All I do is YouTube

I've been pretty obsessed with this song all semester .. Lindsey likes it too, OK.




Carly showed me this. My dream is to be one of those random white people in an Asian drama/ music video.





I was going through YouTube, looking for advice from exchange students on what to pack/ where to go in Japan and I came across this dude. All his videos are awesomely ridiculous:

Pittsburgh

Yo. Back from Pittsburgh and the ESA meeting. Have some pics:

While at ESA I did the SEEDS program, which is a student program intended to promote diversity in ecology. I was a bit skeptical at first. To be honest, I didn't know if the program was supposed to be ONLY for minority students, but when I got there I was happy to see that there was a mix of a bunch of different people.

One of the first SEEDS activities was to explore Pittsburgh. My friend Carly lives in Pennsylvania and when I asked her what Pittsburgh is famous for she said, "nothing really.." But when she really thought about it she said that I should ride an incline. I had no idea what that was BUT NOW I KNOW.

We rode it up to Mt. Washington and the view of Pittsburgh was pretty stellar.

Coincidentally they were having a local, outdoor arts festival. This guy was super neat. He makes jewelery. In the pic he's making a glass bead. It looked pretty easy but I'm sure it's super-difficult.

The next day I went hiking with a group of some ESA people. Most of them were adults. The hike was OK.. Just take my advice: Never go on a nature hike with a bunch of ecologists because they want to stop every five minutes and identify some plant or another. The scenery was neat though.

I was really lucky to meet up with some other undergrads who wanted to explore the city. During the week I checked out the Andy Warhol museum. Wow that was so cool. I hardly knew anything about Andy Warhol but he's so awesome. Also, on my last afternoon I went to the National Aviary.

There were a ton of birds but the African Penguins were my favorite. THEY'RE SO ADORBZ.

For the last night I went to a Pirates game at PNC Park with the SEEDS people. It was my first baseball game everrr (excluding little league). It wasn't that interesting but the all-you-can-eat food was awesome.

Friday (8/6) I finally flew back to NY and headed up to Brant Lake with Dad for my cousin's graduation party. I spent two totally awesome weeks chilling at the lake. Now I have to stress about Japan..

HOSUTO FAMILI-

Urg. There are definitely intensely awkward and non-thrilling pictures of me on google images.

There is so much to talk about since I just got home today from Alabama/ Pittsburgh/ The Lake.. but since I'm lazy, I'd rather do it all by posting more exciting pictures. Since I saved all my pics to my cell phone memory instead of the card memory, i have to figure out how to get them all off my cell phone and upload them and that's gonna take a few years. SUPER LAME.

Just a quick update. I got my host family information today in the mail. I'm gonna be living with the K Family in, I think, the crotch of the Kamo River. If you can imagine it, the Kamo river is shaped like a big "Y" and flows south. I'll be between the two rivers that converge, most likely. I haven't exactly located my new home, but later I'll stalk it up on Google maps.

So the fam consists of mom, dad, sister (18, currently away at college) and brother (17). They seem pretty cool. They say I have no curfew, can drink whenever/ wherever I want if I wanted to, they don't smoke, have no pets. Perfect. That's, like, everything I asked for.

Another thing is that my commute to school is a breeze. I'm sure that the program is gonna give me a bike to use since I'm living only a few blocks away from Doshisha. It's a bummer because I wont get a travel stipend, but it's better than having to commute 2 hours to school everyday (!!)

WOAH. Things are getting real.

Bai Bai

Finally in Pittsburgh. I've been sorta apprehensive about this ESA conference for the whole summer but I'm here it it's gonna be sweet.

My time at Auburn finished up pretty chill. My last day didn't even feel like my last..I just went out and sampled with Alan, helped him filter, and ran his SRP. That night Yuka and Cynthia threw me and Patricia a party. For real, though, it was a party for me leaving, Samir's birthday, and Cynthia passing her nursing class (!!).

Lots of people came -- There was a total of 12 of us. Cynthia made curry and Ayako made Japanese-style chicken. We had "make your own sushi rolls," and everything was so good. Ayako even bought a cake with candles for Samir's birthday. Everything was perfectttt.

^Our spread. It was mecha oishii.


At the end of the night, Ayako gave us cards that basically everybody I'd met in Auburn outside the lab had signed. They're amazing.

Also, earlier in the week, I finally took the "Pounder Challenge." This was the challenge that Yuka and Ayako accomplished the other week, where you have to eat a full pound burger + everything else. Nori and I both did the challenge this time and the burger was super delicious but also huge.. like, as big as my face, or a baby's head.

In the end they took my picture with the giant stuffed burger and hung it on the wall with the other "hall of famers." There are about 200 of us total. A proud moment.

Atlanta, etc.

Monday we went to Six Flags in Atlanta and I couldn't take the heat or the crowds. It would've been okay if it wasn't about a hundred degrees, but as it was, it wasn't great. That's okay because I wasn't expecting much.

The following day was a lot better because we went shopping. I LOVE shopping. I ended up buying a dress to wear in Japan at the dinner where we meet our host families.

(It's not so drape-y on me but then again, I don't weigh 100 lbs at 5'9" )

Anyways, speaking of host family things, I still don't know who they are. AKP hasn't sent us any information since we chose our gateway cities about a week and a half ago.. I'm getting really impatient and antsy. I keep checking the facebook page about 2 times a day to see if anybody has posted anything. Nobody has. We should be getting info soon. I looked at the old AKP facebook page and people posted about getting host family info around early August. That's a week away so I should know soon.. OooOooOOoo it's exciting.

Wednesday night I went to a club/ bar with some of my friends. It was totally lame and totally not like Smith parties. Smith parties are lesbian-tastic and whorey in a unique way that I've come to enjoy, but this place wasn't like that. While Smith parties have their share of girls grinding against other girls and guys in a dark room, it's also a place where you can actually dance without being booty-licious. Basically, the night made me miss my Smith girls ..

We took the Japanese students to club-bar with us and they were overwhelmed. In the middle of the dance floor, Ayako leaned over and whispered into my ear, "Major cultureshock." And I wasn't surprised. Maybe youth at Japanese bars aren't so frank with their horny-ness. I guess I'll find out in a few months ..

The rest of the week was a sucky blur of not enough sleep. Thursday and Friday we had to be up early (5:30am) for work. Since I'm finally certified to drive the school trucks, I took one out to Lake Martin so that we could clean up our experiment. We had to pack 44 big trash cans and frames into two trucks and a boat. Once again it was so bootleg. Patricia and I spent the rest of the day power washing trash cans in the 95 degree heat. TGIWeekend :D

Burger Meat

Pounder Challenge: One pound of hamburger + bun + toppings.

Yesterday I went to Cheeseburger Cheeseburger with some of my friends so that Ayako and Yuka could take the "pounder challenge." They had as much time as they needed to finish a pound of burger plus everything that goes with it. Ayako finished hers in, like, 15 minutes. CHAMP.

(Pounder on the Left, Normal on the Right !!)

They got their pictures taken and put on the wall of the restaurant. Lots of people have done it so there are a bunch of pictures everywhere. Cynthia and I will probably try it sometime next week. I just have to fast for about a week beforehand ..

After dinner, we all went bowling at Auburn Lanes. I lost the first game. Yuka won both times. None of us scored over 100 bahaha. It was a lot of fun, though. I don't think I've been bowling since senior year.

Today, Patricia and I are going to Atlanta and we're staying at Alan's aunt's house. We're gonna go to six flags and go shopping. I'm probably gonna spend a lot of money. It'll be great. We leave in about an hour and I still have to go pack ..

Dean's List

academic success ;0