkQaNS9A7s7F_1Fi7r58s8D2X-bjIWeuDKJQI/s320/IMG_7781.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324538939713968066" border="0" /></a><br />On our way back to the hotel, we also drove past a Sikh temple. Both our drivers were Sikh, so we learned a little about the religion during our time in India (Emma learned more than me since I slept through most of the car rides). What I remember most was how Darshan was always insistent that Sikhism was the best because women were treated equally, they were hard workers without being mindless followers, and were incredibly dedicated to India.<br />Finally we got back to the hotel and had dinner. Among the dishes we ordered were a harakebab and the rice of death. Seriously, the spiciest food of the entire trip (although I think that was mostly mental since I expect rice to be safe). It was presented nicely in a clay pot which only added to the rice of death name (sneaky rice!).<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7lm9nJ0v8303XpmeXrHG26_3gNESQYTP4eAQlje9updTL2dmecY3vW2CwUiQnFYQ-Z6U7arvP4WJ9f52dQt7I2HH9xID9FS3Z6NyOKj7S0E5nhVC9WTFwUSLApioowbWmy5D251pQhYm0/s1600-h/IMG_7785.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7lm9nJ0v8303XpmeXrHG26_3gNESQYTP4eAQlje9updTL2dmecY3vW2CwUiQnFYQ-Z6U7arvP4WJ9f52dQt7I2HH9xID9FS3Z6NyOKj7S0E5nhVC9WTFwUSLApioowbWmy5D251pQhYm0/s320/IMG_7785.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324539238740586962" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Next: Gummallapadu Village!Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-15873163235573355332009-04-13T05:29:00.000-07:002009-04-13T05:42:25.565-07:00JaipurMy friend Emma and I left Narita airport in the afternoon on Saturday and arrived in India at 1am (after a short stop in Beijing). Emma hired a company to take care of us for the first few days of our trip, and it definitely paid off. We were greeted at the airport and driven to the lobby of a nice hotel where we brushed our teeth (with bottled water) and napped on the couches. Our driver for the next few days, Darshan, met us a few hours later and we drove down to Jaipur. I'd like to say that the drive was lovely and eye-opening, but honestly, I slept through most of it. In fact, I slept through most of the long drives with one exception (which I'll get to later).<br /><br />The name of our first hotel was somethingsomething Palace, but my expectations were still pretty low (White Castle isn't really a castle and I've never met Wendy at Wendy's... yes, I'm writing this right before lunch). However, I was surprised to find that it was a pretty cool place. There were stone elephants hanging out by the pool, the common areas had a fish pond and parts of the walls were delicately designed with thousands of tiny mirrors. Plus there was a tiger in our room<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC-L2QLPWwhmR16u7xFKc16-R8QA4W0K2CYn4uskgGxlEuSKH4aXrVhtryJ19hXPiUGWwAdkImO19Fjf56S3gmlX0TaiNOCEIlq2gZowrNNlLSp7xBfRZeMOAm4nx4x9UTgtWTdNHUs1c5/s1600-h/IMG_7521.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC-L2QLPWwhmR16u7xFKc16-R8QA4W0K2CYn4uskgGxlEuSKH4aXrVhtryJ19hXPiUGWwAdkImO19Fjf56S3gmlX0TaiNOCEIlq2gZowrNNlLSp7xBfRZeMOAm4nx4x9UTgtWTdNHUs1c5/s320/IMG_7521.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324152582932568626" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />After checking in, Darshan drove us around some of the less famous sites of Jaipur including the Palace of the Winds, a garden and a smaller palace. We also watched some block printing and carpet making. We got back to the hotel, had dinner, and I fell asleep around 8pm. Poor Emma is a night person, and if you're reading this, you probably know I prefer the morning. True to form, I woke up bright and early at 6am the next day. We set out to Amber Fort and Palace a couple hours later. We rented an elephant for about $10 and rode up to the fort. Unfortunately, I don't have a good picture of us on the elephant, but here's a picture of the animal's tail taken when I was on it.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVi0O9vlCIOLsyqUIeNnV6l_Vg-5zH_8lgE_pJXmOepC2dBYw9SvGOxUn6KlsClCcPG9q18zVJolD0fP_TkelUge7WL9FGFe-LW74DVXBUTM5lKszQqrP0Q-rlcQpCfdONw-xHmlz5Eix8/s1600-h/IMG_7573.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVi0O9vlCIOLsyqUIeNnV6l_Vg-5zH_8lgE_pJXmOepC2dBYw9SvGOxUn6KlsClCcPG9q18zVJolD0fP_TkelUge7WL9FGFe-LW74DVXBUTM5lKszQqrP0Q-rlcQpCfdONw-xHmlz5Eix8/s320/IMG_7573.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324152964420979874" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The fort and the palace were absolutely stunning. Many of the buildings were in the process of being restored, but it was fascinating to watch the workers. We saw a group of women carrying clay to repair walls and a man with a tiny tool who was cleaning the cracks between mirrors. As with most of the sites, it's hard to explain how amazing it was, but here's one of my favorite pictures (for more photos, as always, see facebook).<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsirIdlLVmoZbxPL0GqksX-Lrr1QL_9nYSBVe6mttPNfMnERODgvmwrYDUbE-f7Tmd66NyanNKjd1abyrmLncLsabhbkb924muO9_JOKWVOv2HhyWtrhgfMb5a7_F5071bsqHA6ZLJ0LQS/s1600-h/IMG_7600.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsirIdlLVmoZbxPL0GqksX-Lrr1QL_9nYSBVe6mttPNfMnERODgvmwrYDUbE-f7Tmd66NyanNKjd1abyrmLncLsabhbkb924muO9_JOKWVOv2HhyWtrhgfMb5a7_F5071bsqHA6ZLJ0LQS/s320/IMG_7600.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324153465731574530" border="0" /></a><br />In the afternoon we visited Jantar Mantar. There are actually 4 or 5 Jantar Mantars in the northern area, but the one in Jaipur is the best preserved. The guy who built Jantar Mantar was obsessed with astronomy, but he found that the instruments used at the time were too small to be accurate. So he built his own. He had tools to track various constellations including this one of Taurus (my sign!). This is one of the smaller sculptures, and it was still twice as tall as me.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifvop82CXr2KTWYS3e8phUP99cd89INorkwkq9sGDEown8Y63QXjTE3yFGUg-i067CgWJIZeT7R2yZXRQ2jTrGKuSS_MuDJaCsmUGoELmhCYsDYN1mpdB2UiyiAQMgJ0qnP_UxH4_ZKcPp/s1600-h/IMG_7629.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifvop82CXr2KTWYS3e8phUP99cd89INorkwkq9sGDEown8Y63QXjTE3yFGUg-i067CgWJIZeT7R2yZXRQ2jTrGKuSS_MuDJaCsmUGoELmhCYsDYN1mpdB2UiyiAQMgJ0qnP_UxH4_ZKcPp/s320/IMG_7629.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324153872221323746" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHCRYTBs__hcKY71FuMdKW8ndZVfbKbJL-RZgLT4KKroiQN7G169BoTYSbuz6q_DdRPRipQZ_ZXJqM_vVozbqACN4TTVg67NEL8LHgcreQxZz22flSHNhKBpRakO7LXEXPRkGh3NXu6QMb/s1600-h/IMG_7633.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHCRYTBs__hcKY71FuMdKW8ndZVfbKbJL-RZgLT4KKroiQN7G169BoTYSbuz6q_DdRPRipQZ_ZXJqM_vVozbqACN4TTVg67NEL8LHgcreQxZz22flSHNhKBpRakO7LXEXPRkGh3NXu6QMb/s320/IMG_7633.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5324154404948902818" border="0" /></a>Next we went to the City Palace. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited in the most interesting parts of the palace. The weapons room showcased hundreds of different weapons and weapon-type type memorabilia, many of which we couldn't figure out. The main receiving room was lavishly decorated with portraits of past maharajas and gorgeous paintings, but the centerpiece was the seating area. This area looked exactly like how I imagine a royal receiving chamber with two huge chairs at the front and two rows of chairs facing inward lined up down the room. Alas, no photos. Interestingly, there was a mini-market in one of the outer buildings.<br /><br /><br />Finally, we went back to the hotel. I didn't bring my swimsuit, but went swimming anyway. It was definitely a good way to end a sweaty day. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take a photo of the pool. Oops. Anyway, we had curry for dinner on the roof of the hotel and saw a wedding party parade through the streets. It was a great way to spend our last night in Jaipur.<br /><br />Coming up: Agra and Delhi!Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-88083753809227425102009-04-08T21:24:00.000-07:002009-04-08T21:25:34.628-07:00India!I know I've been sadly neglectful of this blog, but I promise for real this time that I'll post regularly over the next few days regarding my recent trip. I visited India for a little over two weeks and just got back two days ago. It was definitely the most amazing trip I've done. Here's a quick itinerary:<br /><br />Saturday, March 21st: Flew from Tokyo to Beijing to Delhi<br />Sunday, March 22nd: Arrived in Delhi, drove down to Jaipur, visited a variety of temples and lesser palaces<br />Monday, March 23rd: Rode to the Amber Fort on an elephant, visited the City Palace and House of the Winds<br />Tuesday, March 24th: Drove to (and visited) Fatehpur Sikri , then on to Agra and visited Agra Fort<br />Wednesday, March 25th: Visited the Taj Mahal, drove to Delhi and visited the Baha'i Lotus Temple<br />Thursday, March 26th: met Sauna (fellow volunteer) and flew to Hyderabad<br />Friday, March 27th: met Jonathan (fellow volunteer) took a train to Eluru, then went to our opening ceremony in Gummallapadu Village<br />Saturday, March 28th - Tuesday, March 31st: built houses in Gummallapadu Village<br />Wednesday, April 1st: drove to Kavali<br />Thursday, April 2nd - Monday, April 3rd: painted houses in Kothasatram-Indiranagar Village<br />Sunday, April 4th: last day of house painting, then took a train from Kavali to Chennai<br />Monday, April 5th: flew from Chennai to Delhi, then shopped in Paharaganj<br />Tuesday, April 6th: flew from Delhi to Beijing to Tokyo, then caught last train to my apartment<br /><br />More to come!Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-1491379209257495182009-03-16T05:56:00.000-07:002009-03-16T05:57:53.366-07:00January, February, half of MarchI've been busy. Like, at home and awake for less than 3 hours a day. Sleeping elsewhere twice a week or more. And yet, I still haven't missed a single day of work. Okay, yes, once I did go to school in the same clothes three days in a row, but I showered at least once. Also, no one noticed.<br /><br />It's been three months since I last updated. Sorry.<br /><br />Went home for Christmas. It rained almost everyday, but we went to the beach on the one sunny day. Also the entire island of Oahu lost electricity for 12 hours while Obama and his family were visiting. <br /><br />January: Joined a gym and realized I missed the treadmill. School, class, Sakado. Hung out with Karynne (long story, but we used to live together) for the first time in five years. Visited Nikko with Mom and Michael and it rained a lot.<br /><br />February: Went to the Snow Festival again. Last year was better, but I still had a good time. Lost Reba. Found Reba. Lost Reba. Found Reba. Fixed the door on Reba's cage. Had an okay Valentine's day (breaking the tradition, one year at a time). Saw snow monkeys in an onsen. Saw hundreds of traditional Japanese dolls.<br /><br />March (so far): climbed Takao-san and partied with my co-workers. Gave a speech about my newly deceased hamster while still getting over the sudden death of my dog. Saw Rebecca for the first time since August. Partied with my co-workers over okonomiyaki, celebrated Bryan's birthday and spent the night at Brian's. Celebrated the end of class and spent the night at Chris'. Went to Yokohama for three days and discovered a new career option. Bartended. Jackie's birthday party and said goodbye to Laura. Graduation and, of course, partying with my co-workers. Burgers and onion rings for Kevin's birthday.<br /><br />Today I'm hanging out in the Education Center while everyone else at school and the other AETs have the day off. I'm saving the day-off for my trip to India. I leave on Saturday and I'll be gone for two weeks. It'll be interesting.Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-71454335084355697632008-12-19T23:41:00.000-08:002008-12-20T00:07:04.582-08:00DecemberI've effectively consistently filled four out of five weekdays with interesting stuff that takes me out of Hidaka. My travel expenses have doubled. I've spent at least one night a week somewhere other than my own apartment. I eat out for dinner more often than I eat at home. This is evident by the fact that I haven't made rice for two weeks. Tuesday: Japanese class, Wednesday: bar, Thursday: hanging out in Sakado, Friday: Japanese class. Monday is usually a recovery day anyway, and I think my head would explode if I went out every single night of the week. Going out means getting home at 10 at the earliest, and usually means I catch the last train which gets me home around 1. Yet, I'm still doing my job well and being on time every day. Go me!<br /><br />I'm going home today. I'll be back for a week, then coming back to Japan for New Year's. I'm spending New Year's Eve in Shinjuku, then going skiing for three days in Niigata. Beach to snow in a week.<br /><br />I've also purchased a trip to the US in May for my sister's graduation. By US, I mean Seattle, Portland, Chicago, NY and New Jersey. Two weeks, five cities. It'll be epic.Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-11234258281867534152008-11-26T01:21:00.000-08:002008-11-26T02:06:22.902-08:00Saitama-eastI've realized that I would both save money and generally be much happier if I lived on the other side of the prefecture. This is evident through the fact that I spent over $100 traveling to and from that area in the past two weeks. I've landed within reasonable traveling distance of three groups of friends, but not near any of them. My closest English speaking friend is 30 minutes away. Anyway, I'm not one to complain and do nothing if I can help it, so I've been bolder about traveling for over an hour on some occasions to see friends.<br /><br />Meanwhile, I'm still studying for the JLPT. I know my Japanese has improved since I've really started studying, but I'm still far behind the level I need to be at to pass. I've been testing at about 50%, while I need 60% to pass (my 70% listening improves my 45% grammar and reading). Almost everyone has told me the reading part is the hardest, so I've been working on my reading speed. I wouldn't say it's going well, but hopefully I'll kick it up to about 50% to at least give myself a chance at passing.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi621DB_PLZLJPOerTZpDcFk-ZgEtU0pR5PqZ2pfZQVzAtRmkxNEVRxujZF5OEPLfJbpETB3msh4PexJMeORi1dvvjGyBOKHSEUMLT6YZ9Npdw9qtsgxSdD2U-TWD2Lfl-IXPKOtok01JLv/s1600-h/IMG_6997.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi621DB_PLZLJPOerTZpDcFk-ZgEtU0pR5PqZ2pfZQVzAtRmkxNEVRxujZF5OEPLfJbpETB3msh4PexJMeORi1dvvjGyBOKHSEUMLT6YZ9Npdw9qtsgxSdD2U-TWD2Lfl-IXPKOtok01JLv/s320/IMG_6997.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272898512773648226" border="0" /></a>I went up to Kiryu with Emma, Chris, and Koichi this weekend. It was fabulous. We went to a concert on Sunday, hosted by the ever-energetic Annie, then had Indian food for dinner before I passed out around 11. On Monday we hiked up this mountain (Emma insists it's only a hill). What do you think? It started raining on the way down, but an onsen (hot spring) was waiting for us at the bottom, so it wasn't so bad.Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-27362953088817516972008-11-16T05:22:00.001-08:002008-11-16T05:22:58.691-08:00How to feel nostalgic, step one: Procrastinate studying by reading your blog from college.Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-4969775469285432472008-11-05T01:22:00.000-08:002008-11-05T03:43:13.207-08:00Election 2008History is a funny thing. People often say "history is written by the winners." I always felt the most profound part of that statement is not the realization that the successful have the ability to document their own greatness, but the implication that history continues to be written. History <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> written. People all over the world are talking about how today's US presidential election has changed history. I disagree. Obama said "change has come to America." I disagree. Yes, of course Obama is different from Bush. However, McCain is also different from Bush. Both campaigns pushed the image that their candidate was different. This is made clear through Obama's "change" and McCain's "maverick." The one who holds the office the president will change on January 20, 2009. This is inevitable. I hope with this straightforward change, the transferring of a position from one to another, will bring with it more change. Congratulations America, we no longer feel the need to elect a white male president. However, there is still change to come.