Blowin' in the Wind

Well... it's 6AM and I can't sleep....
I have been sick whether from allergies or a cold I'm not quite sure, but either way I can't breathe and it's preventing me from sleeping so I decided to take the spare time to post a blog.

Yesterday was interesting.  I went with Macee to the school because we were both supposed to have our advising appointments.  Hers was scheduled for 1 and mine was scheduled for 3 so we were planning on just hanging out at the school.  However, while we were sitting in 4th building, one of the teachers from GIO found us and told us that all advising appointments for the day had been canceled and that the school was being closed because a bad storm was coming in.  This really freaked me out because...well let me go off on a side rant for a moment:

When Quaff stayed at my home in the U.S. it stormed.  Nothing super crazy just a normal thunder storm, but it really freaked them out and I didn't understand why.  Now, having lived in Japan for 7 months, I think I kind of understand.  Thunderstorms don't really happen here unless you count typhoons and even with the one typhoon I encountered here there wasn't a whole lot of thunder, just lots of rain and really strong winds.  Since being here, I have only experienced two of what I would view as thunderstorms.  One was in November, the other was last night. 

So now back to my original point: Japan doesn't really have bad storms very often so when the teacher told me they were shutting down the school because of an approaching storm, me and Macee decided really fast that we needed to get home and stay there.  I was really glad we made that decision when I was sitting in my room later that evening listening to the wind shake my door.  Yet again I feared that a part of the tree outside my window was going to fly into my room.  There was even a tornado warning (which answers my frequently asked question of whether or not Japan has tornadoes) and apparently it was the strongest storm Japan has seen in decades according to this website.

But all is well now and the sun is coming up.... I should be asleep.  I hope to go to the doctor soon so I can get over whatever this is that has me feeling so bad.  Also, I have to worry about rescheduling my advising appointment.  Only a few more days until school starts back~

Oh yeah... I have a blog....

So lately I have been doing a whole lot of nothing.  But I've been really enjoying the whole lot of nothing I've been doing.  My sleep schedule is terribly off and it's going to suck when school starts back, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

If the last month of my life was a book the title would probably be something along the lines of

The Epic Cooking Adventure 

Part 4 of the on-going Elle and Lauren series

Yeah, I never thought I would be able to list cooking as one of my hobbies, but lately I've developed a love for it.  It all started with me and E trying to get creative with the spaghetti because we got tired of eating the same thing every day.  It became a game to see what all we could actually manage to make with the limited ingredients we had available.

Taco Ring

Chicken Alfredo Spaghetti

Horchata

Hayashi Rice

4AM On-a-Whim Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

Also added to this list would be a chocolate cake for Daiki's birthday, biscuits and gravy, chicken and dumplings, chocolate truffles, chicken soup, cheddar garlic biscuits, and what E and I call 'Mexican Spaghetti' which is basically like eating spaghetti noodles with queso poured over it.  We get desperate for Mexican food fixes around here haha




The 'Short Stories' of this month would include:

30 Minutes Without Air

"Wearing a Kimono was everything Lauren dreamed it would be 

until she realized she couldn't breathe..."

Actually in all seriousness, this was a fantastic experience.  We went to the school and were able to wear real (rather expensive) Kimonos. But I'm not lying when I say that I had to learn to survive with significantly less oxygen than normal while I was wearing it.  There was SO MUCH padding to the outfit, but this padding is meant to suction you in and hold the fabric in place.  I don't think it really -pads- anything.  I am convinced that the woman dressing me was not going to give up until she achieved giving me the appearance of having a bust size equivalent to that of a 13 year-old.  Once we were dressed, we were allowed to walk around in them and take pictures for about 30 minutes before the next group had a chance to try them on.  After we were back in our normal clothes, we were able to take part in a mock tea ceremony as well.  However, I think mine and Molly's most excited moment was discovering the traditional Japanese sweet that was basically the equivalent of a Fig Newton.  The little things make us happy.

Three Sexy Ladies

"Shinjuku didn't know what hit it when these three women came out to celebrate White Day."

