i got a spontaneous urge to watch my beloved "Sex & the City," so i
pulled out my dvd collection and picked a disc at random. i played the
first episode, which turned out to be the episode when carrie turns 35.
after watching the first few minutes, i realized it was the episode
with my favorite scene in the entire series.

so many of the lines really hit home for me.

great lines. a birthday theme.

yay for random coincidences.

"you know what?

sometimes i think people in couples look at us and wish they had our lives."

-Carrie on being single in "Sex & The City."

The best scene EVER:

"and it really hit me. i am 35 and alone...

no, i know i have you guys but-

and i really, i hate myself a little for saying this, but...

it felt really sad...

not to have a man in my life who cares about me.

no special guy to wish me happy birthday

no goddamn soul mate

and i don't even know if i believe in soul mates." -Carrie

"don't laugh at me, but...

maybe we can be each other's soul mates

and then we can let men be just these great, nice guys to have fun with." -Charlotte

"I'm 35. 35 is not 25." -Carrie

"Thank God!" -Miranda

"I'm THIRTY FIVE." -Carrie

"Oh shut the fuck up. I'm 140." -Samantha

"Did you have a nice day?"

"I had a fabulous day."

"Good for you."

"As Big's car drove away, I realized having 3 soulmates already
nailed down made it a lot easier to spot those great nice guys to have
fun with." -Carrie

*****************************************************************************

"I had a choice. i could slink off the runway and let my inner model die of shame

or i could pick myself up, flaws and all, and finish...

and that's just what i did.

because when real people fall down in life, they get right back up and keep on walking."

god, i love "Sex & the City."

it was fun. 

so many memories made this summer... i don't really know how to express it all in words.
so, i'll just post a shitload of pictures and let them illustrate my stories.

PERU
06/23/2007 - 07/01/07


"TOMA EL SABOR DEL PERU"

1st stop: Lima
only had 1 night in Lima, so we stayed within walking distance of Barranco  to get a taste of Lima's nightlife.  After walking around forever, we finally decided on Deja Vu,  a cute little bar with live music and a small dance floor.  We didn't do any dancing, but it was fun just people watching.  May & I wanted to be adventurous with our alcohol, so we decided to try Peru's infamous "Pisco Sour." 

and...

it was soooo bad.  our poor bartender kept putting sugar water into our drinks every time he saw us grimace.  after our drinks became about 80% sugar, we gave up and left the bar.

on the way back, we stopped by a burger joint, which had the BEST burger.  yum.  we planned on going back for burgers, but that never ended up happening

"what does conchitas mean?"  -me
"um...  i think it means blankets."  -may
"really? oh, ok.  hm. well, then... you can get 2 pitchers of beer and free blankets for only (i forgot how many) pesos."  -me
HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAAHAHAHAAHAHAA.


"if they show me another pisco sour..."

CUSCO

by chance, we happened to fly into Cusco the day of Inti Raymi, THE biggest festival in all of Peru.  Once we checked into our hostel, we took a cab straight to the festivities.  it was pretty impressive.  a whole gang-load of peruvians, and then... there was us, the 3 chinitas.

girlfriend looks pissed...

                                                 but so does this cuy (guinea pig). 

we totally ate some cuy... and it was pretty tasty.   (sorry, fan)

The Famous Alpaca

                                                                                                alpaca as a pet.

haha, i love this.

DANGER: Men working.

our beautiful hostel

Plaza de Armas & Plaza San Francisco
i can't remember which pictures are of which plaza.

alpaca as clothing

our one night out in cusco.

may and i set out to find some salsa clubs, so we could re-live our argentinian salsa nights.
we found a club that played a few salsa songs and ended up meeting dario and fredy.  nice fellas.

hahahahahahahahahahaha.  may, i still remember your imitation of dario when he was dancing with you...
salsa-salsa-look over shoulder. 
down-down-look over shoulder.
hahahaahhaahhhaa.

may & i with our beloved te con leche

we looked pretty tore up after our night out.

