..hisashiburi! (long time no see!)

hi guys!
realised how infrequent my postings have been.. pardon me!! its amazing how time flies by sometimes.. have been in apu for almost a month now.. going on to the 3rd week of sch (while my smu counterparts are having summer break now!)..
wish i were home sometimes even though im getting used to being away.. miss my family.. zq .. really dont regret coming to japan..its really been a wonderful experience so far..hopefully i'll get to travel ard a lil bit more too! okinawa perhaps! :)
it's still a little chilly here in beppu.. the weather changes so drastically! just 3 days ago the temperature dropped to like 10 degrees again.. was pretty glad that i still had one winter jacket with me.. everyone ard sch was decked out in the winter wear again .. haha. pretty interesting to see fur coats and scarves when we're approaching the end of april .. hee.

my jap hw is sitting on my table now.. calling out to me.. haha. but somehow.... think i'll let it sit there for a lil while more ;) ..
japanese is truly, a difficult language. although knowledge of chinese helps.. the sentence structures and grammar and polite/inpolite ways of speaking, writing and listening really boggles my mind. haha. its like, other than the formal japanese.. there's all these slangs used that flies abt when i try to listen to the japanese students speak.. haha.
for example, to put sth in the microwave, they use the word "Ching-suru" . "Ching" coming from the sound the microwave makes.. haha.. and suru just means to do sth. There are A LOT of description sound words in the japanese day to day conversations. heh.

oh oh!! went for hip hop dance today at oita city for 2 classes conducted by this damn zai instructor.. =) she reminded me a lil of my emix mama too.. small but lots of spunk and attitude.. was great!! but im so gonna ache tmr..the first class we did was reg. hip hop.. the second we did a lil locking and old sch.. the first was ok.. made me miss dancing with emix!! i miss you guys!!! (kun, go dance in switz! costumes made of swiss choc! heeee) ya but there were a few of the japanese who were REALLY good..made me feel sooooo inadequate.. like there was this little girl (i mean physical stature) who was amazing at freestyle.. and another damn cool girl in braids .. all damn zai at free.. there were also a couple of guys who really stood out.. one was good at old sch.. another at breaking/freestyling.. think the leader of the dance grp's pretty adept at house too! can't wait to dance more man.. got to brush up on freestyling .. haha..

gonna start on my hw soon i guess.. right after i do kitchen duty tonight (cleaning of the kitchen and throwing out the trash..) can feel my shoulders aching already...........


this is the view we get from our sch.. on the mountain we are.. hee

beautiful eh? imagine the cafeteria overlooking the mountains as well.. ..



my room!! all filled. hee



view on the other side.. (i have a shelf load of snacks stocked up. haha)




dinner over at ap house 2 (the other dormitory.. i live in ap house 1)

dinner for that day! taco rice! jenelle's treat that day .. so she cooked sth a lil more western.. more like mexican ..yummy!

our first karaoke (japaneses youths' fav. pastime) session in beppu :)

paul (from korea) on the far left .. is an amazing singer.. we were all shocked when he sang! think he has a mini fan club now. haha

pica pica festival in sch! it was like a flea market, food market kinda festival held over the last weekend .. was great fun! this was a taiko drum performance.. there was even a food eating competition! haha.. sth we dont get in singapore huh. ;)

at the festival with takahiro, ryuta and kyoko =) a lil nostalgic cos it reminded me of pasar malams.. hee. oh the flea market was so good! bought a couple of tops for like 2-3 sgd each.. heh.

reiona (she shares the same birthday as me! just minus a few yrs. hahaha) apu in the background!

one of my first encounter with anything close to e.x.e.r.c.i.s.e in apu. Soccer!!! it was fun! =) only weird thing was i didnt perspire at all. too cold still..

girls from my floor: kaori, yuuki, cha cha (korean), yuri, and yuki :) this was in the ap house 1 lobby..

common kitchen in the dorm :)

one of the first dishes i made.. healthy eh.. hah.

first trip down to beppu city from some mum mum. joyful.. at the back.. is like this family restaurant that sells western and jap food.. kinda like a denny's ? but cheaper ;)