I'm so funny I make-a me laugh
Feb. 15th, 2004 07:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaitouWonderful weekend. Spent it with Denise who came down all the way from Chiba, and met her other friend Melissa, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
melf42 in Hiroshima. The three of us have challenged the other as to who can come up with the best post about the weekend, so let's get to it.
Friday the 13th was lovely. I pretened I overslept and drove into work. Being as I wasn't late I don't think anyone even noticed that I DID drive. My classes went well, nothing special in particular. I helped some of the third years with some practice tests, and I'm very proud of Hanamoto-san for figuring out a very difficult reading with only a tiny bit of help from me.
Then after lunch I asked the Vice Principal, with big puppy dog eyes, that since I didn't have any classes in the afternoon, and the students, were, in fact leaving after sixth period if I couldn't please leave early? I love my Vice Principal. So I whipped home and did a quick load of laundry (yes, hookey for laundry, I know) hung up all my sheets and towels to dry and hopped on the Hiroshima bound bus to meet my friends.
Beautiful weather is never more beautiful than when you're out enjoying it when you're not supposed to be. Especially when you can do it with a clear conscience, having worked hard and helped growing young minds and THEN skipping out.
I got to Hiroshima about 20 minutes before Denise, which gave me just enough time for a cup of coffee, and then Denise and I grabbed an Okonomiyaki dinner waiting for Melissa, the okonomiyaki was decent, but nothing spectacular. I noted that the resturaunt was selling t-shirts and Denise said she would definatley buy one. I really thought she was joking. Silly me.
By then Melissa had made it down so we went to meet her at the Sogo Department store. It was friendship at first sight. She is definately my kind of people. We went to the bookstore in Sogo which has all the english books, and I was persuaded to buy the first of the Lemony Snicket books. The books were such a distraction that we didn't even realize that they were closing the store until they sent someone to shoo us to the registers. In our defense they usually play 'Auld Lang Syne' over the intercom during school closings, and the bookstore played the Ghostbuster's theme instead.
Everything but the bars and resturants was pretty much closed at that point so we ended up at a coffee shop where I consumed great quantities of coffee and whipped cream. I tried the Viennese Coffee to see what it was, and the Coffee Jelly because I like coffee jelly. Denise got the Lemon Squash and Melissa commented on the fact that we were both trying new things. I said that once you knew enough to know what had the red bean paste in it and what didn't, trying new things was good.
Mostly I spent the night talking too much for my own good. But I think I was pretty funny, or at least I hope I was. I'm not around other English speakers very often, and even fewer of the geeky persuasion so I try extra hard to be witty and clever. This way people will like me and come by more often. Unless it all backfires awfully. But I think I didn't do too badly. Twice that night Denise said I said the funniest thing she ever heard, so that's quite an ego-boost.
By this time it was about midnight, and it was time to find a hotel. Melissa knew a place she said, easy to get to, and nice and close to the station. First we ran back to the station to pick up Denise's luggage. We were on the wrong side of the station so we had to wind through the underground tunnel, which was actually under construction to go get it.......except that the station was closed. So we had to go back empty handed. We wondered what the construction workers would think seeing the two foreign girls go through and then back again. I thought we should double back a second time just to make them more confused. But it was late.
It took us almost an hour to actually find the hotel. In our defense they didn't have the sign lit up. I didn't really mind too much because I was wired with coffee and in the presense of friends, and since I didn't have a clue where the hotel was, I had no responsibility. I was actually a bad influence, encouraging her to make turns we weren't sure were legal or not.
Melissa: What would the police think?
Me: That you're a gaijin (foreigner) driver with panache?
But we did find it (with the help of no less than two stops at convienience stores for help) and got a room and followed the time old tradition of staying up too late and talking with the lights out. Much to my delight, Melissa knows Odoru Daisousasen! And other people who are obsessed with it like me! Kick ass!
Valentine's Day we went out to breakfast/lunch at a Denny's like place which had decent coffee. After that Melissa had to go home so she dropped us off back at Sogo. Denise and I did a little more shopping, I got a new necklace with a little semi-precious gemstone star and some popcorn. We also went to a used bookstore where I found the movie pamphlets they sell at the movie theatre, only instead of for new movies like Lord fo the Rings, they had used ones like The Three Muskteers, Raiders of the Lost Arc, Willow and Labyrinth!
I also finally got my hands on the Waterboys DVD's. Boys Synchronized Swimming, mine all mine! We even watched the first disc on Denise's computer when we got back to the hotel.
And this morning I got back on the bus back to Mito, read the first Lemony Snicket book (very cute by the way) and came home.
The End
melf42 in Hiroshima. The three of us have challenged the other as to who can come up with the best post about the weekend, so let's get to it.Friday the 13th was lovely. I pretened I overslept and drove into work. Being as I wasn't late I don't think anyone even noticed that I DID drive. My classes went well, nothing special in particular. I helped some of the third years with some practice tests, and I'm very proud of Hanamoto-san for figuring out a very difficult reading with only a tiny bit of help from me.
Then after lunch I asked the Vice Principal, with big puppy dog eyes, that since I didn't have any classes in the afternoon, and the students, were, in fact leaving after sixth period if I couldn't please leave early? I love my Vice Principal. So I whipped home and did a quick load of laundry (yes, hookey for laundry, I know) hung up all my sheets and towels to dry and hopped on the Hiroshima bound bus to meet my friends.
Beautiful weather is never more beautiful than when you're out enjoying it when you're not supposed to be. Especially when you can do it with a clear conscience, having worked hard and helped growing young minds and THEN skipping out.