<br /><br />This past year, two strong women in the national political spotlight were criticised for being inappropriately feminine, for neglecting their families, for spending too much on their clothes. Political commentators focused on outfits, hairstyles, and even made remarks about weight, while often neglecting experience and policy. There is a fifty year gap between the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) and the Nineteenth Amendment (1920). Fifty years passed after African-Americans were given the right to vote before women were given the same right. Today women can run for president. This year's election proved that women are more than capable of running a tough race for the White House. However, it is by no means the same race that a white man runs. Hillary Clinton was forced to simultaneously disprove claims that a woman is too weak and too emotional to run a country while remaining a mother, a wife, and a woman. Her "strong female" approach caused some to call her unfeminine. Sarah Palin often seemed the complete opposite. She often referred to her role as a mother and her children made national headlines. Some journalists focused on her history as a beauty queen and her "hotness" while neglecting to pose serious questions of her policies and credentials. Change is happening, as it has been since the birth of America, but the nation is still by no means a perfect union.<br /><br />Prior to November 4th, journalists and the country worried about the Bradley Effect. We were concerned that people would say one thing in the public polls and do another in the privacy of a voting booth. Barack Obama led in most polls leading up to election day, but polls and the actual vote are different entities. The Bradley Effect concerns me deeply. I don't understand what would motivate a person to announce a choice publicly while secretly harboring other feelings. Furthermore, polls are usually anonymous except in the fact that you're declaring your opinion to another person directly instead of to a touch screen or piece of paper. True, some worry about judgement, but really, the job of pollsters is not to judge. America was founded for freedom, not judgement. Ultimately, many breathed a sigh of relief when it was made clear that the Bradley Effect didn't alter the outcome of the presidential election. However, I'm far from convinced that this fear of judgement paired with secret bias is no longer an issue in America. One issue this year polled well for freedom and social change. Polls indicated as high as a 55% majority against discrimination. However, in reality, equality lost. This measure in California would have assured same-sex couples the right to marry. Discriminaton comes not only in the forms of racism and sexism, but also in heterosexism. The Bradley Effect is still affecting the way Americans vote and voice their opinion.<br /><br />I am saddened, but not shocked, that amendments to three state constitutions legally defining marriage as between one man and one woman passed yesterday. Proponents of these amendments argued for "strong family values" and "traditional family" and accused their opponents of forcing their "homosexual agenda" while simultaneously forcing their own beliefs. Yes, the Bible says homosexual activity is a sin (Leviticus 18:22, among others). However, I challenge anyone to truly lead a Biblical life today. True, it's much easier not to covet your neighbor's slaves (male or female) and to refrain from literally throwing the first stone, but I believe many would find the other lessons of the Bible a little more difficult. Do we keep the Sabbath holy? Refrain from touching or eating the carcass of a pig (Leviticus 11: 7-8)? Yes, some people refuse to work on Sunday, and others don't eat pork or play football, but are these decisions required by law?<br /><br />"Pro-family" supporters contend that one man, one woman, and children make an ideal family. Is this true? Maybe. Perhaps I would have been better off with both a mother and a father for my entire childhood. Does that mean my family is a weaker or lesser family? I believe a family is as strong as the love that encompasses and surrounds it. Furthermore, I believe if a family is made weaker by the love of another family, then there are much larger issues. Proponents of Proposition 8 in California, Amendment 2 in Florida, and Proposition 102 in Arizona claim that a vote to legalize same-sex marriage will destroy families. I fail to see how this will happen. Instead, families that are led by two women or two men instead of one of each are told that they are inferior and thus are not allowed the same rights. Separate but equal has not worked in the past. A pro-Prop 8 commercial in California claimed that churches could lose their tax exemption and children would be forced to learn about gay marriage in public schools. Since these amendments passed, hospital visitation, property inheritance, and adoption will be denied to families headed by same-sex couples. I don't understand how an amendment against gay marriage promotes families as severely as it harms them. In the past, the arguments against interracial marriage also claimed to be protecting families as they imprisoned people for loving a person with different colored skin. It wasn't until 1967 that Loving v. Virginia abolished the horrible laws restricting people to marry only those of the same race. Ninety-seven years passed after people had the right to vote regardless of race until people had the right to marry regardless of race. How long will we have to wait until people have the right to marry the person they love regardless of gender?<br /><br />Change is coming, and history continues to be written. Yes, Barack Obama's ascension to the office of the President of the United States is a milestone in American history. However, we as a country cannot relax and congratulate ourselves for stepping past our history of discrimination by electing a president with a dark skin tone. Tonight Barack Obama declared "This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change." We must continue to fight against the arrogance that we confuse with pride, and the condescension that we confuse with acceptance. Yes we can change the world, but only if we continue to fight for it.Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-72612612046442108392008-11-04T00:21:00.000-08:002008-11-04T01:12:08.406-08:00Ok, so I haven't written a real update in quite sometime. And, to be honest, I'm not quite sure where to start. I'm currently sick, bored, and lonely at home. I don't think I really intensely missed Dan until this weekend. I'll spare you the details, but I woke up on Sunday morning and needed to go to the hospital. Since it was 4am on a Sunday, I held out for a few miserable hours and called my mom to confirm that I needed to go. On a weekday, I would have called my friend in the BOE, but she's newly married (I'll talk about that later) and it was a Sunday. The other English teachers in my city always have phone issues, so it seemed pointless to try them. Finally, I took the bus, then a taxi by myself to the hospital. Luckily, I already had registered with them (the bike accident) so I didn't have to deal with paperwork. After explaining the situation to the doctor, he nodded and asked who brought me to the hospital. "Umm... taxi" I said. He looked at me strangely and asked "where's your husband?" Naturally, since I'm living in Japan and I don't speak fluent Japanese, I'm married to a Japanese guy. Anyway, he hooked me up to my first IV ever (good thing I'm fine with needles), and I learned that the word for Nebulizer is the same in Japanese. I taxi-ed home a few hours later feeling much better. Anyway, I'm mostly fine now, and the hospital wasn't really that scary on my own, but I wish I had someone with me. I've been home for two and a half days and talking is difficult, but I miss people. Everyone lives far away, and I don't want them to travel over an hour to come here. It feels like this is the first time I'm really living alone. When I was sick last year, Dan called often and asked if I needed anything because it was easy for him to drop off a loaf of bread or a movie. Now, I have friends who would if I really needed it, but they're so far it's completely impractical. Also, I've been missing DG a lot lately, especially with the recent activity on a photo of the 2007 seniors on Bid Day. Sick in DG meant soup from Adam, curling up in the lounge, and watching Project Runway and Sex and the City for hours with my sisters. Even further back, I miss being sick at home where I would watch Sesame Street and eat rainbow Jello, charsiu, and rice. Anyway... I should be fine, hopefully going to school tomorrow.