Japanese studying at Coco's restaurant again. It's the free refills that keep me coming back.
Well, my test is tomorrow. I took the first two parts of last years test as practice today-- I got a 55% and a 64%. That averages to a nice 59.5%, where of course you need 60% to pass. I didn't do the last section because I was just too worn out (it's the hardest part for me). I just want to get the test over with... (O_o); There's always next year...
Well, my test is over with. (- .-)=3 That's about all I have to say about it.
We had our year end party today. It's a little early, because the other ALT and I won't be here after this week. We're going home for vacation! This restaurant is a very expensive Yaki-niku or "grilled meat" place. They give you the raw meat, and you cook it yourself. The quality was excellent. The beef was so tender you could just bite thru a piece like you might bite a marshmallow. Of course the consequence is the meat is ridiculously fatty, but it's worth eating at least once! I ate some veal by accident, sorry little tortured baby cows.
I saw these cute little pigs when I was out shopping today. Winning one looks pretty impossible tho, and at $2 a try, I'll let someone else have the fun. ^__^
Just out to 711 for lunch. I had cinnamon egg, tuna onigiri, and vegetable juice. Not very American of me!
Today is the last day of work for the year! Tomorrow I board a flight back home, and get to spend the rest of December with my friends and family. Interesting pictures to come! Stay tuned!
December 9th was the longest day of the year for me. I left Tokyo at 7:00pm, traveled for 10.5 hours and arrived in Chicago at 7:30pm the same day.
The family room in my Grandparent's house. It's a very inviting place. Anyone who could resist the inviting smells of the kitchen should have their Olfactory systems checked.
Good morning in Boscobel. Main street, Hometown, America.
It's the little lady's birthday! We all went out to the Nitty Gritty for the Madison traditional birthday.
My foot says "Ka E Ru," which means frog. Why my foot has chosen to illustrate this is unknown to me.
Here's Myris and myself.
Here's my mom at the top of the Marshal park hill. Sledding was always a family event for us in the winter, so we had to go out when I was back.
The little lady went to Myris's Mom's elementary school to teach the 2nd graders Origami. I have to admit you need a lot of energy to handle these kids.
We went out to see the Christmas Carol today. After that, I got to hang out with Mitchlock a bit. We couldn't stay out too late tho, tomorrow is an early day!
The family is over at Mitchlock's folk's house for a little gathering. Mitchlock is going down to Mexico soon, and we got to talking about travel and so forth. A nice quiet evening, and a good chance for Mitchlock to drop off his "Doom Machine" with me. Read on--
A little prep time for the fest tomorrow. "Bear" the cat found a home under a blown motherboard for a while. We're doing a classic fest tomorrow so there is a huge amount of prep work. Getting 5 Pentium machines up and running on a IPX network is no small task. 10+ year old hardware can be hard to get going. The oldest part was probably the IBM keyboard on Mitchlock's "Doom Machine" from 1984.
This was my Mom's pan of brownies. They were eaten in exactly 4 minutes 30 seconds by 5 guys and a cat. I have the entire thing on video. The video explains why Navyrain got brownie in his hair too. Today was our fest, which for those out of my immediate circle of high-school friends, is our video game night. We were doing it before the term "lan-party" was the common nomenclature. You know, back when network cards and a 4 port hub was a serious investment for high school kids. Kids these days...
My last day of Christmas shopping! We ate at the Potbelly they put in at the mall. I used to get these sandwiches on State Street quite a bit.
We headed up to the Kalahari indoor water park this morning! Going on water slides with a blanket of snow outside is a strange experience.
Today was super busy! We started out with another round of water-slides and a white tiger show at the Kalahari. Then back home to go ice-skating, eat Chicago deep dish pizza, and tip back an Elephant with friends.
Christmas Eve candlelight service at St. Lukes.
Merry Christmas!
Some kind of time vortex?
Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Taxis were hard to get, so I was riding this cow around.
The House on the Rock. One of the most unique museums in the world, just a short drive from my family's house in Wisconsin. This picture is of a huge automated music machine. I had a really funny joke about the front drummer being the master-drummer, and the guy playing bass, but I won't even hit you up with that.
Oh yeahhh, Rocky-Rococo's.
Looking for Peeps.
Yes! I took this picture. This little dude was at the New-Year's Eve at the Zoo. I had to get up at 5:00am on New-Year's to catch a plane to Japan, so I couldn't go out to a party or anything.
I was watching Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events in Japanese last night until my battery died. This is of course an American movie, but the Japanese release has an exceptional Japanese dubbing. The voice talent was amazing. It sounded like Jim Carrey was speaking Japanese.