Machu Picchu
On the way up to machu picchu, we paid a bit extra to take the train's special viewing car.

my aunt didn't seem to care much for it, though.

i still haven't figured out what the big secret is.


cute kid we found on the side of the railroad tracks.

breathtaking.

alpaca? llama?  i can't fuckin' figure it out. 
whatever, apparently, according to some folks, i look like one of the above.

a shrine to Pachamama and Pachatata, the mother and father earth deities (moon & sun)

so my cousin and i are big nerds.


ahh, my smug face ruins yet another perfectly good picture.

Lake Titicaca

gorgeous isn't it?  i love stagnant lake water.  yum.  i'm hungry now.

ahh.. there we go.  the beautiful part of lake titicaca begins.
see the reeds on the left?  remember these reeds for later.

Islas Flotantes

so the reeds i told you to look at earlier...
they're called totora.. and the Uros people (inhabitants of the floating/uros islands) use this for EVERYTHING.
it's so amazing.
they use the roots of the totora as the base for the islands and layer the reeds in a criss cross pattern... and wa-lah!
a new island is formed.

their homes are also made from the totora

they also use the totora to make their boats

this statue thing is made out of totora

and they also eat the totora.

i was so amazed by the uros people.  i bought a bunch of hand-made artwork from them to support them.

i have no idea what this baby is playing with, but i am in love with him and his cute little hat.

Isla Amantani

we stayed with an Amantani family, Alejandro and his family, for one night.  it felt like we were gonna die on the walk up from the boat to his house.  a bad combo of exhaustion and high elevation.

after resting and re-energizing ourselves with a great home cooked lunch,
we headed up to the top of the island to catch the sunset. 

almost to the top...

we made it!

we ate these andean doughnuts while enjoying the sunset

and then we went back to Alejandro's home.

their kitchen/stove                              

some of the amazing food they cooked for us.

ok, so this looks funky, but it was sooo good.  the long things in the middle are sun-baked sweet potatoes (i'm not a fan of sweet potato, but i am a fan of these).  the white chunk on the top left was some of the best cheese i've had.

muna tea.  yummy.  good for digestion.

after dinner, they dressed us up in their traditional clothing and took us dancing at a party they threw especially for us.

the dancing was fun, but soooo tiring.

the next morning, we had to take a boat back to puno, so i could catch my flight back to lima and then japan and may & my aunt could catch their bus back to cuzco & then their plane to the amazon.  they had no regular tourist boats, so they told us we had to take a "common" boat.  we had no idea what they meant, but we were down. 

turns out it was a boat for locals.  we stuck out soooo badly.  people were staring at us like "what are they doing here?"  it was stuffy, cramped, smelly, but as uncomfortable as it was, may and i loved it.  the whole experience was so amazing and authentically peruvian.  we were with the real people of peru for once... and it felt great.  most of the people on the boat were going to puno to trade their goods on the mainland.  at one point, i fell asleep.  when i woke up, i opened my eyes to a scene of four guys wearing those hats (i can't remember what they're called- not cowboy hats, but...), chewing some crap, playing cards, and complaining every now and then when someone put down a card they didn't want.  i just smiled.  i still have such a vivid image of that memory.  it straight up looked like a scene from a movie.  then, i looked to my right and saw the ladies (below) showing each other their knit work and gossiping.  may woke up shortly after and we started talking about the whole boat experience... and then we looked up towards the driver... and we see something black on the right side of the windshield.  wtf is that?  oh, hahahahahahahaha, it's a woman!  she was just chillin' on the windshield.  they had packed the boat so full (illegally,of course) that they had people in & on any available space inside, outside, on top of the boat.  then, we saw another dude come down to the front hood of the boat.  "what is he doing?"  "oh, he's not..."  "yup, he's pissing off the front of the boat."
haha, awesome.

i'm so glad we got a chance to take the "common" boat.  i realized on that boat ride that this is the most cultural trip i've ever taken. 
              