<br /><br />The most ironic thing about the entire sickness adventure? I had my first Japanese health check on Friday. Mostly uneventful except for the part where I almost had an accident with a cup when the toilet paper roll fell off the holder... yeah, that would have been bad... I learned I need new glasses.<br /><br />Irony runner-up is that this was a three-day weekend. Luckily, I didn't have any major plans for 2/3rds of it (the plan was mostly to get new glasses), but I spent two perfectly good holidays sick at home. I took today off too, so I disappointed a bunch of elementary school kids (I tell myself that they really enjoy my English classes).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihCdMzUMlGboJIBXylB2OQpqzXchG2y_yr9iLstBpia6AO8QLNzeSPLm1xXQ36T_va3KubGp2wGd0Lv22ZyJS-uM1Qt-fXVhj2GvMmPRMZ7XPRMnNiOJGKSWUbqM0TCUt5GYJPmthb7bez/s1600-h/IMG_6897.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihCdMzUMlGboJIBXylB2OQpqzXchG2y_yr9iLstBpia6AO8QLNzeSPLm1xXQ36T_va3KubGp2wGd0Lv22ZyJS-uM1Qt-fXVhj2GvMmPRMZ7XPRMnNiOJGKSWUbqM0TCUt5GYJPmthb7bez/s320/IMG_6897.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264724021497326242" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf-EhGxOft2acucJSpq1bCisG5kUMZk3Ifzkvsr7qR0-Y4jevUCsGpIphgyObverILOe6O723pYX6vVgr78XNPz7s2PQ26_g4dg7OhNI_ClGxn7JO7tdSs9lsa4-zma2v4cUjoXbzcAqgP/s1600-h/IMG_6899.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf-EhGxOft2acucJSpq1bCisG5kUMZk3Ifzkvsr7qR0-Y4jevUCsGpIphgyObverILOe6O723pYX6vVgr78XNPz7s2PQ26_g4dg7OhNI_ClGxn7JO7tdSs9lsa4-zma2v4cUjoXbzcAqgP/s320/IMG_6899.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264723689377907506" border="0" /></a>I did have fun on Friday night/Saturday. In fact, I had such a good time that it almost makes up for the fact that I otherwise had a miserable weekend. I went on my school's staff trip to Ikaho, Gunma. Ikaho is a onsen (hot spring) tourist destination in the mountains north of Saitama. I felt like I was getting a cold, but I couldn't resist since that was likely the last chance I'd get to go on a trip with the teachers. Anyway, we had a great enkai (dinner/drinking party) and I won a Care Bear hot water bottle thing.<br /><br />The interesting thing about onsen in Ikaho is that they water has iron in it. Like, it's a murky orange-brown color that smells like rust. Oh, but it felt amazing. Of course, I don't have pictures of the onsen itself (since everyone's naked), but seriously, it's amazing to sit in a pool of hot water and look over the railing to see mountains and a blue sky. One of the other teachers and I went off early in the morning to the outdoor onsen and giggled as we froze while cleaning the pool before we got in. Her English is terrible, and my Japanese was failing me, but we had a great time anyway. Then I got sick the next morning (I think the temperature changes, drinking heavily for 24 hours, and not sleeping much had something to do with it). No regrets, I'd do it again.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6VhqiBweBSHy5_JRJGi5uhfs5KjKBoGWbhss54mupOF0F0rCHpWTiiGLtinIqx1KV6K0VfEBIl3Dl8JMM65NxifI95mmH_9cFiowkrOSMkX76CBgRB7ETQT0UxrzEDqjU2UbUuZFxCBId/s1600-h/IMG_6920.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6VhqiBweBSHy5_JRJGi5uhfs5KjKBoGWbhss54mupOF0F0rCHpWTiiGLtinIqx1KV6K0VfEBIl3Dl8JMM65NxifI95mmH_9cFiowkrOSMkX76CBgRB7ETQT0UxrzEDqjU2UbUuZFxCBId/s320/IMG_6920.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5264726944811091810" border="0" /></a>Here's a picture of us. I introduced her to the wonder of the self-photo. She didn't believe me when I said I could catch us and the stairs in one photo. Behold, the amazing skills I learned in college.Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-21921928204319079932008-10-12T06:36:00.000-07:002008-10-12T06:52:05.589-07:00Alaska-NW tie, Japan falling behindSo, currently it's a tie between Alaska and the Northwest. Looks like Hawaii and Japan are losing pretty badly. I don't think I can take another year of teaching the exact same material from the exact same textbook in the exact same way. Plus it doesn't help that my closest friends are considerably further away than my friends last year.<br /><br />I went to a sleepover last night. We watched Rear Window and ate yummy lasagna. We had an awesome time, but unfortunately, she lives two hours away. It made me long for the days at Willamette when almost all my friends were within walking distance.<br /><br />I'm going to a Japanese style wedding tomorrow. I have a pretty dress, a shiny necklace, and shoes that hopefully won't kill me.Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-7106625853415534832008-10-03T05:13:00.000-07:002008-10-03T05:15:34.032-07:00Re-contractingI received my re-contracting forms today. The deadline is not until February, but I still have to figure out what to do. To re-contract? To not? To go back to Hawaii? Stay in Japan? Go somewhere else?<br /><br />Any ideas?Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-58146811831372989942008-09-23T05:17:00.000-07:002008-09-23T05:39:59.910-07:00Best weekend ever!Last weekend was awesome! Elementary school sports day, watched muppets with my friends, had a picnic in the park, saw the Lion King in Japanese, and went to Disneyland.<br /><br />I've also been getting to know Dan's replacement. As in he's working at Dan's school, nothing else. In fact, I think he's completely opposite from Dan, personality wise. *shrug* we'll see...Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-68589955190293875522008-09-05T18:16:00.000-07:002008-09-05T19:11:54.339-07:00House GuestsMy apartment feels empty. I think this may be the first time I've truly felt my apartment is too big since I got here. <br /><br />I had someone staying in my apartment nearly every night in August. I think I scandalized my poor neighbors. Dan had to move completely out of his apartment on the 31st, but his flight home wasn't until two weeks later. As a result, I had a roommate for the first two weeks of April. Then, about halfway through the second week, I got a call from my friend Kevin... asking if he could move in with me temporarily until he got his own place. Of course I said yes. Dan and Kevin overlapped by a few days, so that was an interesting mix of sophomore year of college and my first year of JET. Both of them spent their days sitting around the apartment while I went to work, so I think/hope they got along well.<br /><br />Dan left me in mid-August. It was sad. My co-workers think I'm heartbroken.<br /><br />I played badminton with the center and city hall. It was fun, but my shoulder did not appreciate it. I won every game I played because I'm awesome like that.<br /><br />I also taught the elemntary school teachers in my city how to teach English. By which I mean I helped them help me how to say vocabulary words. <br /><br />Dylan hosted us for a vegtastic hippie dinner. I made spaghetti. I'm not sure it went well with the hummus, lentils, and other such veggie hippie dishes, but oh well. Dinner was delicious :)<br /><br />Our first day of soccer practice is tomorrow. I'm really excited.Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-51452325999710261902008-08-18T15:28:00.000-07:002008-08-18T15:48:53.237-07:00July2008The last month has been one of those times when I'm extremely busy, but it feels like nothing is really happening. I suppose this is really the best I could ask for since a good number of my friends left for their home countries.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc-EmgFdPs4Y1aZSHGLnlTCv4gXXKaVsD9kLMqq8f01BaMNzQwPiH0pyenp6PWsxcL9ngaqQ_jL3b5NEwnGkUkCd46gHxYEHzRuQ4rAdxlagHY5jq_b7Dfm8-E_tbkZDInt42wBU8uB1K0/s1600-h/n718820566_3647291_6673.