I got to Hiroshima about 20 minutes before Denise, which gave me just enough time for a cup of coffee, and then Denise and I grabbed an Okonomiyaki dinner waiting for Melissa, the okonomiyaki was decent, but nothing spectacular. I noted that the resturaunt was selling t-shirts and Denise said she would definatley buy one. I really thought she was joking. Silly me.
By then Melissa had made it down so we went to meet her at the Sogo Department store. It was friendship at first sight. She is definately my kind of people. We went to the bookstore in Sogo which has all the english books, and I was persuaded to buy the first of the Lemony Snicket books. The books were such a distraction that we didn't even realize that they were closing the store until they sent someone to shoo us to the registers. In our defense they usually play 'Auld Lang Syne' over the intercom during school closings, and the bookstore played the Ghostbuster's theme instead.
Everything but the bars and resturants was pretty much closed at that point so we ended up at a coffee shop where I consumed great quantities of coffee and whipped cream. I tried the Viennese Coffee to see what it was, and the Coffee Jelly because I like coffee jelly. Denise got the Lemon Squash and Melissa commented on the fact that we were both trying new things. I said that once you knew enough to know what had the red bean paste in it and what didn't, trying new things was good.
Mostly I spent the night talking too much for my own good. But I think I was pretty funny, or at least I hope I was. I'm not around other English speakers very often, and even fewer of the geeky persuasion so I try extra hard to be witty and clever. This way people will like me and come by more often. Unless it all backfires awfully. But I think I didn't do too badly. Twice that night Denise said I said the funniest thing she ever heard, so that's quite an ego-boost.
By this time it was about midnight, and it was time to find a hotel. Melissa knew a place she said, easy to get to, and nice and close to the station. First we ran back to the station to pick up Denise's luggage. We were on the wrong side of the station so we had to wind through the underground tunnel, which was actually under construction to go get it.......except that the station was closed. So we had to go back empty handed. We wondered what the construction workers would think seeing the two foreign girls go through and then back again. I thought we should double back a second time just to make them more confused. But it was late.
It took us almost an hour to actually find the hotel. In our defense they didn't have the sign lit up. I didn't really mind too much because I was wired with coffee and in the presense of friends, and since I didn't have a clue where the hotel was, I had no responsibility. I was actually a bad influence, encouraging her to make turns we weren't sure were legal or not.
Melissa: What would the police think?
Me: That you're a gaijin (foreigner) driver with panache?
But we did find it (with the help of no less than two stops at convienience stores for help) and got a room and followed the time old tradition of staying up too late and talking with the lights out. Much to my delight, Melissa knows Odoru Daisousasen! And other people who are obsessed with it like me! Kick ass!
Valentine's Day we went out to breakfast/lunch at a Denny's like place which had decent coffee. After that Melissa had to go home so she dropped us off back at Sogo. Denise and I did a little more shopping, I got a new necklace with a little semi-precious gemstone star and some popcorn. We also went to a used bookstore where I found the movie pamphlets they sell at the movie theatre, only instead of for new movies like Lord fo the Rings, they had used ones like The Three Muskteers, Raiders of the Lost Arc, Willow and Labyrinth!
I also finally got my hands on the Waterboys DVD's. Boys Synchronized Swimming, mine all mine! We even watched the first disc on Denise's computer when we got back to the hotel.
And this morning I got back on the bus back to Mito, read the first Lemony Snicket book (very cute by the way) and came home.
The End
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-16 06:56 am (UTC)Willow, Water Boys, LABYRINTH! Man, I shoulda stayed. But then I would have missed all my elementary school kids doing a routine to Sekai-ni Hitotsu-dake no Hana! Yep, I shoulda stayed.
It was friendship at first sight. She is definately my kind of people.
*bouncebounce* Ditto on my end!!!
bookstore played the Ghostbuster's theme instead
I thought I was the only one who caught that!
I read the NaNoWriMo site... and am already thinking about joining next November. Also looked at JLPT Level 2 required kanji on thekanjisite.com. Am debating which one I am more likely to be successful at. Well, if I do the writing, I will get a little pill-shaped Winner! bubble next to it.
*gets glassy-eyed over the Winner bubble*
Re: I have no LJ account, so I will post as the Anonymous Loser
Date: 2004-02-16 08:12 am (UTC)Anyway...Yay Ann for the long post! And it was good, too. You should make longer posts more often.
I'm glad everyone remembers the Ghostbusters theme. I was sure that was what it was, then later I was like, "nah, that must have been my imagination."
Okay Melissa, the pressure's on. I can't wait to read your entry!
Re:
Date: 2004-02-16 08:14 am (UTC)I didn't catch the Ghostbusters thing, you mentioned it. Or Denise mentioned it. It had to be one of you because it sure wasn't me. Those Lemony Snicket books were good.
As to Nano or JLPT. I should be a good Ann and say to go for the JLPT which will look good on your resume if you pass. Or I could be evil and say do Nano because then I will have candy to read. Assuming that you'll let me read what you write in November. Decisions, Decisions.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-20 02:21 am (UTC)You can absolutely read what I write! I would love that! And I'd love to read what you wrote, too. (I miss writer's group, can you tell?) I have one idea already. I'll see how I'm doing in September (or whenever the sign-up deadline is) and see how many kanji I've mastered by then and if I have a fighting chance.
It makes me happy that such a small, small percentage of the world do NaNoWriMo and I know 3 people who have at least attempted it.