A walk down memory lane...

I've been studying Korean with a website called Talk to Me in Korean (www.talktomeinkorean.com) and it has been rather helpful! I'm just reviewing so everything's been pretty easy. They only focus on 1-3 things per lesson, so it's relatively easy for my memory.

Speaking of memory, y'all know my memory is probably the worst out there. Now I have the most extreme example of this. So while I was in Japan, I thought my bike was stolen from the subway station. I had told my friend to get it for me while I was abroad and he said that it wasn't there. I was quite sad, but it's not the greatest bike in the world, so I wasn't too heartbroken. Well, the other day, I was walking by the OTHER subway station and I saw a bike similar to mine. I didn't wanna get my hopes up, so I went to it and checked to see if it was mine. Mine is a little messed up, so I looked, and it was MINE!!! But I could've sworn I didn't park my bike at this particular subway station. I didn't have my key for the lock, so I had to leave my bike there until I found my key and had time to walk to the station. A couple days later, I fetched it and as I was going home, I was thinking about the last time I rode my bike and then it dawned on me that I DID park it at that subway station! I usually park it at the OTHER subway station. I'm such a moron. I thought it was lost for like 3 weeks. It's all rusty now too. hahaha It's such a crappy bike, but at least I don't have to spend money on buying a new one!

P.S. I'm back at school and not that excited about it. I've had a taste of the vacation life and I want it back!

P.P.S. Some of my new friends here have moved back home. So sad! I wish I had more time with them :(

Reaching new heights

I've been a horrible blogger. Sorry! To all 3 of my followers. haha

So let's see. Nothing much has been going on...except that I had to teach 3 weeks of summer school, which was a bit of a drag, but it was nice seeing the kids every day of the week. I actually learned some of their names, which was very exciting for me! I love my kids! They're so cool. Some notable things that we did were grow some flowers (most of them had some germination), make ice cream out of clay, a treasure hunt in the sweltering heat, made smores, and create new sports for Universiade.


Oh, another small update is that I went to JAPAN!!! My second Asian country visited. I am going to conquer this continent! haha It was a great trip, but VERY expensive! I left Friday right after my summer school ended and went to Gwangju airport where I was put onto an earlier flight. But that flight brought me to Seoul, so I didn't get to Tokyo any sooner than planned. Once I arrived in Tokyo (at around 10pm), I met up with Brian and Adam at the hostel. It took me a long time to get there, so I arrived around midnight. We chatted a little then we tried to get me a pair of Summer Sonic tickets which was to be held the next 2 days, (Summer Sonic is a music festival.) but we failed. Since I arrived so late, it was time to sleep! The next morning, we tried to get me tickets again, but I was only able to get a ticket for Day 2, which was fine by me because that was the day that I preferred. Since I didn't have Day 1 tickets, I was all alone cuz the others had tickets for both days. I went sightseeing by myself! I went to Tokyo Tower, walked around and shopped at Shibuya, some random Buddhist temple that I



came across where some sort of festival was happening, Tsujiki fish market (I think!), and the Ginza shopping area where the high end shops are. It was a nice first full day, but it was rather lonely!



The second day, I went to Summer Sonic!!! It was such a great music festival! There were many different artists there representing all types of music. Some artists that I got the chance to see were Jason Derulo, Orianthi, Coheed & Cambria, Big Bang, Sum41, A Tribe Called Quest, Hole, Taylor Swift, and Stevie Wonder!!! It was great! Stevie Wonder was definitely the highlight, even though he made us wait about 20 minutes before starting his show, not even with an apology! I was standing in the crowd for a LONG time! I was getting tired and it was the end of the day. It was the longest wait ever, but it was well worth it!


Some other things that I did while in Japan were visiting the Imperial Palace (on a Monday...when it's closed...), went to the

Government buildings where there are observation decks from which you can have a nice view of the city, ate at restaurants where you order from a vending machine, ate at a Denny's which is nothing like American Denny's, stayed at a capsule hotel (for 3 glorious nights), saw Asakusa temple and Nakamisa shopping street, ate at a restaurant where you order by using a pen and pointing to things in the menu, went to Ueno Park, went to Ameyayokocho (shopping street), made many new friends from all over the world, rented a bike and rode along the river, and .... oh yeah, I also CLIMBED MT. FUJI!!!



It was a grueling challenge, but I completed it! It was the best part of my Japan trip but it was also the worst!! It was the best because ... well, that's pretty self-explanatory, but it was the worst because of the descent. I was completely miserable on my way down the mountain. All the pressure was on my toes and my knees and legs and entire body was exhausted from the climb up. The ascent was fairly easy, but the descent was deadly! It rained the entire way down. My clothes were not waterproof as they said they would be, so I was drenched. My hands were as white as snow, of which I was thankful there was none. I made it to the top of the mountain, but I was barely there for about 2 minutes. The whole purpose of the climb was to see the sun rise from the top, but it was cloudy and rainy. No sight of blue skies at all. It was so windy that it blew me off course several times on the way up. It was quite scary. The stranger who became my friend on the way up suggested that we head down the mountain as soon as we got to the top because the conditions were dangerous. At first I was resistant, but I realized that I wasn't gonna get what I wanted (a sun rise), so I acquiesced and we went down. I didn't even get a photo! My camera probably would've died if I did. For my hike, I bought a hiking stick for which you can get brand marks at each station. I got all of them except for the 6th station because we took the wrong route up, and I didn't get the 10th one because it was just plain crazy at the top that I didn't even think about it until I was already en route to the bottom. We started our hike at around 815pm and reached the top at around 4am. We could've arrived there sooner, but we took a lot of breaks to acclimate to the thinning oxygen levels and to kill time so we wouldn't get to the top too early. It took about 4 hours to reach the bottom because I was in utter pain. My new hiking friend was frustrated with me, but I really couldn't help it. I was miserable.


Japan was such a great experience! I loved it and I would like to go back again, but only after I've conquered all the other countries that I want to visit. Another thing to note about Japan was that I found it very difficult to find a sushi restaurant. They are hard to come by! That was disappointing!

School starts in about 5 days and I am dreading that day. I don't want school to start again! I had a taste of vacation/being away from school and I am thoroughly enjoying my time away from teaching. But the day is inevitable.