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc-EmgFdPs4Y1aZSHGLnlTCv4gXXKaVsD9kLMqq8f01BaMNzQwPiH0pyenp6PWsxcL9ngaqQ_jL3b5NEwnGkUkCd46gHxYEHzRuQ4rAdxlagHY5jq_b7Dfm8-E_tbkZDInt42wBU8uB1K0/s320/n718820566_3647291_6673.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235993226810682722" border="0" /></a>Anyway, moving on (for now), since I last updated I did some Japanese stuff. On Saturday, July 19th, I went to a festival in Emma's city and watched people carry an <span style="font-style: italic;">umekoshi</span> (portable shrine thing). This is different from the usual festival experience due to the fact that I was supposed to be helping to carry it. However shooting pains down my arm from holding it above my head for long periods of time (I wasn't even carrying the thing since I'm short) prevented me from actually participating.<br />(I'm still angry with the driver who hit me a month and a half ago. I wasn't having nearly as many shoulder issues before I fell on it after they hit me. In other bike accident related news, my office is apparently convinced that I was listening to my iPod while riding my bike to work and, due to that, I was hit by a car. Okay, ridiculous for a number of reasons. 1) They never asked me if I was listening to music. 2) The police never asked me if I was listening to music. 3) They told the other AETs in my city that I was listening to music, so it was my fault I was in an accident. 4) I wasn't listening to music. Of course, all this is topped off by the fact that the car hit me from behind so there was really nothing I could do.)<br /><br />So yeah. Frustration. Anyway, after the festival, I met up with Liz and Laura in Shinjuku for some all-night dancing. It was a lot of fun, except for the part when this guy was hitting on Laura when she was making it quite clear that she wanted nothing to do with him. We took him to a gay bar in an attempt to scare him away, but it didn't work. Finally, we got angry and the nice bouncers got rid of him for us. Then we went back to the club where some random person stepped on my foot, apologized, and then started hitting on me with the line "wow, your English is really good." The night/early morning was finished off with curry and naan. Yum...<br />As you may or may not know, I have weird eye problems every summer. It varies in intensity and duration, but I've had issues for the past 4 summers. In the past it's lasted for a week where pain was minimal but light-sensitivity was super high. This year's annual eye weirdness happened in 18 hours, from 4pm on Sunday to about 8am on Monday. I woke up mostly refreshed after sleeping the day away (after dancing all night), with the exception of my hugely swollen right eye. It was like someone shoved a needle into my eyeball and shot it up with jello. This came with horrible pain, light sensitivity, and blinking issues (of course, my eye was no longer spherical). I ultimately decided that if the swelling didn't go down by the time I woke up the next morning, I'd go to the doctor. My reasoning was that prices are obscenely high on Sunday evening, the hospital is a $20 cab ride away, and I really wasn't in the mood to explain that I had been dancing all night in Shinjuku the night before. Luckily, with some ice and sleep, I was mostly fine when I woke up the next morning.<br /><br />The following weekend was the start of the week of Last Parties. This started with fireworks in Asakusa. We got there at 1pm (fireworks started in the evening) with hopes that we would get a good seat. Umm, no. People were apparently camped out from early that morning. It also didn't help that we didn't really know where the fireworks were coming from. Ultimately it didn't matter since most of us were too drunk to care that we couldn't see the fireworks. Sunday night, Farewell Party at the George. Wednesday night, Goodbye Party at Saizeriya and Riki's. Lots of goodbyes. It sucked.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWhphNh6MoxS1u_uAVuiJMUwmywizc_g1uN2EnMHrQWexaULWhjG__ZLhJniQnhZBLEVMNal9Seq-jbcYeKHzKkrq6HxVXimVkwMX6teUQMkEAtn4F22TvoRsgstaOifVbAjzDWeyhuhjU/s1600-h/IMG_6520.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWhphNh6MoxS1u_uAVuiJMUwmywizc_g1uN2EnMHrQWexaULWhjG__ZLhJniQnhZBLEVMNal9Seq-jbcYeKHzKkrq6HxVXimVkwMX6teUQMkEAtn4F22TvoRsgstaOifVbAjzDWeyhuhjU/s320/IMG_6520.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235991401339454114" border="0" /></a>Jen and Jordon came on the 31st. Jen is my oldest friend in the sense that her father likes to tell the story of how little Jen came home after her first day of Kindergarten and said "I made a new friend! Her name is Krystle!" And Jordon is her boyfriend. We met at Shibuya at the famous Hachiko statue, had some Starbucks overlooking the huge pedestrian crossing, Jen bought a turquoise purse, and we had lunch. Then we headed out to Odaiba for a day of truly random science stuff. Jen insisted on seeing the center for development or something at<span style="font-style: italic;"> Miraiken </span>(future building). Jen put together a brain and I played teddy bear air hockey. Then we went to Pastel Town and the Toyota Showcase. Jordon liked the car part, but I liked the section with the weird chairs. We also saw Toyota's iReal and iFoot, two people movers that look like something out of a movie. Jen and I jumped at the opportunity to drive/ride the iReal, but were foiled in our attempt. The only instruction in English was "you must be able to understand Japanese in order to drive the iReal." I thought, well, ultimately, it's forward, back, left, right, pull, and push, right? I continued to read down the Japanese (which I understood, hooray me!) until I hit the part that said you must have a valid Japanese driving license. Curses! Anyway, we rode on the huge Ferris Wheel (minor consolation in my mind). then went home.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7sG6ILcsspPUgMT5OLjcEA6yA1ALxIJt5am3Vo-6kpT9mcgJ5F21XCFsjPzB8PCaDetnN9eMKyIz2r8YGDt3kbnc4Yv8pY3irNJQaKzQPR6oGfj_glyuKA5M4I18T6VO_q_mj5Atu4CCl/s1600-h/mickey.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7sG6ILcsspPUgMT5OLjcEA6yA1ALxIJt5am3Vo-6kpT9mcgJ5F21XCFsjPzB8PCaDetnN9eMKyIz2r8YGDt3kbnc4Yv8pY3irNJQaKzQPR6oGfj_glyuKA5M4I18T6VO_q_mj5Atu4CCl/s320/mickey.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235992638028989042" border="0" /></a>The next day was AWESOME!!! We met up in the Happiest Place in Japan: Tokyo Disneyland. Well, technically, DisneySea. Which is technically in Chiba. Anyway, it was great! I got there about 40 minutes before Jen and Jordon, so I wandered around Mediterranean Harbor and saw "Chip and Dale's Cool Service" which was basically the two chipmunks meets Stomp! plus a couple huge water cannons on a boat. I also love the "cast members" at Tokyo Disneyland. There was one guy who spent five minutes coaxing a kid to go closer to the railing so he would get sprayed with water. The kid was kinda mock protesting, but you could tell he really wanted to go. Finally with complete seriousness, the kid gave his felt Indy Jones hat to the cast member (because, no joke, "the hat didn't want to get wet"), walked up to the railing, got sprayed, and loved it. Meanwhile, the cast member took a few huge steps back (out of spray range) and grinned when the kid got soaked. It was great. Other highlights include "Raging Spirits" a really short roller coaster that has a 360degree loop, Tower of Terror (although the one in Florida is way better), and the Sinbad ride which is basically It's a Small World with way better animatronics and a different story. The Indy Jones ride was fun, but the best part may have been that one of the cast members had the same family name as me and we had a few seconds of amazing connection before the line started piling up behind us.<br />No trip to a Disney park is complete without a ridiculously over the top show. While I mostly enjoyed the Little Mermaid show (the entire thing was lip-synched, songs were in English, dialogue in Japanese, the puppetry was great, but it was very obvious Ariel had legs under her fin when she kicked) and the Aladdin show was silly fun, they were definitely forgotten when the huge fire dragon came out of the water in the Mediterranean Harbor. We stayed around until the last BonFIRE Dance show, which was also great. I was greatly amused to see the <span style="font-style: italic;">odori</span>(dance) section dancing with Mickey, Minnie, white Aladdin, and Indian Jasmine. Especially because the parents all had to carry their stuff while dancing. Ultimately, I had a great time.