byebye lake titicaca!

the mean streets of peru

a taste of the peruvian food experience

a peruvian breakfast

our beloved sopa de criolla (top)                                                  alpaca as food

Lunch @ Sumaq Misky

please look closely at the 2 yellow cans towards the bottom right of this picture of the kitchen.
(you may have to click the picture to enlarge the image)

(ok, nm.  i just enlarged it and it's still hard to see...
they are two cans of pedigree)

lonely planet states that this restaurant/bar "targets adventurous travelers."
i wasn't sure what to expect.

ceviche with bomb ass corn nuts.                                    yuquitas stuffed with andean cheese

the food turned out to be great.  mid-meal, we realized there was a little army of dogs there, so the pedigree was probably for them.

the cute bill holder. haha.  alpacas are all over the place in this country.

garlic trout... so freaking good.                                   yum, fresh juice.  i love fresh juice.  pineapple... ahhhhh

we finally got our one dessert in peru...   
               
and, it was not good.
                      

mate de coca.  yeah, the same plant as the drug.
it was good.  i brought some back as a souvenier for my teachers at school.
when i explained what it was, they got all nervous, haha.

adios, peru!  gracias por todos.

GOODBYE CHAU & AKIRA

i miss you guys...

渋川のへそ祭り・Shibukawa's Belly button Festival
07/28/2007

As usual, i was running late, so i came just in time for the main festivities to end.  the belly button dances and chest make-up had all come off by the time i arrived, but i DID make it before the boys put their shirts back on. 

niiiiiiiice boys.  makin' gunze proud!
well, akira's lil bro doesn't go to gunze, but close enough.

i was sad that i didn't get to see them dancing, so i had akira & chau send me their pictures of the festival.

prep:

nice position, akira.  looks like u're ready for your pap smear.

the line-up:

fierce, boys.  fierce.

 
aww.. the brothers.

the dancing/parading:

akira & matt getting their groove on~ gunze style.

i think matt danced a little too hard... cuz his totoro turned from...
this...
 
                                                                                                                             ...to this.
 
and this child... is just too precious.
 
love the skull shaved on the back of his head

after the matsuri, we went karaoking @ some snack bar that the shibukawa folk frequent. 

sing it, akira.

akira tried to teach his lil bro some social skills:  sing, boy.... sing!

                                                                                                                 aww... the proud big bro.

matt coaching akira's lil bro.                                                 oh, there matt goes again... coaching another one

then, it was back to chau's to help that girl pack her 2 years of life in japan away.
she sent home five billion boxes, but still had sooo much crap.

it was quite a challenge.

the next morning, we all met a the station to see akira and his bro off.

                                                                                                 akira was pretty crushed.

   
bye akira.  :*(

bye chau :*(

大阪日本語研修・Osaka Japanese Training Program
07/30/2007-08/09/2007

went back to osaka...
a fun, but tiring 2 weeks of intensive japanese studying.  i forgot how stressful it can be to be a student.

pulled an all-nighter just like the good ol' days, hah.

had THE best class in the entire institute

met these two fools:

<3 you guys.

paid several visits to dotomobori/central osaka

visited himeji castle

briefly... very briefly.

and, of course, ate bomb-ass food in osaka


i <3 osaka-style sushi.  yum.

visited kobe for the infamously delicious kobe beef

and sweet lord... it was effin' delicious.  i was so full but it was so worth it

なら燈花会・Nara To-ka-e Festival
08/09/2007

met up with yumi & friends in nara for the best festival ever...

soooo pretty

理沙ちゃんは群馬に来た・lisa comes to gunma
08/22/2007-08/27/2007

hirose river- central maebashi

tried to take lisa to most of the good eats in maebashi:
1) martown
2) かつ花亭

3) にんにく屋・garlic restaurant

4) けやきウォーク・keyaki walk mall

5) THE gelato place in Maebashi
6) （高崎）イオン・(Takasaki's) AEON Mall

7)大戸屋・Ootoya Japanese style restaurant

Then, went to Circus, the 2-day music & dance festival/party (with terry, too)

there are just too many things wrong with this picture.

