School's killing me lately; we've got so many tests and homework and stuff that I sometimes feel like I don't remember what spare time is, and certainly not sleep. But at least my hard work has paid off; I've been doing really well on the last tests, with one huge exception, which has been noted and firmly dismissed from my mind :P Kanji don't seem to be such a big problem anymore; I guess I've found a way of studying them that works. Same with glossary. Now if I could just manage to have time to study for the other two classes that are not Intermediate Japanese, I'll be solid as a rock. I wonder if they sell extra-hours on Cainz. They probably do ;)
Karianne, Joakim me and Bjørns sister (Bjørn wasn't interested in going shopping, go figgure) went to Chiba last weekend to pick up some snazzy new clothes, and to maybe locate one of the Origins stores that have eluded us so far. We plowed through a mall stuffed to the ceiling with clothes, but it was all brand stuff so it was a bit out of my pricerange. I ended up buying a huge ball that you toss into the bathwater to scent it, but it turned out to be stuffed with seaweed that clogged up my bathtub. It was worth it though; it smelled nice, and I was all silky-smooth :)
This is Joakim and Karianne in front of the huge pink christmastree outside one of the malls. In October.
We also managed to find that Origins store, but when I finally got there I realized I didn't really need anything, since I've gradually replenished my cosmetics-stock while waiting to somewhere that sells Origins. Ironic :P But Karianne bought herself a few things, and now we know where to go when we need something.
Karianne and I also went on a little adventure one day, by going to the hairdresser's. I'd heard about people not being all too happy after getting their hair done here, but we decided to have a go anyway, since we were both seeing all too much of our natural hair color. Oh the horror!
I decided to go for a really dark red, but it turned out a sort of bright red instead, and down by the roots it looked like someone'd bled on me. So I was less than thrilled about the dyejob. I really like the cut though. According to Karianne she now has a halo, since the hair they bleached turned out a lot lighter than the rest. I can't really see it, but then again I'm not really very good at noticing this sort of thing.
Since I wasn't happy with the color from the hairdresser's, I optimistically decided that I could just color it myself. Never mind that I can't read the instructions and that the hairsamples are based on asian black hair. I've done this millions of times, I'm practically an expert!
I picked out a color that was darker than the one I chose at the salon, since that one turned out so much brighter than expected. Except now my hair is more or less black; though I did get the roots to match the rest of my hair. But it'll just have to stay dark for a while, since my hair has probably suffered enough by getting dyed twice in a week.
Speaking of suffering hair, mine is coming off in alarming amounts. It's crazy how much I'm shedding. I'm like a christmastree in the middle on January! And it's not just me; alot of other people in my class are experiencing the same thing, and all of us girls are freaking out about it. I don't want Eirik to meet a balled wife when he comes to see me!
This is me and Joakim on the train from Chiba. Joakim's being all scary and gangsta because that's what he does sometimes. I'm being scary and emo because it suits my new haircolor. Please take a good look at it, since it might not be there the next time you see me :P
While I'm sharing my woes and ailments; I went to see the nurse last week, since I'd been getting very dizzy on the weekend, and it was still there when I went to school on monday. It was a bit of a task, since the nurse doesn't speak english, but I managed to get the point across. After which she declares that I need to go to the hospital.
Now of course I freak out, since I hate hospitals, but thankfully Karianne was allowed to leave class to come with me. It turned out the nurse thought I might be diabetic, since there's a lot of it in my family. It also turned out that when she said "hospital", she meant "doctor's office", because that's where she took me. We drove across town, and I was shown into the doctor. Thankfully we had a teacher with us who spoke pretty good english, so she could translate most of the time, though of course she struggled a bit with the medical terms.
The doctor checked my bloodsugar and my bloodpressure, and when both were fine he declared me fine and dandy and sent me on my merry way. I was a bit surprised, to say the least, but they told me if I wanted to check things out further I should go to an eardoctor. Except we had to expect to stand in line for like four hours, since the eardoctor for some reason doesn't make scheduled appointments. By that time both Karianne and I were pretty tired, so we decided to wait and see how things turned out.
I took the next day off school to relax and sleep, in case I was just tired. I also bought a whole lot of vitamins and stuff, in case I was lacking. I got better over the next day or so, though I do still occasionally get little dizzyspells. I suppose it's stress or something, combined with lack of sleep. I'm sure it'll get better now that I'm taking vitamins, and now that I bought a new mattrass for the bed (the one I had was like 5 cm thick) I've been sleeping a lot better at night. It also helps that my grades have gone up, so I won't feel as panicked about that.
Today those of us who volunteered to help with the JIU festival went up to campus at 8.50 to rig up our booth and get our equipment and stuff. We're supposed to sell Norwegian food, so we decided upon waffles! Oh good grief, I'm looking so much forward to eating waffles with brown cheese. Yuuuuuuum!
The festival is going to be really nice, I think. There's going to be a lot of concerts, the school orchestra is going to play, and there'll be tons and tons of booths selling food from various contries, plus the clubs are going to have their own stands. I bet it's gonna get really fun :)
It did end up taking a whole lot longer than expected up there, since we got there at 8.50, and Joakim and got back to our apartments at 5. But I guess that's how it's like with big events like this; stuff takes time. During the (let's be honest) really long periods of playing the waiting-game, we played Uno (blast from the past), sang the birthdaysong to Karianne (yay, happy birthday, wooooh!), and mucked about. Karianne did alot of filming with her fancy new camera today, so I'm sure we'll be on youtube before we know it ;)
We also finally proved once in for all that us Norwegian foreign students are completely insande, since we were fighting, waltzing, giggling, singing, doing the tango, fighting, teasing, fighting, giggling, fighting, fighting ;) But at least we were having tons of fun, unlike some of the other people present, who were just slumped along the walls. We may be silly and childish, but we sure do have a lot of fun together :)
Towards the end of the day we were hanging out with the Japanese students who were so unfortunate as to be delegated to helping at the Norwegian booth (oh, I should say Hawaian, Spanish and Norwegian booth, since we're sharing, which is fine, since their food sounds scrumptous). They're all really nice and fun, though they turned out to be a little to good at Uno. Or maybe I'm just really bad at it :P
Oh, I also got yelled at towards the end of the day. I was having a smoke, when this surprisingly big and scary-looking Japanese man comes over to me, and in a deep strict voice informs me that no, that's not an ashtray, that's a trashcan. I, of course, apologized profusely, but it didn't seem to cheer him up any. At that point I was so tired and sleepy and hungry that I felt close to tears. Here I am, happily complying with the local customs, and all the while I'm smoking over a trashcan. I've been smoking in that same spot since I came here over a month and a half ago. And no one tells me this until now? :( I suppose that means that the huge trashcan-looking things are ashtrays, though it makes no sense to me. I'll just have to go and stalk some Japanese smokers I think, and work out where they hide.
And this is what they'll see when they turn around
Thanks a lot to those of you who's sent me letters and packages and e-mail and stuff, it's awesome to come home from school and find something from home in the letterbox! All pictures and cards gets put on the wall, and it's great to look at them when I feel a bit homesick. Keep it coming!
Oh, and here's a tip, before I head off to bed. Jelly Coffee. It's hilarious the first two sips, but after that it's just funky-flavored jelly. And jelly's not supposed to come in cans.
I'll post more info soon with pictures and info about the festival. Stay tuned!
Folket trenger å høre mer om Bodils seiere og nederlag i det fjerne østen!
SvarSlettMerker at reisefeberen begynner å dukke opp:)