<br /><br />I slept in (finally!) the next day, and went to yet another good-bye party. We feasted on homemade curry (thanks Em!) and Sangria. Liz and I ended up spending the night (whoops) and going home the next morning. I went home, dropped off my stuff, changed clothes, then left to meet with Jen and Jordon in Harajuku. Unfortunately, the Harajuku cosplayers weren't out in full-force and the famous gate on the other side of the bridge was under construction. However, we did get crepes (Jordon had <span style="font-style: italic;">kakigori</span>, the Japanese (and I believe, far inferior) version of Shave Ice). Then I went home and slept early. Jen and Jordon left the next day, and I saw them off at their hotel. I then went up to Borman's (first time ever) for dinner and my second to last (and perhaps hardest) goodbye party.<br /><br />Thursday and Friday were our annual eigo de asobo (Let's play in English!). I enjoy teaching the elementary school kids, but it was incredibly tiring. Plus I got kicked far too many times, and some of the boys thought it would be a fun game to crawl up my skirt. I'm glad it's only (six classes) once a year.<br /><br />Ultimately, what got me through was the knowledge that on Saturday I would see Wicked! I met with Katie and Chika for lunch, then we trekked out to Shinbashi for the show. It was strikingly similar to the English version (costumes, staging, choreography, set design), but the personality of the two main characters was different. I suppose character portrayal is something that will vary from performer to performer, but I feel the differences between the two Glindas I saw were very obvious. The first Glinda (touring in America, saw in Seattle), as Elphaba says in "What is this Feeling?" is "Blonde." She's ditzy, flouncy, and, of course, obsessed with what other people think of her, but she's no idiot. In the Japanese version, Elphaba describes her new roommate as "baka" (stupid). The second Glinda seems to be less scheming than the first Glinda, especially in the second act. American Glinda's betrayal of her friend reeks of malice and revenge, while in the Japanese version, the same exact act seems to be driven more by her new loyalty to the Wizard than anger towards Elphaba. I'm probably over analyzing it, but whatever. We also clapped at the end for a ridiculously long time. So long, in fact, that the cast waved "bye" as if to say "go home." Overall, the show was great. It was nice that I knew the story, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if my Japanese was better.<br /><br />In other news, Kevin is living with me. More on that later.Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-64349914734252258112008-07-16T14:52:00.000-07:002008-07-16T15:08:37.136-07:00Mid-summer re-capOkay, where to begin. I suppose chronologically has been working for me, so hopefully that will keep this post organized enough to be understood by anyone that's not me.<br /><br />The weekend of June 27th, aka "the boat and the concert"<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAt175jQ-tnI675r9mKHnqoI-9CEhwORWCSzV7cJZOzt1Zr5hQuxV9gDXj9lurT3KFCn5lps3JNole_s40gguIQESc5TCrBNi_VReecMH2VaSel0Wf3uskFte1NwdI6eekBuvzr7uLEKL3/s1600-h/IMG_6308.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAt175jQ-tnI675r9mKHnqoI-9CEhwORWCSzV7cJZOzt1Zr5hQuxV9gDXj9lurT3KFCn5lps3JNole_s40gguIQESc5TCrBNi_VReecMH2VaSel0Wf3uskFte1NwdI6eekBuvzr7uLEKL3/s320/IMG_6308.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223734710704673554" border="0" /></a>The weekend started right after work when I traveled about two hours to Shin-Kiba for an all you can eat/drink boat cruise. It was fantastic, but not quite what I expected. The boat was much smaller than I anticipated (fit about 50 people snugly), and it was designed like a traditional Japanese restaurant with low tables and tatami flooring. We ate a lot of okonomiyaki and monjya. After the cruise, I went up to Omiya and met up with Laura and Liz for a few hours of Salsa (which I can't do) before crashing in Laura's apartment. On Saturday, I went home, showered, cleaned my apartment, then went out to Kawagoe for a concert. I'll admit, I'm biased, but I prefer the opening act over the headlining group. Highlights of the night include inappropriate use of an afro wig, a song featuring a kazoo, and 4000 yen's worth of Shaka Shaka chicken. The party raged on after the concert, but I went home to sleep.<br /><br /><br />The weekend of July 4th, aka "the accident"<br />So, picture this: I'm riding my bicycle to school down the same route as I have everyday since September. It's a beautiful Friday morning. The sun is shining and the sky is clear in the way it gets when it rained the night before. I'm cruising down a hill when "bam!" I got hit from behind, and fell into a storm drain that was full of mud (which broke my fall). I pull myself out of the mud to see no car has stopped. My dress was dripping with muddy water, my shoes were buried in the ditch, and the back tire of my bike was visibly crooked. I walked the last five minutes to school, rinsed off (mostly), then stumbled into school about 30 minutes late. Anyway, to sum up the rest of the story, my principal insisted on calling the police and my co-workers (and the police) strongly suggested I go to the hospital. Therefore, I spent over half my day in the hospital and talking to police officers. The orthopedic doctor wasn't in on Friday, so I had to trek out to the hospital again on Saturday morning. The doctor asked me where I was hurt, ordered some x-rays, checked the x-rays, and said "Shoulder, no problem. Elbow, no problem. Foot, no problem." (For the record, I had four x-rays in a month. I hope I don't need anymore for awhile.)<br />After my Saturday hospital visit, I went to the other side of the city for lunch with some friends. After a surprisingly good vegan burger, I lounged next to the river while my friends swam (Mr. Lucas and Mr. Crouch really drilled the dangers of leptospirosis into my head and I had numerous open wounds). It was a gorgeous day, and I'm hoping I'll go out there more frequently this year.<br /><br />The weekend of July 12th, aka "the awards."<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWzWjWZB6ePNRXORz7HWQcvwOoZ8XsMx962cdTMEBaTTdNctqsk5UmnRupdh1HTRqpAhxcgcGMi8e5m9urxkuL5pa8CL7t7GO61m-56DdNpmDV2-GR9LzmQSWuFtJgQD3jL07k4O9b2MXS/s1600-h/IMG_6335.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWzWjWZB6ePNRXORz7HWQcvwOoZ8XsMx962cdTMEBaTTdNctqsk5UmnRupdh1HTRqpAhxcgcGMi8e5m9urxkuL5pa8CL7t7GO61m-56DdNpmDV2-GR9LzmQSWuFtJgQD3jL07k4O9b2MXS/s320/IMG_6335.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223735724938224482" border="0" /></a><br />One of the other teachers changed apartments. In an ideal world, her gas and water wouldn't be turned off between tenants, however, in Japan, she was out of luck for two days. So she stayed with me. On Friday night, I made spaghetti and we watched Flight of the Concords. On Saturday morning, I made pancakes. Then Dan and I met up with a teacher at Dan's school for eel boxes (yummy!) and paper-making. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-UKmSttnS-NdCpP7Y3ztpyIitmvYhqF_TF5TU8z0l9C_wk6BFngEX5glWJ1256QL1AENPWgTJJd0mttMn0fbINnS7C9UE4tGtRslypw_sfNSkDEqBFbls5GkztN6IS108j4eANSp_Mi8/s1600-h/IMG_6351.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw-UKmSttnS-NdCpP7Y3ztpyIitmvYhqF_TF5TU8z0l9C_wk6BFngEX5glWJ1256QL1AENPWgTJJd0mttMn0fbINnS7C9UE4tGtRslypw_sfNSkDEqBFbls5GkztN6IS108j4eANSp_Mi8/s320/IMG_6351.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223735274057981330" border="0" /></a>From there, I went straight into Omiya for the Dasai Awards. Dress was black tie or soccer uniform (many people combined the two). It was a great night. Due to (at the time) unforeseeable consequences, three of us ended up staying in Laura's apartment in Omiya again. I slept in my pretty dress.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNCO5gHesdzzWqRPF_AF06iRXe4KUZmMf4hIEL0oirpEFWt-PhiZa9WXf32NK_Oo1D03xnzQPHU5Us1s7trftu7ah421Grn1H6JQURhKTVNZYtCy71GbvimsJN9GpkRST7w42zBQJRESSs/s1600-h/McDonalds.