first, it's me and terry.

second, we look like twins.

so, in short, this is a picture of twins grinding.

so wrong.

our sad attempts @ skateboarding (drunk)

we look so much cooler in these pictures than we did in real life.  sigh.

hide & masaki on stage                                        yum.

          so terry is eating a cucumber with miso paste on it.
          looks like he's about to eat a green penis that had just been taken out of another orifice
          i should've taken a picture of the drawing they had at the stand.
          they totally drew a penis-shaped cucumber.  it was hilarious.

lisa & the dragonfly.

one of my jr high english teachers asked me to write a sample speech about someone famous (of my choosing) for my 3rd grade students next week.  it needs to be ready by monday, so i started researching today at my elementary school. 

hm, someone famous of my choosing... ok,  shakira it is.
admist my search for pictures of shakira dancing, my vice principal walks up to my desk and catches me rummaging through a shitload of tango and belly dancing pictures online.  needless to say, i needed to explain myself.  i told him about the assignment and he was really intrigued, to say the least.  as he was looking through my pictures, he asks... "this is for jr high school? ... hm... the boys will probably REALLY like these pictures, huh? ."  we both started cracking up and i asked him if he thought they were a bit too risque for my jr. high students.  he said maybe.  then, he said, "but i like them!!!"  we started laughing even harder.  during lunch, it was just my vice principal and a bunch of us female teachers in the teacher's room.  my v.p. went back to my desk to look at the pictures again and one of the teachers says outloud, "again???"  then, he asks me if he can print the file with all the pictures and starts running around.  all us ladies start cracking up and laughing at him as he prints the pictures and runs around the teacher's room doing god knows what.  haha, he's a funny guy.

what do you think?

tango and belly dancing pictures~
a bit too risque for 3rd year jr. high students (equivalent to 9th graders in the U.S.)?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

i <3 shakira.

"The Lebanese-Columbian beauty now credits the dance style with helping her overcome crippling shyness. She says, “I fell in love with the idea of performing in front of a live audience."
"I've always felt the stage was the only place where I was completely uninhibited because usually, I'm shy, although I've learned how to cover it."
"Belly dancing puts you in touch with your most sensual aspects."

she is my role model.
i aspire to dance as well as she does and to have as big a heart as she does. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

while i was searching for pictures of shaki, i came across another inspirational female dancer:
Ms. Willow Chang.
http://www.hawaii411.com/articles/willow.asp
she's chinese, german, english, and iroquois indian.
i'm chinese, german, english, french, and hawaiian.

she's awesome and i'm inspired to learn hula and belly dance more than ever now.

as of 4pm yesterday, i'm a bona fide japanese licensed driver. 

i generally like being optmistic and carefree in life.
and
i rather hate being pessimistic, but in the past year or two, i've learned (maybe the hard way) some slightly cyncial lessons in life.

since when did caring become a bad thing?
i remember when i used to think that bad things happen due to a shortage of caring for others.
now, i've seen maybe too many cases, in which someone gets hurt BECAUSE they care for others (maybe too much).

i know that anything in excess is bad, but this really, really saddens me.

我慢してる。

August 23rd-August 27th:
lisa ちゃん is coming to gunma all the way from shikoku (far, far away- an island off of honshu) to come visit me and to be my date for Circus, the 2day music/rave/dance party.
 i <3 you, lil' lisa. 

September 14th-September 24th:
Sam's back in Japan for round 2!  gunma fun, road trip, and tokyo again.  it's gonna be grand. 

i love love love these two.
they come from so far away to visit me; what a refreshing change.

*oh and if i haven't already mentioned, my camera's broke.  le sigh.  must start saving for a new camera and a new phone.  if only i wasn't broke already (pay day was today).

"What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be." -Ellen Burstyn

word, ms. burstyn.