Busy, Busy, Busy Bee

Hisashiburi desu ne!!

 

Hisashiburi means "It's been a while" hence Aiba waving...kind of!

So once again, I fail at blogging at a regular interval, but I've been pretty busy lately. So today was the last day of official classes and next week is finals. I really only have one final (the rest aren't tests or exams), but I'm a little worried over the essays on it. Anyway, speaking of my history class, today was a first. I have never gotten aggravated or really disliked classmates with different opinions before. Now though...I don't even know what to say. I've ranted about this to a few people now and I still just can't get over it. Okay, so let's just start at the beginning:

Picture of Tokyo Area because I'm talking about my History of Japan course

So today in History of Japan, one of our topics was ethnic Koreans in Japan and the issues they have faced in Japan. The Professor mentioned at one point that they were being sent to North Korea if they decided to leave Japan or something like that. This girl (that has been grating my nerves lately) decided that it was hilarious and burst out into laughter. I'm still just dumbfounded and can't believe that she thinks that it's funny. Even if it wasn't an ethnic Korean, anyone being sent to North Korea is terrifying and something so horrible that I have trouble coming to terms with something like that. She laughed at a lot of other things today in class that weren't funny, but that one got me really agitated. I'm just glad I probably won't have to take another class with her ever again. After class I was ranting to Sam and Bea about her, and I came to realization. She doesn't seem racist, but there is something there. I believe that she is a white superiorist. As horrible as it sounds, why in the world was she making fun of Japan and it's culture (throughout the course)? Also, if she feels that way about Japan, why in the world is she taking the class.

 Who can resist the smiling Kim Jong Il??

Anyways, I feel a little better and calmer after typing that all out. So on to happier bloggings, it's Christmas time! First I'll do a quick recap of November (since I was missing from the blogging world once again). November started out weird because it went from like 60 degree days to 30. It was crazy fast though. And for the highlight of November, my sister's 18th birthday and Thanksgiving. So my sister's birthday was the day before Thanksgiving, but it was still fun. We didn't do too much. She did want to play Tales of The Arabian Nights the board game. This is one of my favorite games and I do believe she enjoyed it too (that's why she wanted to play it). As always, playing board games with my sister, mom and me, we end up with a bunch of inside jokes. For example: [at mom] "43...43...43...?...43!" Bahahahahahahaha...you just have to be there!

I always play as Scheherazade, hence a painting of her in one of her stories!

So Thanksgiving was okay. It was better than I thought it would be, but it still didn't FEEL like Thanksgiving. We had all the food and stuff, but we ate at the nursing home (where my grandmother is for rehab because she broke her femur a couple months ago). I felt that everyone was in an odd mood (for one reason or another), so my brother, sister, and I spent our time goofing off and making fun of each other in the corner. It was really funny because my mom was sitting with the "adults" and we were separated by a few feet. Almost every time I glanced their way my mom would be looking at us almost longingly. We then proceeded to make fun of her because "she looked like she wanted to come here, but she was other there." So we joked around about a lot of random things, the food, made fun of my sister, I threatened them because they were threatening each other with their utensils and I got hit with food, but there was one mattress (tangent) that I believe was the best and will remember forever.

So a little backstory first, the nickname for my little sister is HO. I can't quite recall how it came about, but it's been her nickname for a while now and it just fits. Funny side rant, my mom answered the home phone the other day and it sounded like Ariel. The conversation went like this:
Mom: "Hello?"
Me: "HO!"
Mom: [whining] "I'm not a HO."
Me: Bahahahahahahahahaha...
Yeah...so anyways Pokemon came up and somehow my sister became the Pokemon. Long tangent short, we came up with her attacks. We'd send her out to attack and she'd give the opponent crabs! LOL!! We were laughing so hard when I said this! My brother and I decided that it would be like poison and hurt a little bit every turn. Then as a side effect, the opponent can't attack back because it's itchy. {Forgive me if crabs don't cause people to itch. I've never had crabs and don't plan to. *knocks on wood*} Yeah...oh good times!
 

So, after Thanksgiving of course is one of my top three holidays (it's a holiday in my book haters), BLACK FRIDAY!! We were up at 1:30am and headed to Walmart. We went to Walmart, got to Target around a quarter to 4 and stood in line, went to a different Walmart, then went and sat in the Best Buy/Staple parking lot waiting for Sheila for half an hour! It was a blast as always. And as every year, my elaborate DVD collection pretty much just grows during this time because I bough a lot of DVDs that were between $2 and $6. Also, my big claim to fame this year was a grabbed the newest model of the Wii Fit for only $67!! SWEETNESS!  Yeah, so afterwards my Mom went to work (sucked to be her) and I went home and dug all the Christmas boxes out of the storage closet. By the time my Mom got home the living was rearranged, the tree set up, and 13 Christmas boxes were crammed in to the living room. She was a little frightened I think, but she loves the Christmas season as much as I do so she didn't seem to angry. Just frustrated a couple days later because the house was messy (not dirty).

 L-R: Me, My Mom (in the back), My Little Sister Ariel, & Sheila's Shoulder

Yeah, so now it's December. I am totally on board with all my Christmas presents (and birthday presents). I only have three left to buy. I know what I'm going to buy, I just have to find time to go and get them!! Yeah, so I got our old Christmas tree and set it up the night I got back from Thanksgiving. It's a lot wider than I remembered it being, but it's really pretty (if I may say so myself). I love coming home and seeing the lights on in my window and it lighting up the apartment. Also, yesterday I started making my Christmas presents. Every year I make Christmas presents for my family (and sometimes my friends). I got half of them done and am going to finish them sometime tonight! It's pretty exciting because my counters are cluttered (which I'm not fond of), but they are full of Christmas stuff so it just gets me in the holiday mood even more and doesn't really bother me too much! Yeah, so that's pretty much it for the going-ons in my life lately. I'll try to update soon (and with finals week almost over I'm guessing I'm going to be a little more regular with blogging). So as always I'll leave you with a gif!

 Dino Teuk from a Korean Variety Show!!

Ja Ne~
Stasi <3