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNCO5gHesdzzWqRPF_AF06iRXe4KUZmMf4hIEL0oirpEFWt-PhiZa9WXf32NK_Oo1D03xnzQPHU5Us1s7trftu7ah421Grn1H6JQURhKTVNZYtCy71GbvimsJN9GpkRST7w42zBQJRESSs/s320/McDonalds.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5223736172784943938" border="0" /></a>On Saturday, we ventured out early in the morning in need of greasy food. I was still in my pretty dress. Also, lately I'm kinda obsessed with "That's how you know" from Enchanted. Emma loaned me her tiara and I sang and pretended I was a princess in Omiya station. At 8 in the morning. Because I'm awesome like that.<br /><br />I got home, showered, changed clothes, and went out again. I met up with Katie and Chika in Ikebukuro, we had coffee and spaghetti for lunch, then went shopping. I bought new t-shirts and a purse. We topped off the day with Milky Way parfaits. Ooh, and in other news, we bought tickets to see Wicked (well ウィケッド) in August. Yay!<br /><br />And now we're all caught up. Hopefully I won't wait another three weeks to post again.Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-66270536297277416742008-06-29T05:27:00.000-07:002008-06-29T05:31:07.564-07:00recovery is a long processI 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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Sunday was a day for sleeping early and cleaning my apartment.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-67161484812165700882008-06-17T05:49:00.000-07:002008-06-17T06:12:44.229-07:00Dasai in Nagano<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPfx2rfOFkvgAJYJVg6yRIgDTlmxmYMHcIibPstRbTsQJp2c6U0e2GbPLUIae6LgcNc0huKKvglM-nSViK3ZLbZwSU7w8giz0Xm7R9H11hnleBo_SIHnhRLPCW3khRmfmL6ZWVF6l1Qm4_/s1600-h/IMG_6169_2.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPfx2rfOFkvgAJYJVg6yRIgDTlmxmYMHcIibPstRbTsQJp2c6U0e2GbPLUIae6LgcNc0huKKvglM-nSViK3ZLbZwSU7w8giz0Xm7R9H11hnleBo_SIHnhRLPCW3khRmfmL6ZWVF6l1Qm4_/s320/IMG_6169_2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212836915508455938" /></a><br /><br />I'm in a lot of pain. Not as much as some of my teammates (notably poor Emma with a severely sprained (and thus colorful) ankle, but still. My right 足 (in the Japanese sense meaning foot and leg) goes from being completely fine (in my sense, meaning perpetually semi-sprained) to being so sore that it hurts to move at all. My right ring finger (the one next to the finger I broke watching basketball in high school for those of you who know) is not broken (just got it checked today). Okay, too many parentheses... moving on...<div><br /></div><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiviTHjTBynv9CI-YtdSPxvorvh-ljYEf4jscqIUWADfUUX1zi0cu4AXD1jp2iKR8M0ev-dlj0lU_-DCj7lopxNQqXZPjzx9c47FLhLj_CDiBfmQasYNS5jhGnySW3FvYW1Siux9zVk8rP5/s320/n784760642_3250529_77.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5212836917858579922" /><div>I played lots of soccer this weekend. It was awesome even though we didn't win any games. I managed to get kicked in the arm (while standing and reaching overhead for a ball. Don't ask me how it happened). I also have a new dislike for a prefecture and an overwhelming sense of dread that many of my friends are leaving. I also have an awesome "kit" with my name on it and a great new vocabulary that includes words like "kit," "pitch," and "ice lolly (lollie?)." Anyway, it was fun, now I'm sore.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-37915044195676430272008-06-09T14:29:00.000-07:002008-06-09T14:44:41.859-07:00Oregon and Colorado (aka crazy week of traveling)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilAvTssqo48Jv9He0jkRqvSomilh3HnfQFaPuAywQp17e3nY76jAMzLmtmXSp2wh9R2VK_FDE6iUvA6w8PcrFpM-pYiBBfaY3Kuk4DVB4LhnpPYr2RHzw5uBlta569HuC_RoUw32EGCajp/s1600-h/IMG_5960.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilAvTssqo48Jv9He0jkRqvSomilh3HnfQFaPuAywQp17e3nY76jAMzLmtmXSp2wh9R2VK_FDE6iUvA6w8PcrFpM-pYiBBfaY3Kuk4DVB4LhnpPYr2RHzw5uBlta569HuC_RoUw32EGCajp/s320/IMG_5960.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209998462680131954" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Verdana;font-size:13px;"><p id="smnm2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Wow, last week was probably the most insane traveling I`ve ever experienced.</p><p id="x4-d0" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p id="x4-d1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I left Japan last last Saturday afternoon. I returned yesterday night. In the span of a week I met up with over 20 people, met two previously unknown facebook friends, attended a wedding, and spent over 24 hours in the air. I`ll attempt to condense the trip into something interesting and readable, but I`m not sure how successful I`ll be.</p><p id="dwjf0" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p id="dwjf1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I arrived at PDX bright and early on Saturday morning (which was a really weird feeling since I left Japan on Saturday night). After helping some Spanish-speaking visitors from Hawaii find "yoyd center," I rode the MAX to meet Jaris for lunch. We had amazing pastrami sandwiches, then he dropped me off at Liz`s apartment. Dana, Liz, Kath, and I then went shopping for a few hours. After a rather successful shopping trip, Cliff picked me up at Liz`s apartment and drove me down to Salem where I stuffed myself on bread and prime rib at Best Little Roadhouse. </p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwQXw57prGZP_-R4XXTQRHtl3l0_tzzcO_hwiq9l6pPI8qdq0I_vzkqiyv57_NZas9QbpNwyOCztc6pFHq6Y-E0rLXd5y7yCVFs6INnmGgCocrpuJkZt_jb0hcvYBmxAsVQWAo9L6HIrle/s320/IMG_6027.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209998467729205970" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; " /></span><p id="dwjf1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> stopped by and witnessed the sadness of the house formerly know as Beta before he dropped me off at Sara`s house where I felt incredibly old for knowing the occupants of the house four years ago. We celebrated Sara`s boyfriend`s birthday, with the help of some of my DG sisters, then fell asleep around 1:30am. </p><p id="pvrm0" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p id="pvrm1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">On Sunday, Jeff picked me up at Sara`s house and we had Mexican food for lunch. After an hour-long trip to Starbucks, he dropped me off at the UAps where Daniel let me into to Tami`s apartment. After dropping off my suitcase, the three of us met Dan at the movie theater and saw Prince Caspian (awesome movie!). After the movie, I met Jasmine at Thai Orchid, then we wandered towards campus and gossipped under the star trees. We then moved on to the Ram where we ran into Zane. After (not much) coercing, we ended up at his apartment for some dancing and MarioKart. Finally, Tami and I stumbled back upstairs and fell asleep.</p><p id="vt480" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p id="vt481" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Tami and Melissa woke up early the next morning, and I planned to get up at the same time (which I did, but then subsequently passed out for a two-hour nap on their couch). I finally woke up around 11:30 and left with the intent of visiting offices around WU. Unfortunately, it was lunchtime. Fortunately, Zane and Tami were also on their lunch break, so I spent a quality hour lounging by the Mill Stream. Amusingly, three DGs were also spending their lunch by the stream including my little little little (yeah, I felt old). After lunch, I visited the Admissions office and (the retiring) Nancy Norton. Meanwhile, I was trying to contact Bethany for lunch. The phone lines had issues and caused major stress. Eventually I met up with Erica and Bethany found us at Salem Center. We ate Cinnabon and decided to see the Sex and the City movie (also awesome). Finally, Erica and I headed back to her house for some cocktails and (my favorite) Ranch Doritos before falling asleep on her pull-out couch.