In Japan Valentine's Day is celebrated a little differently than it is in the U.S.  On February 14th, girls are expected to give the guys they like chocolates, then on March 14th the guys return the favor.  But since E, Macee, and I have no guys to return the favor we decided to celebrate White Day in our own style: a girl's night out!  We got dolled up and headed to Shinjuku for a fun night of drinking and being with friends!  I'm so glad I have these two around <3

A Gamer's Guide to Birthdays

"Nothing says Happy Birthday like chocolate cake, presents, 

and a good competitive game of Super Smash Bros." 

Daiki's birthday was on the 19th so me and Elle celebrated with the guys a little early.  We baked a super yummy chocolate cake and cooked chicken soup for everyone~  And naturally after we ate, we had to have our usual game of Super Smash Bros.  Having a big group of boys sprawled out in the middle of my living room playing video games is such a typical sight for me and I love it.  I always have such a great time with them, even if I still lose every time.

A Night With The Colonel

"Two girls spend the night at the home of one of the most famous colonels in history: 

Colonel Sanders" 

E showing the lack of people in the restaurant with us.

A chicken sandwich, a chicken leg, a large french fry, and a drink: each. SO MUCH FOOD!!

Yep, that's right.  Me and E went to KFC from about 1AM until 3:30AM for no other reason than we couldn't sleep anyway and we were tired of sitting in my dorm.  We spent about $20 but it was the most meat we had eaten in weeks and it was -fantastic-! It was also made even better by the fact that we were the only ones in there so we could be as loud as we wanted and listen to music on my iphone.

The Fuzzy Hat Duo

"The story of two friends and their hats"

There really isn't too much of a story to this other than we were going grocery shopping and we realized that we were wearing the same kind of hat.  We also noticed that our hair colors matched our jackets.  And naturally we couldn't just take a normal pretty picture.  It's just not our style haha

Journey to the Live House of Kashiwa

"Three young women set out on a journey to Kashiwa 

that puts them on a path toward old and new friends."

Ok really that's just a long way of me saying that Macee, Elle, and I went to see Daiki's band perform.  The venue was in a section of Tokyo called Kashiwa, which as E repeatedly pointed out was in the middle of NOWHERE.  It's a good thing Daiki and Kazuya met us at the station or we never would have found our way there.  We had a great time hearing Daiki's band perform covers of X Japan and Luna Sea.  Also, during their set I made friends with a Japanese girl behind me and she and I rocked out for the last two songs together <3 Her name was Monica and she was so sweet!  After we saw Daiki's band we decided to hang around for a little while.  We were the only foreigners there so -naturally- we stood out so I didn't think much of it when E told me that there was a guy who kept eyeing us and kind of hovering.  However, eventually this guy got the courage to talk to us and informed us that he was the brother of one of the guys in the band we had just watched.  He was really sweet and adorable so we were happy to stand there talking to him and he eventually introduced us to his brother.  At first I was totally stoked that there was a cute guy standing there being obviously flirty with me.... until.... he told me that the guy in the band was his older brother.  Upon asking said older brother his age, a huge neon flashing "I DON'T THINK SO KID" sign went up in my mind because the OLDER brother was 19.  Dude trying to flirt with me: 16.  While I'm flattered that people often think I'm younger than I really am.....that was just ridiculous.  

These Boots are Made for Cross-dressing

"The story of how one pair of boots will forever haunt the boys of I-House..."

So... I have these boots... they are thigh-high, 5-inch heel, rhinestone studded, REALLY AWESOME boots.  And for some reason these boots fascinate the guys who visit my room, particularly when they are intoxicated.  I'm pretty sure that before I come home most of my male friends will have tried on these boots....usually at Molly's suggestion.  It's mine and Molly's evil plot to have blackmail on all of them (not really, but I guess we do accidentally haha) Shou didn't know what he was getting himself into tonight when he said he wanted to come hang out in our room.  He should consider himself lucky that this didn't end up as my facebook profile picture haha  This was the eventful part of the night.  The rest was spent playing Mario Kart.