</p><p id="nkxt0" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p id="nkxt1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Tuesday morning arrived, and we met up with Jaspers and Ashley for lunch at the Cat. Erica and I then ventured over to the gelato place for dessert before parting ways at the Greyhound bus station. After a simultaneously hilarious and disturbing hour-long ride, I met Yen in Portland. We had Thai food for dinner, then saw Iron Man (yet another amazing movie. I have a thing for RDJ aka Larry Paul). We then went back to her parent`s place and came up with a new nickname for Yen.</p><p id="t76t0" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p id="t76t1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">We left Yen`s parents house bright and early on Wednesday morning and had breakfast at a cute little restaurant that had huge pancakes. We then headed into downtown Portland where we explored Powells and discovered an amazing picture book. After navigating around a parade, we made it to the airport. I flew down to Denver where I met Julie`s aunt and she drove me to the hotel where we found the bachelorette party group. After shots and dinner at Dave and Buster`s, we went to a nearby bar and I made friends with our (possibly gay) server named Rudy. We finally called Julie`s dad to pick us up, then passed out at Julie`s apartment.</p><p id="nczc0" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p id="nczc1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Early Thursday, a small group of us left Julie`s apartment; me to meet Anna and Katie, and everyone else for a bridesmaid`s brunch. Anna, Katie, and I had breakfast, then went back to Anna`s house (I slept in the car), then back to the airport for Katie to rent a car. We said bye to Anna, then made our way back to Julie`s apartment with the help of Garmin (which attacked me when I called it a bad name). We picked up Jenny at the apartment, then went on another successful shopping trip where I dressed the tomboy-ish Jenny in a skirt. After dinner at CPK, we headed back to the apartment and watched Kamikaze Girls (it seems this trip was just full of great movies).</p><p id="m74b0" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4z0Iiae-5Tnfh5ZB_wpELCaROoJoOJ9mMoWoLIvoTpNTNqQIfQa2PK3KUCm4VPNyE1OR8C_7MK4Axo9vbO9nDOMlVr24VDEBygDBwCo4w3nFEdqsces8Nk0mgz29HNwrxWTcUpZnnJz6w/s320/IMG_6117.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5209998485270522434" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; " /><p id="m74b1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Friday, wedding day. I finally got a chance to sleep in. Somewhere around noon, Katie, Jenny, and I left the apartment in search of the Tattered Cover bookstore. After one failed attempt, we found it near the 16th Street Mall. I found Isaac Asimov`s Guide to Shakespeare on sale (hooray!), and we all had some amazing Chai. We then hunted down Julie`s hairdresser, picked up the bride, and dropped her off at the Chateaux. After a quick change at the apartment, we went to the ceremony where we met up with Dayl. It was simply amazing. Everyone looked beautiful, and Julie looked stunning in her dress. I flirted and danced with Julie`s cousin and a bunch of my new friends before going back to the apartment with Katie and Ali, packing, and falling asleep. </p><p id="xw.b0" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p id="xw.b1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br /></p><p id="xw.b1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">We left early the next morning, before Julie and Andrew returned from part one of their honeymoon in a nearby hotel, and made our way to the airport. Katie and I said bye and I started my long journey home. Two flights and nearly 20 hours later, I arrived at my apartment and fell asleep.</p><p id="leqa0" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><p id="leqa1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Now I`m at work typing up this summary of my crazy week before I forget it all. </p></span>Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-25886849356458991602008-05-24T03:03:00.001-07:002008-06-09T14:46:39.188-07:00Birthday recap<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiaq_0IORXAeeKAYaDgOCuSinciw4GG14In0Nhr6OCaPdtmjem-IxgLoe_ZHe4h2dRBwizf_CL8EvFUujKf03iefkz1379iC4ogVkZbIhoTjwYELdru0jTqGLPpJUb32vcGcenfdoz7s3h/s1600-h/n27500230_30832050_7909.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiaq_0IORXAeeKAYaDgOCuSinciw4GG14In0Nhr6OCaPdtmjem-IxgLoe_ZHe4h2dRBwizf_CL8EvFUujKf03iefkz1379iC4ogVkZbIhoTjwYELdru0jTqGLPpJUb32vcGcenfdoz7s3h/s320/n27500230_30832050_7909.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5203883816900720402" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">So... the birthday went well. I think everyone had fun and I've yet to receive a letter from my neighbor, so it was a success. We stayed up until 4ish watching Grease and talking, then stayed in pajamas for most of Saturday. </span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Also we randomly ran into someone I used to work with. I'm still really lazy, so I'm just copy/paste-ing this from facebook:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"So, random story... while we were walking to the karaoke place from the restaurant, I heard someone calling my name. I turn around to see this woman waving at me from across the parking lot. She used to work with me at Takahagi JHS. Me, being in a celebratory mood, invited her and her husband to come along to karaoke with us. Shockingly, they said yes." </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Honestly it didn't take much to convince them. It was pretty funny because her husband was really drunk and he jumped at the chance to go to karaoke, speak English, and drink more.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Otherwise, I'm just trying to figure out what my schedule is for the week I'm back in America. I'm super excited! There are a ton of people I'm trying to see, so I just hope I can fit everyone in. Also, I need to buy jeans (buying pants in Japan is depressing because sizes range from 0 to 6) and underwear (there's no Victoria's Secret in Japan and there's no point in paying $30 for shipping if I can help it). Thirdly, I promised my co-teacher I would show him an American L-size fast food soft drink. I'm writing this down in the hopes that I don't forget and if I do, I can look here and "remember."</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In other travel news, I've scheduled my flight home for Christmas. The blame simultaneously lies with my mother and rising fuel costs. Anyway, I'll be in Hawaii between the 20th and 27th of December and in Hilo from the 24th to the morning of the 26th.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In other Hilo news, I've been watching random videos on youtube lately and I stumbled across </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/nigahiga"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">nigahiga</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. If you know Hilo at all, you can tell these are Hilo boys really quickly. Plus, their latest video is called "Hilo Puppets." Anyway, they're really popular (like #2 most subscribed comedians as of this posting). Yay Hilo!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In other other Hawaii news, Punahou has lately been ranked #1 for high school sports by </span><a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/highschool/05/20/punahou0526/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Sports Illustrated</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">. Yay Punahou!</span></div>Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4078854900450665253.post-82873126588294008072008-05-14T22:52:00.000-07:002008-05-14T22:58:01.895-07:00betterI feel 100% better than when last I posted. I credit the weather for the turnaround. I suppose four days of rainy, cold weather in the middle of May just brought out the grumpies. Also, the weekend is definitely looking like it`ll be fun. At this point, my main worry is that my crazy neighbor might call the police. As of now, the plan is dinner at a restaurant in my city, then karaoke if we feel like it, otherwise, just going back to my apartment.<br /><br />Furthermore, details are starting to fall together for my trip to Portland and Colorado in June. If you`re reading this and you want to meet up, send me an email :)Krystlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07804428346027596906noreply@blogger.com1